What Is Your Favorite Homemade Food Recipe? (Not Raw)

[Guest greytkidsmom]

Hi there,

 

We are going to try Kebo on a homemade diet due to some appetite issues. I have been given several recipes and resources and wonder what has worked best for others. I am especially interested to know how much to feed with each meal (two meals daily) what is the best way to ensure that it is nutritionally complete. I would be adding the Nupro silver supplement (includes glucosamine), fortiflora, and fish oil.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

[RedHead]

Some good websites to start are:

 

www.petdiets.com

 

http://www.monicasegal.com/

 

 

 

I sometimes make cooked food for the pups, I would be happy to share some of their favourites, however I don't add supplementation because they don't get it as a regular part of the diet, so I don't know how "balanced" they are. You will need to get a vitamin supplement, especially for calcium. I am not sure the best brands for dogs, but others might be able to guide you in the right direction. Both of the websites above carry multivitamins designed for dogs and homemade diets. Good luck!

[Batmom]

Starting out, I check calories against the calories in the amount of kibble they were maintaining weight on. You can check calories for most foods in the USDA nutrient database.

 

I would probably start with something like the following for each feeding, based on 2 feedings per day:

 

@ 1.25 cups cooked meat (I like ground chuck; enough fat to have some calories) or meat-egg mixture

@ 1 - 1.5 cups soft-cooked white rice

@ 1 teaspoon honey or molasses (because it's tasty )

optional -- @ 1/4 cup cooked fruits/veggies -- spinach, green beans, apples (I don't use carrots because one of my dogs would throw them up)

500-600mg calcium supplement (cheap calcium carbonate pills; don't get the fancy stuff, just calcium carbonate is what you want)

 

Once per day add a canine multivitamin/mineral supplement.

 

 

 

 

In the short term (couple weeks), while you're figuring things out, you don't need to worry about the calcium or the vitamin.

 

The 1.25 cups cooked meat/egg twice a day will work out to @ 2/3s of a pound of meat (raw weight) per day.

 

If you use cooked rice for carbs, a big non-stick rice cooker is your friend. You can also use noodles or low-additive people cereals like Shredded Wheat or Cheerios. Some folks feed cooked oatmeal or potatoes; those have never worked well for my dogs.

 

You can use cottage cheese for some of the protein component if he gets along with it OK. Some dogs do, some don't.

[tbhounds]

I second the idea of using petdiets.com :-)

[Guest Giselle]

I went through a lot of 'cookbooks' for dogs. Most of them weren't very scientific or evidence-based, but it all just made sort of "intuitive" sense. Here's the important thing: Because the dog I was home-feeding did NOT have preexisting medical conditions, I did not have to be as strict about his nutrient intake. However, if your dog does have a preexisting medical condition, please consult a veterinary nutritionist. That said, I generally made big batches and used ratios to keep track of everything. A typical meal would consist of: 1 part meat (flesh) :: 1 part grain :: .25 parts vegetables :: .25 organs, fish, eggs + any necessary calcium supplementation (I used homemade ground eggshells). For my little dog, I fed about .75 - 1 cup of this mix a day. For a 60 lb greyhound, I would feed 3-5 cups, depending on activity. I firmly believe that diversity is one of the singlemost important factors in a diet. I think that, if you rotate and choose diverse sources, you should be able to cover all your nutritional bases.

 

I generally dumped these into a big pot or the slow cooker and let low-heat cook it all at once. Because cost is also a factor, these are some examples of ingredients I'd use:

Meat: a whole roasting chicken, turkey legs, cheaper pork roasts, stew meat beef

Grain: white or brown rice (in modern times, white rice is fortified with vitamins and minerals so it's okay to feed as a base), oatmeal

Organs, fish, eggs: chicken or pork livers, kidneys, hearts, tongue, coagulated blood (can be found in Asian markets), small fish like sardines or herring, boiled eggs

Vegetables: dark leafy greens!!! i.e. yu choy, bok choy, kale, beet greens, etc. There have been studies that indicate that dogs fed green vegetables at least a few times a month have lower risk of developing specific cancers. It's familiar news but for a different species, isn't it? Apparently, raw vegetables may be best. I always dumped the vegetables in at the last 10-15 minutes of cooking, but you can also pulverize them in a blender.

Calcium supplement: I can't recall the general rules, but I used Pitcairn's guidelines. Again, I used ground eggshells.

[Guest greytkidsmom]

Thanks all. I actually managed to get him to eat some of his kibble mixed in with the mixture of chicken/rice/sweet potato I made. It is all I had on hand at the time. Somehow I feel a little better about mixing some stew with kibble. We will see how this goes over the next few weeks. Lots of trial and error I'm sure.

 

Right now he is staring at me and barking - its an hour and fifteen minutes before dinner but I'm pretty sure this is a "feed me" bark since he spent an hour out in the yard with me just a little bit ago. Makes me a happy mommy.

[Guest elizabeth7418]

I feed Addy recipes out of the Saluki Tree of Life Alliance's (STOLA) cookbook "Real Food for Real Dogs." https://www.etsy.com/listing/166344119/cookbook-real-food-for-real-dogs-main

 

The recipes include a variety of protein sources and some vegetarian options. Also, supplements are recommended (a multi-vitamin, bone meal for calcium, extra virgin olive oil) with each recipe. I feed Addy a mixture of kibble (1/3 of each meal) and recipes from the book (2/3 of each meal). She has been on this diet since Thanksgiving, and has not turned her nose up once at food. Prior to this, we had to change kibbles every month or so and she often would not eat her food. My mom has also been feeding her greyhound & 2 salukis this diet since then, and it has helped with some of their medical issues.