Homemade dog and cat food recipes

louisaL

Hi Everyone

I have made the dog food recipe kindly given by a helpful MSE user on the OS board and my dog loves it. (mince,carrots,lentil, pearl barley and rice).
But i tried it with chicken today and for some reason she doesnt like it AS much.
I would like to try some other recipes and wondered if any of you make your pet's food and what your recipes are if you wouldnt mind sharing?

Obviously I want to make sure all the pets are getting all the essential nutrients if they start having homemade food.
With the above dog food I've been mixing it with mix biscuits as well.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Oh boy, until the dog biscuits came into it, I was wondering whether the recipe went well with crusty bread - not that the dog isn't eating better than I do, honest.....

getthemax

There's lots of good ideas on the K9Nutrition group - http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Nutrition/

louisaL

Thank you

It works out cheaper to make it myself than buy the tins so quite cost effective and giving my animals a healthy balance meal at the same time rather than pay for the cheaper brands of pet food within my budget.

SophieCat

Hi,

I want to get my dog off of tinned food & onto homemade dog food (she'll still be having dried food & occasional bones). I'm going to make a week's worth at a time (minced beef, carrots, peas & brown rice/pasta) & then freeze it (& just get a portion out the freezer each day). Will the above recipe be too dry or will I need to add some kind of liquid/sauce? Not sure if dogs are allowed tomato soup?? Won't use chicken/beef stock as it contains onions & probably lots of salt too. Any ideas?

Thanks x

Caroline_a

My dogs have a mostly raw diet. No cooking for me... :rotfl: but then I'm sure their ancestors didn't do a lot of cooking either! :rotfl::rotfl:

krlyr

Personally I would be wondering why there is a need for rice AND lentils AND barley - for a species that derived from meat-eating wolves. Especially when you're adding mixer biscuits - so even more cereals.
I know that there is debate about whether dogs are carnivores or omnivores but even with the latter I would lean more towards meat as the main part of the diet, presuming that the non-meat elements are from the scavenging nature of a wolf, e.g. eating whatever it can get in lean periods where meat is not available.
One issue I've heard of with homecooked diets as opposed to raw feeding is meeting the calcium needs of the dog and getting the calcium to phosphorus ratio balanced. Raw feeders can feed raw bone to meet this requirement but cooked bone is dangerous so homecooked diets often require supplementing.
Jumping into a homemade diet, be it raw or cooked, is not something I would jump into lightly and I would recommend doing your homework. If you want to avoid the nasties in tinned food then you don't necessarily have to make your own, just move towards better quality brands like Naturediet, Natures Menu, etc.

In regards to tomato sauce, bear in mind that plants in the nightshade family can aggravate arthritis so I personally avoid tomato with my dogs (especially as Rottweilers are prone to arthritis). I don't imagine the dogs really need any kind of sauce or gravy but as a safer alternative you can make your own stock by simmering a stock bone in a pan of water - add vegetables for flavour but don't season. Remember to bin the bone, don't feed it to the dog.

cjmumto2

I think the dog needs more veg personally. Just carrots are not enough( I would vary it on different days to get all nutrients) and ditto on the pearl barley, i would just stick with brown rice. Definitley no ketchup. Maybe some oils? Just some warm water should be enough for extra moisture. There are plenty natural tinned foods out there and excellent quality dried foods.

Just doing a quick google makes me serioulsly worried about what people think it a good homemade diet for dogs. Are you feeding high quality biscuits? If not you may as well feed a good quality dry then add some fresh veg and meat, then you can be sure they are getting all the correct vits and not skimping on the quality at all. Just an idea.

suki1964

cjmumto2 wrote: »

Just doing a quick google makes me serioulsly worried about what people think it a good homemade diet for dogs. Are you feeding high quality biscuits? If not you may as well feed a good quality dry then add some fresh veg and meat, then you can be sure they are getting all the correct vits and not skimping on the quality at all. Just an idea.

What vits are needed to be added to a complete dog food?

Sorry but I was always told a complete is that - dont add anything. And to be honest Im not sure what vitamins are actually needed by a dog other then what are included in the complete food

mistyscottie

A dogs digestive system is designed for raw natural foods. I did a lot of research 3 years ago when one of mine showed signs of food allegies (see my post about diabetes). I have become friends with a lady who has only ever fed a raw diet and all her dogs live well into their late teens, have perfect clean teeth and no health issues. She believes in using only natural ingredients for everything from health issues, flea treatment to food. Here is what I feed my dogs on and even new puppies are weaned on this diet from the age of 4 weeks.
Any form of raw meat - find a butcher that produces pet mince (mine does at 60p for 500g) or buy the prepacked frozen raw mince from your large pet store.
Buy a selection or fresh veg - I buy a large supermarket pack of value carrots then add some form of greens and anything else that is on offer, apples (about 5) and maybe a melon or something else sweet. I usually spend about £6 but then I have got 5 dogs - I munch this up in a food processor and divide into freezer containers.
For breakfast I feed a raw chicken carcass or raw chicken wing.
Each dog gets about 3% of their body weight of food each day, I deduct the weight of the chicken wing or carcass and make their evening meal to this weight with a mix of 50/50 between meat and vegetables. If you need a dog to put on weight you can increase the meat percentage or to loose weight increase the veg percentage. I add seaweed meal and powdered garlic to their evening meal. Both can be bought in large tubs from horse suppliers.
The only veg to avoid completely are potatoes and onions so long as the majority of the veg mix is greens and carrots any other ingredient can be added.
I feed my 5 dogs for a £1 a day, that's all five for a £1 )