Troubleshooting Guide

 

1. Getting “High” sign for Methionine

 

Every high protein diet is likely to exceed the AAFCO maximum nutrient allowance for methionine. We believe this upper limit should be applied when methionine is supplemented. Peptide-bound methionine in meat protein seems to be a different story: “… it is unlikely that cats eating natural prey would exceed the safety upper limit for methionine” (Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, National Research Council, 2006 edition, page 128).

 

 

2. Getting “Low” sign for Vitamin K

 

Alnutrin supplements do not contain Vitamin K therefore it is possible that most of your basic formulations will show a “Low” sign under Vitamin K. We decided not to include it in our formulations because of the controversy surrounding health effects of Menadione (Vitamin K3 - synthetic version of Vitamin K). Unfortunately no other forms of Vitamin K (K1 or K2) are approved as feed ingredients. According to the AAFCO guidelines Vitamin K does not need to be added unless the diet contains greater than 25 percent fish on a dry matter basis.
We believe, there are better and healthier ways of adding Vitamin K into a cat’s diet. For example fresh grass, canned pumpkin, cooked carrots, broccoli, eggs and green peas are all rich and natural sources of Vitamin K, Vitamin K1 – Phylloquinone. Avoid spinach. Although it is a great source of vitamin K it is also high in oxalic acid which can aggravate a tendency towards kidney stones. You can read more about Vitamin K in FAQs.

 

 

3. Getting “Low” sign for Phosphorus

 

If you select a high calorie meat (any cooked meat is higher in calories than raw meat) you might end up with a “Low” rating for Phosphorus. Alnutrin Complete with Calcium does not contain any additional phosphorus therefore by increasing the amount of the supplement, all you are likely to get is Ca : Ph Ratio out of range. The only way to increase phosphorus is to add some rice bran (which is high in phosphorus) or select different meat.

 

 

4. Getting “Insufficient Data” sign

 

The nutritional information for ingredients in our Nutrient Calculator comes from the USDA Nutrient Database. Unfortunately the USDA does not typically evaluate for biotin, chloride, iodine, and taurine and has only limited data for choline.
Biotin nutritional information was found in the Danish Food Composition Databank

For few ingredients we were not able to find any data at all and in those cases the “Insufficient Data” sign will show up. We will be updating the missing data as soon as they become available.