Factorial calculation of calcium and phosphorus requirements of growing dogs

Abstract

Calcium and phosphorus requirements for growing dogs can be calculated by different methods. The current standard feeding recommendations are based on experimental data derived from young giant breed puppies. In order to determine the absolute requirement, an extrapolation via metabolisable energy requirement is recommended. Another approach is to calculate the requirement factorially, taking into account the endogenous losses and the amount of calcium and phosphorus retained due to tissue accretion during growth as well as the expected availability of these nutrients. The working hypothesis was that both methods are valid and lead to comparable results in young puppies of a high mature body weight (BW). Yet, deviations for other age and mature BW groups were expected. Thus, the aim of the present study was to compare the results of both methods using exemplary puppies of different age and mature BW groups. The hypotheses could be verified for calcium. The extrapolated requirements overestimate the factorial requirements by up to 59.7% for puppies <60kg mature BW and/or >6 months of age. In case of phosphorus requirement, the deviations between both methods are overall very high in all stages. Taking into account the potentially harmful effects of calcium and phosphorus excess, the feeding recommendations based on the extrapolation should be reconsidered.

High Intake of Sodium Chloride for 28 Days Causes No Effect on Serum FGF23 Concentrations in Cats

“…The wider Ca/P faecal ratio and decrease in ∆Ca/P imply that even though the source of phosphate did not differ between groups, more phosphate was digested in the HNaCl group. These results differ from previous findings by Böswald et al (2020), who found that highly soluble phosphates led to significantly lower ∆Ca/P values in dogs [ 72 ] but not in cats [ 73 ]. A possible explanation for the higher digestibility of phosphorus in our study could be from an increase in phosphate availability due to the high sodium chloride intake.…”

True mineral digestibility in C57Bl/6J mice

“…Kienzle & Burger [3] collected literature data on intake and faecal excretion of major minerals in horses to estimate the true digestibility for these nutrients. Such data is invaluable for factorial calculation of nutrient requirements [4][5][6] and may show whether other dietary factors influence mineral digestibility [1]. For the factorial calculation of nutrient requirements, it is necessary to establish a dataset of intake and excretion of the nutient in question.…”

Analysis of mineral compounds in dry dog foods and their compliance with nutritional guidelines

“…Plays an important role in bone formation and development. Both deficiency and excess of Ca can lead to disorders in skeletal development [Dobenecker et al 2006, Mack et al 2015, Böswald et al 2019. Calcium deficiency can lead to pathological fractures.…”