WildAgain's Wildlife Formula Calculator
Includes Recent Test Data and Video Tutorials
The Calculator is a series of worksheets that provide the nutritional component analysis for various powdered milk replacer products (plus other ingredients) when mixed with water. The Calculator is in the form of a Microsoft Excel workbook, so you do need to have a copy of Excel on your computer. When you click on the link to the Calculator at the bottom of this page, your browser will likely begin the download process, or it may bring up the Calculator in Excel automatically. Either way, the Calculator is easy to use, has many features and is data-rich. Once downloaded and opened up, begin on the "Read Me First" tab, as it explains the various tabs in the workbook. Lots of data, functionality and customization options! [If you just want to download the Calculator, go the bottom of this page.]
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NEW Video Tutorials and resources provide hands-on demos and to explain the many functions of the Wildlife Formula Calculator. Each video listed below averages between ≈10-20 minutes in length.
Start Here with the Calculator Overview Video. This short video provides a helpful tour of the Calculator and its many features. It also provides an overview of the other videos that follow that make up the Calculator Video Tutorial Series. Next, proceed to work through the videos listed below, preferably in the order they are listed, as that is the recommended workflow.
Step 1 involves selecting a species milk. The convenient drop-down menu is preloaded with the nutritional composition of some common wild mammal species. This provides the target in terms of proteins, fats and carbs for a milk formula recipe. A later video shows how to add even more species milk information beyond those provided in the menu.
Step 2 requires selecting which products and ingredients are to be used in the wild mammal milk formula recipe. Many powdered milk replacers are available in the drop-down menus and include the independent lab test results for the nutritional composition. Other ingredients are also available. The user also may add other products and ingredients.
Step 3 requires selecting the amount of products and ingredients that are to be used in the wild mammal milk formula recipe. The Calculator allows for input either in 'parts' (volume) or 'grams' (weight). Many users intuitively will construct recipes in parts. The Measurement Guide automatically converts parts of ingredients to gram weights. This helps later when measuring during formula preparation.
The next 4 videos show how Steps 1, 2 & 3 above can be used to construct a recipe to match a species milk. This series of 4 videos provides hands-on demos of how this is done. The Calculator makes this back-and-forth process easier and less time consuming. The first in this series - Session 1 - demonstrates a fairly simple example of how to take the products and arrive at an acceptable recipe matching the species milk. Try this first!
This is Session - 2 on how construct a recipe to match a species milk. The second video in this series - Session 2 - demonstrates a fairly simple example of how to take milk replacer products and ingredients and arrive at an acceptable recipe matching Eastern Gray Squirrel milk. It looks at multiple products, used individually and as blends. Click here for the video notes, charts and practice set (PDF).
This is Session - 3 on how construct a recipe to match a species milk. The second video in this series - Session 3 - demonstrates a fairly simple example of how to take milk replacer products and ingredients and arrive at an acceptable recipe matching Eastern Cottontail milk. It looks at multiple products, used individually and as blends. It also discusses including MCT oil. Click here for the video notes, charts and practice set (PDF).
Session 4 explains how the Calculator is only a single tool in a system of nutrition management. While the Wildlife Formula Calculator is a very useful tool and saves time, it is only one part of a system of nutrition management for animals in rehab involving a number of steps. All steps must be performed to achieve successful outcomes. This video provides an A-to-Z framework from admit to release focusing on nutrition management.
Measurement Guide. If ingredients are entered into the recipe formulation (STEP 2 above) as parts, this measurement guide converts those parts to gram weights for each ingredient. When working with highly textured powdered milk products, errors can be introduced when simply scooping ingredients (parts) as opposed to weighing. This guide provides an easy conversion based on the amount of total formula that is needed. It also calculates how much of the total water should be mixed with each dry milk replacer powder. For more discussion on this, click here.
Adding additional products and ingredients to the Calculator. If a desired product or ingredient is not listed, the user can add up to 10 items. Composition of the product or ingredient (such as % solids, % protein, etc.) as well as the weight in grams of 1 tablespoon of the ingredient is required. Tips on where to easily find this information is briefly discussed in this tutorial.
Adding additional species milk studies to the Calculator. If the calculator does not already include a specific study, up to 9 research studies of mother's milk composition can be added. This requires certain data about the composition of the milk from the research study (such as % solids, % protein, etc.). Tips on where to search for this information is briefly discussed in this tutorial, as published scientific sources are limited.
A cost estimator helps determine the cost of formula. This feature a reasonable estimate of the cost of any particular formula recipe put into the Calculator. The list of products with default retail prices [WildAgain estimate] is included on the ‘TNA Data & Cost’ tab. The defaults exclude shipping and tax. The user also can override any price at their choosing for pre-loaded products and any product that has been input in the ‘User Input’ tab for products not already included in the Calculator drop-down menu.
A simple calculator for Kcals. Use this simple function to calculate the Kcals for any product, ingredient or food when inputting the percentage of solids, protein, fat, ash and crude fiber. The video provides a more in-depth discussion on how to use Kcals to estimate the number of feedings per day. Examples are provided showing how to do the simple math.
Click here to download (Excel workbook .xlsx)
UPDATED March 5, 2024
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(NOTE: The calculator has a preselected species; products; and recipe for illustrative purposes only. It is not meant as a recommended recipe!!!)
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See below for known technical and compatibility issues.
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Please report any calculator issues to WildAgain. Click here.
Technical Notes: Known issues and platform compatibility considerations.
Firefox Browser issues? Clear cache and download history then try a fresh download.
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Google Sheets issues? Download Excel version and save as a Goolge Sheet doc. All drop down menus should then operate.
Desktop/laptop. As the Calculator is provided in the .xlsx version, the workbooks should open successfully when using any recent version of Microsoft Excel on either a Windows or Mac desktop platform (and some mobile tablets). There are some known slight formatting issues when using a Windows platform (sorry!), but these do not affect the functionality of the Calculator or the results.
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Mobile tablet.The workbook is not optimized for a tablet platform, so some formatting may be affected.
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Smartphone. Functionality on a smart phone has not been fully tested and many pages/PDFs are hard to view. Users are encouraged to use a platform that will fully support an Excel workbook and provide sufficient visual resolution for very detailed content.
Additionally, since this is a Protected workbook, when you open it up after downloading, you may get the message below that requires you to click "Enable Editing") before you can enter values into the Calculator (we have not included or embedded any malicious code or viruses):
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Please report any calculator issues to WildAgain. Click here.