The Balance It® Autobalancer has been updated with an expanded optimization engine for fatty acid and supplement allocation. This is part of our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement—the same commitment that has driven the Autobalancer's evolution through multiple generations of upgrades over the past two decades.

What stays the same

Your recipes are formulated to the same nutrient requirements using the same exacting standards. The system continues to operate on deterministic math based on human expert verification— no “black-box” AI is making clinical decisions (that remains the veterinarian’s domain) or choosing your animal companion's nutrient targets.

What this update adds

The upgraded engine can evaluate a wider range of formulation possibilities simultaneously, which means more options for meeting nutritional targets—particularly in complex cases. In practice:

• Some recipes may now include additional supplement options that weren't previously available.
• Oil selection may draw from and use a broader set of combinations to meet fatty acid targets within caloric constraints.
• Recipes with particularly challenging nutritional profiles may see solutions where the prior engine had fewer to offer.
• Some very challenging scenarios may take longer before saying something is not passing.

For most recipes, results will be unchanged or show only minor adjustments.

With thousands of inputs and trillions of potential outcomes, a more capable engine will naturally find different paths to meeting nutritional targets. In rare cases, a specific combination that was previously available may no longer appear if the engine identifies a solution it evaluates as nutritionally equivalent or stronger.

How we validated this

Every change was extensively tested against over 93,000 real-world recipe configurations selected to represent the most challenging formulation scenarios in our system. We compared outputs ingredient-by-ingredient before deployment, and recipes with changes were reviewed for appropriateness. This update was developed in part using AI-assisted engineering tools under the direction of the board-certified veterinary nutritionist® who originally created Balance It and the Autobalancer, and the lead software engineer responsible for the major Autobalancer improvements in 2023.

Questions?

If a recipe result looks unexpected, our care team is here to help you as you explore the options now available and as you find a path that works for you and your dog or cat. You can reach us through the Contact Us page on our website, and veterinarians may also contact us directly. As always, the Recipe Builder, powered by the Autobalancer, is a self-service online tool that best works alongside your veterinary team's clinical judgment.