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Even before the recent pet food scare, I became educated on what is found in pet food by reading this http://www.newstarget.com/012647.html (vomit-inducing, so be warned)
We make our own dog food as well. Chicken, veggies (I've lately read that broccoli isn't good for dogs, so we cut that out), fruit and oats.
What is broccoli supposed to do? My doggie loves broccoli. She really likes green beans and most other veggies, too.
I want to start making homemade dog/cat food too. We use Nutro products, so this latest scare got us concerned. I went online to get some recipes and were happily surprised on how many there were.
I've heard that broccoli is good for dogs, except it can give them gas .
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Originally Posted by silverwing
Even before the recent pet food scare, I became educated on what is found in pet food by reading this http://www.newstarget.com/012647.html (vomit-inducing, so be warned)
We make our own dog food as well. Chicken, veggies (I've lately read that broccoli isn't good for dogs, so we cut that out), fruit and oats.
I started making "doggie stew" for our golden retriever over three years ago. At the time, she was 9 years old, very overweight (95 lb), sluggish, and starting to have joint problems. I began making her food back then mostly because of frightening information I'd read about the unregulated pet food industry and their products, and also I wanted to know what she was consuming. I checked online and got some recipes, then tweaked them over time. In the beginning I thought I'd only do it for a month or so, until I could do more research and find a commercial dog food that I could trust.
One month on doggie stew became two and then three. Our dog started losing weight and within 6-8 months she was down to 65 lbs, which is exactly where she should be. She was more energetic and puppy-like. Our vet said to keep doing what we were doing, after she saw the weight/attitude change from the homemade diet. Our dog is now nearly 13 and she has maintained her weight, usually ranging from 63-67 lbs. Her limping disappeared soon after she began losing weight three years ago. Age is now starting to catch up with her though--she's slower to rise and has occasional missteps while on walks. After trying some vet-prescribed arthritis meds, we recently began putting Synflex (glucosamine) in her food. That seems to help more than anything, so hopefully we can keep her off meds for awhile longer.
Our dog has flourished on homemade food, and the few times we've put her back on commercial food (for convenience when she's been boarded), she became very anxious and seemed to be in gastric distress, especially on commercial dry foods. This was even after the food was gradually added to her homemade food, so she could transition to a different diet. The last time we tried using a commercial food (just this past Christmas when we put her on Nutro Natural Choice canned food), we decided it wasn't worth it, and we'll just send homemade "doggie stew" with her next time she's boarded. Although we had gradually worked up to the canned Nutro this past December, the boarding facility called us and said she was vomiting the Nutro canned food and they wanted to put her on dry food for the rest of her stay, which we agreed to. Now that we've read about the pet food recall, and saw that Nutro canned food from that time frame was one of the brands affected, we are SO glad they changed her diet right away--and we'll just keep her on homemade food from now on.
After many experiments with other ingredients (broccoli was removed from the recipe pretty early on--yes, big time gas!), our current doggie stew recipe is about 60% cooked ground turkey, 30% veggies (usually organic green beans and shredded/sliced carrots), and 10% rice, simmered in organic chicken broth for about 45 minutes, seasoned with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Yes, it is human grade and tastes pretty good! I cook for our dog once a month, using two HUGE soup pots, and freezing the food into 2 cup containers. She gets one (warmed up in the micro) container in the morning and one in the evening, plus whatever table scraps she can "talk" us into throughout the day. I used to think it was the table scraps making her fat, never realizing it was actually her high quality diet commercial dry food. I put a tablespoon of walnut oil in her morning food, and the Synflex in both morning and evening feedings. We also give her a pet vitamin daily just in case she's missing something in her diet.
Sorry for the long post. This is a subject near and dear to my heart.
FedUp, our golden girl was evidently blessed with good teeth (it must be a trade off for all the cysts she's had removed. There should be a wing at the vet's with her name on it!). Our dog has never had her teeth cleaned and they still look great--even our vet says so. She does get a raw beef bone to chew on about once a week, and she still gets a couple of large Milk Bones a day. I probably should check out the ingredients in them, but so far so good--and I'm not planning to start baking dog biscuits! :-) She gets the expensive organic ones occasionally too.
I forgot to mention in my other post that we've estimated it costs about $60 per month for the ingredients to make our doggie stew. Of course, that doesn't include her vitamins, treats, etc, or the electricity to cook and store it. The cost appears to be similar to buying "high end" commercial dog food (I started to write "high quality" but it appears after this recall that is subjective!).
Thanks Capricorn13--hopefully our experience will help others. Our vet has told us we've added at least two years to our dog's life. If that's true this has certainly been worth it!
What great feedback -- I will certainly change my current recipe for what you folks are recommending. You are so right - at least this way you know what your pet is getting.
I buy ground turkey at Cosco. Even though I only make dog food once a month, it already takes up at least half day of the always busy weekend, so I take as many shortcuts as possible. I get the veggies, rice and boxed organic chicken broth from Cosco too. I think the main thing is to make sure there's adequate protein--dogs are meat eaters, and probably don't need the veggies as much, but they usually enjoy them. Our dog will eat anything, so it's hard to tell if she really prefers one recipe over another. I used to cut up boneless pork country ribs, and mix ground beef and ground turkey together for the meat portion. She was having some skin problems/hot spots and I read that it might be the beef--and turkey or lamb was suggested. The ground turkey was available and easy to use, so that's what I've been using for about a year.
A few years ago I tried the raw diet for a short time, but it was so messy I went back to making doggie stew--she gets her raw beef bone on the weekend out on the deck and clean up once a week isn't too bad. I know people who swear by it though. Occasionally I'll put a raw egg in her food too. She's doing great, and if it wasn't for the fact that she has a "white" face, most people think she's a much younger dog.
Lynn
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