Homemade dogfood?

[mamaluv321]

Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions (and welcome Diane!) I don't have any sudafed but am getting some today to try on her. I'm also not planning on doing raw, going to do the cooked version. So no grains at all though? Why Does every dogfood known to man use it if it's not good for them? he stinkin companies lying to us bout what's good for our pets!) I seriously thought rice and oatmeal and barley are good for them, guess I need to do some research!

 

[tortoise]

Be very careful with making cooked food. Dogs need the calcium and phosphorus in bone. Cooked bones are dangerous and it is very importnat to get the right amount of calcium and phosphorus in the diet. It is possible to supplement cooked meat, but it needs to be bioavailable.

For an adult dog, 900 mg of calcium is needed per pound of muscle meat.

Most dogs like raw eggs, and if your dog eats the shell, that's a nice way to supplement calcium. However, there is a limit to how much egg shell a dog can use. I feed my dog egg shells because I can't throw away something perfectly useful. If I give quite a few at a time when I'm baking, he passes undigested egg shell.

A chicken eggshell (any size) contains about 2.2 grams (2200 mg) of calcium carbonate.

A 70 pound senior dog with a sedentary life requires about 1400 Calories per day. For sake of argument, let's say you are cooking up chicken breast for dog food. A chicken breast has about 500 Calories per pound, so your dog would eat 2.8 pounds of chicken breast per day.

You would have to supplement this with 6.2 grams of calcium per day. That is 3 eggshells per day, or 10 calcium supplement tablets that you would buy at a Wal~Mart / Walgreens.

There are grain-free dog foods out there like Innova Evo, Fromm, Artemis, Orijen, Blue Buffalo, Taste of the Wild, Merrick "Before Grain", Raw Instinct, Wellness Core, Go Natrual, Solid Gold Barking at the Moon, Natural Balance.

The thing is that grain-free foods are not necessarily low-carb and it is debatable whether the vegetable sources, like pomaces, are superior to grain.

Dogs (with the exception of pregnant bitches) have no nutritional requirement for carbs. With that said, it would not be completely correct to eliminate carbs from the diet. Wolves in sanctuaries have been observed to eat apples and greens, even when food (meat) is plentiful. Stomach linings of large ruminants is like shag carpeting and holds partially digested vegetable matter.

From what I can determine, carbs (fruit and veggies) should be a very small portion of the diet with the purpose of providing vitamins. They should not be cooked, but should be pulverized and fermented to break down cell walls without destroying the vitamins, or treated with digestive enzymes. (Dogs lack the enzyme cellulase.)

The acute toxicity dose for cellulase enzyme preparations is at quite a high dose that I doubt could be achieved in supplementing a diet. FWIW, the first symptom of high doses is vomiting.

The easiest way I know of to provide vegetable matter is feeding raw green tripe. Whe I was feeding raw, I would go to the butcher on kill day and pick up an abomasum. It fits in a 5-gallon bucket and is pretty easy to cut up with scissors and shake out the excessive plant matter. (and it's free!) You can purchase canned tripe if you're not willing/able to get it from a butcher.

 

[tortoise]

I talked to a vet (curious me!) and he confirmed the use of sudafed for incontinence in dogs. He did mention that you'd have a hard time getting 30 tablets a month, every month, given the regulations on the stuff.

PPA is available in veterinary formulations and is relatively cheap. If the sudafed is a solution, talk to your vet about getting PPA (phenylpropanolamine).

 

[DianeS]

I talked to a vet (curious me!) and he confirmed the use of sudafed for incontinence in dogs. He did mention that you'd have a hard time getting 30 tablets a month, every month, given the regulations on the stuff.

PPA is available in veterinary formulations and is relatively cheap. If the sudafed is a solution, talk to your vet about getting PPA (phenylpropanolamine).

Oh, you do NOT need to give it all the time! The effect is often very long-lasting. One pill often seems to give the desired effect for several days. And after a few weeks of receiving a single pill every few days, I've often been able to discontinue it completely. So it's not a pill-a-day-forever thing.

Now they were foster dogs, by definition they were in my home for usually only a few months. So this treatment may need to be repeated at some point - every 6 months, or once a year, or something like that. I don't know. But it's certainly not something they need a pill for every day.

 

[mamaluv321]

I talked to a vet (curious me!) and he confirmed the use of sudafed for incontinence in dogs. He did mention that you'd have a hard time getting 30 tablets a month, every month, given the regulations on the stuff.

PPA is available in veterinary formulations and is relatively cheap. If the sudafed is a solution, talk to your vet about getting PPA (phenylpropanolamine).

Oh, you do NOT need to give it all the time! The effect is often very long-lasting. One pill often seems to give the desired effect for several days. And after a few weeks of receiving a single pill every few days, I've often been able to discontinue it completely. So it's not a pill-a-day-forever thing.

Now they were foster dogs, by definition they were in my home for usually only a few months. So this treatment may need to be repeated at some point - every 6 months, or once a year, or something like that. I don't know. But it's certainly not something they need a pill for every day.

Seriously interesting stuff, so every 3rd day or so? Is it an immediate affect or does it take a few doses to start working?

 

[DianeS]

Seriously interesting stuff, so every 3rd day or so? Is it an immediate affect or does it take a few doses to start working?

It's immediate-ish. When it works, I've noticed a difference during the first day. And I don't re-dose until the effects are gone or almost gone, which has tended to take about three days. (Your mileage may vary.)

If you do it, I hope you'll post back and let us know how it works for you!

 

[MsPony]

Here is a link to 245 home made dog food recipes. It is down loadable, but it costs 29.95
http://www.sunshine-4u.com/dog/index.html


This second link is a database that breaks down EVERY commercial dog food available. Hit the "reviews" tab to get started. I use this site to determine which dog food was the best for us. Dog Food price has never been an issue when it comes to my dogs. I just want the best value and quality I can get for my money.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/

I have a love-hate relationship with that website. They are fairly accurate on rankings, although everyone I know is surprised Royal Canin got put so low.

Just remember:
A) Its ingredients only, based on AAFCO standards. which has to make broad standards of lower quality....kind of like USDA But, however, it does not include nutritional levels in its scoring, which some foods are ridiculously high in protein like Call of the Wild, or Evangers, etc. I have been to Wal-Mart, found a dog food I had never heard of and according that site it is a GREAT food. But, its from Wal-Mart, which I can't even imagine the quality, disgusting.

B) Quality, it doesn't include that. Artemis is a seemingly awesome food, but its made in the same dirty mill as another food that gets recalled at least once a year for salmonella or other disgusting diseases. Royal Canin has a HIGH standard of quality, they have turned away chicken meat before, that went on to Tyson chicken. Yuck?

Purina One is supposedly a good food (its Purina, so I beg to differ personally), but my animal nutritionist has been to their mill and they use ROTTEN MEAT in their food. Gross.

C) It doesn't take testing or longevity into consideration. Take Party Animal (sold at Whole Foods), the rep came and tried to sell to us. Good ingredients, organic, good mill, bad advertising label but that doesn't matter. This food had actually been a business class project, that his classmates gave him good reviews on. Later we called him to come back and go infront of the firing squad, I mean talk to the owner. He had NO testing behind his food, still doesn't, and his food hasnt been around long enough for long term proof.

I made the mistake with my first dog, being 10 and not knowing anything, of feeding him costco, pedigree, etc. Last January (2009) he developed a peripheral paralysis, that was on and off for the last 6 months of his life. It was not genetic, as he was from very old and very pure bloodlines that was tested out the wazoo. It wasn't tick/flea/bug, it wasn't vax, it wasn't anything, we had exhausted everything. To this day I FIRMLY believe it was the food that we had feed him his entire life, and in some way or another he developed this.

I now only feed older (as in been around a few generations), tested food. I do play around with wet food because he only gets a spoonful. Even now, with what I have my dog on, I am so on edge at any little thing that happens with him. He 4 months old and still wobbly, gets fat then grows, etc., but I worry constantly about him. Is he wobbly because of the dewormer? Is his food to rich and making him fat? Is he inhaling and not chewing, therefor not digesting? Is poo a little runnier because of food allergies? I do have to admit that I need to relax, because everyone compliments me on how healthy/shiny and soft he is.

I know youre not stupid, I just work in the animal nutrition field, so I am neurotic Just things to take into consideration. I find nothing better in a work day then to help someone figure out the best food for their dog (or cat!)

To the OP, I wouldn't know what to do for leaking But it seems like people here have some good suggestions!

 

[tortoise]

I know youre not stupid, I just work in the animal nutrition field, so I am neurotic

Definitely neurotic on the pet foods here too. I *have* to do all of the calculations to convince myself that I'm doing it right.

I moved and don't have a chest freezer now, so I'm feeding icky kibble. NutriSource Super Performance. It's a balance between quality and value.