Same 
It just sounds tricky. And buying a grinder is $$. Dogs seem so much easier. Cats seem harder to get right…and what is RIGHT?!
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I’m no expert but I that know my dogs eat better and more balanced then I do. I have 2 dogs, 20lbs and 30lbs.
You figure 1/3 to 1/2 meat, 1/3 carbohydrate, 1/3 fruits and vegetable–which are really just filler/fiber–which is really important, don’t get me wrong. Add oil and calcium.
Round it out with a multivitamin to cover your bases, add calcium (I grind egg shells), rotate a bit here and there and add organ meat when you can as treats.
There are a thousand websites with recipes and advice for cooking for a dog.
Figure, dogs have relied on humans for their whole sustenance for 20,000 years and only recently did we become concerned with it being well balanced and proper. They ate our scraps for ~19,950 years and thrived.
I make this for a week: ~1lb ground pork, ~2lbs ground 90% lean beef, 3 cups total of organic white rice and/or pearled barley, 1lb frozen organic veggies/fruits of some sort, 3tbsp of canola oil, 3 egg shells ground to a powder in a coffee grinder. Mix it all together in pot, add water to cover, cook 20min or so. Add eggs, veggies, and calcium when about 5-6min left to cook. Half in fridge, half in freezer, lasts about 8 days. They also get a couple ounces of baked sweet potato and one gets about 2oz of low fat cottage cheese at night feeding.
I also make dehydrated beef liver, heart, and sweet potato. Baby organic carrots, glutin free plain bagel chips. Organic glutin free cheerios (tricks) and boiled sandwich steak bites (agility) for training treats.
You can rotate your ground meats really easily. I have a dog who might have a chicken allergy so I am avoiding ground turkey and chicken but both are cheap and good for dogs. Also adding beaten eggs to the dog food mix is a good idea.
Give a variety of foods so they don’t become deficient in something. Adding the multivitamin is good and I add a probiotic too.
I spend less to cook for my dogs then I did buying a premium kibble. The whole process to cook for the dogs for a week, including clean up, takes 1 hour.
And they are healthy healthy healthy. They do poop less, it’s crazy. I switched one dog from the bland diet following his last bought of some horrible GI disorder, and the other dog I switched over cold turkey. No problems. It is obvious the dogs love to eat real food. I mean dogs love to eat, but it is obvious they really love real food rather then highly processed “food”.
I do weigh their servings at each meal because it is hard to feed a consistent amount otherwise. It is easy, put the bowl on the scale, zero it, then add the food to desired serving size.
My dogs almost never drink water anymore. The documentary “Pet Fooled” on Netflix described dogs being fed a dry kibble food “living in a perpetual state of dehydration” and originally I thought “oh come on”. Yeah well, it’s true. I’m amazed at how little water they actually need to drink. I rinse and refill my water dish daily still but the level never changes.
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@Sswor do you have any website you like over others for cooking for dogs? It’s such a deep pool to wade into.
I feed Orijen 6 Fish now, which is 85% fish, 15% veggies, 0% grains (per the site, they do use lentils and peas) and my dog does GREAT on it. But stuff like this always makes me wonder if I can do better. Not wedded to fish, but would be looking for a recipe with similar high meat/low everything else ratio. Have nooooo idea where to start.
www.balanceit.com was the website my vet suggested. It has a food item calculator you plug in your ingredients and it tells you if it is a balanced and generally healthy diet for your dog. It does want to sell you a product so take it with a grain of salt–basically assume every diet you make at home will not be perfectly balanced without the addition of a multivitamin (which they sell). Beyond that it will tell you X meat+Y carbohydrate+Z fruit/veggies+oil=acceptable or not acceptable. I did find it helpful to determine fat content of my meats and types of oils to add.
I’m not a nutritional expert but if you start feeding your dog real food you should probably start with a basic diet of more like 1/3 to 1/2 meat. They need bulk in their diet to feel full and help them express their anal glands on the way out. I do have one sporting dog that I am feeding but I am new at this so maybe I’m mistaken but that sounds more like a feline diet.
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my dogs are raw fed. I am a member of a facebook group called raw feeding advice and support. Some of the people have been feeding raw for decades. They have an awesome list of everything you need to do it correctly.
The changes in my dogs has been amazing. I haven’t switched cats, but this latest news is making me seriously consider it.
Dog foods pulled from shelves nationwide after investigation finds euthanasia drug
After releasing the results of lab tests that identified the drug, the FDA launched an investigation. And now, just days later, Smucker’s, the owner of almost all the brands in question, announcing a voluntary withdrawal. It includes products in the Gravy Train, Kibbles ‘N Bits, Skippy and Ol’ Roy lines of canned food.
Pulled Dog Foods by ABC7 News on Scribd
A great book for cooking for your dogs is called “Feed Your Best Friend Better” it is on Amazon. I cook for my dogs and i make up a batch in an 8 quart crock pot. that last me 18 days for 5 small dogs. I freeze it in protions and thaw the day before. I also make different things, but my allergy dog can’t have beef, chicken, or grain. She is tricky.
Thanks for the update, MAC.
Make sure I’m reading for clarity here. The recall was purely voluntary. The afore posted FDA rules state that it is perfectly legal to use the carcasses of animals that died by means other then slaughter in “pet food”. The FDA"s bunk “investigation” has zero to do with this recall. What’s to investigate if euthanized animals are perfectly legal to feed to our pets?
Worth keeping in mind that these FDA non-rules for pet food cover the raw pet food industry as well.
From Tuesday: https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/ucm596555.htm?utm_campaign=2-13-2018-Arrow&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
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[TD=“class: x_yiv8867000815valign-able”]FDA Investigates Pattern of Contamination in Certain Raw Pet Foods Made by Arrow Reliance Inc., Including Darwin’s Natural Pet Products and ZooLogics Pet Food[/TD]
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- The FDA is alerting pet owners to a history of four recalls of and multiple complaints associated with Darwin's Natural and ZooLogics pet foods, manufactured by Arrow Reliance Inc., dba Darwin's Natural Pet Products, over the period from October 17, 2016 to February 10, 2018. In each instance, the company recalled these products after being alerted to positive findings of [I]Salmonella[/I] and/or[I] Listeria monocytogenes[/I] in samples of their raw pet food products.
- In its most recent recall, on February 10, 2018, Arrow Reliance/Darwin's Natural recalled ZooLogics Duck with Vegetable Meals for Dogs (Lot #41957) and ZooLogics Chicken with Vegetable Meals for Dogs (Lot #41567) because the products may be contaminated with [I]Salmonella[/I] and therefore have the potential to cause salmonellosis in humans and animals. The company states that it only sells its products online through direct-to-consumer sales.
- The FDA has investigated six complaints of illness and death in animals that have eaten the recalled products.
- Arrow Reliance/Darwin's Natural has notified its customers directly of the recalls, but has so far not issued any public notification announcing this or any of the previous recalls.
- This issue is of particular public health importance because [I]Salmonella[/I] can make both people and animals sick.
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The only reason the FDA is getting involved in this is because humans got sick.
Make sure I am reading for clarity but this was a voluntary recall spawned by the investigative journalism linked in your OP. The FDA’s non-investigation had nothing to do with this recall. This is purely a PR move by the company. Posted previously, the FDA’s rules allow for animals that died by means other then slaughter to be used in pet food; a euthanized carcass is legal to put in pet food. Considering the apparent legality of the situation, it’s unclear what the FDA might bother investigating or what the company might bother changing besides the label and/or perhaps the product name.
It is worth noting, the problem is present in the raw food industry as well.
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary…_source=Eloqua
FDA Investigates Pattern of Contamination in Certain Raw Pet Foods Made by Arrow Reliance Inc., Including Darwin’s Natural Pet Products and ZooLogics Pet Food
February 13, 2018
The FDA is alerting pet owners to a history of four recalls of and multiple complaints associated with Darwin’s Natural and ZooLogics pet foods, manufactured by Arrow Reliance Inc., dba Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, over the period from October 17, 2016 to February 10, 2018. In each instance, the company recalled these products after being alerted to positive findings of Salmonella and/or Listeria monocytogenes in samples of their raw pet food products.
The only reason the FDA is getting involved in this is because people got sick.
Yes, is was a voluntary recall. Maybe if enough dog owners scream more will get done.
And, yes, the raw food problems were noted in the updated link from the article dated today.
If you try raw, I would advocate you do not buy store brand for same reason. ONLY purchase meat you would use for yourself.
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I work for a coop and we’ve put in a recall to have everything destroyed at the stores. Just got the recall notice for these items that we carry.
