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. 2019 Aug 2;14(8):e0220305.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220305. eCollection 2019.

Factorial calculation of calcium and phosphorus requirements of growing dogs

Linda Franziska Böswald  1 , Carmen Klein  1 , Britta Dobenecker  1 , Ellen Kienzle  1
Affiliations

Factorial calculation of calcium and phosphorus requirements of growing dogs

Linda Franziska Böswald et al. PLoS One. .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Comparison of calcium requirement calculated according to NRC and the factorial approach.
The columns describe the factorially calculated requirement as percentage of the recommended daily allowance by NRC [23].
Fig 2
Fig 2. Comparison of phosphorus requirement calculated according to NRC and the factorial approach.
The columns describe the factorially calculated requirement as percentage of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) by NRC [23].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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