Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a healthy adult dog or cat, you can use our free custom Recipe Builder. You’ll be able to instantly create a personalized recipe for your animal companion’s weight/energy needs that include their favorite ingredients that provide wholesome and safe nutrition.

If your animal companion has a medical condition under a veterinarian’s care, you will be required per the FDA (CPG Sec. 690.150) to submit a veterinary approval request before you can view a nutritionally complete recipe made with our free custom Recipe Builder or purchase certain supplements that can only be sold under the direction of a veterinarian. We will ask for your veterinarian’s contact information and contact them on your behalf (note: approval usually happens within 3 business days). 

See also:

I am unsure where to start. How do I create a recipe for my healthy dog or cat?

and 

How can I submit a veterinary approval request for my animal companion with a medical condition? And why do I even need to do this?

Supplementation is recommended based on the exact recipe you create on our website or that is provided to you by your veterinarian. Once you create or get a recipe, it will indicate which supplement(s) to use and how much need(s) to be added. Basing the amount of supplement solely on body weight can lead to nutrient deficiencies and/or excesses.

A valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) with you and your animal companion, that is established by physically seeing them, is needed to provide specific recommendations in most jurisdictions. The lack of a valid VCPR legally limits the information/advice we can provide directly to human companions. You can have your veterinarian/veterinary practice contact us directly instead, and we may be able to provide them with general guidance. They can call us +1-530-756-3862 or email us at info@balanceit.com. 

We will then forward the information to our nutrition team (i.e., a licensed veterinary nurse and/or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist®) for review and follow-up with your veterinarian/veterinary practice. Our nutrition team is still not able to do consults, but they may be legally able to offer more direct assistance and guidance to your veterinarian about your animal companion’s care. We do not charge for this service, but your veterinarian may need to charge you a fee to cover their effort/time.

We understand that your veterinarian may not be able to give you the nutritional guidance you desire. However, we are happy to assist you and them through the process of using our site to get additional help. After you submit a FDA CPG Sec. 690.150 compliant veterinary approval request through our site, we reach out to confirm with your veterinarian that your dog/cat has been diagnosed with any selected condition(s). Once your veterinarian confirms and approves, we are able to guide you to accessing vet-approved recipes for your dog/cat.

As noted above, we are happy to speak with your veterinarian/veterinary practice if they reach out to us to learn more about how we can best serve you and your animal companion. Our phone number is +1-530-756-3862 and/or our email address is info@balanceit.com. 

Thank you for your interest in Balance It®. We are always happy to help to the best of our ability; however, we do not offer nutritional consultations. You are welcome to utilize our free online service to create or build and access recipes that are customized to your animal companion. Our Recipe Builder (powered by the Autobalancer®) automatically determines nutrient gaps based on lifestage & any available conditions and specific foods to then calculate the correct supplement(s) and amount(s). If you are looking for a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® to make specific recommendations for your dog/cat, you may need to pursue a paid consultation with one of the options at the directories found at balance.it/dacvim or vetspecialists.com.

We are always happy to help to the best of our ability. When a user or customer asks us about specific ingredients or recipes or the nutritional management of specific conditions that can be selected or created with our Recipe Builder, we have some limitations per state and federal laws, regulations, and policies. We are always able to help navigate users and customers through the use of the site and online processes including requesting veterinary approval from your veterinarian. We can also address questions about supplement’s nutrient profile or guaranteed analysis as well as food quality and safety. However, we cannot guide you to make specific decisions  about the care of your specific animal companion which might include selecting/avoiding specific conditions, ingredients/supplements, and/or recipes. We cannot do this as we do not offer medical/nutritional consultations at Balance It®. A valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) with you and your animal companion, that is established by physically seeing you/them, is needed to provide consultations in most jurisdictions. The lack of a valid VCPR along with FDA CPG Sec. 690.150 legally limits the information/advice we can provide directly to human companions of dogs and cats. Therefore, regrettably, we may not be able to answer your specific question(s). 

We are able to provide two options/suggestions:

1. Ask your veterinarian to contact us directly with their/your concerns. Your veterinarian can send an email to info@balanceit.com from their veterinary practice email address. We will then forward the information to our nutrition team (i.e., a licensed veterinary nurse and/or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist®) for review and follow-up with your veterinary practice. Our nutrition team is still not able to do consults, but they may be legally able to offer more direct assistance and guidance to your veterinarian about your animal companion’s care. We do not charge for this service, but your veterinarian may need to charge you a fee to cover their effort/time.

2. You may seek a consultation with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® that provides consultations for a fee. A list of these specialty referral veterinarians can be found at balance.it/dacvim or vetspecialists.com. Some of these ACVIM (or ECVCN in the EU) Nutrition Specialists will have the same requirement of working directly with your veterinarian, while others may be willing & able to work with you directly/remotely based on their local laws/regulations and own policies.

We hope this helps, and we wish you and your animal companion all the best. If you have any questions about our limitations or on subjects, we are able to assist you with, please feel free to contact us via the options under Support in the website footer. 

You may also be interested in the Do you do any nutritional consultations via your veterinary nurses or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®? FAQ.

No, unfortunately, we are unable to accept visitors. We are a secure State of California & FDA registered food (aka human) grade facility with a robust FDA-compliant Food Defense Plan. Therefore, we do not allow any returns to be made in person nor do we allow any onsite visitors without prior written permission. All employees, contractors, and visitors, including State of California and FDA inspectors (these government officials can inspect without written permission or warning), must review/be trained on and comply with a variety of practices & prerequisite programs that ensure food or human dietary supplement quality and safety. Note that we also have third-party auditor visits for both food (aka human food) production current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) and human dietary supplement cGMPs.

Of course, we are very proud of these unique achievements, the independent confirmation of our commitment to food quality & safety, and strongly believe in transparency. Please see all five below including our newest GRMA certification (the highest one we can attain for human dietary supplement manufacturing):

The GRMA's certification program was developed to consistently asses, evaluate the implementation of, and seek conformance of the auditee's quality management system and product safety plan to the program's requirements. Certification indicates commitment to:

-Comply with GRMA product safety & quality management system requirements

-Provide proper resources, staff, equipment, training, and processes to support the implemented product safety & quality management systems

-Achieve products that meet product safety and quality requirements

-Establish and maintain a state of control within the supply chain

-Foster and facilitate continual improvement

To learn more, please visit GRMA's site here and read details about ANSI standards here.

The formulation software including requirements for medical conditions and recipes were created over the last twenty years by multiple veterinarians who are board-certified veterinary nutritionists, and who hold graduate degrees (MS or PhD) in nutrition. You can also read more below or head over to the About Us page to see a brief bulleted bio about our veterinarian founder, Sean Delaney, BS, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Nutrition), and his extensive experience and expertise in the world of veterinary nutrition. 

Want to learn more, please see below:

We were established by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. Recognized as a world expert, our founder, Dr. Sean Delaney, previously served as a clinical faculty member at a top-tier U.S. veterinary school over a decade (2003-2013) while successfully training many other specialists. He has served as  the Executive Chair of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN®), and he subsequently helped merge it into the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) in 2021. He was also elected as the Chair of the AVMA Veterinary Specialty Organizations Committee representing over 13,500 veterinary specialists in 46 distinct fields working on improved competencies, and was the R&D head & SEVP for an industry-leading natural pet food company that developed the first grain free and 95% organic pet food brands and was acquired by Procter & Gamble while he was one of four “C-suite executives”. He is one of two original editors and authors of the prominent and widely referenced veterinary nutrition textbook, Applied Veterinary Clinical Nutrition, 1st & 2nd Editions, published by Wiley. He is currently the volunteer Board Chair of MMI, a non-profit that teaches veterinary nutrition at 25 veterinary schools in North America and the Caribbean. He also founded Vet Assistant AI, Inc. which offers solutions to improve veterinary communications and patient outcomes. Balance It® is a brand of Davis Veterinary Medical Consulting, Inc. which is a California benefit corporation (see mission below) with Dr. Delaney, Siona Santos Delaney, a chemical engineer, and Aniel Santos, a software engineer, as its shareholders & Board of Directors. 

For nearly two decades, Balance It® has provided solutions for safely feeding animal companions fresh food. Our many firsts include the first (and patented) all-in-one-powdered supplements to fortify human food fed to dogs and cats as well as the first online formulation software to dynamically and instantly create complete and balanced pet food recipes. Balance It® has been used by over 30,000 veterinarians and is used by most clinically active small animal board-certified veterinary nutritionists around the globe and in academia. With tens of millions of recipes generated, we are the number one trusted source of recipes that veterinarians do & can recommend and clients can rely on with confidence. The Balance It® formulation software and/or supplement(s) has/have also been used in the most challenging patients & referrals cases and numerous peer-reviewed studies as found in the following publications:

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) 240(5) (2012) 532-538;

JAVMA 241(11) (2012) 1453-1460; JAVMA 242(11) (2013) 1500-1505;

Journal of Physiology and Animal Nutrition (JAPAN) 97 (2013) 400; and

JAPAN 99 (2015) 818-819.

Balance It® has also supported research on vitamin retention factors to bolster the data available from the USDA and that is important for one pot cooking (via Yuki Okada, BA, DVM, PhD’s 2022 AAVN Symposium award-winning ACVIM (Nutrition) residency project that Balance It® funded) and canine taurine metabolism at the University of Missouri (via a 2022-23 research gift to Robert Backus, MS, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Nutrition)’s laboratory). To further specialty veterinary knowledge, training, competence, and practice, Balance It® is an ongoing supporter of the ACVIM (e.g., Bronze Sponsor of the 2023 40th Anniversary ACVIM Forum).  

Davis Veterinary Medical Consulting, Inc.'s Mission:

Davis Veterinary Medical Consulting, Inc. is a California Benefit Corporation founded by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist in 2003 to improve the health of animals through better nutrition and medical care. We recognize and support the mutually beneficial and dynamic relationship of the human-animal bond. We develop and produce innovative educational materials, services, and products that nourish animals and inform their caretakers. We are committed to pioneering sustainable practices across our operations, from sourcing ingredients, powering our facility, selecting our packaging, and empowering our stakeholders, aiming to leave a positive environmental legacy. Through professionalism, creativity, transparency, and empathy, we strive for healthier lives and a thriving Earth for all.

Yes. In addition to the very comprehensive FAQs at balance.it/faqs our founder, Dr. Delaney, co-edits and co-authors a comprehensive text book entitled, Applied Veterinary Clinical Nutrition, 1st & 2nd Editions published by Wiley (it is available for purchase online including at Amazon.com in Kindle e-book form). There are also contributions in the text by many other board-certified veterinary nutritionists. It is widely used by the veterinary profession and is a recommended resource by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) for candidates that hope to become board-certified veterinary nutritionists. Dr. Delaney has also contributed to several other prominent textbooks including the Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine (multiple recent & current editions), Advances in Small Animal Care (2020), and Kirk and Bonagura's Current Veterinary Therapy XVI. 

You may also be interested in the Nutritional Management of Common Diseases section of our FAQs that includes timestamped videos for several common diseases. 

For the veterinary professional, Dr. Delaney also serves as the volunteer Board Chair of the non-profit organization, Mark Morris Institute (https://www.markmorrisinstitute.org), that provides many educational resources including instruction at 25 veterinary schools in North America and the Caribbean. Finally you may be interested in the Who created the homemade dog and cat food recipes or the free Recipe Builder/Autobalancer®? Are they reputable and credentialed? FAQ as it summarizes some of the supportive peer-reviewed research using/regarding Balance It®.

You are also always welcome to Contact Us via the link in our website footer for additional support.

This video by Sean J. Delaney, DVM, MS, DACVN (now DACVIM (Nutrition) given the ACVN-ACVIM merger in 2021) covers the nutritional management of adverse reactions to food (food allergy) in-depth. Specific strategies such as avoidance of previously fed antigens, low omega-6 to long-chain omega-3 fatty acid ratio, variable dietary fat concentration, and variable dietary fiber concentration are addressed. Diagnosis and monitoring are briefly covered as they relate to the nutritional management of the disease. This video was made possible by: Balance It®. If you would like to watch this video with captions, please do not click the automated captions. The non-automated English captions are much more accurate and can also be somewhat accurately translated via Google's software to other languages.

Time Stamps for Sections:
Beginning: 0:00
Diagnosis: 1:27
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Avoidance of Previously Fed Antigens: 5:57
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Low n-6 to Long-chain n-3 Fatty Acid Ratio: 10:02
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Variable Dietary Fat Level: 12:03
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Variable Dietary Fiber Level: 12:55
Monitoring: 14:04

This video by Sean J. Delaney, DVM, MS, DACVN (now DACVIM (Nutrition) given the ACVN-ACVIM merger in 2021) covers the nutritional management of renal disease in-depth. Specific strategies such as phosphorus restriction, protein restriction, low omega-6 to long-chain omega-3 fatty acid ratio, sodium reduction, increased water soluble B-vitamins, increased water need, avoidance of acid-base imbalance, potassium adjustments, and increased energy density are addressed. Diagnosis and monitoring are briefly covered as they relate to the nutritional management of the disease. This video was made possible by: Balance It®. If you would like to watch this video with captions, please do not click the automated captions. The non-automated English captions are much more accurate and can also be somewhat accurately translated via Google's software to other languages.

Time Stamps for Sections:
Beginning: 0:00
Diagnosis: 0:39
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Phosphorus Restriction: 2:00
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Protein Restriction: 4:09
*Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Low Omega-6 to Long-chain Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio: 6:49
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Sodium Restriction: 8:27
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Increased Water Soluble B-Vitamins: 9:08
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Increased Water Need: 9:42
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Avoidance of Acid-Base Imbalance: 11:05
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: As Needed Potassium Adjustments: 12:12
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Increased Energy Density: 12:58
Monitoring: 14:11

This video by Sean J. Delaney, DVM, MS, DACVN (now DACVIM (Nutrition) given the ACVN-ACVIM merger in 2021) covers the nutritional management of weight loss in-depth. Specific strategies such as feeding less calories than are needed, nutrient enhancement, reduced energy density, caloric distribution modifications, increased feeding frequency and treating, supplemental L-carnitine & other compounds, and exercise are addressed. Diagnosis and monitoring are briefly covered as they relate to the nutritional management of the disease. This video was made possible by: Balance It®. If you would like to watch this video with captions, please do not click the automated captions. The non-automated English captions are much more accurate and can also be somewhat accurately translated via Google's software to other languages.

Time Stamps for Sections:
Beginning: 0:00
Diagnosis: 0:59
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Feeding Less Calories Than Are Needed: 3:03
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Nutrient Enhancement: 4:52
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Reduced Energy Density: 6:39
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Caloric Distribution Modifications: 8:09
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Increased Feeding Frequency and Treating: 9:42
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Supplemental L-Carnitine & Other Compounds: 11:02
A Brief Comment on Exercise: 12:04
Monitoring: 12:46

This video by Sean J. Delaney, DVM, MS, DACVN (now DACVIM (Nutrition) given the ACVN-ACVIM merger in 2021) covers the nutritional management of osteoarthritis in-depth. Specific strategies such as weight loss, low omega-6 to long-chain omega-3 fatty acid ratio, and glucosamine & chondroitin sulfate are addressed. Diagnosis and monitoring are briefly covered as they relate to the nutritional management of the disease. This video was made possible by: Balance It®. If you would like to watch this video with captions, please do not click the automated captions. The non-automated English captions are much more accurate and can also be somewhat accurately translated via Google's software to other languages

Time Stamps for Sections:
Beginning: 0:00
Diagnosis: 1:05
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Weight Loss: 1:41
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Low Omega-6 to Long-chain Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio: 2:26
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Glucosamine & Chondroitin Sulfate: 4:18
Monitoring: 5:40

This video by Sean J. Delaney, DVM, MS, DACVN (now DACVIM (Nutrition) given the ACVN-ACVIM merger in 2021) covers the nutritional management of diabetes mellitus in-depth. Specific strategies such as weight loss, fiber, lower glycemic index foods, and caloric distribution modification are addressed. Diagnosis and monitoring are briefly covered as they relate to the nutritional management of the disease. This video was made possible by: Balance It®. If you would like to watch this video with captions, please do not click the automated captions. The non-automated English captions are much more accurate and can also be somewhat accurately translated via Google's software to other languages.

Time Stamps for Sections:
Beginning: 0:00
Diagnosis: 2:56
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Weight Loss: 4:16
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Fiber: 5:32
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Lower Glycemic Index Foods: 6:52
Nutritional Therapy Strategies: Caloric Distribution Modification: 8:26
Monitoring: 9:16

Thank you for your interest in using Balance It® to create safe, custom, and wholesome dog/cat food at home. Guidance on supplement selection and use is available for free via the online Recipe Builder, powered by the Autobalancer®. This advanced software determines nutrient gaps from the specific foods and portions fed to then determine the correct supplement(s) and amount(s).

If you are unable to access the website or are unsure what to select, please speak directly with your veterinarian. If you are looking for someone to make specific recommendations for your dog/cat, you may need to pursue a paid consultation with one of the options available at vetspecialists.com or from the directory at balance.it/dacvim.     

Here’s How To Get Started:

To sign up for a FREE account go to www.balance.it. In the upper right-hand corner click on Login to begin your FREE Sign Up. Once you have successfully created your free account, you will see Logout in the upper right-hand corner.

If your adult dog/puppy/adult cat/kitten is healthy, please use the FREE Recipe Builder. We have an updated interface for healthy animal companions with thousands of foods available to select from. 

1. Under Step 1: Your Dog/Cat, enter/select your dog’s or cat’s name (you may even add a photo of your furry friend!) in the right species and age section for them.

1. 1. Enter their weight 

      1. You may change the units from lb (pound) to kg (kilogram) if necessary. 

   2. Enter their age in years or if a puppy or kitten, in months

   3. Enter their gender and reproductive status

2. AAFCO Dog or Cat Maintenance or Growth and Reproduction will automatically be selected and cannot be removed as it is used for calculations along with any selections under Any special needs or diet we should be aware of?. If health conditions are selected a vet approval will be required to be FDA compliant.

3. Click Build Recipe Now if you need some help with selecting ingredients or click Let me Pick Ingredients to go to the ingredients page to select your own ingredients.

4. If you click on Let me Pick Ingredients, under Step 2: Ingredients (optional) you may search & select ingredients you wish to feed your dog or cat. Note: To create convenient one-pot cooking recipes, please check the box stating Show one-pot cooking ingredients & recipes ONLY under Step 2: Ingredients (optional).

1. 1. Using the search bar, you may search for & select ingredients such as “chicken” or “rice”. Adding details/keywords like “chicken breast cooked” or “rice white cooked” will refine your search results.

   2. Alternatively, you may instead select some proteins, carbs, fats, veggies, fruits, and/or treats & enticers by clicking “Most Popular”and the buttons that appear.

   3. If there are ingredients you wish to LEAVE OUT or EXCLUDE from your recipe(s), you may click on “ANY INGREDIENTS YOU’D LIKE TO LEAVE OUT?” and enter keywords you wish to exclude (or filter out) so they will not show up in search and recipe results.

      1. At the bottom of the page, you will see a light red box with all the keywords you wish to leave out in strikethrough text. To no longer exclude a keyword click the X.

5. After selecting your ingredients to include (and to exclude), scroll down and click on Get Recipe.

6. You will then be able to view the recipes that pass on the next screen. Recipes take thousands of calculations to be created & are checked in real-time and not all options will meet all nutrient requirements. The first recipe presented to you will often be an All Protein option that just uses  protein rich foods that you selected and fats/oils. If you selected additional ingredients then you will want to look at the recipes lower on the page under the relative/comparative headers of Higher Protein/Fat and Lower Carb, Mid-range Protein and Carb and Higher Carb. Some or all of these may not be possible, and they will not appear when they are not. Sometimes none of them are possible and alternatives will be suggested or guidance to try something else. Please click on View Recipe on one of these successful recipes to see the full recipe report.

7. ONLY if the one-pot cooking option was selected, you may learn more on how to correctly use your one-pot recipe by seeing  the Directions in your full recipe report.

8. At the top of the page after clicking View Recipe, you have a few things you can do: 

1. 1. You may print your recipe by clicking on the printer icon. 

   2. You may save your recipe to your account by clicking on the heart icon. 

   3. You may download your recipe as a PDF by clicking on the arrow pointing down icon.

9. Under Yield/Servings, you may click on Adjust this Recipe to edit/adjust the recipe. There you can:

               a. Change the body weight of your dog or cat (if not done initially)

               b. Adjust the feeding frequency and/or batch cooking preferences under Recipe amount

               c. While there are additional options like changing the distribution of calories on this page, we recommend that you only do so under the guidance of a veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®.

10. Then click on Update My Recipe

11. You will see a light green recipe stating Adjusted By You appear at the bottom of the previous results if successful. Please click on View Recipe to see the full recipe report of this Adjusted By You option. Some adjustments/edits may not be possible.

12. To purchase the supplement to fortify your recipe, click on Buy Supplement or Buy Now if made by Balance It® OR if a combination of supplements designed for humans, please see the recipe report for guidance on where to purchase these needed supplements elsewhere (e.g., online retailers, drugstores/pharmacies, healthy food stores, etc.).

Click here to build your FREE custom recipe(s).

We currently support three browsers - Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Apple iOS Safari (for iPhone and iPad) & macOS Safari (for Macs). 

The software creates a custom recipe for your animal companion based on their species, gender (neuter status), age (growing or adult), body weight, and any special health condition(s). These variables tell the program what nutrient concentrations are appropriate as well as how many calories should be provided for a daily recipe. You also can select the preferred ingredients to use or have the system make some suggestions. Then our industry-leading Autobalancer® software typically does at least several million (yes million!) calculations to dynamically create a special recipe to meet your dog’s or cat’s specific needs…and voila, a custom & free human (aka food) grade* recipe for your favorite friend. *Some veterinary fish oils, sold by others, may be feed grade depending on your selections. 

AAFCO, the Association of American Feed Control Officials, is a non-profit organization made up of state regulatory officials that sets standards for both animal feeds and pet foods in the United States. The organization publishes ingredient definitions, label standards, and sets testing & laboratory guidelines for animal feed manufacturers that are then adopted by their respective states. Our Recipe Builder uses AAFCO Dog or Cat Maintenance or Growth and Reproduction nutrient profiles as a preselected “condition” or requirement to calculate a complete and balanced recipe for your healthy dog/cat. These requirements are used in conjunction with other conditions if selected in the “Any special needs or diets we should be aware of?” field.

You can try copying and then opening the following link when using the browser where you are having the logging in or logging out issue:

https://balance.it/r/logout-reset

After going to this link, please try logging in again with your credentials. If you continue to have an issue, please try another browser trying to go to this same copied and pasted link again. If the issue still continues, please contact us for assistance.

The nutritional information is mainly derived from the USDA FoodData Central database. This is the most comprehensive, open reference database on the nutrient profile of foods. In addition, because the USDA does not typically evaluate for some essential nutrients for dogs and cats (e.g., chloride, iodine, vitamin D (often), choline, and taurine), very common or representative foods used in homemade dog and cat recipes have been evaluated by an outside lab for these additional nutrient concentrations, by referencing additional published nutrient databases, and/or by relying on expert knowledge to create a more complete nutrient profile when possible. For foods that have not been evaluated for these additional essential nutrients, the formulation software treats the value as zero to avoid under supplementation. For foods with known higher concentrations, like vitamin D in marine fish, some foods are automatically excluded from use to avoid over supplementation (e.g., dogs are very sensitive to vitamin D, so we don’t want to underestimate the amount naturally found in vitamin D rich foods).

A specific recipe is important to ensure that all nutrient requirements are met given your animal friend's species, gender (neuter status), age (growing or adult), body weight/energy need, and any special health condition(s). Many generic recipes are balanced for a medium-sized dog or cat, and may not remain balanced when the recipe is scaled down or up. In addition food nutrient profiles can change with time as can known nutritional requirements. These types of changes cannot be accounted for in static materials. Independent evaluations of published home-cooked recipes for dogs and cats have shown that most recipes are deficient in one or more essential nutrients (Lauten, SD, et al. ACVIM Proceedings, 2005, Larsen, JA, et al. JAVMA.240.5.532, 2012, and Stockman, J, et al. JAVMA.242.11.1500, 2013), while the Balance It® Autobalancer® software is “highly predictive of deficiencies or excesses of nutrients as measured via laboratory methods'' (Stockman, J, et al. JAVMA.242.11.1500, 2013). 

We have added the ability to better track/log, handle, and calculate energy and nutrient needs for these lifestages, so they are now more accessible and/or available. 

These are the equations used to estimate initial calorie/energy needs/requirements:

Our software calculates your animal companion’s energy requirements based on their age, weight, and neuter status using the best equations available in veterinary medicine. However, even for dogs and cats with an ideal body condition, the individual’s actual energy requirement can vary by as much as +/-50% from this calculation. Accounting for known intake that maintains an ideal body condition is a more precise solution. Consequently, we've created an optional & innovative tool called the Calorie Counter - BETA. This new tool allows you to input your animal companion’s current diet including portion sizes to determine and better set a specific dog’s or cat’s daily calorie needs. Using our unparalleled, dynamic, and growing database of about 10,000 human, dog, and cat foods and artificial/alternative/synthetic intelligence (AI) technology, this cutting-edge feature helps more accurately calculate the calories your animal companion is consuming, and can be used to set the daily calorie amount for recipes that are created using our Recipe Builder.

Now on how to use this cool, new AI-powered tool...

If you want to just calculate your animal companion's total daily calories based on the foods they currently eat, you can go to and use the Calorie Counter at balance.it/counter. Jump down to the SEARCH INSTRUCTIONS below.

To use this tool with the Recipe Builder, please go to balance.it/recipes. The total daily calorie amount calculated will be used to generate homemade recipes with around the same amount of calories. 

Under Step 1: Your Dog/Cat on the Recipe Builder, enter/select your dog’s or cat’s name (you may even add a photo of your furry friend!) in the right species and age section for them.

1. Enter their weight 

   1. You may change the units from lb (pound) to kg (kilogram) if necessary. 

2. Enter their age in years or if a puppy or kitten, in months

3. Enter their gender and reproductive status

Once you enter this information, you will notice that the software will indicate the average amount of kcals that your dog/cat needs per day. 

To enter your animal companion’s currently fed food(s) and amount(s), click on Calorie Counter. This will allow you to search for foods in our database, or even add your own! 

SEARCH INSTRUCTIONS: By using the search bar, you can type in commercially prepared dog and cat foods, along with homemade ingredients/human foods.

Once a selection is made from the drop down menu of search matches (*see below if there is no match), you can enter the amount fed per day, along with the unit measurement. 

In the example below, you will see that Barry eats 1.5 (or 1 ½) cups of commercial food daily, along with chicken breast and carrots. The software has calculated his total Calories (or kcal) per day to be 682.60. 

If using the Calorie Counter link from the Recipe Builder, you can use this new total daily calorie amount by clicking on the “Use Total Kcal Above For Recipe(s)” button. If the amount you enter is less than or greater than 50% of the calculated amount an error message will be given to prevent under- or over-feeding and to ensure that an appropriate diet is fed for outlier dogs/cats. The slider will recess and you will be back on Step 1, and you will now see the updated daily calorie amount used instead. 

You may now proceed with creating free custom recipes using this newly daily calorie amount based on what you have been feeding!

*If you do not see your currently fed food in our database, please see the FAQ “The Calorie Counter does not seem to have my dog or cat’s currently fed food. How do I enter this information?”. To view details about a food entry, select it and then click its name. If there is an error in the food entry, you can correct/report it by clicking the yellow exclamation icon. Clicking the red X icon will remove the selection. 

While our database comprises about 10,000 commercially prepared dog and cat foods as well as human foods, there may be instances where we do not have your animal companion’s specific food information available. In such cases, fear not, for our AIs might just be able to 'fetch' it for you and make it available for you now and others in the future!

Simply click on '+ New Food URL'. From there, you'll have the choice to either let our AI try to extract information directly from a provided URL (the URL must be copied and pasted from your dog’s or cat's food company and contain the detailed calorie and nutrition data for that specific food or treat) or you can input the information manually yourself. 

If a specific link is submitted, you'll observe two special AI assistants, we call 'Canis' & 'Cattus' (Latin for dog and cat ;-)), working to retrieve the information from the website.

If the process is successful and both AIs retrieve matching results, you'll have the choice to 'Use New Added Food & Enter Amount Fed'.

Enter the amount of food being fed for the newly added food. Once completed, you can enter new food items or simply click on 'Use Total Kcal Above for Recipe(s)' to continue with the Recipe Builder if using the Calorie Counter from Step 1. 

*In the event our AI can't retrieve needed and matching information for the provided URL, you'll still have the opportunity to manually enter the dog/cat food calorie information yourself, which can be found on the product’s label or possibly on the company’s website or by calling the company (humans sometimes are still better than AI’s at this).

You may be interested in more details on how to use the Calorie Counter at the FAQ, “I noticed the Calorie Counter - BETA on Step 1 of the Recipe Builder & Support/FAQs. What is this tool, and how do I use it?”.

Body condition scoring is very helpful in grading the degree to which an animal is underweight, overweight, or even obese. Typically, veterinarians including board-certified veterinary nutritionists use a 9-point scale to grade the body composition of dogs and cats. In dogs, a body condition score (BCS) of 4 or 5 out of 9 is considered ideal. In cats, a BCS of 5 out of 9 is considered ideal. Each point above or below indicates being 10-15% under- or overweight. A score is assigned by looking and feeling for fat in certain body areas like the chest and abdomen where it is lost or accumulates. Although a BCS can be useful in communicating the degree of adiposity, it is not as helpful in predicting energy needs. This is because even for animal companions with an ideal body condition, the individual energy requirement can vary by as much as +/-50%. 

For example, if a dog is 1 out of 9 then they are as little as 30% underweight. 30% is less than 50%, so the normal variation that is addressed with any recipe is already accounted for. If a dog or cat is underweight then they should be fed enough additional calories to gain 1-2% of their body weight per week. Typically this is done by entering their goal weight when using Balance It®’s free Recipe Builder that is powered by the Autobalancer®. If an animal companion is unable to eat that much food, increasing meal frequency can be helpful so that the volume that needs to be consumed at any one meal is reduced. 

You can also speak with your veterinarian about increasing the overall energy density (amount of calories per unit of volume) of the diet by increasing the percent of calories from fat (if tolerated) as well as by the selection of denser and more highly digestible foods (if appropriate). If needed weight gain is not happening then a visit with your veterinarian is always indicated to make sure that there isn’t a medical reason that needs treatment besides a typical diet and feeding more calories. 

If your dog or cat is overweight or obese then entering that as a condition on the first step of the Recipe Builder will create nutrient enhanced recipes that are restricted in calories and less energy dense to help lead to needed weight loss at a safe & comfortable rate. Instructions will also be provided to adjust the amount of calories/food fed based on response to achieve a weight loss rate of 1-2% of body weight per week. 

We do not recommend substituting any of the ingredients for something that is not listed on our Recipe Builder as an option. Substitutions can significantly change the nutritional value of the recipe. For example, even a seemingly simple change to the type of chicken cut used can more than double fat and fatty acid content and at the same time decrease protein and essential amino acids even with the same total mass and cooking method. Please note, we have thousands of ingredients you may search for under Step 2: Ingredients (optional) when using the Recipe Builder at balance.it/recipes. If you cannot find what you are looking for then we suggest pursuing a consultation with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® (see vetspecialists.com or Vet Nutritionist link in footer) who can help you identify alternatives or assist with any needed food laboratory analyses to reliably formulate with the desired ingredient(s).  

You can now use the new “leave out” or exclude feature on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder to avoid ingredients that are not desired in search results and recipe results.

Below are the steps on how to adjust or edit the amount of an ingredient in your recipe for a healthy dog/puppy/cat/kitten using the Adjust Ingredient Amounts feature:

Manually Editing/Adjusting Recipe 

1. Click on Adjust Recipe then Adjust ingredient amounts to edit the ingredients and amounts in your recipe. 

2. Under Ingredients you may remove ingredients and change the amount of ingredients by entering the desired amount in the box to the left of the unit and ingredient. You may also switch the units (e.g.,. oz, cups, tbsp, tsp, etc.) of many ingredients. If you change the unit only then the closest amount to the original using the old units will automatically be inserted.

3. If desired, you can also search for and add new ingredients.  

4. When done with edits/changes, click on Update My Recipe. 

5. On the next screen you will see an Adjusted By You box if the changes were successful, then click on View Recipe to see the details. If the edits/changes didn’t work it will also let you know. Only edits/changes that are successful should be prepared/fed.

For added convenience and increased palatability, you can now create recipes that start out with raw ingredients and can be cooked all together in one pot including in a slow or pressure cooker! Less cooking steps and more flavor melding - chef’s kiss!

Below are the steps on how to use our one-pot cooking option for your dog, cat, puppy, or kitten:  

1. Under Step 1: Your Dog/Cat, enter/select your dog’s or cat’s name (you may even add a photo of your furry friend!) in the right species and age section for them.

   1. Enter their weight 

      1. You may change the units from lb (pound) to kg (kilogram) if necessary. 

   2. Enter their age in years or if a puppy or kitten, in months

   3. Enter their gender and reproductive status

2. AAFCO Dog or Cat Maintenance or Growth and Reproduction will automatically be selected and cannot be removed as it is used for calculations along with any selections under Any special needs or diet we should be aware of?. If health conditions are selected a vet approval will be required to be FDA compliant.

3. Click on the Let Me Pick Ingredients at the bottom of the page. 

4. To create convenient one-pot cooking recipes, please check the box stating Show one pot cooking ingredients & recipes ONLY under Step 2: Ingredients (optional) before selecting your ingredients.

5. Under Step 2: Ingredients (optional), you may search for & select ingredients you wish to feed your animal companion. 

   1. Using the search bar, you may search for & select ingredients such as “chicken” or “rice”

      1. Alternatively, you may also select proteins, carbs, fats, veggies, fruits, and/or treats & enticers from the “Most Popular” section

      2. You may find that options are more limited as we need to have data for the raw/dry/uncooked as well as the cooked version to correctly calculate changes in fat, moisture, and vitamin concentrations when cooking in one pot/vessel. 

   2. If there are ingredients you wish to EXCLUDE from your recipe, you may click on “ANY INGREDIENTS YOU’D LIKE TO LEAVE OUT?” and enter keywords you wish to exclude so they will not show up.

      1. At the bottom of the page, you will see a pink box with all the ingredients you wish to leave out with a strike through in the text. 

6. After selecting your ingredients, scroll down and click on Get Recipe.

7. To confirm you have created a one-pot recipe, you will see a steaming pot icon on the successful recipe option. 

To learn more about correctly using your one-pot recipe, please see Directions in your full recipe report for more detailed information.

Some recipes now have the capability to be cooked in one pot using our “one-pot cooking” method! One-pot cooking is convenient, reduces the amount of effort to cook fresh food for dogs and cats, and can increase palatability by better melding flavors. 

One pot means any covered vessel that can have heat applied externally such as, an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, Crockpot or slow cooker, cast iron/enameled Dutch oven in an oven, microwaved casserole dish with lid, or a metal pot with a lid placed on a burner/stove/rangetop.

General one-pot cooking steps include the following steps. For specific instructions, please see your recipe report. 

Combining all measured ingredients, including any called for added water into one pot, except any vitamin containing supplements or fat trimmings and mixing well.

Heating the pot (initially with a “medium” setting or amount of heat, but a lower setting can be used later for slower cooking) and stirring occasionally to prevent any burning at the bottom of the pot. If you are unsure on how to use your pot/oven/burner, please refer to your pot’s/oven’s/burner’s manual for instructions. 

Recipes are ready when any raw meat, poultry, fish, and/or other animal derived ingredients like eggs and egg whites is cooked to a food safe temperature of 165 degrees F or 74 degrees C*. 

*Very important: Food should not be continued to be heated/cooked after this food safe temperature has been reached as it could lead to additional vitamin heat degradation that has not been accounted for in the recipe.

When first attempting to cook a new recipe with one pot, it may initially take a little trial and error to determine the length of cooking time to reach a food safe temperature of 165 degrees F or 74 degrees C. This variable amount of time is because a “pot” can vary as can the amount and starting temperature of food to be cooked. Once this cooking time in your kitchen is determined, please note it for future preparations. This time can be used to know when to check if the food safe temperature has been reached next time. 

We hope this new feature allows you to more easily home cook much enjoyed recipes for your animal companion!

To view the nutrient profile for an ingredient, please click on the gray “i” in a circle icon next to the ingredient name. This will provide details on the concentrations of essential nutrients as well as show which nutrients are not known. This information can help one to compare different options that might be available to make sure the ingredient matches what the software is using for formulating the recipe. 

These nutrient IDs (and nutrient names) largely correspond to the ones used by the USDA FoodData Central. Longer nutrient IDs with more than 4 digits are ones unique to the Balance It® software. Nutrient names with numbers separated by a colon (:) are fatty acids. This is a comprehensive list and may include nutrients not important for dogs and/or cats as well as nutrients/compounds not commonly reported in many food entries. 

Commercial food is typically measured on a dry matter/as-fed basis. Our recipes are measured on a calorie content basis. The Guaranteed Analysis Converter is a helpful tool used to compare/convert the percentages from as fed found on pet food labels to % of calories from protein, fat and carbohydrates (which is what our recipes calculate & report). Making comparisons on a calorie content basis is much more accurate and as such is preferred and used by regulators for most requirements and board-certified veterinary nutritionists.

Please follow the instructions below to update your animal companion’s gender/sexual status, age, and/or weight: 

1) Log into your www.balance.it account

2) Click on the Avatar icon

3) Choose Dogs & Cats, and then click on your animal companion’s name

4) Click on the green EDIT on the right side of the screen 

5) Please make the desired changes*

6) Click on Submit. You will see a green message stating you have successfully updated the record. 

*Balance It® does not have any homemade recipes available to support late gestation or lactation as their very high energy density needs are very difficult to meet using higher moisture, fresh foods. Please see your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® for further help with these lifestages. Also there are no known, consistent changes in nutrient requirements once a dog or cat is an adult; therefore, there is no impact on choosing older ages after 12 months or 1 year of age. If a “senior”/“elder” dog or “senior”/“elder”cat has (a) special need(s) that may become more common with aging like weight loss, osteoarthritis/joint disease, or kidney/renal disease, please pick the specific health condition of concern on Step 1 of the Recipe Builder and make recipes for that/those condition(s).

Please note, deleting a “dog/cat entry/record” from your account is permanent. This action cannot be undone/reversed. Any associated vet approval or recipes and access to new recipes for previously approved health conditions will also be lost.

1. Log into your www.balance.it account.

2. Click on the Avatar icon on the top right corner. 

3. Choose Dogs & Cats in the left column to add or remove a dog/cat. 

4. To delete a dog/cat entry, simply click on the red circled X next to the dog/cat name and then click “OK” in the deletion confirmation dialog box that appears. 

Once this action is taken, your dog/cat entry/record will be permanently deleted.

Here are the steps to update any of your account’s email address: 

1. Log into your Balance It® account at balance.it

2. Click on the Avatar icon and you will see your Account Information page

3. Enter your preferred email address in the Email field. Note: changes made here do not update any underway or existing orders information.

4. Click on Save Changes. 

5. Log back into your account with the new email address. 

If you are logged in, click on the person avatar/icon in the upper right then on the page that appears click on Password. This will give you the option to Change Password by entering your current/old password and then entering a new password two times. 

If you are unable to login or forgot your password but know and can access the email address associated with your account use this direct link to reset your password: 

balance.it/forgotpassword

Please enter and submit your email address at the page above to get an email from us (info@balanceit.com) to reset your password. Please make sure to check your spam or junk folders, if you do not see the reset email in your inbox within a few minutes. Please contact us if you need further assistance.

If you cannot remember the email address you used to create your account or can no longer access that email address, please create a new account*. 

*If you are a veterinary practice or veterinarian, we may be able to, in very select/limited instances, reset/change your email address, but will need to get some additional information to confirm your identity. This process can take several business days.

We have enabled the account cancel or deletion feature for our customers. Here are the steps to cancel and/or delete your account. 

1. Log into Balance.it 

2. Click on the Avatar icon in the upper right and then click on Account Info 

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to select Delete Information

4. Click OK to confirm your choice after reading the following info. that appears:

*Please confirm that you want to DELETE your account and its associated information. This CANNOT BE REVERSED. ALL data associated with your account will be deleted including any entered dogs/cats, veterinary approvals, and created recipes. Any pending orders will be canceled within the next 24-48 business hours. Due to credit card industry requirements, any past orders will be held to address any credit card refunds/issues over the next 180 days. Due to traceability requirements from multiple regulatory agencies, already shipped/received orders' lot(s) and shipping address(es) ONLY will be retained for legally required notification purposes if a quality or safety issue were to arise in the future. Do you wish to proceed and permanently DELETE your account and any information associated with it?

5. Your request will then be sent and processed within a few days. 

Our Balance It^® Customer Care Team is always happy & ready to assist your direct use of the site; however, they cannot directly create/build and send you recipes. Providing that service requires one to work directly with the attending veterinarian to meet state and federal policies, regulations, and/or laws (e.g., valid VCPRs, veterinary practice acts, and FDA CPG Sec. 690.150). With that said, you are always welcome to use our Recipe Builder for free at balance.it/recipes yourself to create your own recipes customized to your animal companion’s needs and their favorite ingredients. 

If you are seeking personalized recipes for your animal companion from a board-certified veterinary nutritionist^®, please see the directories at vetspecialists.com or vetnutritionist.com. In addition, many other veterinarians offer this as a service to their practice’s clients/patients typically using their own free veterinary account with us and charging for their time to do so.

In short, because they’ve been extensively researched, tested, and are held to the highest regulatory standards. 

Davis Veterinary Medical Consulting, Inc. licenses the technology and intellectual property for Balance It® from our founder, a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine,  who spent thousands of hours creating the original software and patented formulations. Working with software engineers and other board-certified veterinary nutritionists, Dr. Delaney has spent decades refining the software and testing numerous human foods to ensure that the resulting supplements had and have the highest likelihood of meeting your beloved friend's individual needs. 

To develop the right profile for just Balance It® Canine, almost 100,000 homemade recipes were formulated and evaluated by using this new software. With other software used at the time, it would have taken even the fastest board-certified veterinary nutritionist® a minimum of 24 YEARS to formulate and evaluate that many diets. This type of technological achievement led to the submission and receipt of multiple domestic and international patents. Over the years, with ongoing effort and offerings, the number of unique recipes that can be automatically and safely fortified to meet essential nutrient needs has grown from thousands to millions to billions and now trillions - yes trillions with a “T”. In practice, this technology allows us to proudly help veterinarians, board-certified veterinary nutritionists, and human companions to create up to 10,000 free, custom homemade recipes everyday.

In the spirit of continuous improvement, Balance It®, built its own state of the art, third-party audited  food (aka human) grade facility in Northern California in 2018 and attained human dietary supplement registration with the FDA and was the first pet product only facility to attain a human processed food registration with the State of California. These industry leading food quality and safety standards and achievements ensure that every lot of blended supplement is assayed for every essential guaranteed nutrient and is only released when within tight specifications. This ensures that any nutrient gaps found when feeding human foods to dogs and cats long-term are fully and safely filled. 

Quality is achieved by consistently and honestly following the strictest criteria and processes possible and then actively inspecting, testing, and auditing them internally and through third parties. We have a “trust, but verify” philosophy. Our multinational European-owned vitamin manufacturer blends our patented mineral, vitamin and amino acid supplements to FSSC 22000 requirements, which includes ISO 22000:2005 and ISO/TS 22002-1:2009, as certified by the third-party certifying body DQS (DQS merged with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in 2008). Our own Woodland, CA facility is also third-party audited and certified by Eurofins Scientific for food (aka human) grade manufacturing and packaging per 21 CFR § 117 and for human dietary supplement manufacturing & packaging per 21 CFR § 111 and is GRMA-certified to the highest NSF/ANSI 455-2-2021 human dietary supplement standard. Our facility is also inspected and registered for processed (human) food manufacturing, packaging, and warehousing by the State of California Department of Public Health Food and Drug Branch. It is also registered for human food production with the FDA and inspected by them. We were the first, and believe, we are still the only pet food manufacturer with a dedicated facility that holds these certifications and registrations.

To meet human dietary supplement manufacturing current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) regulations, every lot of our finished products are extensively tested in laboratories and facilities in the United States (i.e., California, New Jersey, Missouri, and Ohio as well as in Iowa at times) prior to release. This includes assaying every essential nutrient that we guarantee on the label and only releasing products if concentrations are within specification. This exceeds not only feed (aka animal) grade cGMP regulations but also the more stringent food (aka human) grade cGMP regulations.    

We believe high quality ingredients are not inherently geographic specific; however, since 2007, Balance It® has actively avoided Chinese origin ingredients given consumer quality and safety concerns. We strive to and prefer to use United States (US) and North American-based raw materials and then European and Japanese sources if not available in the US or North America. We continue to pay a premium to do this with almost all essential nutrients we use. Unfortunately, there are currently some essential nutrients we cannot consistently source from a qualified food (aka human) grade supplier outside of China. They are vitamins B3 (aka niacin) and B6 (aka pyridoxine), the mineral ferrous sulfate (iron; at times this mineral may still not come from China), and the amino acids L-tryptophan, L-methionine, L-cysteine, and taurine. We have been unable to identify a supply given US- and European-owned manufacturers moving their operations to China. For reference, our most popular supplement still remains over 98% Chinese origin ingredient free. Please note that we do not consider our immediate supplier's geographic location when indicating the country of origin as some companies appear to do either out of a lack of awareness and/or transparency. To ensure purity, as noted above, these Chinese origin food (aka human) grade essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are assayed and checked on every lot prior to release.

Yes, we do third-party testing on our products. Testing through a certified third-party laboratory is done on every lot until a supplier is qualified. Becoming qualified is a rigorous process where certificates of analysis must be verified repeatedly and must be rechecked randomly annually. For our mineral, vitamin, and amino acid powders, every lot is actually tested in a laboratory by the supplier before release. Even if they come from a qualified supplier, we still also send out a new random lot of every product every year to have a second separate laboratory analysis confirmation. A qualified supplier's raw material must also still be identified on every received lot. We use cutting edge spectroscopy through another third-party laboratory to positively identify all such received raw materials against a library of known and tested materials that we have developed. This identification testing has proven very sensitive and can detect a single ingredient’s change in its chemical anion/moiety. Finally it is worth noting that we also have conducted real-time stability testing on the vitamins in a representative matrix to confirm that adequate overages are used to meet guaranteed levels at the end of shelf-life (vitamins naturally degrade over time especially when in the presence of minerals). All of this effort ensures that our supplements are providing the guaranteed essential nutrients that are being relied on to fortify dog and cat recipes by our veterinary colleagues and their clients. For additional information, please also see the What are the origins of your ingredients and how do you ensure their quality? FAQ.

Yes. Heavy metals are tested on every lot of our patented & blended products to ensure the lot is within specification to meet food (aka human) and the even higher human dietary supplement quality & safety standards given our third-party food certifications and state & federal registrations.

You may also be interested in What are the origins of your ingredients and how do you ensure their quality? 

Yes, all of our vitamins are intentionally synthetic mainly for purity, potency, and stability improvements as well as to address antigen concerns given the number of human companions of dogs/cats that need to avoid things like animal origin ingredients. Most notable is that by adding chemical moieties to natural or otherwise chemically identical forms of vitamins, that makes them then “synthetic”, it also allows them to remain viable for months instead of weeks in many cases. Given our food (aka human) grade and human dietary supplement third-party certifications, needed quality can be achieved and maintained better when raw materials are better able to repeatedly meet potency and shelf-stability specifications/requirements. Variability in meeting nutrient concentration specifications, that is verified with testing by Balance It®, would be much more challenging to manage and increase the likelihood that finished products would regularly be out of specification and need to be rejected for quality reasons. Manufacturers that offer longer shelf-life using “natural” vitamins should be very carefully scrutinized and asked about their testing and certifications/registrations, as it unfortunately might strongly suggest that they do not actually meet or verify nutrient concentrations that they may suggest or claim at the end of their stated shelf-life or even at the beginning. In those cases where one wishes to avoid any stable but synthetic nutrients, we suggest working with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® to develop and test a fresh whole food diet. Such a diet will typically be rich in tissues found in fresh whole prey.

Listed below are our different supplements and their different uses. Please click on the product hyperlink for more detailed information like the ingredient list and nutrient guaranteed analysis.

• Balance It^® Canine - used to fortify recipes for healthy dogs and some sick dogs. Recipes that use Balance It^® Canine will typically include some carbohydrates (starches, vegetables and/or fruits) along with protein and oils/fats. It cannot be heated.
• Balance It^® Canine Plus - used to fortify recipes for healthy and some sick dogs. Recipes that use Balance It^® Canine Plus will typically include some carbohydrates (starches, vegetables and/or fruits) along with protein and oils/fats. It may be heated one-time up to 165 F or 74 C.
• Balance It^® Carnivore Blend - used to fortify higher protein recipes for healthy dogs and cats and select sick dogs and cats. Recipes may contain little to no carbohydrate. It cannot be heated.
• Balance It^® Canine K - used to fortify lower phosphorus recipes for sick dogs. It has a nominal amount of phosphorus. It cannot be heated.
• Balance It^® Canine K Plus - used to fortify lower phosphorus recipes for sick dogs. It has no added phosphorus. It may be heated one-time up to 165 F or 74 C. It is NOT interchangeable with Balance It^® Canine K.
• Balance It^® Canine -Cu - used to fortify lower copper recipes for sick dogs. It cannot be heated.
• Balance It^® Feline - used to fortify recipes for healthy cats and some sick cats. Recipes that use Balance It^® Feline will typically include some carbohydrates (starches, vegetables and/or fruits) along with protein and oils/fats. It cannot be heated.
• Balance It^® Feline K - used to fortify lower phosphorus recipes for sick cats. It cannot be heated. Feline K is only available in pouches and not bags given typical trial and use preferences/rates.

Each of these patented supplements avoid any added palatants or flavors to avoid the addition of potential antigens, contain no animal origin ingredients, are food (aka human) grade, and come from our own Northern California facility that is third-party certified to the human dietary supplement standard. This exacting and demanding standard means every guaranteed essential nutrient is tested on each lot to ensure they all meet specifications before release and shipment. Coupled with our free online formulation software, the FREE Recipe Builder, you can confidently make food that you and your dog or cat prefer and that provides all the right nutrients they need long-term.

Yes, from a quality perspective but not from a nutrient concentration safety one. 

While all of our patented products are sourced & manufactured and third-party certified to food (aka human) grade and the even higher human dietary supplement standards, they are specifically formulated and labeled for use in dogs and cats. The nutrient concentrations are tailored to meet the unique needs of these animal companion species, and thus are not suitable for human use to meet human dietary or nutrient requirements.

You will notice that the larger-sized 500 and 600 gram bags have a legally required child resistant closure (CRC; aka “be childproof”) given their high total nutrient content. This special packaging requirement protects against accidental ingestion of all of the contents at once by a child.

We provide the capability to fortify many of our home-cooked dog/cat recipes with a combination of supplements designed for humans and sold by others. We are often asked why? We do this as we want people with the best goals to be educated and safely and appropriately feed their dogs and cats and counter the often well intentioned and ill-informed information unfortunately found elsewhere. We feel very strongly that a paywall or any unnecessary barrier (we still must be FDA CPG Sec. 690.150 compliant for recipes to manage medical conditions) to access our evidence- and mathematics-based information & custom recipes would be an overall disservice to dogs and cats and the veterinary community. We are very fortunate and grateful that so many veterinary professionals and their clients rely on and purchase the human dietary supplements that we manufacture in our own dedicated FDA registered and third-party audited food (aka human) grade facility that we can afford to continue to donate this incomparable resource. Now to how you can use this option…  

After selecting the ingredients you wish to feed, under Step 2: Ingredients (optional) of the Recipe Builder at balance.it/recipes, please scroll down and check the Use human supplements ONLY box below Get Recipe. When selecting this option, recipes using a combination of supplements designed by humans will be created. The resulting option may not be as convenient (sometimes up to 10-11 supplements may be needed) and may be more expensive than Balance It® supplements.

Centrum (Kids) Chewable with 400 IU vitamin D per tablet has been discontinued by Bayer and is becoming unavailable in stores and online. Therefore, we have found the next best and most readily available solution -- Kirkland Signature Daily Multi Vitamins & Minerals (400 IU Vit D/tablet) which can also be purchased online from other online retailers even without a Costco membership in the United States. As of around 11:15 AM PT on 26JUN23, the Kirkland option appears when building recipes instead of Centrum. There may be occasions where Centrum still appears but those are being phased out in the coming weeks. Note the Bayer Centrum and Costco Kirkland products are similar but not exactly the same, so new recipes need to be built using the Recipe Builder online to get the right dose with the Costco Kirkland supplement. 

Please see the following link:

https://balance.it/foods/m98135

for the full nutrient profile of Costco’s Kirkland option if you wish to compare and identify other comparable products especially in other parts of the world (especially vitamin D concentration given the potential for toxicity, especially with the frequently very high concentration found in supplements designed for humans).

Most of the supplements designed for humans that we suggest as an alternative to using Balance It® supplements can be easily found at local drugstores, pharmacies, or online. 

Recently, due to changes in human supplement formulations, specifically the significant increase in vitamin D concentrations, it's become somewhat difficult to find supplements that would fit the lower concentrations of Vitamin D required for animal companions, especially dogs. If you continue to have difficulty sourcing supplements designed for humans, we recommend that you contact your local pharmacist and ask if they can order the needed supplement for you. If the supplement cannot be sourced, please contact a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® for a consultation. In the interim, you should not feed the recipe until all the required ingredients including the supplements designed for humans are available to avoid feeding a diet with essential nutrient deficiencies. You may wish to also consider or reconsider a recipe that is fortified with Balance It® supplements if those are available/possible/acceptable.

Human supplements are just that - designed for humans. They do not have the right balance of vitamins and minerals that dogs and cats need. In addition, there are no human supplements that we are aware of that contain all of the nutrients that Balance It® supplements provide. With that said, there are rare times where a combination of supplements designed for humans might be helpful. For these cases, we have provided the option to use supplements designed for humans in your homemade recipe free of charge. We do this because our mission is to help people create safe and wholesome diets for their animal companion whether they purchase anything from us or not. However, rest assured that when you rely on Balance It® supplements that they are food (aka human) grade, and come from our own dedicated food facility in Northern California that is third-party certified, State of California and FDA registered for human dietary supplement manufacturing. 

Most dog and cat multivitamin-multimineral supplements simply aren't designed to do what the Balance It® supplements are and are feed (aka animal) grade. 

Other dog and cat supplements are typically developed to be added to an already complete and balanced commercial dog or cat food. They are not designed to make up for all the nutrient needs of a dog or cat that is fed a homemade diet using human foods.

Human foods, especially animal proteins, are depleted of many essential nutrients that would typically be consumed by an obligate carnivore like the cat or a wild canine like the wolf that dogs are evolved from. Animal meat is typically exsanguinated (drained of blood) which is rich in minerals especially sodium, chloride, potassium, and magnesium. It is also deboned further removing minerals like calcium and phosphorus, And finally organ meats, especially liver, are not fed or in small amounts resulting in vitamin and trace mineral loss.   

Adding a concentrated supplement, like a Balance It® supplement that is designed to replenish these lost essential nutrients, to a commercial pet food could potentially lead to over-supplementation of nutrients and adverse health consequences. This is why we do not recommend adding the Balance It® supplement to any commercial pet food. Knowing the potential for over-supplementation, most manufacturers of dog and cat multivitamin-multimineral supplements add lower or even trivial amounts of each nutrient they use in their product. Thus, the typical human companion that gives dog and cat multivitamin-multimineral supplements to their animal companion won't give enough of a vitamin or mineral to do any harm since they most likely are on a commercial pet food that already has all the vitamins and minerals that they need. Further Balance It®  does not provide a generic recommendation on how much to give based solely on body weight. This is because the amount to add depends on a dog’s or cat's individual needs and the ingredients being fed and their proportions. 

By manufacturing food (aka human) grade supplements that also meet the even higher human dietary supplement standards, Balance It® supplements meet additional quality and safety standards. The most significant and most expensive requirement is that every finished blend is assayed in a laboratory to ensure every guaranteed essential nutrient meets specification prior to release. This ensures a very consistent and reliable source of these key essential nutrients and greatly reduces the risk of deficiencies or excesses. 

Most likely, your dog’s or cat’s body has been carefully, conserving essential nutrients as much as possible over the years, but it is possible that, unfortunately, there may be problems that have developed that may not be readily recognized. Thinning of the bones or osteopenia can occur and can be difficult to notice unless you consult with your veterinarian to take x-rays or radiographs or, worse, your dog or cat breaks a bone. 

Other nutrient deficiencies are much harder to test for and typically won't show up on even routine blood work. The typical way potential deficiencies (and excesses) are evaluated is by analyzing the diet using formulation software with a robust food database. Unfortunately, many diets that "seem" alright can actually be grossly deficient in numerous essential minerals and vitamins.

With some further consideration, it can make sense if one thinks about the natural prey that dogs and cats or their ancestors consume in the wild versus how we often or prefer to feed them. Most commonly we feed exsanguinated, eviscerated, and deboned muscle meats along with rich sources of starch. This approach results in minerals from bones, electrolytes (other important minerals) from blood, and vitamins and trace minerals from the liver being at much lower concentrations than when whole prey is consumed. Unfortunately, a whole prey method of feeding has its own disadvantages as well which can include difficulty of preparation/sourcing, nutrient variability or uncertainty, foodborne pathogens, increased consumption of natural toxins filtered and “sequestered” by the prey species, and a nutrient profile more supportive of reproduction of a few litters than longevity. If you are considering a whole prey or whole food approach to feeding, we strongly recommend consulting with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® for specific guidance about the challenges, benefits, and risks. 

Home-cooked dog and cat foods made with common human foods require fortification with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. However, it is typically safe to forgo supplementation for a short period of time unless you are concerned that feeding the diet without any supplement(s) might later lead to refusal in a very finicky dog or cat when introduced. You may wish to speak with your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® their advice if you have concerns about not supplementing for a few days. You may also be interested in these FAQs: I’ve been feeding a homemade diet to my dog or cat for years without giving them any added minerals or vitamins, and they don't seem to have any problems. Why should I start giving them Balance It® supplements?, My dog won’t eat their food without or with the supplement slowly added and mixed in. What should I do?, and My cat won’t eat their food without or with the supplement slowly added and mixed in. What should I do?

Balance It® supplements do not come with general use instructions, because the amount used is dependent on the recipe fed. Instructions on how to use the Balance It® supplement can come from a free recipe created on our website, from your veterinarian, or from a recipe created by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. Please refer to your recipe on how much of the supplement to feed your animal companion. 

Depending on the illness that your friend has, there may be a more appropriate Balance It® supplement or product for them. Currently there are four Balance It® supplements (Balance It® Canine K, Balance It® Canine K Plus, Balance It® Canine -Cu, and Balance It® Feline K) designed for patients with certain medical conditions. We have free recipes available that use these four (and also other over-the-counter supplements) patented supplements for specific health conditions, although they require direct veterinary approval (aka vet approval) from your veterinarian to purchase per the FDA (CPG Sec. 690.150).

You may also be interested in the What are the differences in your supplements? FAQ.

Vitamin-containing foods and supplements are perishable. Vitamins naturally degrade with time and the rate at which they degrade is increased when in the presence of trace minerals. We account for this inherent degradation with our formulations to ensure that there are extra vitamins present when first made. These “overages" enable the vitamin minimum guarantees to be met at the end of the product’s shelf-life.

Because the all-in-one supplements are mixed in batches, a lot number is assigned to each mixed batch for tracking purposes. All manufacturers concerned with the quality and safety of their products will use a lot number for tracking and traceability purposes. As a FDA registered and third-party audited human dietary supplement manufacturer, we are required to maintain “traceability” and must conduct regular tests of our ability to know where all packaging materials, raw materials and finished products are located or went. This ensures our ability to rapidly and accurately notify customers if there were ever a quality or safety concern. 

Occasionally customers are initially disappointed with the expiration date of the product they receive. This is usually because they are not aware that our expiration dates are never longer than 11 months, and that we will do our best to assure at least 3 months of shelf-life on all shipments. Supplements are perishable as vitamins naturally degrade with time. The rate vitamins degrade is increased when in the presence of trace minerals. We account for this inherent degradation with our formulations to ensure that there are extra vitamins present when first made. These overages have to be limited to avoid excess at the beginning of the supplement’s shelf-life. Since we take the extra step of assaying all guaranteed essential nutrients in a laboratory, the longest shelf-life we ever might have is 11 months (since it can take a month for testing, release, and packaging).

No, the FDA requires studies to be conducted to extend shelf-life beyond the stated expiration date. We have not conducted those studies nor do we plan to, because based on our overages, we do not expect every single nutrient to still be consistently and predictably above the guaranteed minimums after the current expiration date(s) we use.

Our supplements are of the highest quality, please see more at the What are the origins of your ingredients and how do you ensure their quality? FAQ and are very well accepted/tolerated in almost all dogs and cats, even those that are very discriminating/sensitive. We also do not add any flavorings or capsulize any of our products to avoid adding unnecessary and possibly not tolerated ingredients and making mixing with desired foods harder. With that said, vitamins naturally degrade over time and they can give off an aroma that gets stronger as any product, including Balance It® supplements, gets closer to the expiration date. We add vitamin overages to ensure potency until the expiration date. Some amino acids, especially the sulfur based ones like methionine and cyst(e)ine, can also have a natural odor that we do not mask; fortunately, some of these are actually enticing to some dogs and most cats. If desired,one can store the supplement in the freezer if the container is very tightly sealed to prevent any moisture entering. While this won't extend the shelf life, it may reduce the odor. Fortunately, as stated, the Balance It® supplements are very well accepted/tolerated overall especially if very slowly introduced with preferred foods in cases where there is a known challenge and/or if already on a homemade diet that is deficient and not fortified with needed amino acids and/or vitamins. In the very rare cases that they are not accepted or tolerated, we are happy to accept returns for refund per our refund policy found at balance.it/terms.

No, you should not worry. The temperature reached should not result in any quality issues. Typical shipping temperatures are accounted for even in the hotter months with vitamin overages, so there is nothing to worry about as far as the temperature it was at when received. Products we sell to you also do not go through a distributor, so they typically have one less journey to make. Rest assured, your product will arrive safely to your shipping address via one of the available "common" carriers. 

The amount of supplement needed is unique to each animal companion and each recipe. To estimate how long a bag will last, divide the number of grams of the supplement that is needed each day into 600 grams (the net weight of the Balance It® canine supplements in bags) or 500 grams (for feline supplements in bags). For a pouch, divide the number of grams of the supplement that is needed each day into 20 grams. The resulting figure is the number of days one bag, or pouch will last using that particular recipe. 

For example, if the recipe said use 10 grams of Balance It® Canine daily, and you are using a bag, then there would be enough supplement for 60 days (600 grams per bag/10 grams daily = 60 days per bag) or for a pouch there would be enough for 2 days (20 grams per pouch/10 grams daily = 2 days per pouch).

Your Balance It® recipe will indicate how long a bag, or pouch will last you under the Ordering & Reordering Balance It® supplements section based on your animal companion’s weight/energy needs, condition(s), and the exact ingredients being fed.

It has been determined that the average size dog is 35 pounds (or 15.9 kg) will use our 600 g size bagged supplements in about one month (this is only an average with variation dependent on specific recipe). This means that for almost all of our customers they never have to worry about unused supplements expiring. 

Fortunately, if your dog is smaller and uses so little supplement every day that you may end up with some contents in a 600 g bag expiring before your animal companion can finish it, we have a solution. Our powdered essential nutrient supplements are also available in smaller 20 g pouches which can help avoid waste. These pouches are also great for trial, traveling, easy-to-open and may be more convenient than buying a whole 600 g bag. 

There are two main reasons:

One: In developing the first Balance It® supplements two decades ago, we realized that our products would need to meet the needs of dogs that range from 2 to 100 pounds and cats that might range from 5 up to 30 pounds. So we needed a better solution than tablets, which have very limited flexibility in dosing. In powder form, our products can be scooped in smaller portions to meet each furry friend’s specific needs. This is also helpful if you have different size animal companions that you are cooking for; 

Two: Tablets don’t mix super well with food. In fact, many board-certified veterinary nutritionists will suggest crushing any tablets into a powder before adding them to a dog’s or cat’s food. So we have saved you a step.

Of course. Here are the more commonly known nutrients our ingredients provide:

*not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO Dog/Cat Food Nutrient Profiles; vitamin K is required for cats on high fish-containing diets

You can view the ingredients list for each supplement by visiting the Products page (located here: https://shop.balance.it/collections/all ) and checking the Ingredients & Nutrient Analysis section of the desired supplement.

You may also be interested in “What are the differences in your supplements?”

Although not really a frequently asked question, we have added it here as we know of one individual that is extremely concerned about its use as they have reviewed what happens if a massive and toxic amount of sodium from any source, including sodium bicarbonate, is given/taken. 

We have safely used sodium bicarbonate (an ingredient considered “GRAS” (generally recognized as safe) by both AAFCO and the FDA for dogs, cats, and humans) over the last two decades in our supplements to provide the essential nutrient sodium. There are other food grade mineral salts that can also provide sodium, but they typically come with an anion that we may need to also tightly control or prevent adding too much of. Bicarbonate is a safe addition that at much higher concentrations is frequently and safely used as a therapeutic medication in dogs. 

Sodium bicarbonate is not toxic in appropriate doses including in the small amounts in our supplements. However, many essential nutrients and compounds (e.g., water, sodium, potassium, vitamin D, etc.) can become toxic if administered or given at too high a dose. The old saying is that the "dose makes the poison". To protect against excess addition (as well as too little), all of our supplements are tested for any guaranteed essential nutrient including sodium from sodium bicarbonate to make sure that they meet specifications on every lot prior to release. This extensive and regular testing allows us to meet the higher regulatory standards for human dietary supplements versus only being food (aka human) grade which itself is higher than the feed (aka animal) grade standard. To see the overall sodium concentration of any homemade recipe created using the Recipe Builder, please click (See) Nutrient Profile on results and hover over the percent requirement to see the percent contributed by each ingredient in the recipe. 

This is normal! Occasionally  blue specks will be seen in our supplements (all except Canine -Cu & Firming Fiber). This is from copper sulfate, a source of copper, which is an essential nutrient for your dog or cat. 

Sometimes if a supplement is in contact with food for several hours in the refrigerator copper sulfate can also lead to little bluish spots or due to their natural yellow color, B-vitamins can result in greenish/grayish spots especially when the supplement is moistened. This greenish/grayish color change is more commonly reported in food that uses barley or sweet potato.

At times, supplementing with additional methionine may be necessary to fulfill the minimum requirement of methionine and/or methionine + cystine (also known as methionine-cystine). These are important sulfur amino acids (SAAs) that can be limiting especially when the overall dietary protein is lower and/or mainly or exclusively plant-based. 

You can typically purchase/acquire generic L-methionine (500 mg tablet), a human supplement, online or from your local drugstore. Some veterinarians also carry it in their pharmacy.

You may also be interested in “Do I need to add taurine to my dog’s diet?”

No, taurine is not an essential nutrient in dogs as it is made by dogs from the sulfur amino acids (SAAs), methionine and cyst(e)ine. The dog’s body can make ample taurine when enough SAAs are provided in their diet. Dogs also use SAAs to make other important compounds like s-adenosyl methionine also known commonly as SAMe. 

The Balance It® software always checks the SAA formulated concentrations(s) before passing a recipe. If the concentration(s) is/are too low, the recipe will not pass, or in the case of vegetarian dog recipes that use a legume like lentils, it will add methionine to the recipe separately (some of our dog supplements use methionine and cyst(e)ine especially those for lower protein diets). Our founder, Dr. Sean Delaney, is actually the lead researcher that established the normal taurine blood and plasma concentrations in the dog in 2003 (see S. Delaney et al. Plasma and whole blood taurine in normal dogs of varying size fed commercially prepared food J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2003 Jun;87(5-6):236-44 ), so this is an area we have always been focused on and aware of since our launch in 2005. For more questions about your dog’s taurine status, we suggest speaking with your veterinarian, board-certified veterinary nutritionist® and/or board-certified veterinary cardiologist®.

Balance It® supplements include only those nutrients that are known to be essential in dogs and cats. We don't add vitamin C in our supplements as dogs and cats do not require it in their diet as they can make it themselves using glucose readily found in their bodies. We wouldn't recommend providing extra vitamin C as it can increase urinary oxalate excretion and only use/add it as recommended by your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. Our vitamin supplements do however include a balanced amount of other water soluble B vitamins that animal companion’s require.

There are a few reasons why our supplements do not contain any omega-3 or -6 fatty acids. 

1. While certain vitamins and minerals are reliably deficient in common ingredients used to make recipes for animal companions, fatty acid concentration and ratios are extremely variable - some ingredients are deficient, while some have very high amounts. So, recipes using salmon and chicken will have extremely different fatty acid profiles - the salmon high in omega-3s and need omega-6s added whereas the chicken would be high in omega-6s and need the omega-3s added if you're looking for a balanced ratio between the two. But they will likely need more similar vitamin and mineral fortification. Because each recipe will vary so much in fatty acid profile, it would be impossible to add them to a supplement and still have it work for most recipes. By adding them separately, they can be added in the amount appropriate to compliment the other preferred ingredients.

2. The same ratio of omega-6:omega-3 may not always be appropriate for different life stages and different health conditions. Even if these fatty acids were added to the supplement, then you'd still have to add them separately to precisely adjust the ratio for different uses. And in some cases you would need to somehow “extract” a fatty acid which would be impossible if mixed into a supplement in a fixed ratio.

3. Fats and vitamins and minerals do not always play well together in the same container - omega-6s and omega-3s are prone to rancidity (due to oxidation), and they can interact with other nutrients if mixed together in a bag or pouch. This could deplete antioxidants, and could alter bioavailability of other nutrients. Liquid forms would be messy and you wouldn't be able to keep the product stable and with all the nutrients in solution so each teaspoon would be the same as the next. Powdered forms of fats are harder to come by, so they would likely have to be whole food sources, such as algae or canola meal for example. These ingredients would bring in potential allergens and other nutrients than just omega-3s and -6s, which could make the product less than ideal for animal companions with allergies or other health issues.

Instead, we have heavily invested in the Autobalancer® that powers the Recipe Builder, so that it can precisely calculate the amount of oils/fats to separately add/avoid to meet any essential or important fatty acid requirement(s).

We reformulated our products without “animal origin ingredients" to eliminate any concern that animal antigens might be added to the product. These changes started on February 22, 2013. 

Accordingly on formulations you'll see that we no longer are using vitamin D3 that is made from lanolin or sheep's wool grease, and switched to vitamin D2, the form found in plants/fungi. This form of vitamin D is utilized at 70% of the rate of vitamin D3 in the cat, so we adjusted the feline formulations and software accordingly. Vitamin D2 is utilized comparably and well by dogs. 

We also switched to using calcium carbonate and/or tricalcium phosphate to avoid the use of dicalcium phosphate that may be highly processed but still derived from animal bone. These changes also allowed us to further optimize the formulations, address concerns regarding some livestock production practices including associated environmental impact, and to make international exportation from the USA easier.

Yes. Vitamin D2 is also known as ergocalciferol and vitamin D3 is also known as cholecalciferol. Vitamin D2 is the form that is found in non-animal derived foods, like mushrooms. Vitamin D3 is the form that is found in animal meats or is made from animal products, like lanolin or sheep’s wool grease.

In 2013, Balance It® shifted from using vitamin D3 to vitamin D2 to further avoid the concern of animal antigens and animal origin ingredients in its all-in-one supplements. This was especially helpful to folks with concerns about the purity of the products they used in their sensitive animal companions. It also helped our international users. Many countries do not allow (or severely restrict) products with animal origin ingredients to be imported into their country, even from industrial countries generally held in high regard, like the United States.

In cats, vitamin D2 is not utilized as efficiently as vitamin D3. Morris of UC Davis in 2002 showed that cats used vitamin D2 with an efficiency of 70% as compared to vitamin D3 (J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2002; 86(7-8):229-38.). Therefore, the Balance It® system adjusts for this different utilization to help ensure a cat’s special needs are met. To better understand this adjustment, if one needs, say, to give the equivalent of 17.5 IU per day per cat of cholecalciferol or vitamin D3 then one needs to instead provide 25 IU per day per cat of ergocalciferol or vitamin D2 (using the equation of 17.5*(1/0.7)=25 as 70% of 25 IU is 17.5 IU).

As referenced in 2006 by the National Research Council, it has been known since 1939 that dogs utilize vitamin D2 and D3 equally well (J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1939; 95:187-194.). In that first definitive study at the University of Wisconsin, growing dogs grew normally, with radiographic (x-ray) monitoring of bone development (if developmental abnormalities appeared) and blood calcium and phosphorus levels, over a five month experimental period. Later in 1943, Morgan and Shimotori of UC Berkeley showed that the same single massive IU dose of either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 maintained blood calcium levels and vitamin D levels equivalently in growing dogs over the 180 day study (J Biol Chem. 1943; 147:189-200.). It is worth noting that in this study, it appeared that the vitamin D2 may have had a better lasting effect in the last couple of weeks compared to the vitamin D3 sources. Subsequently in 1947, Morgan with colleagues Hendricks and Freytag at UC Berkeley showed normal growth in control dogs over approximately 300 days when the same amount of vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 was fed as part of this vitamin D toxicity study (Am J Physiol. 1947; 149:319-332.). Finally the specific effects of vitamin D toxicity on the adult dog’s kidneys were studied in 1979 by Spangler, Gribble, and Lee at UC Davis. In this study, they used an overdose of vitamin D2 exclusively. This helped to further confirm that the utilization of vitamin D2 is not unique to growing dogs (Am J Vet Res. 1979; 40:73-83.). DVM Consulting, Inc. also completed a supportive study in two client-owned dogs that was presented at the 15th Annual AAVN Clinical Nutrition and Research Symposium on June 3, 2015 in Indianapolis. The following is the scientific abstract of that study:

"Serum Ionized Calcium, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and Parathyroid Hormone In Two Dogs Fed A Homemade Diet Fortified With Vitamin D2.

Since 1939, it has been known that dogs utilize vitamins D2 (D2; ergocalciferol) & D3 (D3; cholecalciferol) equally well (Arnold et al., 1939). For decades, D2 was used in dog food studies as the source of vitamin D (vit D; NRC 2006). Effects of a massive dose of D2 or D3 has also been shown to last < ~5.25 mo in dogs (Morgan et al., 1943). There has been re-emergent use of D2 in dog nutritional products to avoid animal origin ingredients. It was hypothesized that dogs on a diet fortified with D2 would maintain normal ionized calcium (iCa) & 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-D) levels. 2 healthy client-owned adult Papillons, fed a Ca & Mg replete home-cooked chicken & rice diet for 3 mo with 138.6 IU of vit D per Mcal or 101.9% of the D3 2006 NRC recommended allowance (RA) for adult maintenance, had their vit D status determined. Further analysis via formulation software (Balance IT® Autobalancer®, Davis, CA) of the diet revealed that 8.849 IU of the 138.6 IU of vit D per Mcal was from D3 found in the cooked chicken breast meat with remainder from supplemented D2 (Balance IT® Canine, Davis, CA). 5 mo prior to current diet, the 2 dogs were fed another home-cooked egg diet fortified with D2 & exclusively fed melons as treats for the last 8 mo. Previously, they never were fed a diet exceeding NRC SUL for vit D or given vit D by any other route. A 1.5 mL fasting serum sample was collected & centrifuged within 1 hr & shipped overnight on ice to Michigan State University (MSU) for analysis. The resulting iCa & 25-D were within the reference range (RR) with the following values: iCa 1.31 & 1.35 (RR 1.25-1.45 mmol/L) & 25-D 163 & 110 (RR 60-215 nmol/L). Parathyroid hormone (PTH) was below the RR for the 1st dog at 0.4 pmol/L (RR 0.5-5.8 pmol/L), while the 2nd dog had a within RR value of 1.00. This lower PTH was not considered significant given the normal iCa and 25-D by the reviewing MSU endocrinologist. These findings support that D2 can be utilized as the supplemental source of vit D in dog food to maintain normal iCa homeostasis & 25-D levels in adult dogs.

We/I thank South Davis Vet. Center for collecting & submitting the 2 blood samples & the client for approving presentation/publication.

Abstract Copyright 2015 American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition (AAVN)" 

More recently Dodd et al. in 2022 at the 22nd Annual AAVN Symposium showed that "Feeding a plant-based diet including D2 in place of D3 for 3 months did not impair bone mineralization or vitamin D metabolism in adult dogs."

In 2019, we improved Carnivore Blend® to use inulin as a “carrier” to enable good mixing and prevent caking instead of psyllium seed husk powder.  We proactively made this improvement to provide a rich source of fructooligosaccharides (FOS) which can be used by beneficial gut bacteria or microbiota to help support GI health. This sometimes is referred to as a prebiotic effect. As inulin is much whiter in color than psyllium seed husk, Carnivore Blend® became lighter in color and whiter compared to the previous off white or tan. This change has been very well-tolerated by dogs and cats including those previously fed Carnivore Blend® with psyllium seed husk powder.

Balance It^® Firming Fiber is simply powdered cellulose, a source of insoluble fiber.

Balance It^® Firming Fiber will often be added to recipes when the dog/cat is approved for a higher fiber requirement/condition, and the recipe's base foods alone do not provide enough dietary fiber. If there is no requirement or need for higher or more dietary fiber, the software will not add this product to the homemade recipe. 

If your veterinarian has advised you to create higher fiber recipes for your animal companion, please submit a veterinary approval request with the instructions found in this FAQ: How can I submit a veterinary approval request for my animal companion with a medical condition? And why do I even need to do this? You can enter “high insoluble fiber” or “high total dietary fiber” in the provided search tool.

If you wish to add powdered cellulose (the sole ingredient in Balance It^® Firming Fiber) to your companion’s food without submitting a request for higher fiber recipes, please speak with your veterinarian to determine the appropriate amount or dose to add. There are no general use instructions for this product including on the label. 

Balance It® Feline K has been updated to reflect the newest research (as recently published here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8692190/ ) regarding optimal dietary phosphorus restriction concentration and calcium to phosphorus ratio in cats with renal/kidney disease. Consequently, the supplement now has no added phosphorus (previously it was very low) and less calcium. Any dosing for, or recipes using, the old formulation are no longer valid, and new recipes should be generated for free using the Recipe Builder at balance.it or pursued with one’s veterinarian and/or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. If the preferred foods/ingredients can no longer be balanced with the new version of Feline K using the Recipe Builder, a free recipe using a combination of human supplements, that can be purchased elsewhere, will be provided instead if that alternative option is instead possible. Note that the many essential nutrients that need to be tightly controlled including potassium, and in stark contrast to an obligate carnivore’s typical diet, makes many options using a single supplement much more difficult/challenging to find. Whole egg (ID m6), white rice (ID n20445) OR tapioca (ID m13) OR corn meal (ID n20422), and Feline K OR just whole egg (ID m6) and Feline K are good example pairings when blood potassium is lower (aka hypokalemia). We apologize for any inconvenience this supplement reformulation may create. 

The Balance It® supplements are very well accepted and tolerated. However in some very rare cases, a homemade diet with added supplement can be refused. Very slow introduction (over 5-10 days or more) or feeding a new combination of preferred foods & mixing the supplement in well usually can solve or prevent this issue. 

In those rare cases where this doesn’t work, in dogs it can be helpful to mix the supplement even slower and with a little honey or sugar syrup* (simple, maple, pancake, etc. but with no artificial sweeteners since they might contain xylitol which is toxic to at least dogs). Alternatively, a savory treat like peanut butter (again with no xylitol) or creamier cheese* might help. 

*You should always check with your veterinarian if your dog is not healthy to make sure that the use of honey or sugar syrup is not contraindicated as it might be with diabetes mellitus or that added salt or fat from foods like peanut butter or cheese is acceptable. Treats should always be limited to 10% of daily calories or less.

For cats, mixing the supplement with the protein source specifically can be helpful as can the use of the Carnivore Blend® supplement where an all meat/poultry/fish diet can be fed if otherwise tolerated.

If still unsuccessful, forcing the administration of the supplement is never advised. For example, the supplement cannot be used in a syringe due to the potential for aspiration. A supplement+water mix could go directly into your dog’s/cat’s lungs carrying with them any bacteria from the mouth during the likely  struggle and this is not only stressful for everyone but very harmful to your dog/cat as it can cause pneumonia. Alternatively, trying to produce and administer tablets or capsules is not practical as macromineral (e.g., calcium, phosphorus, sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium) needs are significant making daily “pilling” a non-starter. 

If the Balance It® supplement is refused after trying slower introduction and/or mixing with a palatant/treat/enticer as described above, we instead suggest trying a recipe that uses a combination of supplements designed for humans (a free option when using the Recipe Builder) or speaking with your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® about other fortification and/or feeding options. They may suggest trying the supplements designed for humans one by one (starting with the “electrolyte” minerals like sodium, potassium, & chloride then B-vitamins followed by taurine, calcium & phosphorus, then magnesium and trace or microminerals like iron, zinc, & copper and finally fat soluble vitamins & other amino acids) as there may be certain essential nutrients that a dog or cat may be more sensitive to or intolerant of (the order they choose may reflect the likelihood of nutrient depletion and adverse reaction).

Don’t worry, this is totally normal and doesn't affect the nutrients at all. To be more specific, some of the purified food (aka human) grade minerals that we use in supplements can react with the acids and bases that are also present from nutrients like amino acids, minerals, and vitamins. Dissolving these essential nutrients in water allows them to dissolve and interact/react with each other, and the result is a classic acid-base reaction releasing a very small amount of carbon dioxide gas, which can cause fizz or bubbles exactly like in sparkling water. We generally recommend mixing the supplement directly with food instead of water, so you shouldn’t experience this too often.

As far as a slight color change when moistened, it is likely an effect of the copper sulfate and B-vitamins which are naturally blue and yellow, respectively, when in an aqueous or water solution. This can result in a slight blue, green, gray, and/or mottled appearance. This is more typically (but still rarely) reported when customers premix supplement with food and then refrigerate it overnight. This is a natural color change and not harmful or a cause for concern.

AAFCO requires manufacturers to either do a feeding trial to determine energy content or to do a proximate analysis and then a standardized, and defined by AAFCO, calculation using modified Atwater energy conversion factors (i.e., 3.5 kcal/g protein, 8.5 kcal/g fat, & 3.5 kcal/g carbohydrate) to then determine and report energy/calorie content on labels. Supplements, like Balance It®, are not excluded from this requirement and a feeding trial of exclusively feeding supplements without any food for two weeks is not possible as it would lead to starvation. Thus, Balance It® has to do proximate analyses and use the defined AAFCO equation with the set energy conversion factors to meet regulatory requirements for calorie content statements on all labels. 

Unfortunately, proximate analyses are not very accurate/precise, and so misleading positive values for the supplements result, largely from the imprecise carbohydrate by difference calculation and crude protein extrapolation based on measuring not protein or amino acids but rather nitrogen (Kjeldahl method). Dietary fiber, like that from powdered cellulose and inulin, by definition has no calorie content for dogs and cats like dietary sugars or starches do, but these two dietary carbohydrates are not actually measured in the AAFCO required proximate analysis. Although there could be some trivial calories coming from glucogenic amino acids in some Balance It® supplements (from arginine, methionine and cysteine, threonine, tryptophan, but not lysine), these supplements are used in recipes where these added amino acids are almost always limiting in the overall diet, and as such, are not used for energy production via gluconeogenesis, but rather are far more likely used for protein anabolism (making proteins). Therefore, the Balance It® supplements are not expected to and are extremely unlikely to provide any significant amount of calories, and thus, we do not include any calories from them in the formulation software/database/recipes.

No, we use LDPE & PET for our bags, and PET for our pouches which don't use BPA.  LDPE is often used to make grocery bags. PET is used commonly to make water bottles.

We do not add gluten nor do we use ingredients that include gluten. However, gluten is not specifically tested for, so we cannot assure you that it is without any traces of gluten. Fortunately, gluten-sensitive enteropathy or intolerance (sometimes referred to as Celiac disease or sprue) is very rare in both dogs and cats.

“K" products are lower in phosphorus and sodium and higher in many B-vitamins and amino acids. “-Cu” is used for a no copper added version of our Balance It® Canine® supplement that fortifies lower copper homemade dog food recipes. They’re specially designed for specific health conditions and can only be purchased with a veterinarian’s approval per the United States FDA that inspects and regulates our business. 

You may purchase these prescription supplements using a special six (6) character "Vet Code" that is provided to you from your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. The “Vet Code” can be entered during checkout or an approval can be requested via our online process that requires your veterinarian’s email or practice fax number to meet this FDA requirement.

Balance It® Canine Plus is the same as Balance It® Canine, except that it can be heated one time up to 165 degrees F or 74 degrees C. They are the same formula, only Balance It® Canine Plus has vitamin overages to account for heat degradation. This results in a different bulk density (g/tsp or g/mL) and why you will see different volume (but the same gram) doses indicated for each in recipes.

On recipes, the equivalent dose for Balance It® Canine Plus can be found in a paragraph in a tan box below the ingredients which will include Balance It® Canine. The last sentence in this paragraph will state something to the effect that "The equivalent dose is X teaspoons (the gram amount is the same as the gram amount for Balance It® Canine) when Balance It® Canine Plus is used instead of Balance It® Canine." 

Balance It® Canine Plus or Balance It® Canine K Plus do not need to be heated unless the recipe used is a high-marine based diet that is high in vitamin D even without any supplement added.

Some (i.e., Canine K, Canine K Plus, & Feline) of our 500 gram or 600 gram bags (not 20 gram pouches) come with two measuring scoops. If one of those scoops has been lost you can purchase another bag as unfortunately we do not have separate scoops available. 

Or, you can find inexpensive measuring spoons online with major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, or Target by searching for “adjustable measuring spoons milliliter”. They come in a variety of options, just make sure that the spoon measures in mL. The larger colored scoop listed in your recipe is 5 mL and the smaller white scoop is 0.5 mL (10 smaller white scoops equal 1 colored scoop).

Or you can purchase a “jewelers scale” from these same online retailers to weigh the supplement dose out in 1/10th (or 0.1 g) of a gram increments very accurately.

The pouch products, while convenient for smaller dogs and cats, occasional use, and for trial purposes, do not come with scoops given the pouch's smaller 20 gram size. 

Here is how you can measure the supplement in grams and without a scoop (further down is how to measure using volume instead).

You will want to refer to the gram amount of the supplement listed on your recipe and use a gram or jewelers scale to determine the amount to use as this is the easiest and most precise way to measure. Very accurate gram scales can be purchased online for a low cost that will measure in increments of 1/10th (or 0.1 g) of a gram. Suggested search terms are "jewelry scale", “jewelers scale”, or "pocket scale". Select a scale that has enough total capacity to weigh the amount of product you need to measure for your preferred recipe. This may be written out like “100 g by 0.1 g” or “100 g x 0.1 g” or “100 g/0.1g” where 100 g is the total capacity and the 0.1 g is the lowest increment it can measure to reliably).  Please let us know if you need assistance finding the gram amount on your recipe -- we are happy to help!

Want to learn more, please see below:

 If you like to do math and would prefer to use volume (and not mass or grams) to measure and you do not have any scoops, the following should be useful information. Two different sized scoops come in the 600 g and 500 g bags of the following products only: Canine K, Canine K Plus, and Feline. The larger/colored scoop listed in recipes for these products holds 5 milliliter (mL) or 5 cc and the smaller white/clear scoop holds 0.5 mL (that means that 10 white/clear scoops hold the same amount as 1 larger/colored scoop). You can find low cost measuring spoons online with major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart or Target by searching for “adjustable measuring spoons milliliter”. Any option will work as long as it measures in mL. Balance It® does not sell these measuring spoons or scoops separately. If you wish to get scoops from Balance It®, please buy a 600 g or 500 g bag of Canine K, Canine K Plus, or Feline.

All recipes created using the free Recipe Builder at balance.it/recipes provide the amount of supplement to use in grams and teaspoons, or for Canine K, Canine K Plus, and Feline only scoops. The following is an example of how to convert these scoops found in 600 g and 500 g bags to mL. If your recipe calls for 3 blue scoops and 6 white scoops that is the same as 18 mL or 18 cc total (calculations: 5 mL per large/colored scoop * 3 large/colored scoops = 15 mL PLUS 0.5 mL per white/clear scoop * 6 white/clear scoops = 3 mL; 15 mL + 3 mL = 18 mL; 18 mL = 18 cc as 1 mL = 1 cc).

If you are not using a gram scale and are also awaiting for an ordered elsewhere mL measuring spoon, you can use teaspoons to measure using this even more math intense conversion reference:

-1 teaspoon (tsp) equals 4.93 mL or 4.93 cc

-1 and 1/16 tsp is equal to 4.99 mL or 4.99 cc which is close enough for measuring (within 0.2%) to 5 mL or 5 cc or 1 larger/colored scoop

-1/16 of a tsp is half of 1/8 tsp (if 1/8 teaspoon is the smallest measure that you have immediately available to you)

For the previous example, 18 mL would then be 3.65 tsp (18 mL / 4 .93 mL per tsp = 3.65 tsp) or about 3 and 11/16 teaspoons based on the sixteenth fractions to decimals reference table* below.

Sixteenth Fractions to Decimals Reference Table*

1/16 = 0.0625

2/16 = 0.125

3/16 = 0.1875

4/16 = 0.25

5/16 = 0.3125

6/16 = 0.375

7/16 = 0.4375

8/16 = 0.5

9/16 = 0.5625

10/16 = 0.625

11/16 = 0.6875

12/16 = 0.75

13/16 = 0.8125

14/16 = 0.875

15/16 = 0.9375

*You always want to select a conversion that provides the closest but amount equal to or greater than the total amount in the recipe to prevent under fortification. 

For additional help with any dosing concerns or conversions, you may find your veterinarian or their technical/nursing staff to be a helpful resource.

Generally the answer is no. Most commercial pet foods are less expensive, more convenient, and some have undergone controlled testing. However, if you prefer to make homemade food for your animal companion, we believe (as do tens of thousands of veterinarians) that we provide the best and safest solution short of an individualized consultation with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® who will create a homemade recipe following medical record review and evaluation of a diet history for a fee (see the Vet Nutritionist link in the page footer for a directory). 

Yes, you can! It is possible to feed your dog/cat with both kibble and home-cooked food by evaluating the total calories that are or need to be fed. Your Balance It® recipe will indicate how many calories your animal companion needs per day. This information can be found in the Yield/Servings section in your full recipe report. Your kibble will also indicate how many calories are in the amount your dog/cat is being or should be fed. You will just want to use a combination of the two foods to meet the total daily requirement, reducing each by the appropriate amount.

For example only - If your dog needs 1000 total calories per day, and there are 750 calories in the kibble amount that you want to concurrently feed, then you would make sure they are only getting 250 calories from the home-cooked food. A recipe that is prepared for a full day's caloric need (if only home-cooked food being fed) would now last 4 days (1000 kcal/day/250 kcal = 4 days). Very important -- do not give the full dose of the supplement when combining with kibble, please make sure to reduce the daily supplement amount proportionate to the amount of home-cooked food being fed daily (in the example above one would give one quarter of the supplement amount daily that is called for in the 1000 kcal recipe as only one quarter of the 250 kcal are being fed daily).

Unfortunately, we do not have recipes that will pass for an adult dog that weighs more than 100 pounds (45.36 kg) per NSF 229-17 Section 5.3.1.2 guidelines for functional foods for humans. Balance It® food (aka human) grade supplements are also not formulated to be used in cats greater than 30 pounds (13.6 kg), neutered kittens greater than 22.8 pounds (10.34 kg), intact kittens greater than 10.8 pounds (4.9 kg), and puppies greater than 86.86 pounds (39.4 kg). Please see your veterinarian or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® for alternative recommendations if you need to feed more calories per day than these limits create (e.g., 3303 kcal/d for dogs & 1041 kcal/d for cats).

We suggest speaking with your veterinarian if you are unsure of which best applies to your puppy. For reference, AAFCO defines a large breed puppy as any dog whose ideal body condition adult weight is expected to exceed 70 pounds (lb) or 31.75 kilograms (kg).

You may also be interested in “Do you provide any nutritional guidance via your customer service?”

Weight Loss Needed

If your veterinarian has indicated that your adult dog or adult cat would benefit from losing a small amount of weight (<10% of their body weight), that typically does not mean an extreme reduction in calories is needed for your companion to lose the extra weight they are carrying. With your veterinarian’s guidance, you may be able to use the free Recipe Builder for healthy adults (at balance.it/recipes ) to create recipes that are nutritionally balanced for a healthy adult that can be used for slight & slow reductions in body weight. Typically this is done by reducing the current & entered body weight to be their goal/ideal weight* when using free Recipe Builder. A healthy rate of loss of 0.5% or less of body weight per week can often be achieved by reducing your dog’s or cat’s entered body weight by 10% from current when creating a recipe. If you know how many calories are needed for weight stability, you can preferably and instead adjust the entered body weight until 90% of the current calories are displayed and use that amount to create a recipe.

If more than 10% of body weight needs to be lost per your veterinarian then overweight, obese, or weight loss should be entered under Any special needs or diet we should be aware of? (optional) and a veterinary approval requested to see special lower energy density & nutrient enhanced recipes** designed for weight loss at rates of 0.51-2% of body weight per week.

With a reduction of calories, increasing meal frequency can be a useful tactic to minimize hunger as the time between meals is reduced. You can and should also speak with your veterinarian about decreasing the overall energy density (amount of calories per unit of volume) of the diet, by decreasing the percent of calories from fat thus increasing the amount of protein and/or carbohydrates (if appropriate). You can also consider feeding more vegetables and water, increasing dietary fiber and creating a meal with a stew-like consistency. Lower fat, higher fiber and moisture diets will fill your animal companion’s gut more and make them feel fuller/satiated. 

Every two weeks you should generally weigh your dog or cat to assess any weight loss progress. If they are losing at the desired percent of body weight per week then no further adjustments are needed until they reach their goal/ideal weight, or preferably, ideal body condition. If they are not losing at the desired percent of body weight per week then adjustments in the amount of calories in -/+10-20% increments of total calories will need to be made and then weight reassessed after 1-2 weeks.  If they are at the ideal weight or body condition suggested by your veterinarian then no further caloric restriction is needed, and you can typically feed as normal making sure that undesired weight is not regained. 

Special note on puppies and kittens that need to lose weight: careful consultation with your veterinarian and/or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® is always indicated in growing animal companions that are overweight/obese. They will need close monitoring and frequent adjustments in the amount of calories fed to ensure growth needs are continually met and to avoid excesses especially in a large breed puppy. Even small amounts of needed weight loss in puppies and kittens should be nutritionally managed with a special recipe/diet that includes nutrient enhancement**. 

Weight Gain Needed

If your veterinarian has indicated that your dog/puppy or adult/kitten cat would benefit from gaining weight then you should first determine with your veterinarian if any underlying condition(s) need(s) to be addressed in addition to just feeding more total calories daily. While addressing any underlying condition(s), one can estimate the amount of additional calories to initially feed for weight gain by estimating ideal body weight*. For very underweight (>12.5% below ideal) dogs and cats the amount of calories to feed to match their ideal body weight estimated needs may exceed their ability to consume even with more frequent meals everyday. To address this type of potential volume intolerance, the energy density of the recipe/diet may be raised by increasing fat and decreasing fiber and moisture. Unfortunately these approaches, especially increasing the percent of calories from fat, are not always tolerated and can be contraindicated and even counterproductive with some health conditions. Typically dogs/puppies and cats/kittens can only maximally gain weight at a rate of up to 2% of body weight per week. Adjustments in the amount of calories fed daily are typically made until a weight gain rate of 1-2% of body weight per week is achieved. For some health conditions, concurrent medical therapy with anti-nausea and/or antacid medications is needed along with appetite stimulants. You should work with your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® to determine the optimal amount of total daily calories to feed, meal feeding frequency, diet including energy density, and medical therapies to achieve desired weight gain.

*Ideal body weight can be initially estimated from the dog’s or cat’s 9-point body condition score (see https://www.purinainstitute.com/sites/default/files/2021-04/body-condition-system-dog.pdf &   https://www.purinainstitute.com/sites/default/files/2021-04/body-condition-system-cat.pdf ) using a calculator like this:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f0YHHHGUm25vm9s0HyWRn0duoe40vu6b_zp99t2aGBI/edit?usp=sharing Final ideal body weight is not as relevant as ideal body condition but can be helpful with initial calculations to try and achieve needed weight loss or gain at a rate of -/+ 0.5-2% of body weight per week. 

**These special nutrient enhanced recipes have more nutrients per calorie to avoid deficiencies developing when less calories than are needed for growth or weight maintenance are fed for prolonged periods. To request access to weight loss recipes, please submit a veterinary request. For more information on how to submit a veterinary approval request, please see the How can I submit a veterinary approval request for my animal companion with a medical condition? And why do I even need to do this? FAQ.

Recipes generated on our site are generally defaulted to provide the amount of calories needed for the average neutered dog or cat or intact puppy or kitten for one day. This daily recipe can be divided into multiple meals to feed throughout the day. Any supplements that are called for should be evenly distributed across all meals. You can double-check any recipe by looking in the Yield/Servings section in the full recipe report. There you will find the weight of the dog/cat used to create the recipe, the number of calories that body weight requires or is estimated to require per day, and how many calories are in the recipe batch.

To make larger batches for multiple days, you can multiply the amounts of each ingredient including any supplements by the number of days one would like to feed. 

As multiplying fractions can be harder to do, it often is easiest to multiply the gram amounts provided on recipes and use a kitchen gram scale (usually quite affordable) for measurement.

Alternatively, you may use our software to take care of all the math for you - easy! There are two ways to change the feeding frequency or batch size using our software:

One: Click on Adjust Recipe under the cost in the recipe results 

OR

Two: Click on View Recipe on the recipe results and scroll down to ADJUST THIS RECIPE button within the recipe report.

Ensure the Adjust weight & caloric distribution is selected at the top and under the Recipe amount. The default recipe is enough kilocalories for an average daily meal. Choose an option from the Recipe amount dropdown to make a larger batch for multiple days or to make a smaller recipe if you prefer to cook for and feed your dog or cat several times a day.  Then click on Update My Recipe on the bottom right. 

You will then see a green recipe with the header Adjusted By You if the adjustment is possible, please click on View Recipe to see your further customized recipe with a different feeding frequency or batch size. You can divide any daily meal or multiple day batch into equal portions for each day, and divide further into the number of meals per day you prefer to feed.

For example, if you choose 5 days as your recipe batch size, you would divide the prepared food into 5 equal daily "baggie" portions that each would be enough food for one day. You could choose to then further split that baggie or portion or day's worth of food into the number of meals you feed per day.

To see how to make the same recipe in one batch for multiple dogs or cats, please see the “I have two dogs, and one weighs twice as much as the other. Can I just feed twice as much of the same recipe to the bigger one?” FAQ.

Our software doesn’t just divide or multiply the gram amounts of ingredients when making a recipe for less or more Calories. Although this math is easy and commonly & correctly done by users to create a larger batch (for example, a week’s worth of a daily recipe that one wishes to make weekly can have all ingredient gram amounts multiplied by 7 to get the new, correct amounts for a weekly batch, or see the option below), it can result in hard to measure amounts when not using grams and a gram scale and instead using volume (like teaspoons or cups) and fractions for measurement. Therefore, the software will attempt to recalculate everything from the beginning to get desired and easy to measure fractions of a volume unit. Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead to the recipe not passing as a single nutrient among 35+ becomes deficient or excessive sometimes by as little as a tenth of percent. This precision can be frustrating at times, but is necessary to ensure a safe and nutritionally appropriate recipe for long-term feeding. 

Option: If you’d like to have the software measure in grams for non-supplement ingredients which may increase your success rate for a different size batch, then click the Adjust Recipe or Adjust This Recipe link/button on recipe results/reports and then under the Adjust ingredient amounts tab select 1 g for gram measurements then under the Adjust weight & caloric distribution tab select the desired Recipe amount and click Update My Recipe.

No, because the nutrient requirements do not scale linearly, we recommend that you create a recipe for both your larger and smaller dogs separately to prevent from feeding too little or too much. When creating recipes, you may always use the same ingredients for both dogs to make cooking easier! 

If batch and/or one pot cooking for healthy dogs/cats, one can use the Recipe Builder to determine each dog’s or cat’s calorie needs by entering their body weight on Step 1 and then one can total the amount of calories. Then one can make a larger recipe for that total (this cannot be done for dogs/cats with health conditions that likely differ) and divide the resulting batch proportionally by weight or mass into however many meals this makes. For example, let’s say one has two healthy dogs. One 41 lb (18.6 kg) dog needs about 1000 kcal daily or 3000 kcal for 3 days, and the other 16 lb (7.3 kg) dog needs about 500 kcal daily or 1500 kcal for 3 days. Thus, if preparing 3 days of the exact same food/recipe at once for both, you would need to make a recipe with about 4500 kcal (e.g., by adjusting a recipe that is enough for an imaginary “70 lb (31.8 kg) dog” for 3 days one gets a recipe with about 4500 kcal; manually adjusting the body weight up and down will let one immediately see the resulting total calories for the batch to match the total needs for both dogs; note 70 lb is NOT simply the sum of the two dogs’ body weights (i.e., 41 lb + 16 lb = 57 lb) as is expected as energy needs do NOT scale linearly). Then when one makes the 3 day 4500 kcal batch that is enough for both dogs, 2/3 , including any supplements proportionally, will need to be fed to the larger 41 lb dog and 1/3, including any supplements proportionally, fed to the smaller 16 lb dog over 3 days in however daily meals you wish to feed each day to each dog. If one is unable to do these adjustments/calculations themselves, we strongly suggest just making separate recipes for each dog/cat or getting assistance from your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®.

We do have recipes for intact dogs and intact cats as long as they are not in late gestation or lactating. Due to the high energy density needs for late gestation and lactation we are unable to offer homemade fresh food recipes for those life stages. 

You may wish to reach out to your veterinarian or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® for advice on a late gestation or lactating animal companion’s nutritional needs. They may suggest a lower moisture and/or higher fat food/diet to provide higher energy density.

We are sorry that your dog has been diagnosed with cancer - it is a very tough disease.

Unfortunately we do not currently have any homemade recipes for the nutritional management of cancer. This area of treatment is still quite controversial with some popular strategies like lower dietary carbohydrate concentration being unproven or called into question due to potential data falsification by a former veterinary school researcher about twenty years ago. We suggest that an individualized consultation be pursued with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® if a non-healthy adult recipe isn’t appropriate for a particular patient. They may suggest one of the commercially prepared therapeutic diets released in 2023 or a homemade recipe following a review of the current published literature and case specifics. We hope that you are able to find a solution that provides you and your dog/cat with comfort and support in the midst of a very difficult time.

For other conditions not listed/available, such as canine silica urolithiasis, canine struvite urolithiasis, Cushing’s disease, and EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency), please see the CONDITION NOT LISTED? link on Step 1 of the Recipe Builder for more details/reasoning.

See also Why can I not get a homemade recipe for the nutritional management of hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism?

These two common endocrinopathies (hormone diseases), hypothyroidism in dogs and hyperthyroidism in cats, have different reasons for not being available.

For canine hypothyroidism, there are no known specific nutritional management strategies, although some people will feed a food that has a “low energy density” to help with satiety or sense of fullness or a “weight loss” diet.

For feline hyperthyroidism, dietary iodine restriction is one option for the management of the condition when other options like medication, ablation, surgery, and/or radioactive iodine treatment are not possible. Unfortunately, while this condition can be selected in the Recipe Builder (to help explain/show that it cannot be done), there are currently no foods that are reliably low enough in iodine to be used to formulate an adequately iodine-restricted overall diet, even if no iodine-containing supplement(s) was/were used. This is because iodine can vary in foods naturally, and therefore, very expensive iodine testing would be needed to know if a food was low enough to then be used making, this impractical in the home kitchen. It is suggested to speak with one’s veterinarian about any commercially prepared therapeutic iodine-restricted cat food options when nutritional management is desired/needed.

All homemade pet foods must include ingredients that provide protein, essential amino acids, and essential fatty acids (additional vitamins and minerals are provided by the supplement(s)). Although carbohydrates are not required for the maintenance of an adult dog or cat, they are commonly added to provide energy, fiber, and additional nutrients like B vitamins. Carbs can also allow for lower amounts of protein or fat to be fed which may be preferred or necessary for certain health conditions. You will notice that all of our recipes include at least one protein source. The foods in any suggested options have been specifically selected because the concentrations of required nutrients for dogs and cats are known & can reliably be estimated and are likely to meet specific nutrient requirements when combined. If there are specific foods you need to avoid you can filter those out on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder to leave these out by entering them via the “ANY INGREDIENTS YOU’D LIKE TO LEAVE OUT?” option. Certain human foods should never be fed to dogs and/or cats like chocolate, grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts, onions, garlic, kabocha squash, and the artificial sweetener, xylitol.

We make as many human foods available to select on the free Recipe Builder as possible, while completely avoiding foods known to be toxic to animal companions even at potentially very low concentrations. Giving the user this level of access can be very informative and helpful, but this freedom can also allow a user to create recipes with very large amounts of some foods that may not be practical, enjoyed, readily available, and/or cost-effective. In addition, some human foods that one might not typically or even ideally consider giving an animal companion are, as a consequence, made available/selectable. This open and uncensored approach allows one to best assess the impact on total calories fed and overall diet nutrient profile. 

If any food's addition will lead to an overall essential nutritional deficiency or excess, the resulting recipe will not be possible or pass as a protection. It is always important to remember the old saying, "the dose makes the poison." For example, vitamin D is essential for bone health and optimal immune system function, but at too high a dietary concentration, it becomes a potentially fatal poison. Thus, additional protections, like with fish that can be naturally very high in vitamin D, are in place. Similarly some portions of plants or foods can be toxic, while other parts of the same plant that are well tolerated can still be selected. For example, the tomato fruit is commonly used in commercially prepared and homemade pet foods as a good source of fiber and antioxidants like lycopene, while tomato leaves and stalks are avoided given the presence of natural toxins found in the green parts of all/most nightshade plants including potatoes. Also for some conditions, very high inclusion amounts of certain foods may be avoided to prevent the addition of compounds that might not be healthful. 

Nutrition is an evolving science and animal companions can have very specific needs; therefore, if you have a concern about feeding a food to your specific animal companion, we always recommend speaking with your veterinarian and/or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® first. You can also reach out to us via the Support tab about the safety of any specific food available for selection for further clarification prior to use/feeding. 

The slider appears when you successfully create a recipe using the Recipe Builder that has >10% of daily calories coming from the “Legumes and Legume Products” group defined by the USDA FoodData Central database or has an ingredient with the keyword “peas” in it. This is to alert the user that there are recent reports that commercially prepared pet foods with higher amounts of legumes or pulses (i.e., beans, peas, lentils, etc.) can be associated with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs which can lead to fatal heart failure (see https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy ). There are still many unknowns at this time, including what the true cause is, the amount and specific ingredients that increase risk, and whether it is also a risk to feed complete and balanced homemade recipes with large amounts (>10% of daily calories) of these ingredients. Therefore, we have erred on the side of caution and have added this alert. To date there have been no reports of people feeding specific Balance It® recipes leading to DCM. The reason for this is unclear as the cause is still unknown. Possible protective factors: the higher amino acid bioavailability of food (aka human) grade meat/poultry/fish that has been cooked only once versus feed grade animal meals that typically have been heat processed multiple times to allow them to be shelf-stable, and in the case of lentils, for many years before this issue was raised, preemptively lowering the sulfur amino acid concentration reported by the USDA so that additional L-methionine fortification is used in Balance It® recipes with a higher lentil inclusion. 

If any of your old saved recipes have higher amounts of these ingredients, you may wish to speak with your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® about this concern as they may recommend switching recipes and/or additional monitoring. We are closely monitoring the current reports and research, but there is still not yet enough evidence to remove these ingredients or recipes from the system. 

You may also be interested in the Do I need to add taurine to my dog’s diet? FAQ.

Your dog's or cat’s new recipe has been formulated as precisely as possible. The nutrient content of the ingredients can differ significantly by cooking method, cut (specific to meat), inclusion of skin (such as with poultry or potatoes), and a variety of other variables. Because of these variations, we have been as specific as possible in our recipes’ instructions, helping to ensure that your companion’s diet has all the desired nutrients and intended characteristics. 

There is an expected difference in the amount of linoleic acid (aka 18:2) in grass-fed and corn-fed beef (and likely in other ruminant meats like lamb or mutton). Since we do not currently have a full nutrient profile for grass-fed beef as an ingredient option, we would caution using this as a substitution. Changes such as this can make your recipe incomplete and unbalanced, potentially leading to deficiencies/changes in essential or important fatty acids or ratios.

If you want to use an ingredient that we currently do not have needed data for, you may wish to consult with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist^® that offers consultations to create a recipe for you, as they may have access to nutrient profiles that we do not have with our free software or can guide you to analyze foods with a food analysis laboratory to get needed data to formulate with confidence. A list of these specially & extensively trained veterinarians can be found at vetnutritionist.com or vetspecialists.com.

The recipe will include the cooking method for each ingredient that requires it - some ingredients like fruit do not need cooking and will state "raw" in their name. Some raw ingredients are used in one pot cooking recipes, but must be cooked according to instructions on recipes. Raw meat/poultry/fish are never to be fed due to the potential concern of foodborne illness (see https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.243.11.1549 ). 

It is important to cook each ingredient as directed in the cooking instructions for home cooked recipes, as the cooking method can significantly change the concentrations of nutrients in the cooked food. We largely rely on the USDA FoodData Central database ( https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ )for reported cooking methods to then very accurately* know the ingredient’s nutrient profile to  then calculate the overall recipe’s nutrient profile. As an example of the importance of specificity, boiling a food results in some loss of nutrients into the surrounding water; therefore, if the recipe instructs one to bake the ingredient and then it is boiled instead, the total dietary concentration of nutrients may be significantly decreased than expected. 

You can change the cooking method if you wish! Using the search tool under Step 2: Ingredients, you may search for an ingredient and the cooking method you wish to use. For example, you could type in “boiled carrots” or “roasted chicken” to view available options. You can also choose to see one pot cooking recipes or not via a check box for this feature on this same second step.

*Balance It® relies on the Autobalancer® to power the Recipe Builder. The Autobalancer® is the only formulation software to have been shown to accurately predict the nutrient profile of homemade pet foods in a peer-reviewed study, see https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.242.11.1500 . 

You may also be interested in Why is it important to get a recipe for my specific dog or cat companion rather than using a more generic recipe from another website or book? FAQ.

We do not have any data to support the nutritional effects of freeze drying prepared recipes. An additional non-nutritive concern would be ensuring a method to accurately measure water activity after freeze drying, so there is no potential for microbial growth especially fungal. Longer term fat oxidation or rancidity could be a concern too which would mean the need for adding some antioxidative preservative like mixed tocopherols. Thus, given the potential for nutrient concentration changes, microbial growth, and fat oxidation/rancidity, this is not an option offered by Balance It^®.   

To explore creating a nutritionally complete & balanced, safe, and shelf-stable formulation, we would suggest working with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist^® with experience in formulating these types of recipes. Please see vetspecialists.com for a listing of potential options for such a consultation. 

You may also be interested in “Why is the cooking method so important? Can I change it?”

We NEVER recommend feeding raw meat as it can potentially result in serious life-threatening infections for both dogs & cats  and people (please see the comprehensive review about the risks AND benefits of raw meat–based diets at http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/full/10.2460/javma.243.11.1549 ).

It is now known that asymptomatic dogs/cats can shed foodborne pathogens like Salmonella spp. into their environment when fed raw meat even with the best personal and kitchen hygiene and sanitation practices (e.g., cats and dogs shed the pathogens in their feces than cats walk through their litter box and then jump onto counters with unwashed paws & dogs lick their perineum or private area that is contaminated and then lick human companion hands and/or faces as well as their own paws and then jump on shared common surfaces like furniture). This environmental contamination can then lead to people getting sick especially the immunocompromised or immunosuppressed and the young or elderly. This potential public health risk and the inherent associated liability is one that we must avoid regardless of any potential or perceived benefits given our licenses, registrations, and insurance coverage.

The following statement from the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (now merged with the ACVIM) may be of further interest:

“Raw diets, both home-prepared and commercial, have become more popular. Advocates of raw diets claim benefits ranging from improved longevity to superior oral or general health and even disease resolution (especially gastrointestinal disease). Often the benefits of providing natural enzymes and other substances that may be altered or destroyed by cooking are also cited. However, proof for these purported benefits is currently restricted to testimonials, and no published peer-reviewed studies exist to support claims made by raw diet advocates. No studies have examined differences in animals fed raw animal products to those fed any other type of diet (kibble, canned, or home cooked) with the exception of looking at the effects on digestibility. Typically raw meats (but not other uncooked foods like grains or starches) are slightly more digestible than cooked meat."

It is important to cook each ingredient as directed in the cooking instructions for home cooked recipes, as the cooking method can significantly change the concentration of nutrients in the cooked food. For example, boiling a food results in some loss of nutrients into the surrounding water; therefore, if the recipe instructs you to bake the ingredient and you choose to boil it, the total dietary concentrations of some nutrients may be significantly decreased. Always use safe handling procedures when cooking with raw meats by washing hands, preventing cross-contamination, sanitizing cooking utensils & vessels, cooking food thoroughly, and storing food properly.

The additional guidance from the AVMA at https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/avma-policies/raw-or-undercooked-animal-source-protein-cat-and-dog-diets may also be of interest.

Dogs and cats need linoleic acid (aka 18:2) in their diet. This essential fatty acid comes from oils/fats. Corn oil and walnut oil are the richest sources of this essential fatty acid, so they are commonly added to meet this need. Other oils may work, but in some cases corn oil or walnut oil will be preferred to meet the linoleic acid requirement without pushing up the overall fat in the recipe. In addition, there are newer requirements that require a source of n-3 fatty acids to meet a minimum n-3 fatty acid(s) requirement(s) (e.g., growth) or to avoid exceeding a maximum n-6 to n-3 ratio (e.g., adult maintenance). Also some conditions require a very specific fatty acid ratio that must be met. Thus, a fish oil that is rich in the n-3 fatty acids may be added in by the Recipe Builder. Finally there is one condition that might call for a source of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) resulting in an additional or new oil rich in MCT being added. 

You may also be interested in the Why is the recommended dose on my fish oil label different from the amount in my Balance It® recipe? FAQ.

Generally no, but you can always try. Many people ask if they can use something like olive oil or coconut oil, but unfortunately, part of what makes those oils healthful for humans is related to their low concentration of the essential n-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid. Corn oil is the richest source of linoleic acid that is readily available, at least in North America, so it is widely used in our recipes along with canola oil to minimize the amount of extra fat that has to be added to recipes. 

In cases where corn oil will not work, walnut oil can often be used as an alternative and very close substitution. Similarly almond oil can often be used instead of canola oil. Other substitutions can be tried but they may not work. Substitutions should not be made unless specifically indicated on a recipe or instructed to do so by a veterinarian or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® as doing so may not only change the amount of essential fatty acids, but any important n-6 to n-3 fatty acid ratio(s). This comparison table may also be helpful:

We do not recommend using roasted walnut oil in case the fatty acid profile is affected by this heat processing. We have data on the fatty acid profile of Spectrum Refined Walnut Oil, this is unroasted, matches the USDA entry for walnut oil, and may be found at many retailers like Walmart, Target, and many grocery stores.

Some life stages and health conditions require a source of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, EPA & DHA (aka eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid). In addition, excessively high ratios of linoleic acid + arachidonic acid to alpha-linolenic acid + eicosapentaenoic acid + docosahexaenoic acid must be avoided for all dogs. Thus, fish oil may need to be added to recipes to provide these important omega-3 fatty acids. 

In order to ensure the quality and consistency of important compounds found in omega-3 fatty acid rich marine oils (e.g., algal and marine fish oils), we do not recommend using a different product than called for in a recipe. Marine/fish oils can vary greatly in the concentration of EPA & DHA, as well as fat soluble vitamins A & D, and potential bioaccumulated toxins like mercury, PCBs, and dioxins. High concentrations of vitamins A & D can lead to toxicity, especially vitamin A in cats and vitamin D in dogs. Also recipes can rely on vitamin A & D from the fish oil to meet requirements. Often to achieve desired low ratios of n-6 to long-chain n-3 fatty acids, one must give fish oil at amounts higher than regulations allow manufacturers to suggest on their packaging. Thus, precise knowledge and data about a specific omega-3 rich oil is crucial. The default manufacturers/products we suggest are the most commonly available in North America and are able to provide the necessary supportive data (sometimes getting vitamin concentration data requires calling the manufacturer technical support line) for their use in homemade pet foods.

If you are unable to find the specific product found in a recipe at your veterinarian’s practice, online, or at a local retailer or would like to use a food (aka human) grade option, you may compare the nutrient profile of the suggested product to the label on your preferred product to see if they are comparable. To view the suggested product’s nutrient profile, please click on the “i” info icon next to its name when searching for/selecting ingredients on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder. It is very important that the EPA + DHA concentrations match and that vitamins A & D amounts are reported/known (again for vitamins A & D concentrations you may need to call the manufacturer directly to get that information) and are similar.

If you would like to use other rich sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, please select different options on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder. There you will find some fish oil options from the USDA database (note fish ingredients will not be available to use in some recipes if the vitamin D concentration is unknown given the potential for toxicity).

If you are still unable to find what you are looking for or need additional advice on what is best for your animal companion, please contact your veterinarian or seek an individualized consultation with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® (see the directory at balance.it/dacvim or vetspecialists.com).

Balance It® software calculates the amount of fish oil based on the type and amount of other fats/fatty acids in the diet as well as the purpose of the recipe, for example, if it is a therapeutic recipe for a dog/cat with health issues. For this reason, the fish oil dose may differ from more generic recommendations on veterinary product labels that don't/cannot take the main diet and possible unique needs into account. If you are using a food (aka human) grade fish oil to make your entire recipe food (aka human) grade (Balance It® supplements are food (aka human) grade and also meet the higher human dietary supplement standard) then the label dosing is for humans and not dogs/cats, so the dose will inherently be different given the recipe considerations above and species differences. You may also be interested in the Why is there a(n) oil(s) in my recipe even if I didn’t select one/any or a different one? FAQ.

If you need to avoid fish oil for allergy concerns or due to your and/or your companion's preferences, Nordic Naturals Algae Omega is a vegetarian dietary supplement for omega-3 fatty acids. You can follow the guidance below to include this ingredient in your recipe to replace the fish oil.

The software will usually add Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Pet Liquid, Welactin for Dogs, or sardine oil to meet AAFCO fatty acid requirements. Sometimes, you can simply remove the fish oil in your recipe to see if the recipe passes without a replacement. 

You can follow these steps below to try to remove the fish oil in your recipe:

1. Click on Adjust Recipe then Adjust ingredient amounts to edit the ingredients in your recipe. 

2. Under Ingredients you can click the X to remove the fish oil ingredient.

3. Click on Update My Recipe. 

4. You will be taken to a recipe result. Click View Recipe to see if your change passed. Only edits/changes that are successful should be prepared/fed.

If the above steps do not work, you can also try to replace the fish oil with Nordic Naturals Algae Omega Capsule (incl. safflower oil & capsule itself uses cornstarch) (ingredient ID: m94328), which is a vegetarian source of omega-3. On the adjust page, or Step 2 of the Recipe Builder if you are choosing ingredients, you will find this Nordic Naturals Algae Omega option. Since the software will attempt to use the fish oils mentioned above, we suggest excluding these three words: "pet" (to exclude Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Pet Liquid but keep the Nordic Algae option available), "welactin", and "sardine". 

Our exclusion tool will tell the software to avoid any ingredients that include the key words entered. Follow the steps provided above to get to the Adjust ingredient amounts page of a recipe. Then, click ANY INGREDIENTS YOU'D LIKE TO LEAVE OUT? 

Exclude these keywords: pet, welactin, and sardine.

Continue to add the Nordic Naturals Algae option:

We do not suggest removing or excluding any vegetable oil, like corn oil, walnut oil, or canola oil, that may be present or added as it likely is separately providing a source for the essential n-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid. Then, click Update My Recipe.

Please view the resulting recipe to see if your change was successful. 

The recipe will typically not include the number of capsules to feed but rather the gram amount of oil. The gram amount in the recipe is the liquid portion within the gel cap--the gel capsule is not included in the weight. Refer to the gel capsule label for the gram of oil it contains. If not available, cut some representative capsules and squeeze the oil out and weigh the oil in each one using a jeweler scale to get an average amount of oil per capsule. That average can then be divided into the oil “dose” on your recipe to get the number of capsules to use. Example calculations: the recipe calls for 3.75 grams (g) of oil per recipe and the gel capsule purchased has 750 milligrams (mg) of oil on average when squeezed out and weighed on your scale. 750 mg = 0.75 g/capsule (750mg/capsule/1000 mg/g = 0.75 g/capsule); 3.75 g/0.75 g/capsule = 5 capsules per recipe. 

Yes, you can. There is no dog or cat version of the product; it is okay to use the human (food grade) version with the dose listed in the Balance It® recipe.

Yes. Generally, restrictions on frequency and amount are placed only on human consumption. In veterinary medicine, there is currently no peer-reviewed literature to support a limit on fish ingestion including tuna consumption or recognized reports of mercury toxicity. Therefore, white and light/lite canned tuna continue to be options to select in our Recipe Builder. 

Want to learn more, please see below:

The bioaccumulation of mercury, a heavy metal, is a concern in many species of fish. The higher in the food chain a fish is and/or the longer lived, the greater the concentration of mercury generally is in their body/tissues. Mercury toxicity in people results in neurological symptoms. The very young, and by extension, pregnant women are the groups generally considered at highest risk. However, in young children, there are generally considered safe amounts of white and light or lite canned tuna that can be consumed. For specific guidance on tuna consumption concerns in humans, one should speak with one’s physician. Generally, restrictions on frequency and amount are placed on human consumption. In veterinary medicine, there is currently no peer-reviewed literature to support a limit on fish ingestion including tuna consumption or recognized reports of mercury toxicity (see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30410919/ ). Consequently, white and light/lite canned tuna remain options to select. If one has concerns about mercury then one should discuss avoiding the feeding of species, including tuna, that are potentially higher in mercury with one’s veterinarian. It is important to note that a diet that is not fortified with selenium should be avoided given the known, but not complete, protective effects against methylmercury (neurotoxic form of mercury) toxicity selenium, an essential nutrient provides.

Yes, whole turkey breast and ground turkey BREAST can be used interchangeably. However, It becomes very important to measure by weight, not by volume, because chopped turkey breast is going to fit differently into, say, a cup (a volume measurement) than ground (aka minced) breast.

Please also make sure to use the same cooking method - if the recipe says to stew the breast, it should be boiling the ground breast. If it says to bake or with dry heat, it should be baked like a patty, or pan-fried and drained of any drippings that come off.

Measure out the called-for amount of dry tapioca pearls (please note that the pearls are different from minute or instant tapioca). Measure out seven parts of water for each part of tapioca, and bring the water to a boil. Slowly pour in the tapioca pearls and stir lightly until the tapioca pearls float to the top of the boiling water. Cover and boil on high heat for an additional thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, remove from heat and allow to stand for an additional thirty minutes. Drain the tapioca pearls and rinse the cooked tapioca pearls with lukewarm water. 

The USDA requires that yams also be accompanied by the name sweet potatoes, but they are different. Our recipes call for sweet potatoes that are the sweet, orange-fleshed variety. True yams are more starchy and less sweet than sweet potatoes and have a different nutrient profile. Here is an article that might be of interest: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/difference-between-sweet-potato-and-yam

This packaged mix is commercially available in the frozen food section in many US grocery stores and includes peas, carrots, lima beans, corn, and green beans. If not available to you, we suggest specifically selecting individual vegetables or “veggies” that are available to you on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder.

You may substitute psyllium seed husk powder for the brand name product, Metamucil®, if an unflavored/unsweetened option can be found. If not, you may consider one of these other options: Konsyl Organic Psyllium Fiber (https://www.konsyl.com/products/organicpsyllium ) or NOW Certified Organic Psyllium Husk Powder (https://www.nowfoods.com/products/supplements/psyllium-husk-powder-organic ). The volume may change depending on the product used so weighing the amount is more accurate (kitchen gram scales can be purchased at many retailers where kitchen supplies are sold and from online retailers). 

Adding water to make a recipe's consistency stew- or soup-like can significantly increase overall water intake. This then results in increased urination and more dilute urine. This can be an approach your veterinarian approves for the nutritional management of some conditions. While this added water is typically well accepted by dogs and some cats, it can be best to slowly add the added water in over 10 days. 

On the first day, the recipe preparer would add about a tenth of the total called for added water (this is water that is in addition to the amount that may be needed for "one-pot" recipes to cook the food (if you are unsure of the difference, it may be safer to start with 1/5th of the total water on day 1); that cooking water ensures any dry grains or legumes in the one-pot recipe are fully cooked and to reduce/prevent food burning on the bottom of the pot). Then each day another 1/10th of the added water would be added (e.g., day 2: about 2/10th or 1/5th; day 3: 3/10th; day 4: 2/5th; and so forth) until day 10 when all the water is added/fed. 

This slow introduction over 10 days can help with acceptance and also prevent accidents (aka inappropriate elimination or "house soiling") as both human caretakers and dogs/cats adjust to the increased urination which may mean more frequent trips outside or to the litter box. Also quick/rapid increases in water intake can rarely cause looser stools, so gradual water addition can help minimize or prevent that from happening. 

The best broth is one made by just using water, chicken parts/bones (or other indicated species like beef), and salt (see below on how to determine amount) and boiling them together. Any fat layer should not be used/fed (the fat layer can be best determined and removed by allowing the broth to cool in the refrigerator and skimming off the part that solidifies). Only the liquid portion that has the salt dissolved in it and has the chicken/meat flavor infused in it is then used.

If a recipe calls for a specific broth like “Soup, chicken, broth or bouillon, dry, prepared with water” (ID n6480), looking at the nutrient profile or nutrition facts (click on the “i” icon next to food names when selecting/searching) may reveal that it has 401 mg of sodium per 100 grams (grams = g) once prepared or 966.41 mg (milligrams = mg) of sodium per prepared eight fluid ounce cup. This is the equivalent of adding 2.46 g of table salt (NaCl) or just under ½ tsp (where 1 tsp of table salt equals 6 g per USDA standard reference data) to eight fluid ounces (237 mL) of water. There is likely some contribution of sodium from the chicken too, but if unsalted chicken  is used then it is likely non-significant. You can calculate the amount of table salt that is needed to be added to match the sodium content by dividing the reported sodium amount per unit of volume/mass by 0.39339. The resulting quotient is the mass of table salt that will need to be added to the noted volume or mass of water to provide that much sodium as table salt is 39.339% sodium. From the example above, 966.41 mg sodium/0.39339 = 2456 mg or 2.46 g of table salt. The total sodium from the broth can be found by clicking on “See Nutrient Profile”on recipe results and then hovering over “% of Requirement (with supplement)” sodium value and looking at the resulting row for the amount of sodium in the recipe from the broth. The sodium from broth value may be in grams (g) or milligrams (mg) (where 1 g equals 1000 mg; to convert from g to mg multiply by 1000; to convert from mg to g divide by 1000). If you are unable to find this value and/or do these calculations yourself, we suggest using the called for broth, and if that is not possible, not using a recipe with broth if that is possible or pursuing a consultation with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® to get specific assistance.

The key concern with some specific canned broths or recipes can be the use of onions and/or garlic which can cause anemia in cats (the specific toxic doses are not clearly known) and possibly in dogs. A broth that avoids those ingredients can generally be used. Note that if water is called for then broth cannot be substituted as the additional sodium intake from broth could be a concern in cases like renal or kidney disease, cardiac or heart disease, or hypertension (aka high blood pressure).

Some of these recipes will be higher in sodium to drive thirst and dilute urine and by extension make it harder for crystals and hopefully stones/uroliths to form. If you or your veterinarian wish or need to avoid higher dietary sodium concentrations, a high moisture condition can be selected on Step 1 of the Recipe Builder to try and dilute urine. 

Yes, since the bromide ion is handled like the chloride ion in the body, higher chloride diets can increase the elimination of bromide. This in turn reduces the circulating blood concentrations of bromide, and can increase the dose of potassium bromide that may be needed. Other concurrent nutritional management strategies like higher MCT dietary concentration can also affect overall patient medical management, so potassium bromide dosing should be carefully evaluated by one's veterinarian when any dietary change is made and based on patient monitoring/response.

There are a couple of reasons. First, a dog's or cat's sense of smell is far superior to ours. So adding a lot of additional flavorings would just take away from the happy sensory experience of eating freshly prepared food. Second, many seasonings are untested in dogs and cats for safety. For example, onions and garlic are toxic to dogs and cats at amounts that are well-tolerated by people. A worry would be that adding rarely-used seasonings might also pose a health risk. In short, pure, simple, and fresh is best for your animal companion. 

If you want to add something extra, we encourage you to try to add one of the “enticers” available on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder process. There you’ll see some common and safe condiments that might add salt (aka “seasoning”), sweetness, umami, sourness/acid, fat, and/or sweetness. Dogs may like all or none of these flavors, but salt and fat are generally universally enjoyed if not always tolerated. Cats only find umami (savoriness), sourness/acid, and fat as delicious and adding salt or sugar will not increase a cat food recipe’s palatability. 

The new, more advanced version of our free online software that launched on April 3, 2023 will at times add iodized salt (sodium chloride) separately in recipes to help meet sodium, chloride, and/or iodine needs. The amount added will fall below the sodium concentration that has been established to be safe for healthy dogs and cats at 2.5 g/Mcal or less (for a good review, see Dr. Yann Queau’s 2019 ACVIM Forum Proceedings). The 2006 NRC’s lowest safe upper limit (SUL) for sodium is for kittens after weaning at 2.5 g/Mcal (notably several life stages have no sodium SUL in the NRC). The AAFCO nutrient profiles currently do not have any sodium maximum, so 2.5 g/Mcal as a SUL or maximum has been added by Balance It® to the AAFCO nutrient profiles that are used by the system. This does mean that commercially prepared foods can still and may meet the AAFCO nutrient profile with higher sodium concentrations. 

This additional ability and approach has several benefits including improving palatability in dogs (a common reason for feeding homemade food is to improve palatability). It also can help reduce the amount of other supplement(s) needed which saves consumers money as salt is very inexpensive and more accessible in kitchens compared to multivitamins/multiminerals that would otherwise need to be added at a higher concentration to meet sodium, chloride, and/or iodine requirements. 

This type of fortification calculation was challenging to do before as it requires some complex logic/algorithms. An earlier, easier, and more common approach is to add supplements in a set sequence and in an amount to meet a limiting nutrient in full. However, this can prevent the addition of other supplements that can provide other needed nutrients, as to do so could or does lead to an excess of (a) previously limiting nutrient(s). Finally, there may be a urinary tract health benefit as slightly higher dietary sodium can drive thirst safely and then dilute urine concentration. 

If a higher, but still safe for healthy dogs/cats, sodium concentration is a concern for a patient then there are many options to lower or reduce dietary sodium by entering "sodium" in the "conditions" field in the first step of the Recipe Builder at balance.it/recipes and select one of the displayed options. These lower sodium recipes will then typically not have any separately added salt. 

Cooked and/or sterilized eggshell can be used as an alternative source of calcium carbonate in dog/cat diets. However, as it is not in the Balance It® system, you will need to reference any calcium carbonate supplement designed for humans (be sure to select the human supplements option on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder) called for in your recipe to use eggshells and to know the correct amount to use. Unfortunately, many recipes need both calcium and also phosphorus which is not provided by eggshell (only provides calcium), so one may not be able to use eggshells when both of these macrominerals are called for together in a supplement designed for humans. 

If eggshells can and are to be used one must follow these steps: cook the egg(s), remove the shell, remove the inner membrane from the shell, and then pulverize the shell to enable good mixing. For best accuracy, a scale that can accurately measure milligram amounts should be purchased and used, which is not the typical kitchen scale but rather a jewelers scale or laboratory scale, as kitchen gram scales usually aren't very accurate down to the 100-200 milligrams range which may be needed/significant. To some this may seem like too much effort, but is necessary to accurately/consistently and safely add calcium. 

We do not use animal bone or dicalcium phosphate which can be derived from highly processed animal bone for fear that it might introduce antigenicity. Avoiding these sources of calcium and phosphorus also enable our products to remain animal origin free when that is a philosophical/ethical, environmental, religious, and/or importation issue/concern.

We avoid trace mineral proteinates for the same antigenicity concerns.

Yes, you can! The general rule of the thumb is, you can feed up to 10% of total calories needed in a given day as a treat without risk of over/under feeding or supplementing. If you are unsure how many calories in treats to feed, you may use our treat and enticer option on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder. You can easily turn any ingredient into a treat using the little human giving a dog treat icon! 

Here's the best way to send/share your recipe report: Click View Recipe on the recipe results, then click the Download icon (arrow pointing down into a tray within a gray circle) right next to the heart/favorite icon. You may then email the PDF file that is downloaded to your computer as an attachment. It is also very helpful to always provide the unique recipe ID found in the Yields/Servings section. As our site can dynamically make trillions of different possible recipes and helps veterinary clients, veterinarians, and board-certified veterinary nutritionists to create millions of recipes a year this is the only way for us to be sure we are viewing/referencing the exact recipe that you have questions about. Unfortunately, it is not adequate to only send/share the ingredients and the ingredient amounts alone. If you have recipes that were made by your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® and given to you directly by them, please contact them for any questions you may have about their recipe even if they used our software to create them (possibly helpful analogy to understand our limitation: Microsoft, Apple or Google customer service cannot answer questions about the content of a letter written by someone else using their word processor software like Word, Pages, or Docs). 

In general, we do not recommend giving any additional mineral, vitamin, or amino acid supplements not called for in the Balance It® recipe as it is unnecessary and can lead to excessive amounts of nutrients that can result in health issues. Of course, if in the rare event that your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® has told you to add one then you should follow their specific recommendation. The most common nutrients where this might be done are niacin, the vitamin B-12, C, & K, the minerals magnesium & zinc, and/or the amino acids methionine & taurine. That is not because these are required (vitamin C for dogs & cats; vitamin K & taurine for dogs) or deficient in the recipe/diet, but rather that they may have specific indications in certain health conditions that may include pharmacological or functional effects rather than solely a nutritional effect that may be met at a lower dietary concentration or when given orally. 

There is no "ideal" distribution of calories and many can be fed, tolerated, and enjoyed. For rough reference, many over-the-counter (aka OTC) healthy adult dry dog foods average protein at  20-30% of calories, fat at 20-30% of calories and carbohydrates at 40-60% of calories. For cats, protein is at 30-40% of calories, fat is at 25-35% of calories, and carbohydrate is at 30-50% of calories. These percentages differ to the “as fed” ones on packages/labels, to convert please see balance.it/convert . There are many exceptions to these rough references and they shift typically higher for puppies and wet food. Some “premium”, raw, and/or fresh foods can be considerably higher in fat. Extremes can also be seen with certain health conditions with much lower and higher concentrations in protein, fat, and/or carbohydrate. The Recipe Builder will allow the widest possible range of caloric distributions to be used while still meeting any known or selected requirements. This means, for example, that for healthy dogs and cats one may see recipes with no to very little carbohydrate. While cats are obligate carnivores and dogs are omnivores, both species can be fed an all meat diet. This explains why there is no carbohydrate requirement established by either the NRC or AAFCO for the cat but also for the dog. There may be a need for dietary carbohydrate during peak lactation in the bitch, but this is still debated, and the Recipe Builder does not provide any recipes for this very challenging life stage. Caution(s) on higher fat recipes should be carefully read/reviewed as they may not be tolerated in otherwise healthy dogs and cats. This is especially true if you feed your dog as a “carnivore” or meat eater. If you have questions about what is optimal for your dog or cat, please speak with your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. 

Passing recipes that use  all or some of the ingredients you selected can range from All Protein (nearly all meat and oil), Higher Protein/Fat and Lower Carb, Mid-range Protein and Carb, and Higher Carb. Some of these may not be possible with certain ingredient selections and requirements and will not appear when they are not. We share each recipe option to inform users that they are available in case they may be of interest or better match their expectations. For example, some users may expect much larger portions of meat/poultry/fish than is nutritionally necessary or than is found in even many “premium” commercially prepared pet foods. They may also believe that our system is not capable of making recipes with no or low carbohydrates as we allow these foods to be selected or based on perceptions from two decades ago when the Autobalancer® was mainly used to treat/manage conditions by academics and veterinary specialists where protein and/or fat had to be restricted/controlled.  Each of these passing recipes meet your healthy animal companion’s daily requirements per AAFCO. For sick animal companion’s these headers are often relative to one another and may represent a much narrower range given more rigid requirements. Choosing a passing recipe is ultimately a matter of personal preference, economics (higher protein recipes will be more expensive due to the cost of the protein), and ingredient availability. If you are uncertain which one to choose, please speak with your veterinarian for a recommendation. 

You may also be interested in the Do you provide any nutritional guidance via your customer service? and Do you do any nutritional consultations via your veterinary nurses or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®? FAQs. 

You may also be interested in the Not all my ingredients are in my recipe that I selected. What happened? FAQ.

An All Protein (nearly all meat and oil) option using the protein rich food(s) you selected and fat(s)/oil(s) will be typically attempted and shown to you if feasible. If you selected additional ingredients then you will want to look at the passing recipes below the headers that read, Higher Protein/Fat and Lower Carb, Mid-range Protein and Carb and Higher Carbs if those are possible and available. Please click on View Recipe on the recipe you choose to use to see the full recipe report and exact amounts. To see the details on the nutrient concentration and calories distribution, click See Nutrient Profile for passing recipes. 

You may also be interested in the I am seeing multiple passing recipe options including some that have no or low amounts of carbohydrates even when I picked some. Which recipe option should I pick/feed?  FAQ.

The recipes may call for more volume of food due to the higher moisture in the home-cooked food compared to dry kibble and/or due to the bulk from some carbohydrate/vegetable/fruit selections.

Higher volumes of food can be created and still meet known minimum and maximum nutrient requirements. If a lower volume of an ingredient is desired or believed to be better, one can try to reduce them manually by adjusting the recipe. 

Common causes for higher volumes of some ingredients include selecting a condition that restricts fat and/or lowers energy density, creating higher protein &/or fat and lower carbohydrate recipes that only use veggies or fruits as a source of carbohydrates. If generating a recipe for the nutritional management of a condition, higher volumes of food can be the result of addressing restrictions or reductions in other nutrients. If unsuccessful in creating a recipe with preferred volume(s), we suggest using “blue” carbs and no veggies or fruits if possible on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder, and/or speaking with one's veterinarian or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® to get further assistance with formulating a recipe that is preferred. They may suggest and approve a high energy density condition as part of that assistance/guidance.

Cats can be very selective about what they will eat. Often limited exposure to a variety of foods including textures can lead to lifelong learned preferences. This is likely an evolutionary trait as obligate carnivores are trained by their mother as to what is appropriate prey species for their environment. In addition, many of the things that humans and dogs find palatable are not sensed or enjoyed by cats, notably salt/sodium or sugar/sweetness. Please see below for some general suggestions that you can potentially try if the unfortified recipe is not readily eaten.

 If the unfortified diet/recipe is enjoyed and readily eaten, but not when the supplement is added, then below are some general suggestions that you can potentially try/consider.

General suggestions:

1. Be sure any underlying health condition(s) that could affect appetite or cause nausea or GI upset is being addressed by your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. This may include medications in addition to diet and changes in those medications and their dose may be indicated.

2. Try selecting a protein or fat rich treat or enticer on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder.

3. Try and/or create a one pot cooking recipe as this might enhance palatability as preferred flavors, especially from any protein or fat rich foods, better meld

4. Change or increase the protein if possible/tolerated

5. Increase the fat if possible/tolerated

6. If only an issue when supplement(s) are added*, very slowly add the supplement(s) over 10-14 days if possible starting with a very small pinch/amount and mixing very well with any available protein/fat rich food including any treat or enticer and then the rest of the meal.

7. If there is an issue with the Balance It® supplement, try and create a free recipe using a combination of supplements designed for humans using that option on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder. 

8. Switch back to a commercially prepared food if possible/tolerated AND/OR work with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® (see directories at vetspecialists.com or balance.it/dacvim ) who can possibly recommend/formulate a diet with better palatability following medical record and diet history review and possibly by prioritizing* fortifying key essential nutrients with (an)other supplement(s) and then using an interactive/dynamic trial and error process to meet other/all needs if a homemade diet is chosen/tried 

*You may also be interested in seeing the FAQ My dog/cat will not eat their food with the Balance It® supplement added or mixed in. What should or can I do/try?? especially as it has some guidance on the order to try feeding supplements designed for humans.

Dogs generally enjoy their recipes and well-tolerate the supplement(s) needed to fortify them for long-term feeding. If your dog is refusing to eat the unfortified or fortified recipe, please see below for some general suggestions that you can potentially try/consider.

General suggestions:

1. Be sure any underlying health condition(s) that could affect appetite or cause nausea or GI upset is being addressed by your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®. This may include medications in addition to diet and changes in those medications and their dose may be indicated.

2. Try selecting a treat or enticer on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder.

3. Try and/or create a one pot cooking recipe as this might enhance palatability as preferred flavors better meld

4. Change or increase the protein if possible/tolerated especially if fed long-term without supplementation as the change in odor may be refused simply because it is a change from what is familiar.

5. Increase the fat if possible/tolerated.

6. If only an issue when supplement(s) are added*, very slowly add the supplement(s) over 10-14 days if possible starting with a very small pinch/amount and mixing very well with any available protein/fat rich food including any treat or enticer and then the rest of the meal.

7. If there is an issue with the Balance It® supplement, try and create a free recipe using a combination of supplements designed for humans using that option on Step 2 of the Recipe Builder. 

8. Switch back to a commercially prepared food if possible/tolerated AND/OR work with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® (see directories at vetspecialists.com or balance.it/dacvim ) who can possibly recommend/formulate a diet with better palatability following medical record and diet history review and possibly by prioritizing* fortifying key essential nutrients with (an)other supplement(s) and then using an interactive/dynamic trial and error process to meet other/all needs if a homemade diet is chosen/tried.

*You may also be interested in seeing the FAQ My dog/cat will not eat their food with the Balance It® supplement added or mixed in. What should or can I do/try?? especially as it has some guidance on the order to try feeding supplements designed for humans.

The % of requirement is the percent the nutrient in the recipe is above the minimum requirement. Some nutrients are typically and naturally consumed in far excess of the minimal requirement. This can be seen with nutrients that are many fold above the minimum (e.g., 200-The body has mechanisms and metabolic pathways to avoid excess to a point. Concentrations where these are overwhelmed and adverse effects are seen happen when a maximum requirement or safe upper limit (SUL) is exceeded. Any nutrient concentration above a minimum requirement (>100%) and below a maximum requirement (a recipe will not pass if this is exceeded) is considered safe to feed long-term. 

To review the contribution of each ingredient to the nutrient’s total concentration, one can hover over the % of requirement value with their cursor after clicking View Recipe on a passing recipe result from the Recipe Builder and then clicking "See Nutrient Profile".

Our free online system is updated with current nutrient profile information from the USDA FoodData Central database as well as other databases and our own analyses of foods and supplements.  It is also designed to meet current AAFCO Official Publication dog/cat nutrient profile requirements which can change over time as do modifications to these requirements that our board-certified veterinary nutritionists have created over the last two decades for health conditions based on current published literature. Coupled with these many dynamic data changes and the ever evolving sophistication of the Autobalancer® formulation software/code that powers the Recipe Builder, results can change over time.  We advise regularly rebuilding recipes every few months to make sure that the most current information and capabilities are used as well as to make sure that any changes in your dog/cat are addressed.

This is also why you’ll see this “tooltip” when hovering over the names of any saved legacy recipe reports:

“VERY IMPORTANT: You will be viewing a "legacy" recipe report which is provided for reference only. This legacy recipe may no longer be appropriate due to changes in requirements and/or food nutrient data since it was first successfully generated. We recommend trying to build recipes every few months to keep them up-to-date with any changes in requirements and/or food nutrient data. This means that when you click on "See Nutrient Profile" on legacy recipe reports, deficiencies and/or excesses may now be reported/found."

We are subject to policies/rules/regulations/laws specifically FDA Compliance Policy Guide (CPG) Section (Sec.) 690.150 that cover all nutritional products that are intended to "mitigate" or "treat" disease in dogs and cats. This FDA guidance means making specific information and/or products only available to the public under the direction/supervision of a veterinarian.    

We can understand how this might initially seem like we are just being difficult to work with or stubborn, especially as only a handful of pet food companies like us are subject to this guidance, but we cannot violate both state laws and federal guidelines even if it would make conducting business easier.

Independent of our need to be legally/regulatory compliant, we strongly support this guidance philosophically as it is designed to protect dogs and cats, and after over 20 years in veterinary nutrition specialty practice, our founder has seen its value in avoiding the good intentioned misuse of products and/or inappropriate feeding that could sadly lead to harm or an adverse effect. We have worked and continue to work hard to make the process of gaining any needed veterinary approval as simple and efficient as possible with an automated system supported by a dedicated customer service team that can immediately fax and/or email your veterinarian for their approval and track each step of the process with a detailed log. 

Balance It® helps thousands of caring people to create safe, custom, and wholesome dog/cat food at home everyday. These users rely on the free online Recipe Builder, powered by the Autobalancer® to calculate nutrient gaps from feeding specific amounts of foods to then determine the right supplement(s) to avoid deficiencies and excesses.

In addition to trillions of possible healthy dog and cat recipes, we also offer free “therapeutic” recipes for many medical conditions. These special recipes require your veterinarian's diagnosis(ses) and approval per FDA CPG Sec. 690.150. We have developed a convenient automated process that uses email or a fax to be FDA compliant. Once you have approval from your veterinarian, you can create your own “therapeutic” recipes to address your animal companion’s needs/preferences. 

If you are unable to access the website, or if you are unsure of which condition(s) and/or supplement(s) to select, please speak directly with your veterinarian. If you are looking for someone to make specific recommendations for your dog/cat, you may wish to consider a paid consultation with one of the board-certified veterinary nutritionist® options at vetspecialists.com or balance.it/dacvim. They can work with you and/or your veterinarian to review the medical record and diet history to make specific recommendations.      

Here’s How To Submit A Vet Approval Request To Create Your Own Custom “Therapeutic” Recipes:

To sign up for a FREE account go to www.balance.it. In the upper right-hand corner click on Login to begin your FREE Sign Up. Once you have successfully created your free account, you will see Logout  in the upper right-hand corner.

Please click on Request Approval in the page footer (at the very bottom of the website page) or go to balance.it/approvals/new to begin.

Click on Add/edit dog/cat. You will be prompted to enter brief information about yourself and your animal companion.

If recipes are needed, please enter your animal companion’s health condition(s) into the search-bar under “Any special needs or diet we should be aware of?” You will need to make a selection from the available drop-down menu of options. If you do not see your dog or cat’s health condition/diagnosis listed, or if you are unsure of what to select, please speak with your veterinarian for guidance. 

If recipes have already been provided to you directly by your veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist® and only access/approval to supplement is needed, you may leave the search-bar blank and select the needed supplements below.

Once your selection(s) have been made, click Save to continue. 

Click on Select/Add a vet and type in your veterinarian’s first and last name. 

You may notice your veterinarian’s name auto-populate if they are already in our system. If you select from one of the auto-populated options, please ensure that the information is correct before proceeding. We have thousands of veterinarian account holders and different veterinarians can have the same name.

If you do not see your veterinarian’s information populate, please enter their practice/clinic name, and their email address and/or fax number manually. 

Once all of the information has been selected/entered, please click Submit. 

Success! Our system will send an automated request to your veterinarian. Please note, if you entered the information for your veterinarian manually, we may need to first verify their details before the request can be sent. This process may take one to two business days. If you have a more urgent need, please contact your veterinarian directly for feeding recommendations.

Once your veterinarian replies/returns the approval form back to us, you will be contacted by email from us with instructions on how to proceed to create custom recipes for your animal companion.

Unfortunately, we did not receive an approval from your veterinarian within 7 days. We suggest you learn more from your veterinarian as to why no action has been taken. If your veterinarian wishes to still approve the original but now expired request, they or their authorized staff may contact us directly and request that we manually reset the request back to pending for them to approve. 

We are always happy to speak with your veterinarian if they reach out to us to learn more about how we can best serve you and your animal companion. They can call us +1-530-756-3862 or email info@balanceit.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience or delay this creates as we comply with FDA CPG Sec. 690.150 and support timely communications/approvals. If you have additional questions or need further assistance, you can also email us at info@balanceit.com.

If your veterinarian no longer practices at their previous veterinary practice or has changed their fax number and/or email address, please submit a new vet approval request with this new contact information by typing the new fax number and/or email address and any other practice information without letting these fields autofill. We regret any inconvenience this creates if you already entered a vet approval request using old contact information. Here are the exact steps to do this:

Please click on Request Approval in the page footer or go to balance.it/approvals/new to begin.

1. Click on Add/edit dog/cat. You will be prompted to enter brief information about your animal companion and yourself. Then click Save. 

2. Click on Select/Add a vet. You will be prompted to enter brief contact information about your veterinarian. Please complete this step to proceed. Then click Submit. 

3. Once this information is submitted, our system will send an automated request to your veterinarian.  If you enter a fax number and/or email address for your veterinarian, please be sure to put in the correct fax (not a phone) number or email address for your veterinarian or it will delay or prevent your approval. 

4. Once your veterinarian replies/returns the approval form back to us, you will be contacted by email from us with instructions on how to proceed to create custom recipes for your animal companion.

Great! Now that Balance It^® has received approval from your veterinarian to comply with FDA CPG Sec. 690.150 to allow you to make recipes for approved health condition(s), please log into your Balance It® account at balance.it to customize and view your recipes. 

STEP ONE: Log in & confirm your dog or cat information is correct

1. Log into your Balance It® account at balance.it by clicking on Login at the top right; you can tell when you are successfully logged in when the upper right says “Log out” and not Login anymore.

2. Under Step 1: Your Dog/Cat, “Enter who is this recipe for below:”,  please type in your approved dog’s or cat’s name under the appropriate age option then click on their name that will appear. 

3. Confirm that your animal companion’s weight, age, gender and reproductive status is correct. 

4. Under “Any special needs or diet we should be aware of? (optional)” confirm that your animal companion’s health condition(s) is/are already displayed. You do not need to click on them again. If you do not see your approved condition(s) in a gray box, please be sure to be logged into your account.

5. Once you have confirmed the information above, click Build Recipe Now if you need some help with selecting ingredients or click Let Me Pick Ingredients to go to the ingredients page to select and try your own.

STEP TWO: Create (a) custom recipe(s) for your dog/cat based on your veterinary approval:

1. If you click on Build Recipe Now on Step E above, the software will attempt to automatically create recipes for you using ingredients that are likely to work and if they are available. If you click on Let me Pick Me Pick Ingredients on Step 5 above, under Step 2: Ingredients (optional) you may search for and choose any ingredients you wish to try to use for your dog’s or cat’s recipe. 

1. 1. You will need to select at least one protein. We recommend allowing the Recipe Builder to choose the fat(s) (aka oils) for you to meet any fatty acid requirements. The other categories are typically optional unless you are approved for (a) condition(s) that requires some calories to come from carbs to dilute/reduce the amount/percent of calories from dietary proteins and/or fats. 

   2. Click on Get Recipe.

2. You will be able to view the recipes that pass on the resulting screen. Recipes require thousands of calculations to be created & are checked in real-time and not all selections/options will meet all nutrient requirements. Please click on View Recipe on one of the successful recipes to see the full recipe report that includes a lot of details like preparation instructions. You may also be given a recipe using alternative ingredients if none of the tried options worked. Sometimes nothing will be possible and some suggestions will be offered as well as options to get additional help from Balance It® or elsewhere. Our mission is to help you get (a) recipe(s) that provide(s) safe and wholesome nutrition for your dog or cat whether from us or other experts like a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® and to help you avoid feeding (a) recipe(s)/diet that is otherwise unknowingly inappropriate, deficient, and/or excessive.

3. After clicking View Recipe, you have a few things you can do on the resulting page: 

1. 1. You may print your recipe by clicking on the printer icon. Be sure to print the whole report that includes the unique recipe ID in the Yield/Servings section as that will be needed by Balance It® to help you if any questions come up and also include the Cautions section at the very end of the recipe.

   2. You may save your recipe by clicking on the heart icon. 

   3. You may download your recipe as a PDF by clicking on the arrow pointing down icon. 

4. Under Yield/Servings, you may click on Adjust this Recipe to edit the recipe. Here you can: 

1. 1. Change the body weight of your dog or cat (if not done initially) 

   2. Adjust the feeding frequency and/or batch cooking preferences under Recipe amount

   3. While there are additional options like changing the distribution of calories on this page, we recommend that you only do so under the guidance of a veterinarian or board-certified veterinary nutritionist®.

5. Then click on Update My Recipe.

6. You will see a light green recipe stating Adjusted By You appear at the bottom of the previous results if successful. Please click on View Recipe to see the full recipe report of this Adjusted By You option. Sometimes nothing will be possible and some suggestions will be offered as well as options to get additional help from Balance It® or elsewhere. Our mission is to help you get (a) recipe(s) that provide(s) safe and wholesome nutrition for your dog or cat whether from us or other experts like a board-certified veterinary nutritionist® and to help you avoid feeding (a) recipe(s)/diet that is otherwise unknowingly inappropriate, deficient, and/or excessive.

7. To purchase the supplement to fortify your recipe, please click on Buy Supplement or Buy Now if made by Balance It® OR if a combination of supplements designed for humans, please see the recipe report for guidance on where to purchase these elsewhere (e.g., online retailers, drugstores/pharmacies, healthy food stores, etc.).

For 19 years, Balance It^® has consistently strived to keep prices as low as possible while never compromising product quality and safety. As a result, we have continued to grow, but have also incurred sustained and significant cost increases for raw materials, employee wages and benefits, insurance, software development & maintenance, cGMP certifications, third-party product testing, and shipping as well as inflation. 

Our March 1, 2024 price increase is only our second price increase since April 2019, almost five years ago. During that time we have worked very hard to improve, including our efficiency, to maximize the value we offer and minimize any cost increases. 

Notably in April 2023, we launched a new, improved version of our free online software that provides trillions of options and is used millions of times annually to create custom free homemade recipes for healthy and sick dogs and cats. Based on less customizable and more limited for fee options elsewhere, this software is saving our users at least $2,000,000 annually. Separately, we continue to invest heavily in the Autobalancer^® that we donate to over 70 global academicians, clinicians, & researchers at veterinary schools and nonprofits which represents an in-kind gift of over 2% of our annual revenues. This level of giving aligns with the third-party certifying body B Lab Designed to Give Impact Business Model. Given these efforts and many of our ongoing non-profit objectives, we successfully converted to a California Benefit Corporation on December 27, 2023. 

We have also continued our commitment to improved quality and just successfully completed our first GRMA-certification, an NSF/ANSI standard, for human dietary supplement manufacturing, we believe a first for an essential nutrient dog and cat supplement company. 

In order to support and offer these services and the highest quality products possible, we made the always difficult decision to increase our prices based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator that shows an inflation rate of 7.27% from March 2022 to January 2024. 

We have kept all size the same (no “shrinkflation”) and applied this 7.27% increase to all three product sizes/options (i.e., one pouch*, 10-pouch, and 500 or 600 g bags) products while keeping the Recipe Builder powered by the Autobalancer^® free to use by all.

Although we will never compromise on the quality and safety of our products, we will always aim to provide the best value in nutritional supplements and service for our customers and their animal companions. The Balance It® team greatly appreciates the continued business and support, and sincerely thank our loyal customers and many self-appointed brand advocates in the veterinary profession.

No, currently Balance It® only sells and ships directly to veterinarians and their clients. Although still a small but widely known and relied on company, this “vertical integration” allows for the best customer experience and value as the entire “ecosystem” of research, software development, formulation, procurement, testing, packaging, customer service, and order fulfillment is actively and currently managed by Balance It’s dedicated and highly focused team. 

Yes. We use secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate authority to enable secure e-commerce and communications for our website. For additional security, we don't store credit card information after processing orders. For automatic re-orders, all needed information is captured by our secure credit card gateway, Authorize.net, which is owned by VISA. Our servers (or instances) are hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the industry leading provider, with all code and data encrypted. Lastly, we never sell your personal contact information to outside parties subject to our current privacy policy. To see the current version of our privacy policy, please click on the link at the bottom of our front/landing page or visit balance.it/terms.

As of August 23, 2023, we are no longer able to take an order from you over the phone. With ongoing changes to credit card security and processing requirements for phone orders, we have made the difficult decision to stop this service. This change is not due to any incident or issue we have had. Many industries are moving away from offering phone orders due to the increased exposure to potential theft or misuse of sensitive credit card data. Placing an order through our secure online platform is the safest method to get the products you need. To learn more about how we protect your privacy and sensitive information, please visit https://balance.it/terms.

If you are unable to place an online order, you may wish to consider one of these options:

1. Ask a Balance It^® Customer Care Team member for assistance by calling (530) 756-3862 or sending an email to info@balanceit.com. While we cannot place the order for you, we are happy to guide you over the phone through the online process as you use your own device and answer any questions you have. We will NEVER ask you to share any credit card information or to share your device’s screen with us when providing this help. 

2. Ask a trusted friend or family member for assistance in placing the order for you through our website. 

3. Ask your veterinary practice if they can place your order for you to be picked up at their address. Some practices choose to order our products and then sell them to their clients directly for added convenience.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we strive to best protect your credit card information.

We do not offer discounts. Instead we keep all of our prices as low as possible at all times for all of our customers. If you are looking to save money, we suggest speaking to your veterinarian about feeding a commercially prepared dry dog or cat food. Our founder has co-authored multiple studies along with faculty at leading veterinary schools (e.g., J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2022;260(S3):S53-S60 ) that show that while home cooked food (aka human) grade diets may be less expensive than canned or wet feed (aka animal) grade food, they cost more than comparable kibble or dry feed grade commercially prepared diets. Overall we are confident that our ecosystem of technical expertise & support, free recipes, and human dietary supplement grade Balance It® supplements provide the best overall value and convenience possible. In multiple cases, we also offer the only all-in-one supplement for the nutritional management of certain medical conditions. 

We are legally required to collect sales tax on behalf of most cities, counties, states and not instead have you be responsible for making direct payments to your state for any of your online purchases as was previously allowed throughout the US. To learn more about this requirement, please see the US Supreme Court case "South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.". We hope that the additional sales tax revenue helps support your municipality's and state's budgets and efforts on behalf of their citizens.

VAT stands for Value-Added Tax and is required on most UK purchases that the UK government requires we collect for them. If you have more questions on this tax, please see https://www.gov.uk/browse/tax/vat . 

Oh no! This can typically happen for one of two reasons. 

One. You entered the wrong credit card code (it’s the three digit pin on the back of your card or if it is an AmEx card it is the four digit code on the front). 

Two. You entered the wrong billing address. We have separate shipping and billing address fields, so that you can ship products to your preferred address. Please check that the billing address you used matches the address associated with your credit or debit card issuing bank. 

We apologize for any inconvenience!

We offer shipping to the United States (including APO or FPO (Military) P.O. boxes).  

We offer international shipping to many countries although some restrictions may apply due to world events like war, natural disasters, economic sanctions, or pandemics. If the country you wish to ship to is not listed as an option at check out, then we cannot currently ship there. If you have additional questions about a specific country, please contact us at info@balanceit.com.

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to also contact us at info@balanceit.com.

Please note, international orders may be subject to import duties and taxes (including VAT) unknown by and outside of the control of Balance It^®. To learn more about our shipping policy and these potential fees, we encourage you to visit: balance.it/terms 

You may also be interested in the “How are the Balance It® supplements shipped?” FAQ.

Order processing time: All orders are picked, packed, and processed for carrier pickup within 48 business hours (excluding weekends and holidays) after placing your order (the order date & time is automatically captured by our ecommerce software, Shopify, and is always considered the reference time).

Carrier pickups: Orders that have been picked, packed, and processed will then be picked up at our fulfillment center by the carrier(s) within one (1) business day (excluding weekends and holidays).

Order/Shipping notifications: You will receive an order confirmation email once your order has been successfully placed. You will receive a second email notification when your order has been picked, packed, and processed and is ready for carrier pickup. All times and dates given for delivery of the products are given in good faith but are estimates only. Unless specifically noted, estimated delivery times reflect the earliest available delivery, and deliveries will be made within 30 days after the day we accept your order. If delivery is delayed for any reason we will let you know as soon as possible and will advise you of a revised estimated date for delivery. For EU and UK consumers: This does not affect your statutory rights.

Shipping rates: Shipping charges for your order will be calculated, displayed, and collected at checkout. We will honor this charge when paid, even if the actual shipping rate Balance It® is later charged is greater when your order is shipped.

Carrier transit times: Balance It® does not guarantee the carrier transit times that are estimated and displayed at checkout. These carrier estimated transit times are generated through an application programming interface (API) provided by each individual carrier. Actual carrier transit times, and therefore order delivery times, may vary. Please consult the carriers' websites directly for the most up-to-date information about these services and any delays or disruptions they may be experiencing.

Import duties and taxes (including VAT): Your order may be subject to import duties and taxes (including VAT). Some, but not all of these may be calculated, displayed, and collected at checkout and reported on your international invoice. However, there are times when additional charges may be assessed/incurred once a shipment reaches your destination country. Balance It® is not responsible for these additional duties and/or taxes if they are applied and are your responsibility to pay as the customer.

Incorrect address/Address correction: You are responsible for any errors in shipping addresses entered by you. This includes errors of omission like apartment, unit, and suite numbers, phone number, or incorrect Zip or postal codes. If you are unsure of your address, please check with your postal carrier, UPS, FedEx, and/or DHL to determine what your delivery address is. If we cannot ship your order due to an incorrect/incomplete address (including phone number), the 48 business hour processing time commitment listed above is voided. You will be contacted by our customer service team via phone and/or email to correct the issue. We will then process your order within 48 business hours of receiving the corrected address. If we do not receive a corrected shipping address within 2 business days of reaching out to you, your order will be canceled and refunded to the credit card used for the order.

Address correction charges: If an order is shipped, and it is later determined by the carrier that the address was incorrect due to an error on your part, all address correction fees or return to sender fees assessed to Balance It® from the carrier(s) will be forwarded and charged to your account/deducted from any future refund(s).

Refusing delivery/Return to sender: If you refuse delivery of your order, and/or instruct the carrier to “return to sender", all return to sender fees assessed to Balance It® from the carrier(s) will be forwarded and charged to your account/deducted from any future refund(s). The average fee is $17, but may be higher (especially for any international orders or if more than 1 bag or many pouches).

P.O. boxes: We can only ship to P.O. Boxes within the United States via the United States Postal Service (USPS). We cannot ship to P.O. Boxes located outside of the United States.

Military mail: We can only ship to APO or FPO (Military) P.O. boxes via the United States Postal Service (USPS).

International shipment options: We offer international shipping to many countries although some restrictions may apply due to world events like war, natural disasters, economic sanctions, or pandemics. If the country you wish to ship to is not listed as an option at check out, then we cannot currently ship there. If you have additional questions about a specific country, please contact us at info@balanceit.com.

Carrier claims: If you feel your order was not delivered per the policy of the chosen carrier (e.g., late, damaged, misdelivered), we will initiate a claim on your behalf with the carrier via their designated claims process. Please email info@balanceit.com with the details supporting your claim (including pictures of all sides of packaging and products received if a damage claim). Refunds will only be given if the claim is settled in your favor and provided to us directly by the carrier. The carrier claims process, including the speed and amount of any decision/resolution, is controlled by the carrier and not Balance It®.

Balance It® processing time claims: If you feel that your order was not processed within 48 business hours per our policy, please email customer service at info@balanceit.com with the details supporting your claim (e.g., email notifications).

Product expiration dates: All orders will be fulfilled with products that will have no less than 3 months and no more than 11 months of shelf life (time before expiration) at the time of shipping.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@balanceit.com.

While this FAQ should be current, to see the most current version of our shipping policy, please visit: balance.it/terms

All orders are shipped via the shipping carrier and shipping method that you choose at check out. These options are typically as follows, but may change based upon carrier issues beyond our control.

US Domestic: These orders are shipped via United States Postal Service (USPS) or UPS.

P.O. boxes: We can only ship to P.O. boxes within the United States via the United States Postal Service (USPS). We cannot ship to P.O. boxes located outside of the United States.

Military mail: We can only ship to APO or FPO (Military) P.O. boxes via the United States Postal Service (USPS).

International shipment options: We offer international shipping to many countries although some restrictions may apply due to world events like war, natural disasters, economic sanctions, or pandemics. These are shipped via United States Postal Service (USPS) or DHL. If the country you wish to ship to is not listed as an option at check out, then we cannot currently ship there. If you have additional questions about a specific country, please contact us at info@balanceit.com.

You may also be interested in the “What is your shipping policy?” FAQ and the shipping document that comes with orders.

From 2012-2020, Balance It® offered a flat shipping rate of US$ 8 per bag for any international destination (with the exception of about eight countries that we were and are still not able to ship to due mainly to geopolitical reasons). During that period, we worked very hard to never increase this flat rate. 

Unfortunately starting in 2019, the cost of handling and shipping international orders grew considerably and in some cases unpredictably. As a shipping cost example, in 2020 we had a two bottle shipment that historically cost a little over US$ 20 cost instead around US$ 50. This was not an isolated example. In addition local postal systems have become less reliable (likely recently due to COVID-19) and lost shipments that we must replace and reship at our own cost typically became more commonplace. Overall, this resulted in many scenarios where international orders were being sold not even at cost but at a loss. Thus, the uncertainty of these varied costs made an international flat rate approach unsustainable. Instead, we have now moved to providing real-time carrier options through multiple available carriers and the associated costs, whenever possible, so that the best option can be selected by the international orderer. 

We wish to thank our many international customers for their support over the years and appreciate their ongoing understanding with this change in the approach to and cost of shipping internationally. 

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have remained and remain open as we provide a vital veterinary service. Our dedicated team is fully trained and equipped to address potential pathogens including COVID-19 as part of our third-party audited cGMPs and per our State of California human processed food and FDA registrations. Our custom built ~10,000 sf facility and its “clean rooms" were specially designed to address and mitigate concerns of pathogens. Our formal and detailed Food Defense Plan, prerequisite programs, environmental cleaning and monitoring, and our employee personnel practices policies are all designed and implemented to ensure food remains safe. Although industry leading in many areas of sanitation, quality, and testing, we continue to improve and increase our efforts in light of the pandemic. Access to our facility remains restricted, and we are following current guidance from local, state, and federal public health officials. We are also actively working with our suppliers, including the world’s largest manufacturer of vitamins, to ensure we maintain adequate inventory. We also have contingencies in place to shift carriers (e.g., USPS, UPS, DHL, FedEx, etc.) as needed and available. As this is still a dynamic situation at least through federal projections to May 2023, we will provide updates as needed, but we remain committed and focused on helping provide essential nutrition to animal companions at this very difficult time.

Bags and pouches of Balance It® can sometimes have their sides deformed during transit (sections of the sides can be displaced inwardly or outwardly). This can be related to changes in ambient pressure during transit (pressurization with air shipments or routes through mountains and higher elevations with ground shipments). The product itself also off-gases throughout its shelf-life and it can cause the bag or pouch volume/pressure to fluctuate as you see with typically a resulting bulge. This is not a safety issue or sign of bacterial/microbial growth Shelf-life and typical shipping temperatures are also accounted for with vitamin overages, so you do not need to worry about the temperature the product was at the time it was received. 

Rest assured that the product remains fresh and safe for your animal companion. If it continues to bulge when you are ready to open it, If a bag or pouch, please slowly (tear) open. This is similar to carefully/slowly opening a bottle of soda that might have been a little shaken up and under pressure.

As widely reported, plastic recycling is unfortunately minimal at 5-6% in most municipalities and efforts to simply reduce plastic use have been suggested instead (see https://bit.ly/3SHpVf0). Thus, we decided to proactively develop a packaging solution that uses less plastic and invest in a new packaging line to support this change. By transitioning to bags instead of bottles, we have been able to reduce the plastic used by over 82%! Additionally, the new bags have a wider opening allowing the powder to be more easily accessed at the bottom. 

As these bags must have an integrated child resistant closure (CRC) per federal law and combine two different types of plastic, they cannot be recycled, but we strongly believe this is the most environmentally friendly option until fully recyclable packaging becomes viable.

Yes. Balance It purchases carbon credits or offsets from BEF (Bonneville Environmental Foundation), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, from time to time. Details on the projects supported through these purchases from BEF including the specific protocol used to estimate emission reductions or removal benefits and whether there is independent third-party verification of BEF's data and claims can be found here:

https://www.b-e-f.org/bef-carbon-credit-portfolio/

We are very confident that our supplements will perform well based on their two decades of successful use in the most challenging cases around the globe and in tens of thousands of dogs and cats. However, we gladly accept returns per the following return policy (please make sure your return falls within our return policy guidelines before returning it to us as if it falls outside the return policy no refund will or can be issued):

RETURNS
All returns must be postmarked within forty-five (45) days of the purchase date. All returned items must be in new and unused condition OR have at least ¾ of the product remaining, with all original packaging (bag or pouch), along with the original lot/date code sticker still applied.

RETURN PROCESS
To return an item, place the item securely in its original packaging (bag or pouch), along with the original lot/date code sticker still applied, and order number and full name within the return, then mail your return to the following address:

Balance It^®
Attn: Returns
350 Pioneer Avenue
Woodland, CA 95776
United States

Please note, you will be responsible for all return shipping charges. We strongly recommend that you use a trackable method to mail your return.

REFUNDS
After receiving your return and inspecting the condition of your item, we will process your return. Please allow at least ten (10) business days from the receipt of your item to process your return. Refunds may take 1-2 billing cycles to appear on your bank or credit card statement, depending on your bank or credit card company. We will notify you by email when your return has been processed.

EXCEPTIONS
The following items cannot be returned or refunded:

• Any products that have less than 3/4 of the product remaining.

• Products that are postmarked more than 45 days after their purchase date.

• Products that expire in 45 days or less from the postmarked date.

• Products not in their original containers, or that are missing their lot/date code sticker.

• Unreturned pouches from a multiple count pouch order.

• Any and all expedited shipping fees.

For defective or damaged products, please contact us at the contact details below to arrange a refund or exchange.

Refusing delivery/Return to sender: If you refuse delivery of your order, and/or instruct the carrier to “return to sender", all return to sender fees assessed to Balance It® from the carrier(s) will be forwarded and charged to your account/deducted from any future refund(s). The average fee is $17, but may be higher (especially for any international orders or if more than 1 bag or many pouches).

Please Note: Any sale items are FINAL SALE and cannot be returned.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@balanceit.com. You may also be interested in this shipping policy FAQ.

While this FAQ should be current, to see the most current version of our shipping policy, please visit: balance.it/terms

On August 11, 2023, we updated our automatic reorder subscription platform to give our customers more tools to manage their subscriptions. New features exist for you to create, adjust, and/or cancel your supplement subscription through your account at www.Balance.It.

Please first login or create a free Balance It^® account by clicking Login in the upper right at www.Balance.It. Then to create a new auto order or automatic reorder subscription, go to the Products page via the link in the site’s header and then click on the image of the product you would like to purchase. Once you have selected the quantity and size option you wish to purchase and get regularly, simply click the Subscribe option and choose a delivery frequency. 

Then proceed through the checkout process. Once your order is successfully placed, you will receive an automatic email notification with a link to manage your subscription within a few minutes. You can also manage your subscription by logging into your Balance It^® account and clicking the portrait avatar icon in the upper right to find a link to your Orders page.

Please note that your order total may vary with each new order as shipping, taxes, and duties are recalculated each time. The recurring total displayed at checkout will reflect the cost of the product(s) only.

On August 11, 2023, we updated our automatic reorder subscription platform to give our customers more tools to manage their auto orders or supplement subscriptions. You will see new features to create, adjust, and/or cancel your auto-order subscription yourself through your account at www.Balance.It. 

To manage your subscription, log in to your free Balance It^® account, click the portrait avatar icon in the upper right to go to your Account Information, then click Orders on the left.

On the Orders page, you will see the Manage Subscriptions/Automatic Orders option to click (details will not be blacked out like they are for privacy in the screenshot below):

Clicking this link will take you to your Subscription Management page where you will have the ability to view your previous & upcoming orders, manage your subscription (like its timing/frequency), and update your address & payment details. 

You might also be interested in the "How do I cancel my auto order or supplement subscription?" FAQ found here.

Please log into your Balance It^® account. Once logged in, please click the portrait avatar icon in the upper right to go to your Account Information, then click Orders on the left.

On this page, you will see the Manage Subscriptions/Automatic Orders option:

Clicking this link will take you to your Subscription Management page where you will have the ability to view your previous & upcoming orders, manage your subscription (like its timing/frequency), and update your address & payment details. Click Manage subscriptions:

Then Select your active subscription and click Cancel subscription at the bottom of the page:

No, unfortunately automatic reorder subscriptions can only be shipped with our free delivery option. If you need an order more quickly/expedited and/or via a carrier of your choosing, you are welcome to place a specific order outside of your subscription (and change/skip the next delivery date of your current subscription). To see how to change or skip, please see the How can I manage my new automatic reorder subscription? FAQ. To instead cancel a supplement subscription, please see the How do I cancel my auto order or supplement subscription? FAQ.