Cooking For Your Greyhound (Questions)

[Laurenbiz]

I have some questions about cooking for your greyhound. At Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house, my parents' next door neighbor talked to me about what she cooks for her golden retriever and corgis. I then tried it with Bernie, and he LOVES it. I have been using my cooked food to replace canned food, basically. He's sort of a picky eater, and before I started cooking for him, I would give him kibble (TOTW Sierra Mountain mix, which is lamb-based) mixed with other stuff (canned food, boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, cheese, etc.)

So currently, this is Bernie's breakfast/dinner mix:

-1 c. kibble

-1 c. "slop" (DH and I call Bernie's cooked food "slop" because that's what it looks like!)

Bernie's slop consists of:

-1 lb. ground poultry (usually turkey)

-1 lb red meat (I switch between ground beef and steak/stew meat; I've also used ground pork)

-1 10 oz. bag frozen organic pea/carrot mix (Bernie will spit out the green beans in the veggie mix )

-1/4 c. (eyeball it) plain quinoa

-A few tbsp. (eyeball it) olive oil

-Water (eyeball it) — maybe 12-14 oz

I cook it for a few hours in the crockpot, and then it's ready to go. The batch will last usually 4 days. I've completely cut out all processed wet food for Bernie since he loves the slop. I will still give him eggs and cheese as snacks.

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS!

-Now that I am cooking roughly half of the food in his diet, do I need to be giving him some sort of vitamin supplements?

-If so, what supplements does he need, and what are good supplement brands for dogs?

-Should I be incorporating more animal parts in his food, like organ meat? I've always purchased just the "muscle" meat but not organs, liver, etc.

-Are these questions for a nutritionist? I am not sure if this is a big deal and I should be speaking with a nutritionist?

Since he has loved his half kibble/half slop diet for the past few months, I figured that I should just stick to this. I want to make sure I am doing things the right way, though, so I thought I should ask in Greytalk.

PS:

ETA: feeding raw is not really a good option. Bernie takes things to his bed for chewing. When I give him raw turkey necks as treats, I only do this when the weather is nice so he eats the turkey neck outside! So if I were to feed him a raw breakfast or dinner, with a chunk of meat in his bowl for example, that raw meat would end up getting on his bed and on our carpet! So completely raw food isn't really practical at our house.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Laurenbiz

[MaryJane]

My dogs only eat home-made and I also make all their treats - they do not get any commercial food.

 

I might suggest adding more carbohydrates into the mix - maybe oats, potatoes, rice.

 

And yes, you should consider supplements - calcium pills (no Vitamin D added) and a multivitamin. I give about 500 to 1000mg calcium daily to my dogs along with 1 multivitamin a day. They also get 1 fish oil. Be careful about too much oil or hamburger that is too fatty as this can cause digestive upsets. I know other people haven't but, my dogs always seem to get digestive issues with pork - so I never give it. My Lucy is a seizure dog with IBD and she only gets white fish for a protein which she loves so you can use that also - a white fish like tilapia is usually cheaper.

 

Dr Remaillard (formerly from Angel in Boston) created a few different diets for my dogs. She has started her own website (https://www.petdiets.com/about) and has recipes that she provides for a fee.

Edited February 1, 2016 by MaryJane

[RedHead]

If you are feeding kibble as half the diet you don't have to be so worried about supplements. Calcium is the main one as was mentioned above. Most of the advice I have read says that if a homemade portion makes up more than half of the regular diet, you should add calcium. If not, you don't have to worry as much. So...you are kind of on the borderline I would say, but if you are doing it long term, a calcium supplement may be a good idea. The dose is around 900 mg per pound of food (or a half teaspoon of ground egg shell).

 

You can add organs if you like, liver is especially nutritious. Eggs are also a great source of (cheap) protein...and as mentioned above you can hard-boil them and then use the shells for calcium.

 

I used to feed kibble/raw mix, but am now doing some home-cooked in place of kibble. It is cheaper for me, and his system does much better on it (and he loves it).

[XTRAWLD]

I find a well rounded supplement just in case you are worried is Fresh Factors by Springtime. It really has the minimum requirements of everything IMO. Been feeding it for years over here with raw diet (have you considered raw ground?) I understand Bernie will take chunks to bed, but ground with appropriate ratios works and usually it's not something they can just drag around the house!

 

While I'm now gravitating to "Longevity" by Springtime for even more balance, I feel that you can't go wrong with a tablet or two of Fresh Factors with every meal.

 

Interesting on your crock pot cooking though. I'm sure any dog would just LOVE Bernie's slop.

[Laurenbiz]

My dogs only eat home-made and I also make all their treats - they do not get any commercial food.

 

I might suggest adding more carbohydrates into the mix - maybe oats, potatoes, rice.

 

And yes, you should consider supplements - calcium pills (no Vitamin D added) and a multivitamin. I give about 500 to 1000mg calcium daily to my dogs along with 1 multivitamin a day. They also get 1 fish oil. Be careful about too much oil or hamburger that is too fatty as this can cause digestive upsets. I know other people haven't but, my dogs always seem to get digestive issues with pork - so I never give it. My Lucy is a seizure dog with IBD and she only gets white fish for a protein which she loves so you can use that also - a white fish like tilapia is usually cheaper.

 

Dr Remaillard (formerly from Angel in Boston) created a few different diets for my dogs. She has started her own website (https://www.petdiets.com/about) and has recipes that she provides for a fee.

Thanks! I can definitely add some potatoes or rice. Maybe sweet potatoes would be a more nutritious starch option than just plain write rice or plain russet potatoes? I know Bernie has enjoyed little sweet potato bites I've given him int he past.

 

What calcium and multivitamin brands do you suggest?

 

I don't recall Bernie having digestive upsets when I added pork into his slop, although I've only tried that once! The poultry/beef mix seems to work well.

[Laurenbiz]

I find a well rounded supplement just in case you are worried is Fresh Factors by Springtime. It really has the minimum requirements of everything IMO. Been feeding it for years over here with raw diet (have you considered raw ground?) I understand Bernie will take chunks to bed, but ground with appropriate ratios works and usually it's not something they can just drag around the house!

 

While I'm now gravitating to "Longevity" by Springtime for even more balance, I feel that you can't go wrong with a tablet or two of Fresh Factors with every meal.

 

Interesting on your crock pot cooking though. I'm sure any dog would just LOVE Bernie's slop.

Thanks! I'll look into the Springtime supplements.

 

My parents' neighbor gave me the recipe for "slop" since she feeds that to her three dogs. (She didn't call it "slop," but DH and I started calling it that soon after we started cooking it! ) He's never turned up his nose to the slop! It's a winner.

 

I haven't given him just the raw ground meat. That actually might work! I'm sure he would stay at his bowl and eat it if I crumbled it up with his kibble. (And no raw meat chunks would be touching the carpet!)

[XTRAWLD]

 

I haven't given him just the raw ground meat. That actually might work! I'm sure he would stay at his bowl and eat it if I crumbled it up with his kibble. (And no raw meat chunks would be touching the carpet!)

I feed this. Perhaps you's be interested in similar ground raw. Www.bigcountryraw.ca Edited February 3, 2016 by XTRAWLD

[MaryJane]

Thanks! I can definitely add some potatoes or rice. Maybe sweet potatoes would be a more nutritious starch option than just plain write rice or plain russet potatoes? I know Bernie has enjoyed little sweet potato bites I've given him int he past.

 

What calcium and multivitamin brands do you suggest?

 

I don't recall Bernie having digestive upsets when I added pork into his slop, although I've only tried that once! The poultry/beef mix seems to work well.

 

 

I use CVS brands for the vitamins and calcium.

 

Vitamin is the Spectravite, it has a low phos and works well with dogs that have kidney issues. http://www.cvs.com/shop/vitamins/multivitamins/multivitamins/cvs-spectravite-adult-multivitamin-tablets-value-size-skuid-693430

 

Calcium is the CVS brand oyster shell that DOES NOT have the vitamin D. Lately, it has been out of stock so I have been buying one at Amazon. Just make sure to check all the ingredients.

 

You can do sweet potatoes but, they are rich so you'll need to watch how your dog does on them. Rice is usually real easy to digest and bland so not usually any digestive issues. You can also do noodles but, they are heavier than rice so do less. My dogs love tomato sauce - so I will occasionally mix a tablespoon into their food.

 

Cabbage can cause upset tummies as well as broccoli - none of my dogs have been able to do cabbage (although some people in this group have used successfully) and my latest dog has a bad reaction to broccoli.

 

Good luck.