dog food

[bookwormom]

I am wondering, do any of you folks here make your own dog food, and if so, how?

[Nancymw]

Just started making my own as I am home now. I used to get Merricks organic canned from Sitstay.com but less money now and more time - so I make it.

I make brown rice, meat (grass fed beef and organic turkey & free range chicken) plus whatever we eat beef wild fish (salmon trout-we catch and cod). Dog eats more nutritious than we do! I put in any vegetables I can (try for lots of colors) and try to stick in fruit dried cranberries blueberries apples. I also use the formula in Dr. Pitcairn's complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats - the healthy powder to get all the right nutrients. (Must be refrigerated)
2 cups nutritional yeast flakes (can use brewers yeast as sub)
1 cup lecithin granules
1/4 cup kelp powder
4 Tab bone meal powder (KAL Bone Meal)
1/4 tsp vit C powder
Add 1 tsp of this once a day.
It was fun trying to find this stuff!
I also supplement with oatmeal (soaked steel cut oats we love)
plain yogurt and cottage cheese once in a while. They say that dogs need more calcium than humans.

Seems complicated but works out fine, and my husband's dog is much healthier and happier.

Came across another simple one also although I use the one above:
3 cups cooked oatmeal or cream of wheat
2 cups cooked ground beef
2 Tab plain yogurt
1 small apple, cut or sliced into small pieces
mix and serve at room temp

Giving dogs bone broth is good also.


My husband actually made homemade liver treats once - golly the smell!

Have fun

[Aamylf]

Your recipes are similar to what I made and fed for years. I have since discovered non-grain food and bought it. The girls are much happier. They are all old (12, 14 and 15), so I spoil them with special food. They get the little carrots for treats and a bite of whatever we have for dinner! I have about 100 cans of food and 100 pounds of kibble ahead. They eat 1 can between them for the day, so I'm good for 3 months.

[sissy]

This is the one I use

1" chicken, 1 head of garlic,
1 # carrots, 1# yellow squash, and
1# green beans, 1# zucchini
1# green peas,
Add enough water to cover and cook until carrots are tender and chicken is cooked. Remove chicken bones (I precook the chicken and remove the bones before I cook everything else, or you can just use boneless meat). Now you can pressure can this like I do or you can freeze it. If you freeze it, add 1 cup of barley and 1 cup of oatmeal to the pot when you add the other ingredients. If you pressure can it, when you heat up the stew, add some cooked barley and oatmeal then. My dog weighs 80# so she eats it lumpy, but you can grind it up if you want in a blender. I also sprinkle some brewer's yeast to her food in her bowl and some flaxseed oil and some cod liver oil.
I had found this one on the net. I some time charge things up a bit. like sub brown rice, or add some vitamin c to her dish. I freeze mine in portions.
Hope it helps
sissy

[SKB]

Right now my boy (age 8.5) is getting dry, grain free food. I have used Dr. Pitcairn's recipes in the past.

Since it's so hot, he enjoys eating frozen fruit like peach and strawberry slices. Last night he had fresh cantaloupe. He likes fruit more than veggies.

[MIKENSUE]

get a good rappor with your local conservation officer and get road kill deer to cook up. Ones that are not all mashed up and nasty. Meat is the natural food. Get one small freezer for dog food. That is what we do

Sue

[bookwormom]

thanks folks, you put several ideas in my head that I plan on combining.

[femmesteader]

Calsium is more important for dogs, as well as iron. Kelp is wonderful too. I save all my egg shells and grind them up to put in the dog food, which went a long with a CAL MAG supplement.

The thing with dogfood is exactly what you're doing, you either have the time or the money...i do not have the time anymore (...but i used to make my own dog food for 4 large breed dogs) and thus now i buy Nature's Variety meat patties. (but now i only have one small french bulldog...and he still eats healthier than we do)

**almost** all veggie scraps (carrot, celery, beet stems, greens, fruits) that would normally go in the compost will get put in the grinder for dog food.
As long as these scraps are free of any mould. I mack batches of this "Mush" adding some garlic if it's Flea season {{but cats cannot have garlic}} and keep it in the fridge (or frozen) and feed 1/2 cup with each meal.

[Gracie]

We have an unusual issue with dog food. The miniature short haired doxy who has become a permanent house guest:), will not eat dry dog food. The vet said to use tough love, to pour a bit of chicken broth on the dry food, and within 24 hours, she would eat...welllll, it didn't work. So back to square one. This little bundle of energy has become family and does her very best to do what she thinks we expect of her, though we are having a time breaking her of chasing cars, and the eating thing. She is the best pet, either of us have ever known. Another vet told us it was fine to let her eat 'folks' food, to try to feed her low fat, low salt foods, and to supplement her with one-fourth of a Centrum vitamin tablet per day, also no onions, garlic or grapes in what she eats. Now that we have followed the 2nd vet's advice, we all, are much happier, and it doesn't break out hearts when we eat, and she won't. Just thought would share our experience in hopes of it helping, somehow.

[rivahmom]

I feed my dogs raw chicken or raw beef with bones included, veggie scraps from dinner, salmon oil, and a multi vitamin. They also eat any left over bread, fats, skin, and whatever else I have that that does not have grapes or onions in it.

[esh]

**almost** all veggie scraps (carrot, celery, beet stems, greens, fruits) that would normally go in the compost will get put in the grinder for dog food.
As long as these scraps are free of any mould. I mack batches of this "Mush" adding some garlic if it's Flea season {{but cats cannot have garlic}} and keep it in the fridge (or frozen) and feed 1/2 cup with each meal.

cats can't have garlic? Is it like onions to dogs?