Homemade dogfood?

[BackyardHerbals]

Does anyone make homemade dogfood? I can find lots of recipes but I wondered if any of you exclusively use homemade and what your recipe was? Thanks, I'm looking forward to seeing any responses!

[okiedokie]

We don't have a recipe for the homeade dog food, but I will certainly be watching this thread for info. DH and I have talked about what we are going to do about the doggies when "the bottom falls out", but don't have a plan as yet. We have 2 spoiled weenie dogs that aren't going to be happy when they don't get the kibbles and bits!

[sissy]

I make mine. My doggy loves it, she does a dance for it at meal time. I found mine on the net. Here is a link on the forum where we discussed it. Hope it helps.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/vb/showthread.php?t=22483
sissy

[momma_to_seven_chi]

The history of dogfood is interesting. In the past, dog food was whatever scraps the family fed the dog. And dogs lived about ten-twelve years like they do now. Suddenly, companies had an idea of how to use the "scraps" from processing plants, and dogfood was marketed. Not only marketed, but dog food companies also marketed their products as "the best way" to feed pets. Suddenly, you were a terrible pet owner if you fed your dog milk, table scraps, or butchering scraps rather than commercially produced dog food.
The truth is, your dog would live fine just eating your table scraps and extra milk, extra butchering parts, etc. They did it for centuries before dog food was ever marketed, and they can do it now too.
I guess my point is, you don't need a recipe. You can just feed the dog what you eat along with the extra parts of rabbits, chickens, deer, etc, and it will be fine.

I think it is handy to have some bags of kibble on hand simply because there isn't always enough leftovers for the dogs. Kibble is handy because I can always have bowls down for both the big dogs and little ones. But I do know that they could live on whatever we eat if the need arose. I would just have to cook extra because some of my dogs are huge.

[BackyardHerbals]

Momma, I agree completely. I think dogfood is a marketing scam that most people just haven't realized yet. I wasn't sure though if a dog could benefit from oats or other grains because they don't (to my knowledge) eat them in the wild. So I thought I'd see what others feed their dogs. Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it!

[sissy]

No onions, chocolate, or grapes & there may be a few more maybe nuts. Some say no garlic but some say ok, mine eats garlic & loves it. Even though I make her food she still eats at least a bite of what I eat. She loves penutbutter, blueberries, & cottage cheese. There's not much she don't eat.
sissy

[Dame]

When I was growing up most people had cats, dogs, milk cows, and some even had working draft horses. The cats got as much milk as they wanted in the barn at miking time twice a day and no canned cat food. They got fed meat when someone butchered a chicken or some other animal. The dogs got chop (cource ground grain) and milk and then whatever was left over at meal time. They were also fed most of what was left after butchering. In the winter I feed them extra oil and oatmeal.

The cats here eat mice, the occassional bird (barn pigeons) and gophers as well as their kibble and treats of fresh or cooked meat. The dogs hunt small vermin such as muskrat, and gopher, even an occasional scavenger bird.

They get kibble most of time because it is easier.

[ScrubbieLady]

No onions, chocolate, or grapes & there may be a few more maybe nuts. Some say no garlic but some say ok, mine eats garlic & loves it. Even though I make her food she still eats at least a bite of what I eat. She loves penutbutter, blueberries, & cottage cheese. There's not much she don't eat.
sissy

No walnuts. Had a small Maltese. He liked everything but onions and garlic (we didn't feed chocolate). He especially loved bananas. He got leftovers. We kept dry food out just in case but he preferred the leftovers. He lived to be 12 and we lost him to kidney failure. Considering he was an inbred (daddy and daughter), he did pretty well.

[freegal]

I just got a new dog food recipe that my dog loves!

2 cups peas, green beans, carrots (I used a mix of these)
2 cups of pasta (I used orzo)
2 cups of brown rice or barley
2 lbs. of ground meat (I used turkey)

Simmer together for 40 - 60 minutes, until veggies are tender. I also added parsley, apples, a little bit of tomato and red bell pepper, a couple of tablespoons of ground flax seed. You can add a tablespoon of peanut butter for flavor (or Vegemite, as the original recipe called for). Next time I make this I will add cranberries, sweet potatoes and maybe some greens.

Freeze in 2 cup containers. My dog gets about 1 cup a day mixed with his dry dog food (Nature's Recipe) as he transitions. I may still mix in the dry just for crunchiness.

My dog, well he's actually still a puppy (8 months) did not like any of the dog food we had for him (Nutro, which was the best we could afford) and has a sensitive stomach. He did, however, follow me around the garden and would eat any vegetable or fruit that I would feed him, so when I came across this tried & true recipe I just had to try it.

For reference my dog is a collie/English shepherd mix and weighs about 55 lbs. The recipe is from a woman who developed it for her Airedales. The dogs live long and healthy lives. They feed them 1 cup of the recipe a day but they also eat "breakfast" but don't say what that consists of.

Do give it a try and let us know how it works for your dogs!

[raytwnmt]

Many years ago, I had a very good older friend who raised dogs for quail hunting. He had at least 40 dogs at all times.
I remember that he would visit local butchers and would buy or was given the fat trimmed from the animals they processed.
From this base ingredient,he would add flour, corn meal,scrap veggies, also from local grocery stores and a little salt.
He had an outdoor gas oven where he baked it into a loaf large enough to feed those 40 dogs. They loved it and stayed healthy and they had a lot of energy for hunting those birds.

[land steward]

The history of dogfood is interesting. In the past, dog food was whatever scraps the family fed the dog. And dogs lived about ten-twelve years like they do now. Suddenly, companies had an idea of how to use the "scraps" from processing plants, and dogfood was marketed. Not only marketed, but dog food companies also marketed their products as "the best way" to feed pets. Suddenly, you were a terrible pet owner if you fed your dog milk, table scraps, or butchering scraps rather than commercially produced dog food.
The truth is, your dog would live fine just eating your table scraps and extra milk, extra butchering parts, etc. They did it for centuries before dog food was ever marketed, and they can do it now too.
I guess my point is, you don't need a recipe. You can just feed the dog what you eat along with the extra parts of rabbits, chickens, deer, etc, and it will be fine.

I think it is handy to have some bags of kibble on hand simply because there isn't always enough leftovers for the dogs. Kibble is handy because I can always have bowls down for both the big dogs and little ones. But I do know that they could live on whatever we eat if the need arose. I would just have to cook extra because some of my dogs are huge.

good words here. Real common sense. About time we heard more about this.