What is the nutrient composition of HILARY'S BLEND (formerly THE BALANCER) supplement?

The exact composition of HILARY'S BLEND supplement is a trade secret. Its composition is quite different from traditional pet supplements.

HILARY'S BLEND supplement is specifically designed, using food formulation software, to balance the home-made recipes featured in the book Complete & Balanced: 101 Healthy Home-made Meals for Dogs by Hilary Watson. The nutrient content of the supplement itself is not as important as the nutrient content of the supplement when combined with the recipes in the book. It is the supplement + recipe that the dog will consume, so it is the supplement + recipe's nutrient content that is relevant. Each recipe in the book has a nutrition table listing 43 different nutrients on an as fed, dry matter and per 1000 kcal basis. These values can be compared to the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles, which provide the basis for making a claim of "complete and balanced" nutrition.


What are the ingredients in HILARY'S BLEND (formerly THE BALANCER) supplement?

Here is the ingredient list for HILARY'S BLEND supplement:

Chicory root extract, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, choline bitartrate, zinc sulfate, iron sulfate, vitamin E succinate, sodium chloride, magnesium oxide, manganese citrate, calcium D-pantothenate, copper sulfate, niacin (vitamin B3), riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B12, potassium iodide, vitamin D3, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), folic acid.

Chicory root extract is pre-biotic fibre (promotes the beneficial bacteria in the gut at the expense of harmful bacteria). The rest of the ingredients are bioavailable sources of essential vitamins and minerals (all with digestibility greater than 95%). All human-grade. This supplement meets all criteria for being sold as a human vitamin-mineral supplement. No fillers, no preservatives, no flavourings.

 

My dog has allergies. Can I feed HILARY'S BLEND (formerly THE BALANCER) supplement to my dog?

Yes. The most common allergens for dogs are the proteins contained in meat, fish, dairy or cereal ingredients. There are no meats, fish, dairy products or cereals in HILARY'S BLEND supplement. The only plant ingredient in HILARY'S BLEND supplement is chicory root extract. This ingredient is an extract which is more than 75% inulin, a pre-biotic fiber. This ingredient is almost 100% carbohydrate, and contains only trace amounts of protein. All of the other ingredients in the supplement are purified sources of essential vitamins and minerals. This supplement is 100% hypoallergenic and can be safely fed to dogs suffering from allergies.

 

Can I use HILARY'S BLEND (formerly THE BALANCER) supplement with my own home-made recipes?

No. HILARY'S BLEND supplement is specifically designed, using food formulation software, to balance the home-made recipes featured in the book Complete & Balanced: 101 Healthy Home-made Meals for Dogs by Hilary Watson. This supplement should only be fed in conjunction with the recipes in this book. It will not balance other recipes.

 

How are your recipes formulated?

Commercial pet food companies use food formulation software to formulate complete and balanced dry (kibble) and canned diets. There are a number of different software programs available. Over the past 20 years, I have personally used Brill, Genesis and Winfeed. Brill is the program used by most pet food and livestock feed companies. It is a very versatile program that is particularly useful for least-cost formulating. Genesis is the software used by most human food companies (ie Heinz, Kraft etc). It is used to produce the nutritional labels that appear on human food products. For the recipes in my book, I used Winfeed, which is a software program developed in the UK. I use Winfeed for both home-made recipe formulation and for formulating commercial kibble recipes. I prefer this software because it allows me to do stochastic formulation. Stochastic formulation is based not just on the mean nutrient content of the ingredients but also on their standard deviations. This allows for much greater accuracy in predicting the nutrient content of the final recipe.

Food formulation software works as follows: potential ingredients are entered into a database. This database includes all nutrients of interest, for example all the essential nutrients defined by AAFCO, as well as non-essential nutrients, for example antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids etc. Targets can be set for the final recipe (ie AAFCO Nutrient Requirements for dogs). The software can then be used to generate a "complete and balanced" recipe. Of course, it's a little more complicated than that, but in fact, the process is the same whether you are developing complete and balanced kibble or complete and balanced home-made recipes. The only difference is the ingredients contained in the database.

I have been formulating complete and balanced pet foods for more than two decades. I created my first cat food recipe in 1987 and have created hundreds of recipes since then. I still earn a living as a pet nutrition consultant formulating recipes for pet food companies, both traditional kibble and also raw pet food companies, who are interested in improving their current recipes. If you want the best recipes delivering the highest quality nutrition, you should only trust a qualified and experienced pet nutritionist to develop recipes for your dog.

 

Can I mix home-made recipes with dog kibble?

Yes. If you mix a "complete and balanced" kibble with a "complete and balanced" home-made recipe, the mixture will deliver "complete and balanced" nutrition. Owners who wish to add some fresh human foods to their dog's regular kibble diet can easily do this using the recipes in the book.

Owners should make up an entire home-made recipe as per the instructions in the book (including HILARY'S BLEND supplement), to yield a kilogram of food. Then that kilogram of home-made food can be mixed with kibble in whatever proportion the owner wishes. Make sure to reduce the amount of kibble accordingly. For example, an owner could feed kibble at half the usual serving plus a home-made recipe at half the recommended feeding and this would provide the dog with a complete and balanced meal.

Improving the nutrition of your dog is not an all-or-nothing thing. If you prepare one meal/week using human food ingredients, you will improve the health of your dog. If you substitute 1/10th of your dog's calories from kibble with the same calories from a complete and balanced home-prepared meal, you will improve the health of your dog. Obviously, the more meals you prepare yourself, the greater the benefit to the dog, but this way of feeding doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. You can derive great benefits from small changes.

 

Can I substitute ingredients in your recipes with other ingredients?

No. Any substitution changes the ingredient balance and will affect the nutrient content of the recipe. While some substitutions will not have a huge impact (ie substituting some vegetables for others for example), other substitutions will have a fairly significant impact on mineral balance or on the level of one or more essential nutrients. One type of meat should not be substituted with a different type of meat since this will change the calcium to phosphorus ratio in the complete recipe. Safflower oil supplies essential omega-6 fatty acids, salmon oil supplies omega-3 fatty acids, and cod liver oil supplies omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D. You can replace salmon oil with safflower oil and although this will change the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, it will not cause any nutritional deficiencies. Safflower oil and cod liver oil both supply essential nutrients and should be included as instructed by the recipe.

Ideally, to provide optimal nutrition, recipes should be followed as closely as possible.

 

Can I feed your recipes raw?

Some, but not all of the recipes in the recipe book can be fed raw.

The recipes all provide both a raw and cooked weights for meat ingredients, so owners wishing to feed raw meats can make the recipe using the raw meat weight instead of the cooked meat weight. (The feeding guides are designed for cooked weights. You will need to feed slightly more grams/day of the same recipe served raw).

Not all of the recipe ingredients are suitable for raw feeding. Many recipes include cereal ingredients (such as brown long-grain rice or oatmeal) which should always be cooked prior to feeding. Many contain tomato sauce, a cooked source of the antioxidant lycopene. The recipes that contain these ingredients typically also contain many raw fruits and vegetables. In fact, very few recipes in the book are 100% cooked.

There is a section in the recipe book which discusses cooked vs raw feeding. Many, but not all, of the recipes can be fed raw if the owner chooses to do so. For a list of recipes that can be served raw, click here.

 

What is the shelf life of HILARY'S BLEND (formerly THE BALANCER) supplement?

Because the supplement contains only purified human grade ingredients, and the carrier is an extract, the product has a very long shelf life. If it is properly stored at room temperature, it retains full potency for up to 3 years from the date of bottling. Of course, we turnover our stock far more frequently (ie every 2-3 months) so the supplement sold is always fresh. Each bottle has the expiry date printed on it.

 

Where can I buy HILARY'S BLEND (formerly THE BALANCER) supplement and/or recipe book?

HILARY'S BLEND supplement is available only through your veterinarian. All veterinarians in Canada can now order my book and supplement through their veterinary buying groups. Veterinarians can order my book and supplement for you from CDMV or Veterinary Purchasing if they are in Ontario, from CDMV if they are in Quebec or the Maritimes, from MVP in Manitoba, from CDMV and WDDC in Alberta and from AVP in British Columbia. If your veterinarian does not currently carry the supplement, please ask them to order it for you. If you are reluctant to ask your veterinarian to order my products, please contact me and I will be happy to speak to your veterinarian on your behalf.

My recipe book and supplement will never be sold in pet food stores or grocery stores.

 

What kind of quality control do you have?

HILARY'S BLEND supplement is produced by a human nutraceutical facility. Human food facilities have much higher quality control standards than pet food companies (see explanation below regarding human food standards). Any product being produced for human consumption must meet government requirements for ingredient quality and for controlled blending and packaging. HILARY'S BLEND supplement is a human food product produced under the highest quality control standards.

These standards have 4 components:

1) First, all ingredients to be used in HILARY'S BLEND supplement are quarantined upon their arrival at the nutraceutical company. They are each analyzed for potency and purity before they are released from quarantine for use in the supplement.

2) Second, the blended supplement is quarantined prior to being bottled. The blended mix is tested for nutrient content to ensure that it meets nutrient specifications. Once it has passed this analysis, it is then bottled.

3) Third, a few bottles are randomly sampled from each run and tested for their nutrient content, again to ensure that they meet nutrient specifications.

4) Finally, several bottles from each run are retained by both the nutraceutical company and by HW Veterinary Nutrition Inc. to ensure that samples are available from every product run should we receive any customer complaints.

 

Why is HILARY'S BLEND (formerly THE BALANCER) supplement more expensive than some other pet supplements?

When comparing prices, it's important to remember 4 things about HILARY'S BLEND supplement:
1) It is a human food product.
2) It is 100% pharmaceutical grade (not nutraceutical grade).
3) It is 100% active (ie it contains no fillers).
4) It is much more concentrated than most supplements.

1) HILARY'S BLEND supplement is a human food product. The term "human grade" can be misleading. Human grade does not just apply to the source of an ingredient, but also to the entire supply chain. Obviously human grade ingredients must be sourced from human grade suppliers. However, they must also be transported in trucks that are exclusively used to transport human foods. They must be warehoused in warehouses exclusively designated for human foods. They must be blended and packaged in certified human food facilities. If a "human grade" ingredient leaves the human food supply chain (is transported in a non certified truck for example), it is no longer considered human grade. It cannot re-enter the human food supply chain and it can no longer be sold as fit for human consumption. In other words, if a pet food company buys a "human grade" ingredient, then brings it into its pet food facility, that ingredient is no longer considered human grade. Pet food companies often claim that their products contain human grade ingredients. Typically this means that they have purchased some of their ingredients from human food suppliers, but this does NOT mean that their pet foods are fit for human consumption.

Human grade supplements typically cost 5 to 10 times more than the equivalent supplement in pet grade. This increased cost is not just due to higher priced ingredients. There is a significant cost associated with the more stringent QA requirements for human foods. Pet food companies are subject to far fewer regulations or inspections than human food facilities.

HILARY'S BLEND supplement is 100% fit for human consumption. It contains 100% human grade ingredients that were transported by human food trucks, warehoused in human food facilities, and blended and packaged in a government regulated human food facility. Its ingredients are similar in quality to those found in name-brand human multi-vitamins such as Centrum®, One-a-Day® or Flintstone's®. HILARY'S BLEND supplement meets all government requirements for being sold as a human supplement in a grocery or drug store.

2) HILARY'S BLEND supplement contains only ingredients that are pharmaceutical grade. The pharmaceutical industry in Canada is highly regulated. The nutraceutical industry is not nearly as regulated as the pharmaceutical industry. Using only pharmaceutical grade ingredients ensure that each ingredient is tested for purity and potency before it is used in my supplement. You can rest assured that the quality and safety of my supplement is guaranteed because of the very high quality control standards that apply to the human pharmaceutical industry.

3) HILARY'S BLEND supplement contains no fillers. It is 100% active ingredients. Most pet supplements contain fillers or flavor enhancers. Many human supplements also contain fillers. Read the label and check the ingredient list. The first ingredient in HILARY'S BLEND supplement is chicory root extract, an expensive extract which is more than 75% pre-biotic fiber. Following chicory root extract on the ingredient list are 20 bioavailable purified sources of 20 essential vitamins and minerals. There are no fillers in this supplement. Every ingredient serves a purpose and actively contributes to the health of the dog. Check the ingredient list of competitive products. Most contain inexpensive fillers and carriers, such as rice hulls or cellulose which are both insoluble fibre that have no nutritional value. Some pet supplements are up to 95% filler.

4) HILARY'S BLEND supplement is more concentrated than most supplements (see chart below for a few examples). 15-20 grams of HILARY'S BLEND supplement makes about a kilogram of home-made dog food (1.5-2% inclusion rate). A 350g bottle will make approximately 20 kilograms of food which would last a 40lb dog approximately a month. The vitamin and mineral levels in HILARY'S BLEND supplement are very different from those of other vitamin mineral supplements. Commercial vitamin and mineral pet supplements are intended for pets being fed commercial pet foods. Virtually all commercial pet foods are formulated to meet AAFCO minimum nutrient guidelines, so they already contain all essential vitamins and minerals that a dog needs. Because many minerals and some vitamins can be toxic at high intakes, pet supplements designed to be fed in association with complete and balanced commercial pet foods must contain low enough levels of these nutrients to be safe when fed with any complete and balanced commercial pet food. For this reason, they have relatively low concentrations of most vitamins and minerals. In fact, some pet supplements are up to 95% filler. Read the ingredient list to check for fillers.


Can you produce custom home-made recipes for my dog?

I can formulate custom recipes for veterinarians making a request for a client. There is a small charge for this service but it is only available to veterinarians. If you are a dog owner who wants custom recipes for your particular dog, please download this Custom Recipe Application Form, fill it out and ask your veterinarian to fax it to Hilary Watson at 519-763-6682. Please allow up to two weeks for a response.

 

I own a cat. Do you have a home-made recipe book and supplement for cats?

Not yet. Cats are far more finicky than dogs. Nutritional content is not enough - the recipes also must be of a texture that cats enjoy. We're working on recipes for cats right now and will add this to the website whenever they are available.