Homemade Dog food??

[Run_Out]

Due to the recent pet food recalls I have decided to make homemade food for my beloved schnauzer.

I spoke with my vet and she suggested a good multivitamin to take daily along with the pet food.

Oprah had a good show on this week but I want to ask you guys/gals if any of you prepare your pets food at home.

When I was growing up we always had dogs and we fed them table scraps, we didn't have dog food or we never bought it.

So give me some help and ideas.

later

 

[Constance]

Here you go...

Easy Homemade Dog Food Recipe (Crockpot) » TipNut.com

 

[Katie H]

Interesting, Connie. We don't have dogs, but we have plenty of kitties - indoor and outdoor.

I feed out outdoor kitties "swill," as Buck calls it. I have a 2-quart saucepan that I keep in the refrigerator with leftover drained stuff from browning meats, etc. I add the water from drained canned veggies to it, too. I made a batch of beef stock the other day and mashed the removed carrots, celery, onions, etc. to it. It's quite a sight after a couple of weeks, but they LOVE it.

They all clean their plate and eat their veggies like good little boys and girls.

 

[lulu]

Katie, the kitties shouldn;t really be having onions

We have just had a thread on this and stupidly I'm not finding it for you.

It is my opinion home food is the way to go BUT you have to research it. It is important to balance the vitamins and minerals correctly, not so easy. Raw food menus seem to be the best option to me: made in batches, frozen and taurine added to the defrosted food.

I think feeding an unbalanced food at home is a worse option than a commercial food, but the best option is well ressaerched home food. a good goolge. I'd google for the extensive research done on home prepared raw food diets for pets. If we were not so nomadic I'd have bought a grinder by now. Up until then I'm feeding a mixture of raw meat (mainly chicken pieces on the bone and whole quails because of availability) and commercial pure meat, commercial wet food and a commercial biscuit. IO would certainly like to be off a commercial biscuit entirely as soon as possible.

 

[Katie H]

Thanks, lulu. They only get onions about 4 times a year and not many at a time at that. Plus there are 8 cats that share the dinner plate. The onions they had this week had been cooked for over 4 hours, too. Don't know if that makes a difference. They were 2 small onions. I'll look for the thread, though, so I can further educate myself.

 

[lulu]

Sorry, my bad writing Katie , we had a thread on cooking for pets, not on onions and cats! If your interested I can PM you some inks on that though!

 

[carolelaine]

I agree on the home food, but it is very hard to get the correct balance of nutrients at home. I have been trying to educate myself because during all of this we had a rat terrier who was expecting and now we have puppies. I have been feeding a mixture of ground beef, rice, egg yolks and a vitimin supplement my vet prescribed. I have made variations with chicken, pasta and some green veggies. There are some good online resources for this and I have a good book on it at home. I would really much rather feel like the commercial pet food is safe because all of this home cooking for the dogs is really time consuming, but we all do the best that we can.

 

[Run_Out]

I have utilized Pet-Grub.com and there are some interesting recomendations for a raw diet. The Dr. said not to feed grain and protien at the same time.

I have started serving browned meat and raw veggies, I guess it will take a few days before I go raw meat.

thanks guys

 

[Katie H]

Sorry, my bad writing Katie , we had a thread on cooking for pets, not on onions and cats! If your interested I can PM you some inks on that though!

Actually, lulu, your memory serves you well. I found what I believe you were thinking of right here: Cat Thread, post #20.

Looks like my babies don't have anything to worry about one way or the other because they get onions so seldom.

 

[Green Lady]

Hi Run_Out,

Check out the thread entitled " ISO Best Dog Food Brand". I entered a post on page 2 regarding raw homemade dog food. I wish I could think of the name of the author whose book I used as my guide. I gave the book away so I can't refer to it.

Also, there is a brand of frozen raw food called "Steve's Real Food" (or something like that). It's all there and ready to eat, you don't have to add any vitamins, etc. to it.

Keep in mind that in the wild dogs ate raw meat. We might think of it as barbaric, but that is how it was done for milleniums. Can't fight with mother nature!

We are fortunate where I live. There is a pet food store, privately owned by one person, that sells quality packaged pet foods. They DON'T carry Science Diet, Eucanuba, Iams, the ones so widely hyped but of poor quality.

 

[Angie]

I'm on a dog forum as well and this is what I got from there....

When cooking home cooked, you must get a supplement to add to this food.

Chicken breasts
barley OR brown rice
parsley
celery
carrots
zucchini
string beans.

Put everything in a crock pot with water. When done, put in individual zip lock bags and freeze for your dog. As far as the veggies go, you can use whatever veggies you wish.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I love the crock pot ideas.

 

[Constance]

My Siamese cats are used to dry food, and won't eat anything else except and occasional mashed chicken liver.
Chloe dog, though gets lots of good things. My husband is fond of buying large hunks of meat, like a whole ribeye, and cutting them in to suitable portions for the freezer. Chloe gets a lot of the raw scraps, and loves them. And you should see her when he starts cutting up venison!

Don't forget about organ meats...hearts, liver and tongue are great for your pet. You don't have to get fancy with your preparation...just boil or nuke.

By the way, I looked up the ingredients on the Purina Chow I feed my pets, and was shocked. They are mostly corn. The only meats in the dog chow are meat fat and something called "meat digest". I'm not sure I even want to speculate about what that is.

 

[lulu]

Please forgive me jumoing in again, organ meats are great for pets but liver must be fed in moderation!

Constance, I have Siamese too! It was the allergies one of mine has that set me researching into cat diets, and why I now limit the dried food (mine were on a Siamese specific biscuit). I felt awful for waiting so long because *whispers* basic animal nutrition was part of my undergrad degree, so I should have known to be more aware.

 

[tltfaas]

Hello everyone.

Here is a dog food recipe you can make at home. My dog was poisoned, but survived, so we re-evaluated his diet.

Chicken and Gravy for Dogs

2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
Salt
Ground black pepper
1½ whole chickens, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 small heads baby cabbage, chopped
2 cups water
2 cups dry white wine
2 pinches of saffron
Cooked rice

Mix the cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and rub onto the chicken pieces. Heat oil over medium to high heat in large frying pan. Add chicken pieces and cook slowly while turning until browned. Add the garlic and baby cabbage, and continue to cook until the chicken has been browned on both sides. Add in the water, wine, and saffron; bring it all to a boil. Turn down the heat, and cover the pan. Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, until the chicken is soft. Remove bones out of the chicken. Put some rice into the dog bowl, and put the chicken on top. Pour the gravy over the chicken and rice, and serve.

 

[Green Lady]

Hello everyone.

Here is a dog food recipe you can make at home. My dog was poisoned, but survived, so we re-evaluated his diet.

Chicken and Gravy for Dogs

2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
Salt
Ground black pepper
1½ whole chickens, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 small heads baby cabbage, chopped
2 cups water
2 cups dry white wine
2 pinches of saffron
Cooked rice

Mix the cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and rub onto the chicken pieces. Heat oil over medium to high heat in large frying pan. Add chicken pieces and cook slowly while turning until browned. Add the garlic and baby cabbage, and continue to cook until the chicken has been browned on both sides. Add in the water, wine, and saffron; bring it all to a boil. Turn down the heat, and cover the pan. Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, until the chicken is soft. Remove bones out of the chicken. Put some rice into the dog bowl, and put the chicken on top. Pour the gravy over the chicken and rice, and serve.

Why the Indian spices and the white wine?

The recipe looks like something I would like to eat!

 

[markgill]

I used to make dog food when I was in my teens. We had 2 great danes that had extreme flatulence on commercial food. I would collect bandsaw dust from a wholesale butcher, this is from when they saw through the meat and bone and is a mix of both. I then added rough chopped root veg and pressed mixture into roasting tins. Then baked in the oven, cooled and cut into portions and frozen. The other food I remember making was tripe. This came from a pie factory and was free. It was the whole bovine (cow) stomach complete with cow muck on it. This was hosed down and cut into strips. These where then put in a large boiler until tender cooled and then frozen. We fed rice with both of these.

 

[Tomer]

Homemade Dog Food Recipes

Hi pals!
I'm new here....
I just want to show you great research made by one of my friends about "fake" and unhealthy dog food.

Highly recommended if you love your dog

Here is the link for the research

 

[Adillo303]

Since our Labradors just spent overnight at the hospital, to the tune of $2,400.00, I thought that you might be interested in this link.
Home-Human Foods that Poison Pets

Also the idea of feeding dogs raw food is called the "BARF" diet. You can read about it here.
BARF Diet - Healthy & Natural Raw Food For Dogs & Cats, Pet Health Care Food & Nutrition Products Supply Online

Our Labs run dog agility every week. They also run hard as often as we can ge tout to throw balls, etc for them to retrieve, they are after all retrievers. Anyway, we feed a supliment called NUPRO silver. It contains vitimines and monerals they they need, it also contains chromium and condroitin (sp) for their joints. Our trainer has 13 year old lab that has has nupro every day. His coat is soft as silk and shines like a new dollar. He is alert and active.

Also 50 years ago there was no dog food. After the recalls and after doing a lot of research, we feed "California Natural" it is kind of dog health food. The parent comtany "Natura" has never had a recall.

Sorry if this post is viewed as a hijack. It is not the intent. Just trying to provide information.

 

[redkitty]

Thank you Adillo303 for posting about Natura dog food. I'm pretty convinced the food I'm giving my Rhodesian Ridgeback/Airdale Terrier isn't helping her IBD. We are moving back to California in 3 months and I'm going to contact Natura about which food they would recommend based on her dietary issues.

I didn't view your post as a hijack, additional information regarding the health of our pets is always appreciated, so thanks!