Can you make your own dogfood?

Fire_Fox

Loobyloo if you remove all the skin from the chicken wing (bit of a faff admittedly) then you remove almost all the fat and thus the excess calories.

loobyloo2

Fire Fox Thanks for the tip on removing the skin, I tend to feed these more to my younger dog who is very lean, my older dog just gets them if I have forgotten to defrost a chicken carcass.
Also must mention that I dont give any weight bearing bones, ie thighs or full legs, as the bones are much harder and more likely to splinter.

I have been tempted to collect freshly killed pheasant:eek: from the verge for them, but drew the line, though I wish I knew someone who hunts local to me, i would love a supply of gamebirds and rabbit for them:D

Fire_Fox

Noah absolutely loves the bone-in rabbit from Food4Cats but it isn't cheap: planning on ordering some pork tongue or perhaps with a little heart and mixing with the rabbit. Cooking softens bones which is why they splinter, so if weight bearing bones are harder wouldn't they be less likely to splinter??

loobyloo2

Fire Fox, again it is one of those some do, some don't situations with the weight bearing bones. Size of the dog would be a contributary factor for some people. They do tend to be sharper when crunched, than the softer bone in necks and carcasses, and if they ever throw them back up and you look at the shards, it makes me wonder about how uncomfortable it must be to pass them through at the right end :eek:

I did used to feed turkey legs to my older girl, but she would sometimes wake in the night and throw it up, so I leave them well alone now.HTH

charliee_3

apparently the top French classic chefs used to train and start out cooking for the rich clientele's dogs.
Of course dogs can eat homemade food.. commercial dog foods only became available in the last hundred years or so and dogs managed quite well before that eating whatever was available!
as long as its basically balanced, made of real ingredients, not processed crap, it has got to be way healthier than the mush of meat by-products, chemicals and additives that passes for food.
offal is cheap, big beef bones are free/ pennies from the butcher as they are just wasted otherwise...

its a bit like formula milk for babies, they can't make profit off breastmilk so the manufacturers of formula milk would love to make you think that their formula has more vitamins, iron and will make your child brainer or healthier..

[Deleted User]

charliee wrote: »

apparently the top French classic chefs used to train and start out cooking for the rich clientele's dogs.
Of course dogs can eat homemade food.. commercial dog foods only became available in the last hundred years or so and dogs managed quite well before that eating whatever was available!
as long as its basically balanced, made of real ingredients, not processed crap, it has got to be way healthier than the mush of meat by-products, chemicals and additives that passes for food.
offal is cheap, big beef bones are free/ pennies from the butcher as they are just wasted otherwise...

its a bit like formula milk for babies, they can't make profit off breastmilk so the manufacturers of formula milk would love to make you think that their formula has more vitamins, iron and will make your child brainer or healthier..

I like this answer particularly :j As WE eat all the healthy high welfare, frugal stuff. I might as well feed more of it to the dogs DOH! But I will be careful not to give them grapes or onions or chocolate (That's not healthy anyway is it?:p)

gettingready

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Really :eek: In what way

Just Google Iams....http://www.iamscruelty.com/

There is a lot of good dog food around, everyone feeds different - my GS girl has raw meat on regular basis (chicken, lamb, beef - all with bones), she likes it and she is ok with it.

She does nto like dry food alone but I mix Burn (Burns pet nutrition) dry mixer food with Burns tinns or Nature's Menu (raw mince or nuggets)..

She seems to always find tha cst food though - which she should nto have :mad:

stardrops42

beautiful_ravens wrote: »

^Aww hes lovely! Springer?

Thanks, he's a cocker spaniel:D

foreign_correspondent

budgeteer wrote: »

I like this answer particularly :j As WE eat all the healthy high welfare, frugal stuff. I might as well feed more of it to the dogs DOH! But I will be careful not to give them grapes or onions or chocolate (That's not healthy anyway is it?:p)

you are right, these foods are dangerous to dogs - this article may be helpful in knowing what not to feed:
http://www.ukvet.co.uk/ukvet/articles/toxicology%20-%20raisins.pdf

This article identifies grapes, raisins, sultanas, theobromine (found in cocoa and choclate), onions and other aliums, and macademia nuts as being toxic to dogs.

The sweetener Xylitol is not mentioned, and although you are unlikely to feed it to a dog intentionally, it is in many mints, chewing gums etc, so these are worth keeping out of your dogs way too!

Ivana_B_Rich

Sorry to hijack, lots of you are feeding raw chicken and raw chiken bones is there any risk of salmonella (sp)?

Thanks