A large number of meats and cuts can be used with CompleteMe Puppy. For puppies with food sensitivities or allergies needing a novel or limited protein diet, choose a meat that your puppy has never eaten before. You can also use well-tolerated meats, if you already know what your puppy does well on.

If feeding the diet long-term, we recommend introducing other proteins slowly, to see if they are tolerated. Variety is important; we recommend feeding a range of different meat types and cuts. Try to include different textures as well, for example, chunks, small strips, mince, etc.

• Poultry:
  Skinless and boneless chicken thigh, drumstick or breast, mince (2-3% fat), gizzards, hearts (fat trimmed off)
  Skinless and boneless turkey or duck breast or turkey mince (6% fat)
• Pork:
  Lean pork mince or diced pork loin with 5% fat, rump steak (trimmed)
• 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)
  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 (fat trimmed off)
• Other game meat:
  Lean kangaroo mince or steak with 2-3% fat
  Wallaby mince, striploin or boneless leg
  Wild or farmed boneless rabbit or hare meat
  Emu fan fillet, full rump or flat fillet (1-5% fat)
  Wild boar backstrap, boneless leg, or loin chops
  Crocodile, tail or leg meat (2-5% fat)
  Horse, steak or fillet (3-5% fat)
  Tahr, fillet, steak, mince or striploin (2-5% fat)
  Buffalo, very lean steak or fillet (5% fat)
  Elk striploin, boneless shoulder or mince (2-4% fat)

Unfortunately, using fish exclusively results in a diet that is too high in vitamin D, exceeding the AAFCO safe upper limit. We would therefore not recommend feeding fish exclusively as part of this recipe.

We recommend only using wild game meat occasionally, if possible. This is because of the potential risk of lead contamination of game meat shot with lead ammunition. You can read more about this here.

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

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

For fruit, try blueberries, apple, strawberries, pear, blackberries, kiwifruit, papaya, mango, peach, plum, raspberries, or pineapple. Be careful to remove all seeds, stones and pips, and don't feed toxic fruit like grapes.

For pups with allergies, we usually recommend starting simple, so don't add too many vegetables or fruit, and/or change them all the time. Similar to people, some pups may tolerate cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage or cauliflower poorly, especially in larger quantities. Zucchini, apple, spinach, carrots, green beans and sweet potato are a good place to start for most pups.

Yes, you can create a very simple diet using our recipe, with only one meat and one carbohydrate. For example, goat and sweet potato with oils and CompleteMe Puppy. Or venison and quinoa with oils and CompleteMe Puppy.

This is a traditional approach to a novel protein diet trial, and one that can work well for some puppies. However we have also seen good results with novel protein diets that include 2-3 vegetables and/or fruit as well. This enriches the diet with different types of fibre and antioxidants, and may help to improve inflammation in the gut, and promote the growth of beneficial species of gut bacteria.

This makes just over 1 kilogram of food, which can be portioned and fed immediately, or stored in the fridge (max 3 days) or freezer (max 3 months) until needed.

For puppies with allergies, we recommend marine algae oil as a source of omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), because it doesn't contain any animal-derived proteins that could be potential allergens. Here are some options to consider:

• Dog by Dr Lisa omega-3 drops
• Wanderlust plant omega-3 capsules
• Sports Research vegan omega-3 softgels
• Clinicians vegan omega-3 algae oil

When choosing a product, try to choose an algae oil with DHA and EPA. Avoid any products with added flavourings. Capsules can last longer than bottled oils, because bottled oils are exposed to more air and oxidise more quickly. Some products contain added carrageenan, which many clients may prefer to avoid.

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 wild-caught meats or pork (in areas with Trichinella, freezing for 3 weeks prior to use is sensible.
For pups with gastrointestinal signs, we routinely recommend cooking all meat, to reduce the risk of bacterial and parasitic contamination. If signs are ongoing on a raw meat diet, it is difficult to know if this is due to allergies, or problems with the raw meat.

Yes, it's fine to feed this diet to healthy puppies as well, if you would like to.