Every dog deserves a chance at life-changing health, powered by real food.

Lyka offers two plans, to help more parents make fresh food a part of mealtimes: you can choose from a Full Bowl option, or a flexible Half Bowl plan that covers half of your dog’s daily dietary needs.

Lyka's Full Bowl is the gold standard recommended by our in-house veterinary nutrition experts, with the Half Bowl option giving flexibility for your dog to enjoy real food benefits alongside their existing food.

Creating the right nutritional balance in your dog's diet takes extensive clinical experience and science, so take extra care when choosing what makes up the other half of their daily nutritional requirements. If opting for Lyka's Half Bowl, supplement it with a wholefood option from a reputable brand, or home-prepared food that's nutritious, complete, and balanced.

Safety always comes first

All dogs are different — so use these tips to guide your decision, but make sure to factor in your dog's individual needs. When introducing any new diet, monitor your pup’s health with the support of your veterinarian. They can help you detect signs of nutrition-related health issues, tailoring a feeding plan to fit your pup's requirements and your lifestyle.

Considering Half Bowl as an option for your puppy?

Growing puppies have more complex nutritional needs than adult dogs — our in-house veterinary experts highly recommend discussing other complete and balanced commercial options with your veterinarian, to sit alongside your Half Bowl.

Optimal nutrition during puppyhood is critical to ensure they grow and develop at a safe and healthy rate. Dogs are considered puppies for 12 months (for small-medium breeds) and 24 months (for large-giant breeds).

Those planning to prepare meals at home should seek advice from a board-certified veterinary nutritionist — it may be safest to wait until they’re fully grown, before considering this option.

Assessing the options to make up the other half

Home cooking or raw preparation

Home preparation can provide greater flexibility in the ingredients you use. There’s also potential for it to be cost saving, but it can become expensive or time-consuming if you’re not buying in bulk.

Lyka is low in carbohydrates and has an optimal omega 6:3 ratio. You can use online resources and meal-balancing software to ensure your dog's other half maintains a low-carbohydrate, low-omega 6:3 ratio, but these can be complex and inaccurate.

If you plan to prepare half of your dog’s food at home, consult with one of these professionals to make sure it doesn’t bring the Lyka Half Bowl portion out of balance:

• Board-certified veterinary nutritionist – these are AVCN veterinarians who specialise in nutrition.

• Pet nutritionist – these are professionals with a master’s degree in animal nutrition.

• Holistic veterinarian – with a background in nutritional counselling, and experience in home-prepared diets.

For more information, read our guide to at-home preparation.

Kibble

Whether it’s premium kibble or off the supermarket shelf, we don’t recommend this type of food. It has been known to promote inflammation in the body, and it produces harmful by-products in the manufacturing process. Despite this, kibble is still a popular choice because of its shelf stability and cost.

While kibble is less of an immediate hit to your bank account, it doesn’t come with the same level of quality – from the ingredients themselves, to the way it’s formulated. In the long-term, this could mean more veterinary bills from nutrition-related health issues like chronic digestive issues – which has been linked to feeding kibble early in life. If shelf stability is your main priority, try exploring freeze dried wholefood diets as a healthier alternative.

Your veterinarian may have recommended dental kibble approved by the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC), to form part of your dog’s dental home care. Regular kibble’s ability to clean teeth has been debunked, with authorities like AAFCO making an official statement that: “dry food foods do not necessarily produce healthier teeth and gums.” At Lyka, we recommend other dental health strategies like brushing your dog’s teeth.

If you’re set on kibble, here’s what to keep in mind. Achieve as many of these as you can, looking for products that:

• Mention a specific meat ingredient first – not a meat by-product or “meal”, which means the meat comes from a low-quality source.

• Have a lower glycaemic index with no beet pulp, no cereal grains, and limited legume content to avoid causing inflammation. Look for ingredients like sweet potato.

• Contain the optimal balance of omega 6:3, avoiding kibble with a ratio of 7:1 or more. Make sure the brand includes marine DHA and EPA sources of omega 3 (like fish oil) – rather than only using plant-based sources of ALA (like flaxseed or soyabean oil).

• Contain prebiotics like fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), psyllium husk, mannan oligosaccharides (MOS), inulin, and chicory. Prebiotics are functional ingredients that support microbiome health, by encouraging the growth of beneficial microorganisms in the digestive system.

• Include antioxidant-rich ingredients like turmeric, rosemary, and parsley.

• Avoid GMO soy, corn, and wheat. GMOs come with a potential risk of glyphosate contamination, and insufficient studies prove that GMOs are safe for dogs.

Kibble contains as little as 6% moisture content (compared to Lyka at approximately 70%), meaning there’s a higher risk of your dog becoming dehydrated. You can wet the kibble to increase the moisture content, serving within one hour: wet kibble can grow pathogens very quickly.

How to safely add variety to your dog’s daily diet

Like us, our dogs love new textures and tastes: it’s perfectly fine to treat your pup to something special on occasion, provided the food is properly portioned and safe for dogs.

Wholefood chewing aids and bones

Bones can make a great addition to your dog’s diet, with benefits for dental health and mental enrichment. If you’d like to give your dog a bone once or twice a week, you can: even on Lyka’s Full Bowl plan. Our meals are formulated with safe Calcium and Phosphorus ratios, which means there’s no risk of skeletal growth issues that can come from too much calcium in the diet.

Speak to your veterinarian to learn more about whether bones and other dental chews are appropriate for your dog. Never feed cooked bones.

Does my dog need supplements?

There are two types of nutritional supplements:

1. Supplements for safe preparation at home

If you’re feeding home-prepared meals to your pup, and not adding bones, sardines, eggs, and offal, you will need to add a variety of micronutrient supplements to their daily diet. This can add extra expense and is one reason the Lyka Full Bowl may be a better option for you.

2. Supplements to amplify complete and balanced diets

Nutritional supplements can provide targeted support, for dogs with health conditions — but also for preventative health. Synbiotics, for example, may help pups with gastrointestinal issues, green-lipped sea mussel is a useful supplement for osteoarthritis, and L-theanine and L-tryptophan may be helpful for dogs with behavioural issues. Lyka’s Supplements contain potent, targeted active ingredients to address common health concerns, while boosting the benefits of Lyka meals.

Discuss supplementation with a veterinarian that offers additional therapies like herbal medicine, food therapy, and naturopathy.

Treats and toppers

Dogs love variety — treats and toppers can help you change things up every now and then. You can achieve this with a healthy dog treat (these should form no more than 10% of their daily caloric intake), or by adding the following mix to their food:

• ¼ tsp turmeric powder

• 3 organic blueberries

• ½ tsp fresh curly leaf parsley

This is for a 10kg dog per day, so you may need to adjust these amounts to suit your dog’s weight. It’s safe to add these superfoods to a Full Bowl portion of Lyka too.

Bring more joy to mealtimes with Lyka

Delicious and nutritious food brings us together. Serving Lyka is a daily ritual for thousands of pups and their parents — defined by the joy of pre-mealtime zoomies and bowls licked clean.

Take the guesswork out of meal times with protein-rich, custom-portioned servings formulated to help your pup thrive. Each Lyka meal goes above and beyond AAFCO and FEDIAF standards, making it a convenient real food option that saves time and money without sacrificing safety.

From better skin to balanced digestion, Lyka is vet-formulated real food that puts your dog's health and happiness first.

Whether you opt for our Half or Full Bowl plan, you can give your pup the optimal combination of nutrients for tip-top health and vitality. Ready to introduce your dog to the goodness of real food? Try Lyka's Starter Box or get in touch with our Customer Care team today.