What To Put In Cooked Food ?

[Busderpuddle]

Yesterday after searching 2 stores, I decided to go to the mexican meat market and make some food for Ruby. I put a couple of chicken breasts and some chicken legs in a large pot, some carrots & peas and a small amount of chicken broth along with some rice and boiled it for a few hours. Then I pulled out all the bones and made several meals to put in the freezer. I also filled the crock pot with the same ingredients and let it cook about 28 hours and am getting ready to portion it out and freeze.

My question is, is there other ingredients that I should be adding ? Ruby has a sensitive tummy so need to stick with chicken. The crock pot bones softened up nicely so will let her have those bones. Can you share your recipes with me please ?

I do not want to go back to feeding raw and will probably go back to kibble when I find a good one again. For now I will keep cooking.

Thanks !

[RedHead]

If you are just doing this short term (a month or two?) what you are doing should be fine. If it was more long term, you would probably want to add in some organ meats, and a little more variety with meats with a few supplements. I am not an expert on cooked diets, but from what I have read, some people do about 1/3 each of meat, veggies, and a grain. Other diets have around 75% meat and the rest mostly veg. I feed partially cooked to my one dog, and I use some sweet potato as well. Also, if you don't want to cook the bone you can add ground eggshell (about 1/2 teaspoon to a pound of meat). Your pup will probably be in heaven, and won't be too keen on going back to dry old dogfood! lol You can add extras like cottage cheese, egg, canned fish, etc. to mix things up if you like. I will try to dig up a few recipes.

[RedHead]

Here are a few recipes my dog Karma likes. She is super picky and isn't crazy about some parts of her raw diet, so I do these sometimes instead. Most of these come from my dog food books but I have changed a few slightly and also don't add in all the supplements listed because I don't feed this as an entire diet. For the short term, as long as you are adding variety and calcium they should be fine (a lot of cooked diets have multivitamins added or they make up their own "healthy powder" from Dr. Pitcairn).

 

Chicken n' Cheese

3 cups chicken

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1-2 eggs

1 cup veggies (I like to use zucchini and sweet potato)

1/2 cup of organ meat (kidney, liver, chicken gizzards)

a few squirts of fish oil

(if no bones in the chicken, supplement with about 1 tsp of ground eggshell or 900 mg calcium per pound...this goes for all the recipes)

 

Karma's favourite

3 cups beef

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potato

1 strip of bacon (not necessary, but adds smell!)

a couple of tablespoons of parmesan cheese

a pinch of dried or fresh dill

 

Turkey and Oatmeal

3 cups ground turkey

1-2 cups sweet potato

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup cottage cheese

 

 

Last one

3-4 cups of a mixture of meats (ground turkey, pork, chicken)

1/2 a cup or so of liver

3-4 eggs

can of salmon

1 apple

1 banana

1 carrot

1 zucchini

1-2 cups of rice

Same calcium supplement as above.

Veggies must be completely cooked and group up or mashed or they will go right through!

[Guest Jacks_Human]

Jack gets a mix of kibble and other foods... I most regularly feed raw eggs, poached fish (or tinned fish in oil or tomato sauce), and yoghurt, and sometimes steamed veggies, pasta, sweet potatoes, or cheese. This morning he got kibble and some chicken/veggie soup (potatoes, barley, tomatoes and carrots).

My mum fed her huskies a similar mix of kibble, chicken, cottage cheese and raw veggies, which also worked well for my GSD mix who has a sensitive tummy. Organ meats were definitely a favourite as a treat, and they do contain lots of nutrients in a form dogs can easily absorb.

[heartdogs]

On the yahoo group for exocrine pncreatic insufficiency there was a lady that suggested reading the "Definitive Guide to Homemade Meals" by Lew Olson, available from Amazon. This makes talks about cooking & raw meals. I think more people will be doing home cooking now that so many kbbles are having problems.

[MaryJane]

I have home-cooked for years and I usually do a mixture of meat/veggies/grain. In the morning the dogs have oatmeal, grits, hamburger (or eggs) with milk and for dinner they have veggies, meat chunks, and potatoes/rice/noodles. I do add supplements like calcium and a multivitamin along with fish oil capsules.

 

For snacks, they get toast in the morning, peanut butter at noon, and yogurt and applesauce at night.

[Busderpuddle]

Thank you for all the great replies. I have written down the add ins and the recipes and will try to keep my girl happy. Really appreciate your help !

[tbhounds]

www.petdiets.com. :-)

[Batmom]

My longterm homecooked eaters get calcium to balance out however much phos they're getting, and vitamin-mineral supplement. Otherwise depends on their dietary needs but generally protein (beef, egg), maybe some carbs (rice, unsweetened cereals), extra fiber source if needed (pureed cooked peas, metamucil wafers), various dog-appropriate fruits and veggies. Have had dogs in the past who got along well with cottage cheese but haven't used that lately except for a spoonful here and there.

[cleptogrey]

boy have i been sharing this recipe lately. the person who sent it to me has had her food sensitive salukis on it for years and they are doing quite well/ there are enough options for variety and just increase the amount for a larger greyhound:

 

Here is the basic Saluki diet recommended by my holistic vet - to be fed twice daily - this is for about a 50 lb dog - feed more or less according to the dog's activity level and needs - take a week to 10 days to switch over to this diet from commercial food to avoid upset tummies.

 

at each meal feed;

 

1 cup meat (lean lamb (broiling removes most of the fat); beef, chicken, turkey (alternate meat sources every few days so dog received optimum nutrition)

 

3/4 cup organic cooked brown rice or cooked whole oatmeal or 1 sweet potato

 

1/4 cup steamed, finely ground vegetables, i.e. carrots, broccoli green beans, cabbage (organic preferred)

 

2/3 tsp Animal Essentials vitamin powder

 

2/3 tsp Solgar Bone Meal (for humans)

 

1 tabelspoon extra virgin olive oil

 

Then - once or twice a week add a hardboiled egg and a couple of tablespoons of organic cottage cheese

Edited May 27, 2012 by cleptogrey

[Guest greyaspet]

I feed my dogs Dr Harvey's it is a pre mix you add the protein. You just rehydrate the food takes minutes check out his website everything is in there a dog needs except for the protein.

DrHarvey's.com.