Making your own dog food

[aliciatobytaco]

I had posted originally in the General Discussion under a thread:


I am so happy I found this post. I have also been considering cooking for my gang.
I am really interested in exactly what I need to fix to make the diet 'well balanced'
Taco has a sensitive stomach, and every kibble he eats seems to make his stomach upset. Something else I have noticed, he will actually go w/out eating his kibble for a day, sometimes two, get sick, throw up stomach acid, and then gobble down a bunch of kibble at once. It's like he "starves" himmself until he HAS to eat it
I really think they would all benifit from a well balanced meal of veggies, and meat,and oils.

Does anyone here use the BARF diet??? I don't think I want to do that, but curious to know if anyone is doing it and what results they have had????

I know they need fats, but nothing that is to fattning,(pack on weight) so what exactly should that be??

Any imput and help on this. Also, if I make up a large mixture at one time, can I freeze to reheat for later times?? How long does this last in refridgerator?? Will there be some changes at first with their stools or anything???

How many feedings of this per day???

Thanks guys :)

[ozi-chichi's]

Hi Alicia,
I used to feed my chi's Science Diet and it went fine.
I switched to Barf ages ago (maybe 6 months or more ??) and its fantastic, their coats are so shiny and they LOVE it. Its also much cheaper because I buy in bulk and freeze it in portions.
There is heaps of info on the net, and I mean HEAPS !!

I feed mine mince and bones which I get from the butcher supermarket and I vary what I buy - sometimes they get raw chicken wings or necks, raw chicken mince, raw turkey mince, raw lean beef mince, raw lamb necks, raw offcut beef bones.
Also once a week they get fish and eggs which they absolutely love.
If you have a blender then munch up a few vegies or whatever you like and stick them in the mince as a filler.
I always buy the best quality meat I can and when I buy bones I ask for the fat to be trimmed off and the bones cut into smaller portions. Smaller portions means its easier for me to divide up and freeze.

It sounds like lots of work but what I do is buy all the ingredients, enough to last a few weeks, then go home and divide it all up into portions and freeze it - the portions depend on how many dogs you have and how much you want to give them, I give Biff more than the others because he is still a pup and needs more food, Pascha is on a diet and trying to loose weight so she gets a little less and the other 2 boys get equal amounts.
You can divide the portions up for one day then divide that in half so that you still feed them twice a day (e.g. mince in the morning and bones in the afternoon).

BARF is fantastic for my chi's, they love it and I love giving them something that I know exactly what is in it. Their coats and overall health have improved greatly and I will never go back to kibble unless I absolutely have to. Their teeth are fantastic and I dont brush them, the vet always comments on how healthy the chi's are and always asks whats my secret on their perfectly clean teeth.

Here are a couple of groups you can join, I joined and asked questions about raw food and everyone was extremely helpful.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RawDogCanada/ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RawDogCanada/)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/)

There is a crossing over period where you are supposed to introduce the raw food by just giving your dogs chicken for 3 weeks, I didnt do it for 3 weeks and it was ok. You will find lots more info about it on the net.

On the east coast of Australia you can get ready made BARF patties, I live on the west coast so dont get the opportunity to try them. You should check out if you can get ready made BARF and try it out.

[ozi-chichi's]

if I make up a large mixture at one time, can I freeze to reheat for later times?? How long does this last in refridgerator?? Will there be some changes at first with their stools or anything??? oops I got carried away and forgot to answer this part.

Do not reheat anything, its raw and should be thawed out naturally, if you reheat it the bones become brittle and can splinter - I get mine out of the freezer in the morning and put it in the fridge, then by the next day its thawed and ready to be eaten. Sometimes I have forgotten to get it out of the freezer and leave it on the sink to thaw naturally and its ready in an hour (its summer time here).

Their stools are smaller than ever, their bodies absorb most of what you are giving them so you will find they have hard small stools (never runny).

[Capri]

Ozi, no wonder your dog's are doing better now. Any food is better than Science Diet. That stuff is garbage. No offense though, because we always go for well known brands like Iams and Eukanuba and then find they are really bad for your dog.

alicia, try better foods and your dog's may eat then. Petsmart sells Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance and I recommend the chicken w/carrots and potatoes (canned). Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul is great too. You have to go to the internet sites to use their store locators to find who sells some of the better products like Solid Gold and Wellness. For Wellness, you would have to do a search of their company called Old Mother Hubbards. I go to 3 stores to get my dog's food. No one sells all three that I like. Then there is Merrick. They make this Grammy's Pot Pie with red jacket potatoes, carrots and I think snow peas. It's all real chicken chunks that you may have to cut up for tiny chi mouths.

Since we have small dogs, we can afford ultra premium brands. Canned is better than hard food. It tastes better, has better ingredients, less preservatives and more protein once you subtract the moisture from the can. These better foods have less grains than grocery store, and Petsmart foods and hard foods, plus they don't have by products.

There are two ways to serve non canned or bagged foods. You can make home made and raw. You have to be careful with raw meats to keep them at a certain temperature so they won't develope bacteria. With both home made foods that you cook or raw diets, you really need to do a lot of research to give the dogs the proper ratio of protein to veggies, then they need vitamin supplements.

When I say home made, I mean cooked food, meats and veggies. Freezing and defrosting foods kills vitamins. You can still do that, but it's all so much work and they would need more vitamins. I think you need a scale to properly proportion out the amount of each protein and veggie they need to serve a balanced meal.

Try some better canned foods first.

[ozi-chichi's]

Ozi, no wonder your dog's are doing better now. Any food is better than Science Diet. That stuff is garbage. No offense though, because we always go for well known brands like Iams and Eukanuba and then find they are really bad for your dog.:shock: Are you serious?

When I say home made, I mean cooked food, meats and veggies. Freezing and defrosting foods kills vitamins. You can still do that, but it's all so much work and they would need more vitamins. I think you need a scale to properly proportion out the amount of each protein and veggie they need to serve a balanced meal.
Try some better canned foods first. *taking a deep breath*

Food is a touchy subject because EVERYONE has an opinion and EVERYONE feeds their dogs something different. You CANNOT just blurt out that Science diet is crap! It is good in some circumstances. As I said in the very beginning of my post "I used to feed my chi's Science Diet and it went fine."
I know there are a few people here that feed their dogs science diet and other various types of kibble and its fine for them too.
I feed my dogs raw food and have thouroughly researched it, I have 4 chi's and have had dogs for many many years. I have knowledge that comes from experience as do most people on this site. I have made mistakes and learnt from them and years of constant learning has given me knowledge about dogs.
I live in a city in Australia that doesnt sell products that are available in other places, I have not come across a good canned food here but I do realise there are other countries in the world and they probably do have good canned food.
Can I ask how long you have had your ONE dog and what types of diets you have tried? I am interested to know of your own research methods.
Maybe im being to harsh on you and maybe you are not coming across how you want, do you mean to say in all your posts "this is my opinion and I respect everyone elses right to have an opinion" or are you saying "this is my opinion and I am right and there is no other way than what I say".
Using the internet in message format is difficult because it does not show much emotion or body language, so be carefull how you word your opinion as it can be taken the wrong way.

[Capri]

ozi, I mean no harm or disrespect. I guess if you feel you think a certain food is good, you want everyone's chis to use it. I know that is unrealistic. I just mention some foods, because I don't see anywhere that people can find out that there are good canned foods but they are sold in different types of stores, maybe smaller stores or natural pet food type stores. I just want to make people aware of what's available, so they can check it out.

I bought Capri canned Eukanuba and threw it out everyday, then found better foods, by that I mean canned foods with no by products or not a lot of grain or meals or bad preservatives. It is true that the more vitamins you kill, the more your dog will need in supplements, like if you don't overcook proteins, they are supposed to keep more of their vitamins.

I have nothing against raw foods. My research is from books, articles, a little store info on the background of products, but that is info coming from the company, so you have to take it with a grain of salt, reading a lot of food labels, consulting with a dog food nutrition person that I met.

You are not being harsh by asking me questions about things I've said. People want to know the basis of your information if they don't know you and how you come to certain conclusions. H&T has mentioned her background, but I still may ask if what she says is from what she learned in school or read. It gives a person a guage on what credibility the statements may have or if they need to be further researched.

Who has all the answers? Not me. There isn't enough research done as far as I can see on all this stuff they put in food, plus all these new things, like figs, pears, cranberries, and what's up with green peas. I was looking for someone's post that said they put green peas in their dog's food. It's in a canned food of Capri's and I don't know if it does any good if it just passes through. When I see them, I mash them down and expose the innards.

[Jemma's Mom]

Alicia, I feed Loppi the BARF diet. It was my last resort to use at that time. I tried MANY different brands of kibbles, hoping that one would entice her to eat willingly without me forcing her to but it was hopeless. Then I was shopping in Pet Planet one day when I saw their freezer and asked the sales lady about it. She told me about Mountain Dog Food and I decided to try it out after a little researching on my part. Well, Loppi loved it! She still is on it and is doing great. Her coat and overall health has improved drastically, I'm really happy with this food. She used to get recurring ear infections at least once every two months and since she started on this diet, it has not returned.

I'm sharing my experience with the BARF diet but every dog is different and it takes time to learn what our dog likes and at the same time, what is in our best interest to feed them.