Advice on homemade dog food needed

[Dace]

We have a 10 yr old sheltie who is fat and has an odor problem.

I know that the commercial food we are giving him is contributing to the weight and odor. Can anyone advise me on making my own dog food?

I would imagine that I can just cook up some meat and organs and can it myself or freeze individual portions but not sure how much is an appropriate portion or if just meat is enough.

I am also wondering if there is any type of
meat/ organs that he should not have. And what about eggs? They are cheap, could I include those

 

[Wifezilla]

Many feed raw. Google the BARF diet. (Barf stands for biologically appropriate raw food)

Also some commercial feeds aren't too bad. Taste of the Wild is awesome. Innova EVO, Blue Buffalo Wilderness and Wellness Core are also good. All three of those are grain-free.

 

[Dace]

I wonder what would be cheaper....homemade or cleaner commercial? Anyone know?

 

[freemotion]

We feed raw and it is much cheaper than cleaner commercial. A bit more work, but hey, it saved my first dog's life. It changed my second dog's life....I actually have a white poodle mix with no more tear stains.

Look for my raw thread if you want to read up on how I manage it. We can get chicken backs for .49-.59 per lb, and use about....um....I have to look at the packages we have in the freezer, but maybe 4-5 lbs per week for two dogs, 25-30 lbs of lean muscle in each dog. I also feed a couple of carrots, collards, other leftover veggies, and kefir twice a week.

Dogs, unlike cats, thrive on what we would consider the lesser quality parts of the animal. They need more bone and tendon, etc, and less muscle meat. Give a little organ meat on occasion, but too much rich meat/organs gives our dogs the f^rts and loose stools. I feed backs and wings, trimming the extra fat and tails from the backs for the older, less active dog and giving that to the younger, hyperactive dog.

Neither dog gets any grains. My older dog is at the point were he is living longer than expected, with a congenital heart defect that was surgically repaired as a pup but not before some damage was done to his valves. They are both the picture of health (other than the recent ACL tear and surgical repair on the older dog....but he is doing great with his rehab so far!)

 

[Dace]

Thanks Free! I will go look up your thread

 

[i_am2bz]

I made food for my dogs for about 6 months, during the commercial dogfood-poisoning scare a few years ago. My vet sent me 2 recipes. One used ground beef, canned vegetables, anchovies, & brown rice. The other used ground turkey, vegetables, & rice. (I started with a whole chicken that I would boil until the meat fell off the bones; that was such a pain that I switched to the ground turkey.) I'd make up a batch on Sunday that would last a week.

Being a vegetarian, you can understand how much I must love my dogs!!

 

[tortoise]

Just a reminder I try to include in all the homemade pet food threads is that boneless meat based diets are deficient in calcium and WILL cause health problems. Supplementing with calcium is necessary. You should talk to your vet because overdosing on calcium is a big problem in puppies (not so much in adults).

Skinless meat based diets are too low in fat, and a huge quanitiy of food need to be fed to meet caloric requirements. Certain cuts of meat are too high in fat to be the base of a diet and can pancreatitis.

 

[ORChick]

Many years ago, when I was still in highschool, a family friend raised dogs (whippets) for show. On several occasions I took care of the dogs and the house when he was traveling. I don't remember specifics, but he used to buy backs, necks, wings of chicken - the bony, usually cheaper cuts - and pressure cook them for a long time - can't say how long anymore. When done he had falling off the bone meat, some good broth, and the bones were soft enough to pinch to a pulp between your fingers. He mixed this with commercial kibble for the dogs' meals. His dogs were happy, healthy, and very successful in the show ring. I don't think there was anything else in this mix, but I could be forgetting something after all this time

 

[Wildsky]

I moved from commercial food to raw for my girlie, Ginja - Red Heeler.

SHe now eats mostly raw chicken wings, and now and then some raw beef with bone and fat.

I mistakenly gave her too much of the fat onces and she threw up all over, but that was a lesson learned.

I don't think dogs eat many veggies or grains in the wild, Ginja gets a little now and then, nothing on a regular basis.

 

[freemotion]

Wild dogs will eat herbivore poo, which can still contain a fair number of nutrients. For a year I was dumping horse manure where I would be putting my pasture, building compost piles to later be spread once we were ready to plant grass. During that time, the coyote scat was often mostly horse poo!

They will eat grass, as all cats and dogs do, and the intestinal contents of their prey. They will also eat things when hungry that they might not normally eat. I see apple bits in coyote poo in the winter when prey is scarce. They don't digest the vegetable matter well, as it is very recognizable in their poops. I have been monitoring the local coyote population for years this way....