Are you sick and tired of pet food recalls and want to make your own dog food? I know I am, and although I still buy dog food, (only natural dog food made with human grade ingredients) I have started my dogs on a home-based diet.
After doing some research here is what I found:
1. You cannot feed your dog table scraps.
2. Not all foods are good for your dog
3. You need to keep in mind their canine dietary needs and feed your dogs the right diet.
Table scraps
We have all heard the warnings from the pet food companies or even our vet that feeding pets table scraps or a homemade diet is bad for them. This is not…
entirely true, however, it all depends of what is in the food that your are feeding your dog. Just because something tastes good to you and your dog, doesn’t mean it is good for them. A leftover piece of roast chicken is not going to hurt your dog, but a brownie might, because it contains chocolate and chocolate is harmful to dogs.
Types of food
Although dogs are omnivores, which means they benefit from foods other than meats, they just cannot eat everything that we humans eat. A dog home-based diet contain simple ingredients and stay away from harmful foods
Dietary needs
In his book Dr Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, Dr Pitcairn stresses the importance of the basic food groups that are beneficial to dogs. They consist of:
Meats
Eggs and Dairy Products
Grains
Legumes
Vegetables
How to put it all together.
Based on this simple foods premise, I keep it simple and cook from a comprehensive list of recipes, cook in quantity and freeze it, and compliment it with natural dry food such as Halo Spot’s Stew Dry Dog Food
My favorite recipes come from an ebook called Dog Food Secrets. The author decided to do his own research and write this book after his dog died from kidney failure caused by preservatives found in the commercial dog food he was feeding his dog.
His book is loaded with nutritionally balanced, easy-to-make, home-made dog-food recipes. For instance, one recipe for Chicken and Musrhoom dinner has the following list of ingredients:
Ingredients Calories
1 tsp. olive oil ………………………. 40
1 tsp. sesame oil (optional) …………. 40
1 potato, peeled and finely chopped …. 161
6 mushrooms, sliced ……………………. 30
1/2 c. cooked whole grain rice ………… 216
1 can sweet corn ………………………… 280
3 oz. cooked chicken ……………………. 125
2 tbsp. plain yogurt ……………………… 20
TOTAL 912
