Quote:
Originally Posted by sushi_78
That's ok. I enjoyed making the database and I like to know when others find it useful 
Just one thing to be aware of when you are making a mix that includes a large quantity of a commercial mix. Most of the nutrient values for commercial mixes aren't available, i.e we don't know how much thiamin, niacin and so on are in Harry Hamster but we can assume it's a sufficient quantity because it's a complete food. But the database will assume that it's zero because the box for those nutrients is blank. This means that if you're using the Mixer and 50% of your mix is Harry Hamster and 50% of your mix is other ingredients, it will tell you that your mix is deficient in a lot of things even when it might not be (because those assumed zeros are skewing it downwards). To get around this, I would recommend putting all your added ingredients into the Mixer as if they were an stand-alone diet, checking the calculated values, and then adding Harry Hamster. Hopefully that makes sense!
If you're only making additions up to about 10-20% of the overall diet you probably don't need to be too exact with your calculations but beyond that you want to make sure you aren't unbalancing the Harry Hamster too much. |
It must have taken you a very long time doing all that research. Thank you for the tip. My partner said best to just make his own from scratch so that is what he will do. I appreciate all your help.