Home Cooked Diet

[griff]

i am considering a home cooked diet due to the fact i am having serious issues with the dog food i use and it is the only one suitable for my dogs. i wouldn't mind cooking for them myself, i have a slow cooker so i am sure that wuld take a lot of the effort out of it. my main concern is lack of vitamins i am limited as to what i can give them, usually on a sunday they get a sunday dinner minus the gravy.... i assume this wouldn't be a suitable diet to feed permanently would i need to buy a canine vitamin of some sort?

i am very limited to what they can have i know that the following are o.k

duck

venison

chicken

potato

possibly rice

all veggies

does anyone have any advice for me?

i have to stop using my dog food as although it is sold as hypoallergenci it is contaminated with cat biscuits and has made my old girl very poorly... this is an imported food(by the company i buy off) as no food in the u.k suits my 2 dogs so i fear homecooking is my only option

[blackmagic]

Have a look at this site which has information on homemade food.

 

Would you consider feeding a raw diet?

[Anne Grose]

Griff feeding a home cooked diet is extremely easy. Use the ratio of 70% meat to 30% fruit and vegetables - no need to add potato unless you really want to. Then add a bit of bone meal and a good multi vitamin (I used SeaFeed) when I home cooked and job is done.

 

I used to put the veg in a food processor and mush them down and then lightly cooked them. I used ready made mince and then mixed it together when it again had been v lightly cooked. Try not to overcook it as you will lose all the goodness.

 

I made large batches and then froze in portion sizes so I only had to cook every now and again.

 

If you are willing to give raw feeding a go then that is even easier as you are not killing of the vitamins and don't need bone meal or a vitamin supplement, unless your dogs are really old.

 

If you want more help - pm me and I will be more than happy to give any advice I can. I haven't fed commercial dog food in 18 years.

 

Anne, Barty & Chloe

[merledogs]

If you google 'home cooking for dogs' there is lots of stuff which comes up, its just a matter of picking what's right for your dog and which you can easily cook

 

As a general guide, I used to use one third (by volume) brown rice (or white rice, or oats), one third frozen veg and one third mince, some dried kelp for minerals and then add other bits like apple, sesame seeds, etc. Although I have to say when I do it nowadays I tend not to add rice, I just do mince and veg because the rice was just to bulk it out, they don't actually need it.

 

I supplemented it with raw marrowbones once a week

Edited December 29, 2010 by merledogs

[griff]

i have fed raw before.... not a proper barf diet, just tried them with chicken wings and raw mince but it didn't suit the youngest one very well.. i also had concerns as i was told they need offal too but as i am limited to 3 meats 2 of which are expensive i don't think i would be able to source the offal plus i haven't got space for a freezer.

i think home cooking would be o.k then, i thought it would be terribly complicated! i quite like the thought of knowing what they are getting, i will have a word with my vet as my youngest has some quite serious ongoing health issues but i reckon he would be all for it

thankyou everyone

[buddyboy]

I give mine mince for breakfast - bought pet mince and cooked it with pasta or vegetables - but after a freezer raid where 12 1lb blocks of frozen meat were eaten (yes, within a couple of hours while I was at night school twelve blocks of frozen meat each weighing around 1 lb - no side effects apart from needed a wheelbarrow for poo patrol next day) I felt maybe I was wasting my time doing the actual cooking so they now have raw pet mince with mixer, or pasta, or vegetables. Realise you do not have room for a freezer but as you are considering making your own food thought would tell you about the don't worry about cooking it option (ps freezer now chained when I go out)

[griff]

so i could use this type of stuff

http://www.valupets.com/pets/frozen-dog-food/frozen-chicken-mince-dog-food-5.45kg/22224.html

and cook it and pop some veg and potato/ rice with it and perhaps the seafeed supplement just to make sure they don't lack anything. i used to get some frozen blocks from pets at home but was limited to the chicken variety as i didn't know if the chicken and liver had cows liver in it and tripe i wasn't sure if that counted as a beef product

one day i will have a dog who is straight forward

[blackmagic]

i have fed raw before.... not a proper barf diet, just tried them with chicken wings and raw mince but it didn't suit the youngest one very well.. i also had concerns as i was told they need offal too but as i am limited to 3 meats 2 of which are expensive i don't think i would be able to source the offal plus i haven't got space for a freezer.

i think home cooking would be o.k then, i thought it would be terribly complicated! i quite like the thought of knowing what they are getting, i will have a word with my vet as my youngest has some quite serious ongoing health issues but i reckon he would be all for it

thankyou everyone

 

 

You can buy chicken livers in the freezer section of supermarkets.

 

Durham Animal Feeds have minced venison, chicken and duck

 

http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/wb/pages/products/frozen-food.php

 

I don't know if you have a supplier near you who would supply small quantities.

[blackmagic]

Have you tried any other duck and potato food?

 

Zooplus have Exclusion Duck and Potato and Venison and Potato dog food.

[griff]

thankyou for the link to the raw meats blackmagic

i have tried most of the duck and potato dog foods in the u.k, also most of the chicken and rice foods too.... i did look at the exclusion diet before but when i searched for the food online i cam up on a site that lists the ingredients of dog foods and it stated it contains fish oil which isn't good for my dog...i couldn't see it listed on the zooplus ingredients list but £60 is a bit much to take a chance on.

i am off to have a look at the raw meats

[Anne Grose]

DAF get really good write ups from my raw feeding list - so if you are in the NE and their delivery area it would appear they are a good choice.

 

Anne

[griff]

this is where it stated it contains fish oil

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1821&cat=all

[blackmagic]

thankyou for the link to the raw meats blackmagic

i have tried most of the duck and potato dog foods in the u.k, also most of the chicken and rice foods too.... i did look at the exclusion diet before but when i searched for the food online i cam up on a site that lists the ingredients of dog foods and it stated it contains fish oil which isn't good for my dog...i couldn't see it listed on the zooplus ingredients list but £60 is a bit much to take a chance on.

i am off to have a look at the raw meats

 

On the Zooplus site you can click on the 'ingredients' tab

 

ingredients are shown as Ingredients:

Potatoes, duck meat meal, vegetable oil, linseed oil, vitamins, minerals, taurine, aloe vera and rosemary extract.

 

Contains no artificial preservatives, colours or flavourings. The food is naturally preserved by the inclusion of rosemary extract and vitamin E.

 

You could also email the company direct and ask. You could also try asking for a sample since you don't want to buy a bag if it doesn't agree with them. They might send you one. Worth a try if you were interested in the food.

[griff]

thankyou Balckmagic, will try to email zooplus for some more info

i emailed the DAF people as i couldn't see my area listed, i don't think they have any stockists in the west mids and i asked if i could just buy one box but mix the contents.... they can't do it so i would need to buy 3 boxes containing 20lbs per box it is a bit too much for me, hopefully they will get somebody in my area who re-sells for them. there is a farm not far from here that sells venison duck etc so i may see if my dad could pop me over and i could see what they could do for me with regards supplying me with pet stuff.

[celeste]

I use Durham Feeds for my lot and it is great stuff, pity there isn't a supplier near you, there are other places that will send food direct but it tends to be a bit expensive. If your worried about the vitamin side you can get stuff called Higher Nature which is a true food and completely vegetarian. Ask in at your local butcher to, I've got a great relationship with my butcher now, once he realised I was coming in every week he was more than happy to keep me back his lamb bones, he also gets me hearts and tongue, if your butcher does his own butchering rather than buying in pre-packed stuff they're bound to have chicken backs which are usually binned, so that would take care of a calcium source.