Well, after thinking about this for some time, I finally made the leap, and started making food for the doggies. Anyone else doing this? I am cooking brown rice and meat (turkey) for them, aong with veggies, a bit of garlic, oil, and adding fresh ground flax, as well as brewers yeast.
Anyone else? Any recommendations?
I am going to copy and paste my sister’s Dog Food instructions. She knows what she’s doing! It is very important to add Calcium, Enzymes, and Vitamins to the food:
The most important additive is calcium, to replace the bones dogs would eat naturally. I save my eggshells in a dish in the fridge and when I get enough I bake them in the oven at 350 for an hour, then grind them to a powder in an electric coffee grinder that I have just for this purpose. Then I store the eggshell powder in the fridge til I’m ready to use it
However I also buy powdered calcium carbonate from this place. I use it when I don’t have powdered eggshell on hand. If recycling eggshells is too much extra work, this is just as good. I buy the calcium from this place: http://www.americannutrition.com/store/now_foods/NF1245.html
Eggshell or pre-packaged calcium, I add about 3 heaping teaspoons to one batch of food. I mix it in either after or during cooking
Another important additive is digestive enzymes which a dog/wolf would get from eating certain internal organs of their prey and which is found in meat by-products in commercial food. I buy my enzyme powder here: http://www.petenzymes.com/
I add enzyme powder to their food with each meal. Cooking it into the food can destroy it Most dogs who eat poop are lacking in enzymes and are trying to recycle the enzymes in the poop A jar of this enzyme powder lasts a long time
The vitamin mineral tabs I feed are Pet tabs plus, not to be confused with “plain” pet tabs. They contain every vitamin and mineral. They are flavored and Prince & Tippi eat them like candy. I get mine here: http://www.pupspetsupply.com/pProductDetails.php?id=358 That’s it for the additives.
My recipe for dogfood is simple. I use 4 or 5 lbs of meat (I use ground beef, ground chicken or turkey, ground pork, chicken livers and other giblets, stewing beef, whatever I can get.)
Then I use filler (my favorites are macaroni, potatoes, or brown rice. Amounts: two 1 lb boxes of macaroni, about 8 lbs of potatoes, boiled and mashed with milk with skins on, or 4 cups brown rice cooked in 10 cups water in the crockpot
Then I add a can of carrots and a can of peas
]Add in the calcium powder, and mix all together and store in a large plastic container in the fridge. A batch of dogfood lasts Prince and Tippi about 4 days so I have to cook twice a week. It’s labor intensive but no more expensive than commercial dogfood
A batch of dogfood can be stretched by adding hard boiled eggs to some of their meals. Eggs are cheap and highly nutritious. And you can also add cottage cheese, again cheap and nutritious
You can vary the ingredients.
I also make a meatloaf for them with 5 lbs ground beef, 8 beaten eggs, and 2 loaves of bread shredded, baked in a disposable turkey pan. And I’ve cooked a soup/stew for them too.
Don’t feed garlic - there is some debate about it being poisonous for dogs.
Sounds like you’ve got a good recipe otherwise, but I’d add a muti-vitamin.
Definately don’t feed garlic.
I’ve been cooking since the beginning of the year for my doberman after he had major hernia surgery. I nuke most things throughout the week, and the bugger sits at the microwave now waiting for the beep and then runs to get me to get it out :lol:
I feed similar to what Guin does. I also feed a little laxative per vet’s orders (generic metamucil) and the occassional plain yogurt for probiotics. I also give him apple slices to chew to clean his teeth between brushings. A cooked food diet can wreck havok on their mouths. Most of my meals are a cooked meat, a pasta or rice, and some veggies (I keep frozen peas and carrots in the bag to throw in quickly) and usually toss in an egg or two a day since we have chickens. I have read conflicting things about potatos with skins. Since he ate them before the surgery I continue to feed them occassionally, but not regularly. Once a week I give him seafood, usually salmon or tuna from a can. I also make the occassional oatmeal or barley meal with that as the starch rather then pasta or rice. In the gardening season I stew in bits of fresh veggies, but use brocolli sparingly as with most dogs it does give him horrific gas. They should also get organ meat at least weekly, particularly liver, for the digestive enzimes.
Here’s the list I keep on hand for my husband to shop from and we prepare meals roughly from.
Foods OK for Dogs
40% Meat 30% Veggies 30% Starch when feeding fully from this diet
Ground Beef
Chicken
Rice (ground beef and rice best for tummy upsets)
Spinach
Lettuce
Bean Sprouts
Broccoli
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Canola Oil
Catfish
Pasta/Noodles
Apples
Bananas
Barley
Beef liver
Beans (green, wax, string, etc)
Black olives
Baby food
Brown rice
Carrots
Cashews
Celery
Cheerios
Cheese (American or cheddar)
Chicken broth
Cottage cheese
Cream cheese
Croutons
Dried fruit (bananas, apricots, apples only)
Eggs (cooked)
Flax
Honey
Lamb
Liver
Macaroni & cheese
Nectarines
Oatmeal
Orange slices
Peaches
Peanut butter
Peas
Potatoes (no skins)
Pork
Pumpkin (canned)
Ravioli
Rice cakes
Steak scraps
Squash
Sweet potato
Tilapia
Tomatoes (no green or stems)
Tortellini
Tuna
Turkey
Wheat germ
Yam
Yogurt
Never:
Avocado
Pear pips
Potato peelings, green potatoes
Rhubarb
Yeast dough
Caffeine
Hops
Tomato leaves & stems
Broccoli (in large amounts)
Raisins
Chocolate
Macadamia nuts
Mushrooms
Onions
Garlic
I think you will find as many opinions on what to feed dogs as you will what to feed horses 
And while they might all have merit one thing to bear in mind…
No one else has YOUR DOG
I worked for a vet for years and have also taken numerous graduate level human and animal nutrition classes. I am a former restaurant owner and am almost eligible to license as a Vet Tech. And yes, I do cook for my dogs…have for years and years. Each one of the four gets something a bit different because of each of their unique needs. But I would never do it without first consulting with professionals including my own veterinarian.
This is what I suggest for your dog. Talk to your veterinarian and discuss your thoughts. Most are much more receptive to owners considering a home cooked/raw/whatever diet. Then look into books such as Dr. Pritcairn’s and grab yourself a Merck Veterinary Manual and a College level Canine Nutrition text like Canine & Feline Nutrition: A Resource for Companion Animal Professionals (not the best, but there aren’t tons out there).
Then, after arming yourself with knowledge talk to your Veterinarian again or one who specializes in Canine nutrition…there are several out there. PetDiets.com is excellent.
Good luck and have fun! I love doing it!
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/barf.html
http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html
You really don’t need to cook a lot of it… it’ll save you time. Nobody’s cooking carcasses for wolves, right? 
I have been making up a weekly batch of “Puppy Stew” with whatever is on sale that week - chicken, beef, pork, lamb, etc and then add a different combination of veggies each week as well
I dont add vitamins or bone meal at all, as they also have free choice high quality kibble during the day andI figure whatever I have missed in the Puppy Stew, will be made up for in the kibble
I am very curious though why Macadamia nuts are on the “no no” list??? My dog LOVES cashews and macadamia nuts (and we just give her little pieces of both in moderation …) and will spit out peanuts (spoiled dog … :lol: )
Why are macadamia nuts supposed to be bad for them???
[QUOTE=TrueColours;4143030]
I am very curious though why Macadamia nuts are on the “no no” list??? My dog LOVES cashews and macadamia nuts (and we just give her little pieces of both in moderation …) and will spit out peanuts (spoiled dog … :lol: )
Why are macadamia nuts supposed to be bad for them???[/QUOTE]
It appears… that they don’t know.
http://www.critterology.com/macadamia_nut_toxicosis_in_the_dog-157.html
http://www2.aspca.org/site/DocServer/toxbrief_0402.pdf?docID=115
:lol: I’m very helpful, I know.
IMHO… take from it what you will.
#1 - there is a big debate among raw dog food feeders on whether dogs are opportunistic omnivores or straight carnivores. That said, even if you subscribe to the omnivore theory, dogs have NO need for grains. This is the, again imho, BIGGEST issue I have with commercial kibble.
#2 - dogs do NOT need their food cooked. If you do cook the food, do NOT feed bones. Bones raw are perfectly acceptable and even desired.
#3 - be sure theyr’e getting organs along with bones and muscle meat.
#4 - work up SLOWLY so you’re feeding a variety. A dog cannot live on chicken alone forever.
#5 - IME veterinarians are by and large NOT supportive of raw dog food. I hesitate to even mention it anymore to any vets because of the beratings and completely off-tangent comments I’ve received. Vets are not canine nutrition experts coming out of school which unfortunately leads a lot of them to buddy up to one of the dog food companies.
#6 - if you also put your cat on raw, keep in mind that cats ARE carnivores! Meat and bone only for them.
I started feeding raw when my then 10yo newfie was diagnosed with a kidney disorder that was too expensive to medicate (it didn’t make him suffer, he just peed a lot). Within a month the kidney issue cleared up. He lived to be 12. The 7yo cattle dog as been fed raw since hubby got her at 2. The 22 month old newfy has been on raw since I picked him up at 3 months.
I cook for my dogs as well… ground beef with brown rice and mixed veg. They also get to try anything we’re eating that’s healthful, raw carrots in the barn, holistic human grade dog cookies, holistic human grade kibble mixed in with their homemade food on occasion, and a plain TimBit every time we go to Tim Horton’s (I know… I know… but they’re both very active, very healthy, slim dogs).
WOW!! Thanks for al of the help. :yes:
I have owned Pitcairns book so long, it is dog eared :lol:
Seriously, I am going to add a multivitamin, I think, and some other goodies, but they are already loving it.:yes:
I had a dog on the BARF diet some time ago, but I am not ready to try raw again. This is as far into natural as my sensibilities will allow, for now.
Dog food
[I make dog food from scratch for 43 dogs daily. They are all in “Westminster”
condition and it costs less than half of what “Purina Chow” would cost.
Meat and Bone Meal (.35 per lb.) ground alfalfa/burmuda (.10 per lb.) ground shell corn (.11 per lb.) corn gluton meal (.12 per lb.) Soybean Hull pellets (.12 per lb.) Ground Beet Pulp (.18 per lb.) a bit of Diamond Yeast (B vitamins,)
ADE, extra E, Di Cal, Calcium Carbonate, mineralized salt, horse mineral premix
and a tiny bit of Source (Kelp). All comes out to less $14.00 per hundred lbs.
Of course gathering all ingredients is time consuming and mixing. But it is all
worth it - sjp
BIggest mistake people make is to not add calcium. Meat and rice and veg is NOT good enough without adding a calcium source.
easiest way to do it is to buy Balance-It; their high protein beef and sweet potato diet is excellent and easy to do. Otherwise there are lots of balanced recipes available for sale in books and floating around on the internet. Just don’t make the mistake of NOT following a balanced recipe. Dogs are pretty robust but if you don’t add the correct vitamins and minerals after a few months you’ll end up with a very sick doggy. As to what to put in, you’ll need to experiment to see how much carbs and fat and vegetables your dog does best on. The base of the diet should be protein, of course. I find the more active the dog is, the more carbohydrates the dog needs. I feed very few carbs to old/prone to fatness/ inactive dogs, but the active dogs seem to do best at around 30% (dry weight) carbohydrates. Note that most kibbles on the market have ridiculously high carbohydate levels, often over 60% (dry weight), which no dog needs or does well on. I don’t feed very many vegetables at all. My dogs have all gotten sloppy poop and gassy when fed vegetables. I use sweet potatoes well cooked and mashed for carbohydrates, but many dogs do well with well-cooked rice.
Yes. we buy Claxton chicken (from a nearby poultry plant) in bulk, the boneless chicken breasts in bulk cost LESS than canned/tinned dog food. You should ask your local chicken plant (we don’t have a turkey plant near us) if you can buy in bulk, or ask your local grocery. Here Kroger is often running specials on their chicken also.
Dogs and cats eat the chicken baked. And have the same food that we do, vegetables and all, to go with it.
If you train dogs to eat raw brocoli and cauliflower when they are puppies, they think it is a good treat. Mine do.
[QUOTE=wendy;4143301]
easiest way to do it is to buy Balance-It; [/QUOTE]
Honestly, the easiest way to add calcium is to allow your dogs to eat raw bones.
that’s true too, but lots of people don’t want to feed raw bones for some reason. It’s so good for their teeth too.
[QUOTE=ASB Stars;4142584]
Well, after thinking about this for some time, I finally made the leap, and started making food for the doggies. Anyone else doing this? I am cooking brown rice and meat (turkey) for them, aong with veggies, a bit of garlic, oil, and adding fresh ground flax, as well as brewers yeast.
Anyone else? Any recommendations?[/QUOTE]
dogs have different carb/fat/protien ratios than people do. You need to balance out the calcium-phosphorus too.
check this site and think about joining…they have spread sheets to help with the ca/p.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePossibleCanine-Nutrition/
Should I be okay with the free choice good quality kibble during the day and the puppy stew for the night meal? Should I assume that my dog is getting all of the necessary minerals and vitamins from the kibble she consumes free choice???
I would say a resounding NO. and why feed “free choice”? good way to end up with a fat dog.
=O What do avocadoes do to dogs?? My JRT, Tanner, and I eat guacamole all of the time!
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