Home made dog food?

[wendy]

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

true enough but some people have actually done good solid studies about what basic nutrients dogs in general need to remain healthy- the National Research Council. Interestingly enough the AAFCO, which regulates what goes into commercial dog foods, denies that the NRC’s data or policies are good because it would make the dog food industry clean up their act and probably put most commercial dog food companies out of business for selling foods that are inadequate to support life-long optimal health of dogs.

[jengersnap]

[QUOTE=RacetrackReject;4144959]
=O What do avocadoes do to dogs?? My JRT, Tanner, and I eat guacamole all of the time![/QUOTE]

From:

http://www.suitable-puppies.com/toxic-foods-for-dogs.html

Avocado contains an ingredient called Persin which can be toxic to your dog. This is another food that can cause gastrointestinal issues such as vomiting and diarrhea. This usually occurs when your dog ingests a large amount of the plant whether it’s the branches or the fruit of this plant.

Some things I do not feed include corn, beet pulp, soy husks or any other filler that cannot be easily digested. That’s probably specific to me though, as my dog cannot have anything that does not come out the back end soft and squishy since his surgery. Being told your beloved 7 year old puppy no longer has rectal ligaments will make you read up on what does what in a hurry

[cloudyandcallie]

@RacetrackReject;4144959

=O What do avocadoes do to dogs?? My JRT, Tanner, and I eat guacamole all of the time!

I wonder how much guacoamole it takes daily to hurt a dog?
Years before chocolate became verboten, my aussies ate chocolate everyday. The male died when he was 16 and the female died just short of her 15th birthday. Chocolate mousse (the hilton hotel recipe made at home), reese’s cups, hersey’s kisses, chocolate ice cream, etc. obviously, a parfait glass of chocolate mousse is not fatal.

[TrueColours]

I would say a resounding NO. and why feed “free choice”? good way to end up with a fat dog

Oh no. NOT a fat dog at all! She strikes terror into all of the chipmunks and squirrels in the neighborhood and keeps them all at bay! :lol:

And actually she is a picky eater. We can leave her kibble out all day but if we’re not home - she wont touch it. She’ll only eat once we come home

[Bicoastal]

My dog didn’t read that warning, either

[QUOTE=jengersnap;4145590]
From:

http://www.suitable-puppies.com/toxic-foods-for-dogs.html

Avocado contains an ingredient called Persin which can be toxic to your dog. This is another food that can cause gastrointestinal issues such as vomiting and diarrhea. This usually occurs when your dog ingests a large amount of the plant whether it’s the branches or the fruit of this plant.

Some things I do not feed include corn, beet pulp, soy husks or any other filler that cannot be easily digested. That’s probably specific to me though, as my dog cannot have anything that does not come out the back end soft and squishy since his surgery. Being told your beloved 7 year old puppy no longer has rectal ligaments will make you read up on what does what in a hurry :([/QUOTE]

Like Racetrack Reject, my pup has a taste for avocado. In SoCal he ate the best ones because they fall off the tree once ripe. My mutt took a tour through the orchard regularly then would run off to devour it before the other ranch dogs stole it from him. He was just under 20lbs, 11-12" collar; so it was a lot like a snake trying to swallow a watermelon. :lol:

As a kid, my aunt and I worked focus on her competitive OB dogs by spitting grapes at them (after we bit them in half). That was before literature revealing they are toxic. None of her Aussies suffered.

I think the general rule of moderation applies. You don’t want pure muscle meat, pure tissue, pure grain, etc. My dog’s love of avocados, however, was far from moderate!

[wendy]

And actually she is a picky eater. We can leave her kibble out all day but if we’re not home - she wont touch it. She’ll only eat once we come home

ok, so you’re feeding some unbalanced stew, and any amount of kibble that she wants to eat, which for some reason you leave out all day even though she only eats it when you are home.
Sounds like a recipe for a nutritional disaster.
Dogs do need a minimum amount of nutrient x and a maximum amount of nutrient X, for hundreds of nutrients, or they get sick.
Kibbles are formulated to meet AAFCO guidelines. AAFCO guidelines are designed to meet “your dog won’t get overtly sick” nutritional standards (not optimal health). But if you feed your dog 1/2 her diet in kibble, and 1/2 in a non-balanced stew, your dog is almost certainly not getting enough of some nutrients and possibly getting too many of other nutrients = your dog will get really sick at some point. It can take months to years for the dog’s body to use up its reserves of some nutrients so you may think the dog is “doing great” on your diet- for awhile. Adverse effects of incorrect diets often only show up during middle to older age in all creatures (humans and dogs).
Dogs on home-cooked unbalanced diets get presented to vets with serious malnutrition problems all the time.

A home-cooked diet can be a good idea, and can be formulated to meet optimal health standards, but only if you make an effort to do so. Just adding a human multi-vitamin will rarely be sufficient to balance a diet for a dog.
If you can’t answer “Yes my diet has enough zinc, copper, potassium, and calcium” your diet isn’t good enough and your dog would be better off being fed kibble.
You can obtain/ purchase balanced recipes from many sources. Just don’t wing it.

And as noted, many human foods aren’t very good for dogs. If it came from a plant it’s probably wisest to not feed it to your dog. Your dog wanting to eat it doesn’t tell you much. They happily consume all kinds of poisonous human foods. Consider chocolate, for starters.

[Belg]

Back when I was living with wolves, we would typically ‘augment’ regular dog food… okay, it was science diet lamb & rice… with fresh sprouts, raw egg, and/or a variety of other healthy and nutritious add-ins… basically mix it in fresh. Wolves and their descendants are mammals and omnivores, within reason.

[Aven]

I breed and show JRTs and whippets (and race and do agility…)

I don’t cook as a general rule. They get kibble or raw (I prefer raw). I dont’ do grains. Dogs are genetically grey wolves (had a big issue in my thesis as my supervisor is adamant dogs ARE wolves. Genetically they are… so digestion wise dogs are the same as wolves.

So while mine get veggies on occasion (they like it) they don’t get much and NO grain.

[tle]

Ditto no grain. No reason for it whatsoever except as a filler (and why would you feed your dog a “filler”?)

[Moderator_1]

We moved this over here to The Menagerie, where it’s a better fit.

Thanks!
Mod 1

[vtdobes]

@Nes;4142725

Don’t feed garlic - there is some debate about it being poisonous for dogs.

My dogs eat garlic…every day for over a year.

http://www.springtimeinc.com/product/bug-off-garlic-chewables-dogs/dogs

[paulaedwina]

I loved cooking for my dogs. I don’t know why I stopped really -laziness maybe. Rules I went by:

1. A diverse diet is the best defense against missing nutrients.
2. Use raw bone. Raw neck bones are brilliant for the raw bone faint of heart because they are articulated and the bits are blunt.
3. Raw veg needs to be ground otherwise they’re going to exit just about how they went in -untouched. Dogs don’t chew so you have to open those cells for them.
4. Organ meats are easy, and if you’re squeamish scald them.
5. Add the whole egg -shell and all (I get my eggs from the guy down the road so I know where eggs have been).
6. Rice is messy.

Who did I learn to feed home cooked from? My old uncles in rural Tobago. Their dogs ate scraps, trimmings, and offal. The worst thing that happened to dogs in the Caribbean was dog owners getting rich enough to buy kibble!

Paula

[lovey1121]

[QUOTE=Belg;6303029]
Back when I was living with wolves…[/QUOTE]

This has got to be the King Of All Attention-Grabbing Sentence Starters :eek:

Belg, I’d give my eyeteeth to be able to start a sentence that way!

Just had to note it. Do carry on.