Vitamin and Mineral Supplement for Homemade Dog Food: Why DAFY Chose V-Integra

July 18, 2026

Firstly why I care so much about balanced homemade feeding

I’m Gaia Musotti, founder of DAFY Nutrition. I’m a certified canine nutritionist, I’ve worked in dog nutrition for the past five years, and I have recently completed a Master in Dog and Cat Nutrition at the University of Teramo in Italy.

I created DAFY because I know how confusing dog nutrition can feel when you are just trying to do the right thing for your dog.

Homemade feeding is a perfect example.

It can be a brilliant way to feed a dog, but only when it is done properly. And that is the part that often gets missed.

A bowl can look healthy from the outside. Meat, vegetables, rice, sweet potato, oils… it can all look fresh, colourful and natural.

But that does not automatically mean the diet is complete and balanced.

Dogs do not just need good ingredients. They need the right nutrients, in the right amounts, every day.

And this is where so many owners get stuck.

They want to cook for their dog, but they do not want to guess. They also do not want to sit with spreadsheets, nutrient tables and five different supplements just to make one recipe work.

That is where my search for a more practical vitamin and mineral supplement for homemade dog food started.

The problem with many homemade diet supplements

Over the past few years, I have looked at a lot of supplements and balancers for homemade dog food.

Some can be useful when they are used in the right way, but I kept seeing the same problem.

They were often made to sound like you could add them to any homemade bowl and suddenly the diet would be complete.

But that is not how nutrition works.

You cannot put together a random bowl of meat, vegetables, rice, sweet potato or pasta, add a scoop of supplement and assume your dog is getting everything they need.

A supplement only makes sense when it is used as part of a formulated recipe.

The ingredients, calories, oils, supplement amount and feeding quantity all need to work together. If you change the protein, remove an oil, swap the carbohydrate, change the portion size or use a different supplement, you change the recipe and the nutrients in it.

And that is why homemade feeding can feel so difficult.

It is not because owners do not care. Most of the time, it is the opposite. They care so much that they want to do it properly, but they are trying to make sense of something that genuinely needs structure.

Before I found V-Integra, it felt like there were two main options.

Either follow recipes online that looked healthy but were not properly balanced, or try to buy several separate supplements and somehow work out the balance yourself.

Neither felt like a good enough answer for normal dog owners cooking at home.

How I discovered V-Integra

I first came across V-Integra while I was in Italy, my home country, on holiday with Rusty.

Rusty eats homemade food, so while we were there I needed to prepare a fresh batch for him. And that made me think.

I always struggled to find a proper homemade diet balancer in the UK, but maybe someone in Italy had created one already.

So I started searching, and that is when I found Vetekipp, the Italian company behind V-Integra.

What stood out straight away was that V-Integra was not being sold as a magic powder to “fix” any bowl. It was designed to be used as part of a properly formulated homemade diet.

And that was very important for me. Because the missing piece I had been looking for was not just another dog multivitamin. It was a vitamin and mineral supplement that could make home cooking more practical, without ignoring the science behind formulation.

Why V-Integra felt different

I did not want to bring just another supplement to the UK. I wanted something I would actually use in DAFY’s DIY homemade dog food recipes. Something that could make home cooking more practical for dog owners, without turning it into guesswork.

V-Integra stood out because it was formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and developed by Vetekipp, a company connected to the University of Padua in Italy.

It was created specifically for homemade diets.

It is not a general health supplement, and it is not designed to be sprinkled randomly onto food. It is a vitamin and mineral supplement that helps complete a recipe when it is used in the correct amount, with the correct ingredients, oils and feeding quantity.

I also liked the way the product itself had been thought through.

The vitamins in V-Integra are microencapsulated, which helps protect them and support stability over time. Vetekipp also carries out quality testing to check the consistency of the product.

Why I decided to bring V-Integra to the UK

There are a lot of dog owners in the UK who want to feed better.

Some want to move fully to homemade food. Some want to start with 50/50 feeding, using part complete commercial food and part homemade. Others simply want to add more fresh food, but in a way that feels safer and more structured.

But wanting to home cook and knowing how to do it properly are two very different things.

A lot of advice online makes it sound simple: “just add fresh food” or “just add a supplement”.

But if homemade food becomes a meaningful part of your dog’s diet, it needs to be balanced properly. Otherwise, even with the best intentions, the overall diet can become unbalanced over time.

That is why I wanted UK dog owners to have access to a vitamin and mineral supplement that could be used properly, as part of formulated homemade recipes.

What is V-Integra?

V-Integra is a vitamin and mineral supplement designed for homemade diets.

It helps provide nutrients that can be difficult to cover consistently through whole foods alone, including calcium, iodine, zinc, copper, manganese, vitamin D and vitamin E.

It does not replace fresh ingredients. It works alongside them.

In a properly formulated recipe, the fresh ingredients, oils, V-Integra and feeding amounts all have a job.

That is why the recipe needs to be followed as a full system, not treated as separate parts.

How V-Integra works in DAFY’s DIY homemade recipes

All DAFY recipes are formulated by me and reviewed by a veterinary nutritionist before publication.

They are designed for healthy adult dogs and built around recognised nutritional guidelines.

V-Integra is included because the recipes have been formulated with it. So it is not an optional extra.

If you remove it, swap it for a different supplement or change the amount, the recipe is no longer the same nutritionally.

The same applies to the oils, ingredients and feeding amounts.

Each part of the recipe has a purpose and together they are what make the diet complete and balanced when prepared as instructed.

Each recipe tells you exactly what to use, how much to use, which oils to add, how much V-Integra to include and how much to feed per day.

The goal is simple: to make home cooking clearer, more practical and easier to follow properly at home.

Why V-Integra is not a “sprinkle on anything” supplement

This is one of the most important things to understand about V-Integra.

It is not designed to be sprinkled onto any homemade bowl.

It needs to be used as part of a formulated recipe, in the correct amount.

How much V-Integra a dog needs depends on the recipe, the feeding amount, the dog’s details and whether the diet is 100% homemade or 50/50 with a complete commercial food.

That is why DAFY recipes do not leave this for owners to work out themselves.

If you choose 50/50, the recipe calculates the exact amounts of food to feed in grams based on your dog’s weight, activity level, the calories in your commercial food and the DAFY recipe you selected.

The goal is simple: less guessing, more guidance.

How to use V-Integra correctly

V-Integra is simple to use, but it needs to be added at the right time.

First, prepare the homemade food by following your recipe.

Once the food has been cooked, cooled and you are ready to serve it, add the correct amount of V-Integra and mix it in well before feeding.

Do not heat or reheat V-Integra with the food, as heat can affect some vitamins. It should also not be frozen.

If you batch cook, cook and portion the food first. Then add V-Integra at feeding time, just before serving.

A gradual introduction over three weeks is recommended, especially for dogs who are sensitive to diet changes.

Is V-Integra suitable for dogs with allergies or sensitivities?

V-Integra does not contain animal-derived proteins, which can make it useful in homemade diets where certain animal proteins need to be avoided.

That said, the supplement alone does not make a diet suitable for allergies, sensitivities or medical conditions.

The full recipe still needs to be right for the dog.

If your dog has diagnosed allergies, pancreatitis, kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease or ongoing digestive issues, they need an individual diet formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.

DAFY’s current DIY homemade recipes are designed for healthy adult dogs only.

Does V-Integra include omega 3s?

V-Integra provides vitamins and minerals, but it does not replace the oils used in the recipe.

This is because essential fatty acids need to be considered separately when formulating a homemade diet.

In DAFY recipes, you may see V-Integra, a plant oil and sometimes a marine omega-3 source, such as fish oil, included in the same recipe.

They are not doing the same job.

V-Integra helps with vitamins and minerals.
Plant oil provides linoleic acid, an essential omega-6 fatty acid.
Fish oil provides EPA and DHA, important omega-3 fatty acids.

So if your recipe includes all three, it's because each one has a different role.

Is V-Integra only for dogs?

No. V-Integra has different formulas for different species, life stages and nutritional needs.

DAFY recipes currently use V-Integra Adult Dog, because the recipes we have launched are designed for healthy adult dogs.

The wider V-Integra range also includes formulas for cats, kittens, puppies, senior dogs and specific veterinary nutritional needs, such as renal and hepatic support.

So if your dog or cat needs a different V-Integra formula because of their life stage or a health condition, I would recommend working with a veterinary nutritionist to create the right recipe for them.

This is one of the reasons V-Integra stood out to me. It is not a one-size-fits-all supplement. It has different formulas designed for different nutritional situations.

Why we chose V-Integra for all DAFY Recipes

We chose V-Integra because it fits the way we believe homemade dog food should be done.

Not guessed.
Not copied from a random bowl online.
Not balanced with supplements that were never designed for that recipe.

DAFY’s DIY homemade dog food recipes are formulated, reviewed by a veterinary nutritionist and written with clear instructions so owners know exactly what to do.

The goal is to make home cooking more realistic for people who want to feed fresh food, but do not want to formulate a diet from scratch.

V-Integra helps us do that in a practical way.

Instead of asking owners to buy several different supplements just to make one recipe work, we can build the recipe around one vitamin and mineral blend designed specifically for homemade diets.

That is why we decided not only to use V-Integra in DAFY recipes, but also to bring it to the UK ourselves.

We wanted UK dog owners to have access to the same product we trusted enough to build our recipes around.

Where to buy V-Integra in the UK

V-Integra is now available in the UK through DAFY Nutrition.

You can buy it on its own if you already have a properly formulated recipe that uses V-Integra.

Or, if you are new to homemade feeding, the easiest place to start is with a DAFY recipe, as long as your dog is healthy and adult.

The recipe will tell you exactly what to use, how much to feed, how much V-Integra to add, which oils are needed and how to prepare the food properly.

V-Integra is also available on Amazon.