For dogs with early cardiac disease, we recommend lean, high quality meats with 2-6% fat, to ensure that the diet is high in protein. This may improve palatability and help to maintain muscle mass.

• Poultry:
  Skinless and boneless chicken thigh, drumstick or breast, chicken breast mince (2-3% fat), gizzards, hearts (fat trimmed off)
  Skinless and boneless turkey breast or turkey mince (6% fat)
• Pork:
  Lean pork mince or diced pork loin with 5% fat, pork tenderloin/fillet
• Lamb, beef, goat, or venison:
  Extra-lean diced lamb or goat meat (including heart or tongue) with 5% fat
  Lean venison fillet or steak (e.g. shoulder, backstrap, rump eye, leg steak) or lean venison mince (6% fat)
  Extra-lean (5 star) beef mince, gravy or chuck beef with 5% fat, blade, round or rump steak (fat trimmed off), eye fillet or topside roast or steak (fat trimmed off)
  Lamb or beef heart (all fat trimmed off)
• Game meat:
  Lean kangaroo mince or steak with 2-3% fat
  Wild or farmed boneless rabbit or hare meat
  Emu fan fillet, full rump or flat fillet (1-3% fat)
  Wild boar backstrap, boneless leg, or loin chops
  Wallaby mince, striploin or boneless leg
  Buffalo steak or fillet (3-5% fat)
• Fish:
  Skinless and boneless white fish fillets, like whiting, hoki, ling, or barramundi
  (please don't feed fish exclusively)

For vegetables, try pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, green peas, carrot, zucchini, squash, spinach, kale, turnips, parsnips, watercress, Asian greens, mushrooms, tomato, capsicum or cabbage.

For fruit, try strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apple, pear, banana, mango, peach, plum, kiwifruit, guava, papaya, pineapple, watermelon, rockmelon or honeydew melon. Please be very careful to remove any pits or stones, and avoid toxic fruit like grapes, raisins or currants.  

​Both fresh and frozen vegetables are fine. We recommend steaming or microwaving for most vegetables, however baking can also work well sometimes, especially for root vegetables.

It is a myth that dogs are frequently allergic to grains; in fact, an allergy to grains is quite uncommon. Whole grains are energy-dense and economical, as well as being rich in essential nutrients and fibre. They can be a very valuable addition to your dog's diet, especially for large to giant-breed dogs needing a big volume of food per day.

Some options to consider:

• Quinoa or amaranth
• Brown rice, black rice, white rice or red rice
• Rolled oats (avoid instant oats)
• Pearled barley
• Wholewheat pasta
• Teff or couscous
• Buckwheat

Avoid millet, which contains compounds that can cause thyroid problems. For any included grains, it is important to ensure they are cooked very thoroughly to ensure they are highly digestible. For rice, we recommend occasional use, and cooking in lots of water on the stove to reduce the arsenic content.

You can buy fish oil, krill oil and marine algae oil locally, from Chemist Warehouse, in Australia and NZ.

• Swisse Ultiboost wild fish oil 1000 mg capsules
• Microgenics krill oil 1000 mg capsules
• Wanderlust plant omega-3 1000 mg capsules

Other brands can be purchased via iHerb - for example, Sports Research, Now Foods, Solgar, Nordic Naturals, Carlson, or California Gold Nutrition. It is fine to use human products, so long as there are no added artificial sweeteners.

For help with using fish oil capsules and some tips and tricks, please see this blog post.

You can include the meat raw or cooked, depending on preference. For raw human-grade meat, be sure to freeze the meat for 10 days prior to use. For pork (in areas with Trichinella), freezing for 3 weeks prior to use is sensible. Please discuss raw-feeding with your dog's veterinarian; raw feeding is not suitable for all dogs or households.

For a low fat diet, select leaner proteins. The following are the lowest fat combinations:

• Turkey breast + sweet potato, potato, or white rice:
  18.5% fat on a caloric basis
• Emu, flat fillet + sweet potato, potato, or white rice:
  17.6% fat on a caloric basis
• White fish + sweet potato, potato, or white rice:
  20.4% fat on a caloric basis
• Kangaroo fillet/steak + sweet potato, potato, or white rice:
  17.5% fat on a caloric basis
• Chicken breast + sweet potato, potato, or white rice:
  23.3% fat on a caloric basis

Please include all other ingredients (including the oils), as per the ingredients list above. For reference, commercial prescription low-fat diets have 17-20% calories from fat.

Try to choose low sodium treats that are rich in antioxidants, like carrot sticks, berries, papaya, kiwifruit, or capsicum. Omega-3-rich treats like freeze-dried green-lipped mussels or boneless white fish can be given occasionally, in small amounts. Dehydrated or freeze-dried grass-fed or pastured meat treats, like grass-fed beef or kangaroo steak, are also good choices.

Avoid high sodium foods like cheese, nut butters, bacon, sausage, chips, pizza, or other processed snacks. Also avoid foods with added soy sauce or other salty sauces or broths.