Unlimited access >

How many of you cook FOR your dogs and/or cats? What do you make?

I do! Please share what you put into your home made doggie/kitty food. My guys look great, and they love it. I do hate making it, but I have now gotten to where I make two huge pots of food, and freeze all but one zip lock. I defrost as needed.

For proteins, I use beef liver, hamburger, ground turkey, salmon, and eggs. Then a bunch of veggies including beets, sweet potatoes, broccoli, peas, spinach, cranberries, carrots, apples, blueberries, and ginger.

2 Likes

I don’t necessarily cook as my pup is on a raw diet. But she is 4 months old and has a hard time eating raw carrots and brussel sprouts, so I do cook those for her, but will stop as soon as she gets her adult teeth (and gets rid of those needles!!!).

I also find that so far my pup looks amazing, had great energy (without it being too much) and loves it. I’ve never had a dog’s coat that was so shiny and soft. So many people ask me what I feed her and if I bath her all the time ha ha (farm dog so not a lot of baths - though she loves them when I do happen to give her one). She literally glistens in the sun light (mainly black coat). She gets a lot in her diet and it changes all the time, as she is not on a kibble, I do want to make sure she is getting all the correct nutrients. She came from a raw food company (that is also a breeder) so she has always been on raw since she was weaned.

She mainly is on a turkey with bone and organ, but I change the protein to beef, pork, lamb, rabbit with the occasional chicken (all are 8/1/1) with some green tripe as a topper. I add in 10% of veggies/fruits such as spinach, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, asparagus, carrots and blueberries. 1 whole quail egg in the am, 1 farm fresh whole chicken egg in the PM (shells always included and ground up), pro biotics, ascorbic acid, ginger, glucosamine/chondroitin for AM feed - will add garlic when shes around 6 months old. She can get either 1 smelt or 1 sardine 3 x a week and omega 3 & 6 in her AM and PM feed. I will give her pumpkin if her tummy is a bit upset and it clears up her loose poop right away.

For her lunch she just usually gets a mix of proteins (she gets her veggies in am and pm feeds). She also gets fermented goal milk with beef colostrum mid day.

She gets a meaty bone a couple of times a week such as a chicken foot or beef neck or rib bone - but I always watch her when eating those (never a weight bearing bone). I usually give her those when I mucking stalls and she chews them right in front of me. She has chocked slightly on a duck neck so I don’t feed those anymore. She tries to swallow them whole.

It sounds like a lot when I write it out (she’s not spoiled I swear!!), but what can I say - I don’t have kids and I love to meal prep ha ha! It is a lot of work and prep and cleaning - it for sure is not for everyone, but I really don’t mind doing it. I actually love planning it and thinking what meals I’m going to feed her for the day. Plus I do have to plan it as I have to remove/thaw the meat at least a day in advance. She gets about 2lb split into 3 meals a day right now.

1 Like

Not gonna lie… I didn’t see the “for” in the title… :scream::scream:

Boiled eggs are about the cooked limit; everything else is raw or “dog sausage” (pre-cooked loaf roll - but only the very good quality ones)

2 Likes

I have 8 dogs: some are on cooked, some are on raw.

My older dogs (used to be on raw) are now on home cooked, as they seem to digest it better. The younger adult dogs are all on raw.

Cooked: chicken or beef or turkey, or bison, or salmon, plus raw eggs (from our own chickens). Somedays with rice or oatmeal or quinoa. Veggies: carrots, celery, chopped kale, squash in season. Fruits: blueberries and apples, sometimes cranberries. Winter I will add sweet potatoes but not every meal. Pureed pumpkin.

Raw: rabbit, or duck, or beef, or turkey, or bison, or pheasant, or sardines (all are organ/muscle/bone blends), raw eggs, goats milk. Veggies: carrots, celery, chopped kale, squash in season. Fruits: blueberries and apples, cantelope in season.

All the dogs get raw bones twice a week. None of them has ever needed a dental, even my oldest at 14. (And no I do not brush their teeth) :smiley:

I also make bone broth, particularly in winter for both the home cooked dogs and the raw fed dogs.

My vet who doesn’t agree with my feeding regime at all, always comments on how healthy my dogs look when they come in for their once a year check up.

1 Like

No dogs here (I know, ironic :smirk:) but every morning my hens get oatmeal (protein) with plain yogurt (more protein + calcium). If I have a surplus, an egg goes in too.
Their “raw diet” is any kitchen scraps.

2 Likes

Thank you, I was coming into this thread to say the very same thing. I kept reading it wrong every time I saw it.

Well, that’s not good!

The edit helps!

Though the problem was not your title at all. It clearly said for before, my brain just skipped that word.

1 Like

My chickens get kitchen scraps too, and my SO cooks breakfast for them in the winter: pasta or rice or oatmeal with broth from the dogs’ cooked food (slow cooker) and a little milk. This is in addition to their organic layer feed. We have some older hens, 9-10 years old, and my SO is convinced they live longer because of the table scraps.

I do, though the last year I have added commercial raw diet (frozen) just to hedge my bets. Current dog has been on home cooked diet for 5.5 years. Current is 60/40 commercial raw/home cooked.

Otherwise I cook ground beef, turkey, eggs, barley, and riced carrots or blueberries or strawberries. Add corn oil and ground egg shells.

Also add daily probiotics/enzymes, canned pumpkin, raw carrots, sweet potato chips, and supplement with salmon, beef liver or heart.

NO processed treats, short of a bully stick couple times a week. It’s a good system and not expensive.

1 Like

I wouldn’t really call it cooking but I do add chicken leg quarters( cooked) to their evening kibble.

de-boned, I hope?

Ive made rice cooked in chicken broth with diced up sweet potatoes for mine.

1 Like

Yes. I let it cool a bit then pull it off the bone. My dogs get no bones of any kind unless they find something outside and then I promptly take it away.

I cooked for a while - raw is much easier! LOL

I know some say you shouldn’t change a dog’s diet suddenly but my girl’s changes daily or every couple of days, depending what’s defrosted. It could be ground chicken or turkey with bone, sardines, eggs, hearts, tongue, liver, kidney, ground beef or pork, with some carrots or greens tossed in, sometimes yogurt. I freeze ground meet in ice cube trays and organs cubed so I can adjust the amount easily.

Depending on how many teeth get pulled when our new senior (10 years) dog gets his dental in five days, I may be switching to homemade food. His mouth is a mess right now and he is eating Blue Buffalo canned senior food, which he adores, but at more than $2/can, it’s going to put a dent in the bank account.

One of my coworkers has been fostering/adopting senior dogs for years, and she prepares a week’s worth of meals once a week in the crockpot. I may be asking her for her recipe.

That’s odd that someone has told you not to change a dog’s diet. You should always be changing and rotating proteins. At least 3 different types as this helps with food allergies and boredom. Even if you feed kibble, you should be changing the proteins often (I fairly recently learned this, so when I was feeding kibble, I always kept to the same protein and brand. But now I know differently!). Unless there are food allergies, that can make it a lot trickier on feeding. But if you start a rotation early in their lives, you can hopefully prevent a lot of allergies from happening.

I change daily from turkey, lamb, beef. beaver, rabbit, pork, chicken (not often), salmon, sardines, chicken egg, duck egg or quail egg plus meaty bones such as chicken feet, cow neck bone, lamb ribs. Of course my meat has bone and organ added in as well.

Its great you are feeding a variety as well! That’s the best diet for them and for us. Imagine eating the same thing every day? And great idea on using the ice cube trays. Makes it handy for sure!

The “don’t change a dog’s diet” thing is purely marketing by pet food companies to ensure brand loyalty.

Well, to be fair, I know people with dogs with sensitive stomachs and can’t change suddenly. When I was researching breeds, one of my questions was whether they tended to have sensitive stomachs. That’s a deal breaker for me with a barn dog!

As for dogs getting bored eating the same thing every day, I don’t buy it. My dog never gets tired of manure. LOL

Ha ha, neither does mine lol!! Though she just picks at it and only has a few pieces a day. My pup is a very picky eater and is not food motivated. A first for me as I’ve had labs for many years and they are walking garbage cans! Literally…

But my husband can eat the same thing day after day. Me, not so much and my pup, not so much either :wink: