Unlike a face-to-face appointment, my dog nutrition consultations are carried out online. This approach is a little different to what you may be used to with your vet, but the consultation itself runs in much the same way. To clarify the process, I’ve outlined the steps below and how we’ll work together to support your dog’s diet and overall health. At the end, you’ll also find answers to some of the most common questions I’m asked, so you know exactly what to expect before booking.
Step 1: Learning about you & your dog
When you book your dog’s nutrition consultation, the first thing you’ll receive is a detailed intake form to complete and return to me. This covers your dog’s medical and diet history, your dog’s lifestyle and food preferences etc, and any concerns you may have. As part of gathering as much information as possible about your dog, I may also ask for the veterinary history, test results, and other records.
Step 2: Formulating the diet
Having this information allows me to create a fully bespoke diet. The diet will be balanced to NRC requirements – as every home-prepared diet should be. Unlike AAFCO or FEDIAF, which provide broad guidelines, NRC values are based on individual nutrient needs, making them the most appropriate standard for personalised nutrition.
Step 3: What you’ll receive
The consultaion includes a tailored recipe with a full nutritional breakdown, guidance on transitioning your dog, and practical FAQs such as ingredient substitutions and supplement advice. I will also outline the nutritional goals of the recipe and why those features are appropriate for your dog.
Step 4: Implementing your dog’s new diet
Once you have received the recipe, we get to implement it and monitor how your dog responds to it. For dogs with specific health issues, I may also ask for updates on test results (e.g. urine pH, blood work etc).
Step 5: Follow-up support
Your consultation includes one hour of follow-up, covering email support and any necessary diet revisions. Most dogs settle into their new diet within this time. However, if your dog needs a little extra support, I provide this at my standard hourly rate.
Some changes can be seen quite quickly — for example, improvements in energy levels, stool quality, or appetite may appear within a couple of weeks. Other benefits, such as changes in weight, coat condition, or blood test values, can take several weeks to months, depending on your dog’s health and the reason for the new diet. Every dog is different, so part of the consultation follow-up is monitoring progress and adjusting the plan as needed.
Yes, in theory, you can create a balanced home-prepared dog diet without supplements, but in practice, it’s rarely possible. Meeting every nutrient requirement through food alone would require a wide variety of ingredients, which can be costly, hard to source, or unpalatable to your dog. Carefully chosen supplements fill these nutrient gaps, ensuring your dog eats a healthy and balanced diet.
Yes, one of the many benefits of a homemade diet is that it can be tailored to address several health concerns at the same time. In cases where a dog has multiple health issues with conflicting nutritional needs, the diet is always formulated first for the more immediately serious disease. From there, we adjust as much as possible to support the other condition(s) too. This way your dog still gets a safe, balanced diet that’s designed around their unique health needs.
Yes! Online dog nutrition consultations follow the same structure as face-to-face appointments but offer greater flexibility — no travel, less stress for your dog, and still highly personalised. Research in human healthcare has shown that remote consultations can be just as effective as in-person ones for many conditions. In fact, this is especially true for me, because my diets are formulated using your dog’s medical history and your vet’s diagnostic results, rather than relying on a physical examination.
NRC recommendations are based on a dog’s body weight (kg^0.75), which makes it ideal for tailoring diets to each individual dog. FEDIAF and AAFCO use a more general, energy-based format (per 1,000 kcal). This works well for commercial diets, where a single food needs to suit a wide range of dogs. While FEDIAF is updated more often, its core values still come from NRC. This is why NRC guidelines should always be the standard when formulating personalised homemade dog diets.
I hope you found this blog helpful in answering some of your questions, and an online consultation doesn’t seem so scary or impersonal now. If you have any questions or would like help choosing the best consultation for your dog, please feel free to contact me.
I look forward to working with you and your dog.
Kristina
About the author:
Kristina Johansen, MSc cand. (Animal Nutrition), Cert ACN, is a dog nutritionist with over 15 years' of experience. She's a member of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition (AAVN) and the European Society of Veterinary & Comparative Nutrition (ESVCN). She specialises in home-prepared dog diets that meet NRC guidelines.
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