Adding an animal

Enter the animal's details. Weight and body condition decide the calorie target for every recipe you build for it, so they are the two to get right.

The fields

• Name: required.
• Weight (lb): current weight in pounds. The engine converts to kilograms itself.
• Species: dog, adult maintenance. It is the only profile available today, so the box is fixed.
• Body condition: at ideal weight, overweight, underweight, or not at ideal weight (other). This picks the energy factor; see Daily energy and batch size.
• Neutered / spayed: intact dogs burn more energy, so an intact dog at ideal weight gets a higher daily calorie target. If you leave it unset, the dog is treated as neutered.
• Is your dog exhibiting… (your own animals): tick Healthy, or each health condition your dog has.
  • Healthy: tick the box confirming your dog is a healthy adult and that you take responsibility for the diet. No veterinarian is needed.
  • Any condition: add your veterinarian's name and email (practice optional) and tick that you will work with them for approval. Recipes are checked against the conditions as a preview; when a recipe is ready, send it to your veterinarian from the recipe page. Their approval confirms the conditions and the recipe. One of the two boxes is required before you build or save recipes for the animal.
• Notes: free text for you; the engine does not read it.

Things that look wrong and are not

• Changing neutered status changed the target. That is expected for a dog at ideal weight: intact dogs need more energy.
• Ticking a condition made the veterinarian fields required. Health conditions need a licensed veterinarian's approval (FDA CPG Sec. 690.150), so you name your veterinarian and send them the recipe.
• An error about the number of animals. The Owner plan includes 3. Upgrade on Billing to add more.
• Puppies, pregnant or nursing dogs, cats. Not supported yet. Do not use the adult maintenance profile for them: their requirements are different.