cooking dog food and multivitamins
- Thread starter goldiefur
- Start date
I wanted to homecook for Jackson at one point, but I know I'd be too lazy as I barely cook for myself.
But, if you want to cook longterm, I definitely recommend that you consult a nutritionist to get going. Unbalanced diets can be very dangerous to a dog's health, especially when it comes to cal-phos ratio, etc (like you said).
Oh, and there's a multivitamin for homecooking called Balance IT. If that isn't used, then a combination of different vitamins and minerals will be necessary.
I read good things about this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982533101/
But, if you want to cook longterm, I definitely recommend that you consult a nutritionist to get going. Unbalanced diets can be very dangerous to a dog's health, especially when it comes to cal-phos ratio, etc (like you said).
Oh, and there's a multivitamin for homecooking called Balance IT. If that isn't used, then a combination of different vitamins and minerals will be necessary.
I read good things about this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982533101/
Orson gets 1/2 kibble and 1/2 cooked. His kibble is grain free, but HE is not grain free.....I control the quality/quantity of grain he eats.
His cooked food includes organ meat as well as muscle. Long grain brown rice or oatmeal. Various RAW blended veggies (blended to aid in digestion/absorption), I make it a point to include broccoli and sweet potatoes. Broccoli has calcium and vitamins, sweet potatoes are a digestion favorite....they help cut down on stinky farts IMO, LOL And both of those veggies are shown to have good cancer fighting agents as of current studies.
Orson normally gets a few raw meaty bones from the butcher each week, and he also gets a dollop of yogurt on his breakfast each morning. And of course his cookies/treats............simple sliced/dehydrated sweet potatoes are a favorite in addition to his homemade peanut butter biscuits.
You could absolutely include egg shells. It's easy to do if you remember to save them, LOL Microwave them to dry a bit, not long. Then blend them to crumbs and add them to your dog food.
IDK, I don't go nuts trying to keep everything perfectly balanced. If I have a certain question, I'll look it up. Otherwise, I look to Orson for answers. He is healthy, his poop is good, his skin and coat are great, eyes clear, energy level great, teeth great, and so on. If there's a problem, I'm sure his poop and coat will be the first to tell me, LOL
His cooked food includes organ meat as well as muscle. Long grain brown rice or oatmeal. Various RAW blended veggies (blended to aid in digestion/absorption), I make it a point to include broccoli and sweet potatoes. Broccoli has calcium and vitamins, sweet potatoes are a digestion favorite....they help cut down on stinky farts IMO, LOL And both of those veggies are shown to have good cancer fighting agents as of current studies.
Orson normally gets a few raw meaty bones from the butcher each week, and he also gets a dollop of yogurt on his breakfast each morning. And of course his cookies/treats............simple sliced/dehydrated sweet potatoes are a favorite in addition to his homemade peanut butter biscuits.
You could absolutely include egg shells. It's easy to do if you remember to save them, LOL Microwave them to dry a bit, not long. Then blend them to crumbs and add them to your dog food.
IDK, I don't go nuts trying to keep everything perfectly balanced. If I have a certain question, I'll look it up. Otherwise, I look to Orson for answers. He is healthy, his poop is good, his skin and coat are great, eyes clear, energy level great, teeth great, and so on. If there's a problem, I'm sure his poop and coat will be the first to tell me, LOL
Raw meaty bones! 
And organ meats are good for vitamin/minerals. Really, its so much easier to balance prey model raw than homecooked. And waaaaaaay less prep involved.
There are lot of good recipes for cooked out there though. Dog food chat forum (am I allowed to refer to another forum?) has a section on recipes and homecooking as well as people who can answer any questions you might have about balancing the diet.
You could also go to like a dehydrated "raw" food if you wanted. The meat in THK is actually cooked because of the temp they dehydrate it at, but its a very high quality food with good ingrediets.
Here's a list of dehydrated foods:
- The Honest Kitchen
- Sojo's
- Grandma Lucy's
- Ziwipeak
- Stella & Chewey's
I think there are some others too. Of these I've only ever used THK as a food. It was wonderful quality and resolved Lily's hard poo issues she was having on Acana grain free, but her coat got really crappy and she was losing muscle tone. So we went prey model raw and saw very dramatic improvements. Just my experience. I've used S&C's for training treats, very good quality. Would be way too expensive to feed a big dog as food.
I think Adrianne feeds dehydrated food to her dogs and they all look wonderful, so don't let my dogs issues scare you off.
Be aware that you'll have to brush teeth daily or give RMB's regularly with either dehydrated or homecooked as it doesn't promote oral health like pmr does. Hope this helps!
And organ meats are good for vitamin/minerals. Really, its so much easier to balance prey model raw than homecooked. And waaaaaaay less prep involved. There are lot of good recipes for cooked out there though. Dog food chat forum (am I allowed to refer to another forum?) has a section on recipes and homecooking as well as people who can answer any questions you might have about balancing the diet.
You could also go to like a dehydrated "raw" food if you wanted. The meat in THK is actually cooked because of the temp they dehydrate it at, but its a very high quality food with good ingrediets.
Here's a list of dehydrated foods:
- The Honest Kitchen
- Sojo's
- Grandma Lucy's
- Ziwipeak
- Stella & Chewey's
I think there are some others too. Of these I've only ever used THK as a food. It was wonderful quality and resolved Lily's hard poo issues she was having on Acana grain free, but her coat got really crappy and she was losing muscle tone. So we went prey model raw and saw very dramatic improvements. Just my experience. I've used S&C's for training treats, very good quality. Would be way too expensive to feed a big dog as food.
I think Adrianne feeds dehydrated food to her dogs and they all look wonderful, so don't let my dogs issues scare you off.
Be aware that you'll have to brush teeth daily or give RMB's regularly with either dehydrated or homecooked as it doesn't promote oral health like pmr does. Hope this helps!