RECIPES 4 GOURMET DOGS

HOMEMADE DOG FOOD TIPS AND INFO YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE STARTING YOUR DOG ON A HOME COOKED DIET

I am not a pet nutritionist, and am doing this through investigating, educating myself, and reading about the horrible commercial pet food industries disgusting manufacturing for profit mentality.

Always check with your vet before starting your pet on a new diet.

NOTE: *TABLE SCRAPS are not “homemade dog food” and are not nutritious or healthy for your dog.

DO YOU WANT TO SWITCH TO A HEALTHY HOMEMADE DIET FOR YOUR DOG?: READ THESE BASIC TIPS.

I checked with my veterinarian, and advise you check with your own professional.

Slowly wean your dog onto the new food. A sudden switch could cause stomach upset. Let him/her get used to the new food by gradually mixing in the new food while slowly decreasing the old food. Once adjusted to one new food try another using this method. You will find that your dog will tolerate many different types of foods, just as we do. A variety diet is much more enjoyable than the same bowl of dry kibble every day!

Ensure a well balanced diet by mixing 50% protein, with the balance consisiting of fruit and vegetables and carbohydrates, in their daily diet. Following this basic formula will ensure a well balanced, healthy nutritious diet.

I always cook the meat before serving, and let it cool off to room temperature. I found that feeding my dogs their food hot or too warm seemed to cause them stomach upset. (Lady always vomits if her food is warm – yuck) Raw Meat can be used instead of cooked if that is your preference.

Organ meat (liver, kidneys etc.) and occasionally adding eggs are very good for your pet, and as we all know variety in our diets is always nice.

Feed your pet the daily amount as recommended by your vet, according to the animal’s size, or you can use this dog food feeding chart, that gives you the proper weight to food amounts. I separate their daily requirement into two portions – morning and evening.

Rotate food for variety. I buy the meat every week that is “last day” sale. At my meat market this is the meat that is still for sale for human consumption, but has to be sold by today. My butcher sells this at 50% off the sticker price. I then bring it home and use it the same day, or freeze it and make the freshly cooked meals in batches later.

This is actually cheaper than the inexpensive dog food that I used to buy. I had a week’s worth of fast fry steaks for my two 80 pound Labrador retrievers that cost under $20.00. Just look for and stock up on sales. I made a big batches of meat, rice and veggie stew for them and freeze it in individual portions. Simple as when we grab for a frozen dinner on those nights when we’re too tired to cook, but nutritious, healthy and homemade.

Use unprocessed oatmeal, brown rice, bulgur, millet, whole wheat couscous, barley, pasta or potatoes as the starch requirement. I slightly overcook this ingredient, as raw grains are not properly digested by dogs.

Use fresh or frozen fruit and veggies and cook until tender. Make a puree after cooking any combination of veggies and fruits that your dog likes. Don’t add extra salt when cooking veggies. Use more veggies to fruits (3/4 to 1/4) Start with basics such as carrots/ green beans and apples. Get creative by trying new tastes and flavours as your dog will tolerate, such as: tomatoes, peas, corn, blueberries, bananas, peaches etc.

DO NOT USE GRAPES AS A FRUIT PORTION AS THEY ARE TOXIC TO DOGS.

About Dog Vitamins And Supplements:

Adding vitamins and supplements to our home made dog food is essential as the food will be deficient of certain necessary vitamins and minerals for optimum health.

Bone meal (Calcium) is essential to a homemade dog food diet. Dogs calcium requirements are given according to body weight. The calcium is to replace bones that wild dogs originally ate when feeding in the wild.

This necessary addition can be found in human grade bonemeal, which is available through pet supply stores, health-food stores and of course speciality on line pet stores.

Make sure you NEVER use the garden grade bone meal as this contains toxins, such as lead.

I give my two Labs, Lady and Lola this daily all in one canine supplement, so I don’t have to worry about getting all the measurements of the bone meal, vitamins etc. in the correct proportion. TOO MUCH of these will be as harmful as not enough.

HOMEMADE DOG FOOD RECIPE RECOMMENDED BY DR. ANDREW JONES DVM – Use your dog’s favorite lean ground meat, and interchange the rice with pasta, or other carbohydrate. (This recipe makes 4 portions for a 20 pound dog @ 2 servings daily – see this homemade dog food feeding chart according to your dog’s weight for more dog food recipes for dogs from 10 to 100 pounds) 2 cups cooked rice 2 1/2 cups minced cooked lean meat 1 1/4 cups pureed veggie and fuit mix 1 1/2 tablespoon canola oil 1/4 tsp. iodized salt Daily vitamin/mineral and bonemeal supplement according to dog’s weight Precook rice, meat and make a veggie/fruit mix ahead of time Use any lean meat such as chicken, turkey, venison, lamb, beef.  Remove fat. Use brown or white rice (or subsitute cooked macaroni potatoes) For the fruit/veggie puree I usually stick with the favourite of carrots and apples. I mix 3/4 vegetables to 1/4 fruit.  Cook fruit, cool and puree in food processor. Mix meat, veggie/fruit puree, starch and salt together, drizzle with oil and serve. Separate into 4 equal servings and feed 2 servings per day.  (This equals 2 days worth of food.) Make bigger batches when you have the time and freeze in portions for easy meal time.