I’m considering making homemade dog food. But I’m worried about making sure it’s nutritionally balanced, has anyone got any tips?
There sre lots of dog food recipes on line if you google them .Im too scared to do it but i know many do and it works fine but i know you have to get it right nutritionaly
This is what I made this week.
I crushed 2 calcium tablets into water. I added a zero salt beef stock cube. I added a heaped teaspoon of tumeric and a couple of squirts of pepper then I melted 2 cod liver oil capsules in to it and added a couple of scoops of collagen. I boiled it and added a cup of rice. When the rice had softened a little I stirred in a couple of raw eggs in to cook in the hot water.
I should add at this point that I am an older female with failing bones and joints and that is why I have the calcium tablets, the turmeric, the collagen and the cod liver oil kicking round the house. The pepper helps with the absorption of the tumeric and you don’t need much. The dog is 10, so joint problems are a matter of time now. I also keep hens, so we have a lot of eggs round here. I want the eggs cooked because older dogs aren’t as good as younger dogs at getting the nutrition out of their food if it is raw and cooking helps with bio availability. It was force of habit with the cod liver oil as the cans of salmon probably had plenty fish oil in it.
When the rice had cooked I added 2 cans of out of date salmon that I found at my son’s flat and liberated for the dog feeding purpose and a can of chicken from Costco. I don’t like it at all, it has a weird texture like tuna, but I had bought about 6 cans and the dog likes it fine. Then I added a wodge of frozen peas.
I serve this 50 - 50 with the dried dog food the dog turned up with and at this rate it will last 5 or 6 days. I freeze half of it and bring it outwhen the first half is eaten, so it isn’t like by the end, the stuff has been in the fridge for 6 days. This dog has only just arrived, via family member who’s health problems mean he can’t keep him any more.
Other points. Bearing in mind how rubbish a lot of dog food on the market is and that a previous dog I had would eat cat poo, I am fairly relaxed about my home made recipes on the grounds that it is a fairly low bar to be better than than. I never add grapes, or fruit or onions and I always google something before I chuck it in.
Usually I make cook the rice with stock from bones. I put bones from any roasts I make in the pressure cooker. Sometimes when it comes out, I just cool it down and feed it straight to the dogs as a treat and if I’d had some stock on hand then I’d not have added the collagen. If I’d pressure cooked a chicken carcass I’d have got a lot of meat off that, also all the capsules that come off the joints and so on. Also, stuff that didn’t get eaten from the meal the stock bones came from is also likely to get added. So last week’s recipe had carrots and potatoes in it and less peas and rice. I’ve got a pot of goose fat in the fridge from a goose I roasted and I have added goose fat to the rice water before now, but I thought this time there would probably be enough oil from the salmon.
Anyway, if you’ve ever cooked for a family, you can cook for a dog. And they are usually way more appreciative of your efforts and your healthy additions! Try adding cod liver oil to your family’s rice and see the thanks you get.
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