Home-cooked dog food

[FiddleFigs]

Does anyone make their dogs' dinners at home from scratch? Currently on Lily's kibble, which is fine I suppose but a life on kibble seems so dull for a food-loving spaniel. Raw doesn't work for us, but just wondering about home-cooked dinners as an option.

[Elphame]

I'm not a massive fan of this kibble stuff- I wouldn't eat such heavily processed food myself. I know it's cheap and convenient but....

I used to cool up tripe and lights for my last dog and I'm thinking of doing something like this for Elfpup too. Even if it's just once a week. I've also signed up for the Butternut Box trial as this seems much more like "real" food. We'll see what he thinks

[cocopops88]

I used to cook up chicken and heart or whatever was reduced in the slow cooker for my deerhound. Stopped when I was pregnant as I couldn't stand the smell. I use forthglades now which she loves and it's about the same price.

[BiteyShark]

I have started mixing wet food with his kibble to add more flavour. Mine also gets treats such as scrambled egg, cooked pork sausages and (very spoilt) some of our steak when we have it

[CornflakeHomunculus]

I do similarly to BiteyShark to keep my gang's diet interesting for them.

They get complete wet food (four different brands and a range of different flavours within each) mixed in with their dry each meal and also stuff like raw eggs, tinned fish and dog appropriate scraps/leftovers.

It is possible to do a home cooked diet but you do need to be careful it's properly balanced.

[FiddleFigs]

Thanks everyone.

I do add tasty bits to the kibble: usually a raw egg or fish skins (if we're having fish for dinner), and he loves that.

Whenever I've added even just a tablespoon of complete wet food to his kibble, he has very soft poos, so I've been reluctant to go down that path.

Elphame Butternut looks good, but would work out pretty costly I think. I'll look into it some more though.

[PetraDelphiki]

We use butternut box - works out about £1 per day...all the food does smell yummy! Pup very happy on it!

They are very flexible - you don't have to order every 4 weeks...

[Excitedforxmas]

Ours gets liver, fish, stewing steak , mince , roast chicken on top of kibble. Fresh veggies too !

[BiteyShark]

OP I find I have to reduce the amount of kibble when adding wet food otherwise his poos are soft just as they would be if I overfed him pure kibble. I also use the same wet company as my kibble as they don't bulk it out with fillers either. His favourite is 70% salmon 30% veg and you can see the chunks of veg in it. Often he eats better than I do

[Justoneme]

I buy a whole chicken pop it in the slow cooker, once done I remove the chicken but leave the juice the pour extra water in, add rice and frozen veg... remove all the bones from the chicken... once rice and veg are cooked mix all together then freeze into potions. Take a potion out the night before then feed in the morning... for dinner I use biscuits. I have one happy dog 🐶

[Elphame]

PetraDelphiki That's good to hear! I was planning on maybe giving him one meal a day of it and using a good kibble for the second so that one delivery would last twice as long.

[PetraDelphiki]

I mix it with kibble ! Also use bob and lush as it doesn't have to be kept frozen!

[LilaWithTheBigBag]

PetraDelphiki can I ask how did you get Butternut Box coming out at £1 a day? I've done the calculator for my little dog ethi only weighs 9.5 kg and it's coming out at £2.60 a day.

[PetraDelphiki]

Mine is much smaller!!! 2.5 kg!

I'm not sure I could justify it if he was a lot bigger though :-(

[LilaWithTheBigBag]

Ah that'll be why then! It is pretty expensive isn't it, but looks very good. I've ordered a trial with them for now.

[FiddleFigs]

yes, Butternut worked out at £2.60 for my spaniel too, and he's only going to get bigger, so I don't think it will be for us (though it all looks and sounds lovely!)

[Elphame]

£2.60 for Elfpup too which is why I will be alternating it with kibble. Nice tip about picking up reduced meat cocopops88. Being a veggie household I never thought to look. Elfpup could in theory be vegetarian too but I wouldn't do that to him.

[PetraDelphiki]

I can get you voucher codes £25 off - if you pm me your name/dogs name/email address I can do it online. Annoyingly I can’t just send it to you - I have to put those details in on their website...

(Full disclosure I’ll get £25 off too)...

[bilbodog]

eatswritesshoots.com



Check out the web site above - this canadian guy has done a lot of research before coming up with this recipe - admitedly for kidney problems but dont see why you cant use the recipe. Only thing i cant get at my supermarket is cartons of egg white. Dog happy so far.

[StandardPoodle]

We cook minced beef, chicken , heart, sometimes liver or kidney, rice, broccoli, carrots, then freeze in containers, and serve it on top of kibble. Also occasionally a tin of sardines on kibble - goes down a treat.

[Elphame]

There's an interesting study that shows dogs fed on home cooked food could live 3 years longer than those fed on commercial dog food. That's a huge percentage of a dog lifespan.

www.ukrmb.co.uk/images/LippertSapyFullReport.pdf

[srnorth]

I cook food for my 3 poodles, I use around 50% meat, 30% any type of fruit and veg and 20% filler such a brown rice, potato, barley, oats, quinoa etc. I add calcium (powdered egg shell) at a rate of 1 teaspoon per kilo of meat. They also get eggs, fish, oily fish, home cooked liver cake as training reward, yoghurt, goats milk, cheese and cottage cheese. I am not qualified in any way regarding dog diets but this works for my dogs and I have resesrched home cooked diets extensively and this seems to tick most boxes for me and my dogs (in fact I think their diet is more balanced than my children's was) My dogs are extremely healthy, calm and have lovely coats, they are not overweight and are active without being hyperactive. I put everything in the slow cooker and freeze portions, they love it. There is no way I would feed my dogs the over processed stuff that passes for food for dogs. It does not work out expensive for the three dogs, it's the same costwise as a what passes for a good quality dog food, but I am always on the look out in the reduced section in the supermarket. I have fed a total of five dogs this diet and both of the dogs who I started doing this for passed away at the ripe old ages of 15 and 16.

[misshannah]

We got our JRT at 9 months old as a rescue, she had only ever had wet dog food and i cooked for her homemade until we got our second rescue puppy a month later. (Yes we are mad). Our second puppy had been smuggled into the country and had various tummy problems so was on a biscuit diet.
We fed both biscuits initially in the morning but fount the JRT refused to eat if she knew she would get her home cooked delights in the evening. It's been a year now and i can only just give them both biscuits in the morning and home cooked in the evening. I also don't like the idea of a life on kibble or tinned food. I cook using brown rice, veggies, fish or meat. I find the homecooked food makes a massive difference to my JRT. On biscuits alone she was super hyper whereas now she is managable and a much nicer dog.