Anyone cook their own pet food?

[htc]

Hi, I put this under general food since it's still cooking related. Not sure if it belongs here, if not please move if appropriate.

Does anyone cook food for their pets? I am thinking of doing this for my dog because he seems to have food allergies. I am looking into whether this would be the cheaper option or to buy special no wheat kibble. Does anyone know what portion of meat to veggies I should use?

Any feedback would be great!

Thanks!!

 

[jkath]

I'm bumping this up, as it sounds quite interesting!

 

[Sandyj]

Hi - I do - on Sundays after a grocery shop, when I'm packing away, I quickly brown about 1.5 lbs of ground turkey in about 1 tbsp olive oil, then add approx. 3 cups of brown rice, a package of frozen carrots or carrots and peas, water, 1 pkg (about a cup) of dry milk powder and leave this to simmer. By the time I'm done with the groceries, it's finished. I give my golden retriever a cup of this mixed with a cup of science diet. She had a lot of ear infections, and I had read that it could be a wheat allergy, so I started doing this a couple of months ago and she's much better. Sometimes I use corn meal instead of rice. Occasionally I'll used ground chicken if it's on sale. It isn't more expensive than Iams, which is what she was getting - I'm weaning her off of the Iams. I also add some ground flax on top of her food and am giving her a fish oil supplement. Her coat is really beautiful and her weight is good. Her teeth also are very healthy (she's 5).

 

[htc]

Thanks for the response Sandyj!

I just got my Vet's ok to keep to what I have done. I take equal parts meat: veggies: starch. I feed my dog 1/2 cup, two times a day. I also put a tiny bit of flaxseed oil in each of his meals. One thing I did differently from everyone on the web is that I weighed everything by pounds, instead of cups for the starch. I weighed the cooked rice. My current batch (2 pounds of each food) will last my dog exactly 14 days. This 2 week batch costs me about $5 to make. It's a little more spendy than dry kibble, but I am hoping he won't have as much skin issues and in turn not get stinkie as fast! Also, my dog seemed to love the food. Didn't even lift his head once from his food bowl.

 

[jinx]

I cook chicken and rice with veggies in it for my dogs. I also cook hamburger for them. They also like cottage cheese.

 

[Michael in FtW]

Here are some pet food recipes I found by a quick search on "dog food recipes" on Google. I'm sure if you wanted to search on another critter+food+recipe would find other usefull links and ideas.

A food "suppliment" that we used at the zoo (summer job back in 1965-1966) to maintain healthy skin and coats was something called "Linatone". We also used it for birds that were molting.

The kitchen at the zoo was as clean as any restaurant you would want to eat in .. maybe cleaner. Meat and vegetables were NEVER cooked ... always raw. Sometimes cooked rice, corn, or pasta was added to the raw meat ... but (a) I didn't work in the kitchen, and (b) it's been a long time so I don't really remember anything about the ratios. The main thing I remember is - don't disturb the Bald Eagles during mating season, or if they have an egg in the nest.

 

[marmalady]

I've only cooked for the animals when they're sick, or in the case of our recently passed 21 year old cat and our doggie with thyroid cancer.

 

[urmaniac13]

My ex's family had an extremely robust and happy Beagle named (what else) Snoopy. Pat, the ex's mother, always fed Snoopy the extra from their own dinner. He loved it and ate almost everything!! I am sure there would be many arguments over this, but Snoopy lived a long, healthy, hyperactive life until he rested his soul at 16... maybe not for everyone but for some dogs, sharing people food seems to work...

 

[buckytom]

in past years, with elderly and infirmed cats, we have boiled a chicken to get them to eat. (no it wasn't because we figured it would scare them into eating their cat food. that trick worked on my parrots, however).

i have actually gone out to wendy's at midnight to get one of our cats, who was sick with a thyroid condition, to eat. she loved cheese burgers. and the new mandarin chicken salad, and biggie fries with chilli. ok, not the last 2, but the only thing she'd eat was a burger and she was losing weight so fast.
so as not to waste, i ate the salad and chilli fries... it's tough being a pet owner.

 

[jennyema]

Bucky

Our dogs love asian food. Kimchi, dumplings, etc.

They get rice a lot, which is made specifically for them with some chix broth and garlic.

I made salt-free food for our poor deceased beagle boy who had congestive heart failure. He would sit right in fromt of the oven while they baked, waiting for them to get done.

 

[jtluvsjl]

I've only cooked for them when they're sick but I'd like to start doing it all the time. I cook chicken and rice when they have an upset tummy. I boil the chicken and then use the stock to boil rice, normally if I have to do this, we eat chicken and rice as well lol.

 

[RMS]

Not me but my mom makes her dog chicken and rice all the time. It's not really "pet" food though.