For those who were interested in my homemade dog food recipe: we made a dog food that was 75% "bulk" meat - beef, turkey or chicken - and the remaining 25% was organ meats (this is crucial for dogs), whole eggs, fish, some kind of grain (oats or rice mainly) and vegetables. We learned when our local store put out the discounted meats and we would load up on ground beef, steaks, roasts, whole and pieces of chickens, ground turkey, pork, lamb, etc all at deeply discounted prices. If I had bone in chicken I would cook it - skin, bones and all - in the pressure cooker until it was soft enough to mash the bones. And I'd use the broth from that process, too. For any other kind of meat I'd put the whole thing - meat, organs, vegetables, eggs (I would blend the eggs - shell and all - first) - into big roasting pans, add some kind of liquid (low salt canned broth or my broth from pressure cooking the chickens generally, but even water was fine) and cook it in the oven, until it was mashable. Usually took an hour or more. I would buy big bags of mixed frozen vegetables and we would keep the scraps of anything we had used for ourselves - broccoli stems, carrot ends, etc. Just about everything goes for dogs. The only thing they say dogs shouldn't have is onions and garlic - but honestly that might have crept in some too. Sometimes they got canned beans or some leftover plain pasta mixed in. It was a great way to use up leftovers from our own meals. We got really creative with the meat we used - whole roast? Chop it up to speed cooking. We'd buy whatever was in the discounted bin, as long as it wasn't marinated, brined, smoked or otherwise pre-treated. We eat very little pork and no lamb, but the dogs got both.
When the whole thing was done, I would add a good amount of some kind of oil - olive oil, coconut oil, beef tallow, good bacon grease - they loved it all. I would often stir in some canned pumpkin for fiber and added nutrients and over the years we learned that dogs LOVE rosemary, parsley, basil, etc. in their food. They want their food to taste good, too, and herbs are good for them for a variety of reasons. At the very end I would salt the whole batch - dogs need salt just like we do. When we fed them we would add a scoop of good yogurt or cottage cheese to the bowl once or twice a week. We also tried to make sure they got some kind of fish a couple of times a week - a can of sardines in oil, a can of tuna or salmon, etc. They LOVED fish day!
When we were really rolling with dog food production, we would make 30 lbs of a recipe at once and then freeze it in containers that were enough for the two dogs for 3 or 4 days at a time. Thawing dog food twice a week is a simple process when you know it's so much better for them. Depending on the size of your dogs that amount may last a week or it may last a month.
I think the main thing that helped with the itching was reducing the amount of grain they were getting - commercial dog foods are still sometimes 70% grain - and improving the quality of oil in their foods. You don't need to buy the best eggs or highest quality meats - we bought the eggs that were 59 cents a dozen. The quality of whole, real food is so much better than any commercial dog food you can buy. It makes me sad to think of the dogs we had over the years who ate garbage, because I wasn't savvy enough to realize the commercial dog food producers weren't all that concerned with my dogs staying healthy.
The internet is full of dog food recipes - but once you get the basic formula you can pretty much use whatever is available, affordable and easy for you to work with.
Sorry so long - this is one thing I was truly passionate about. For those who didn't read my initial post - we had a sweet little dog who was diagnosed with blood cancer and we were told she wouldn't live six weeks without chemo. I decided I would make it the best six weeks of her life and feed her like a princess. She went on to live six more years and died peacefully in her sleep. A miracle? Maybe. But the only thing we changed was what she was getting in her bowl every day. She went from a tired, lifeless bag of bones with a coat that was oily, itchy, and smelly with cloudy eyes and itchy ears to a plump, energetic little ball of joy almost overnight. Her coat got shiny and fluffy again, her eyes cleared up, she smelled good, she wanted to play and go for walks - even the pads on her feet got soft and smooth again.
10/10 recommend cooking for your dogs!
When the whole thing was done, I would add a good amount of some kind of oil - olive oil, coconut oil, beef tallow, good bacon grease - they loved it all. I would often stir in some canned pumpkin for fiber and added nutrients and over the years we learned that dogs LOVE rosemary, parsley, basil, etc. in their food. They want their food to taste good, too, and herbs are good for them for a variety of reasons. At the very end I would salt the whole batch - dogs need salt just like we do. When we fed them we would add a scoop of good yogurt or cottage cheese to the bowl once or twice a week. We also tried to make sure they got some kind of fish a couple of times a week - a can of sardines in oil, a can of tuna or salmon, etc. They LOVED fish day!
When we were really rolling with dog food production, we would make 30 lbs of a recipe at once and then freeze it in containers that were enough for the two dogs for 3 or 4 days at a time. Thawing dog food twice a week is a simple process when you know it's so much better for them. Depending on the size of your dogs that amount may last a week or it may last a month.
I think the main thing that helped with the itching was reducing the amount of grain they were getting - commercial dog foods are still sometimes 70% grain - and improving the quality of oil in their foods. You don't need to buy the best eggs or highest quality meats - we bought the eggs that were 59 cents a dozen. The quality of whole, real food is so much better than any commercial dog food you can buy. It makes me sad to think of the dogs we had over the years who ate garbage, because I wasn't savvy enough to realize the commercial dog food producers weren't all that concerned with my dogs staying healthy.
The internet is full of dog food recipes - but once you get the basic formula you can pretty much use whatever is available, affordable and easy for you to work with.
Sorry so long - this is one thing I was truly passionate about. For those who didn't read my initial post - we had a sweet little dog who was diagnosed with blood cancer and we were told she wouldn't live six weeks without chemo. I decided I would make it the best six weeks of her life and feed her like a princess. She went on to live six more years and died peacefully in her sleep. A miracle? Maybe. But the only thing we changed was what she was getting in her bowl every day. She went from a tired, lifeless bag of bones with a coat that was oily, itchy, and smelly with cloudy eyes and itchy ears to a plump, energetic little ball of joy almost overnight. Her coat got shiny and fluffy again, her eyes cleared up, she smelled good, she wanted to play and go for walks - even the pads on her feet got soft and smooth again.
10/10 recommend cooking for your dogs!
Thanks for the careful description.
