Do any of you cook for your dogs?

[Grassynoel]

Just that really. I'm thinking of cooking up handy batches weekly or whatever. Do any of you do this? If so, do you add extras like vitamins or similar?

A neighbour of mine does this and said they don't add anything extra but a quick google search mentions salmon oil and calcium may need to be added.

He said he gives roughly 70% meat (chicken thighs, beef, turkey) 5% offal, 10% potato or rice and the rest veg. Something similar to that. He said he cooks a big batch every week in his slow cooker.

What do you think?

I take my mum to Aldi when she needs to stock up on meat for her dog. She started cooking for her dog a few years ago after trying a raw diet. Both my mum and her dog seem very happy with it. I am not sure what she adds to the food or the percentage of meat, veg etc. The food looks nice and handy having it all in portions in the freezer.

I do. I have an 11 litre stockpot. I boil up 1 x large cheap chicken in loads of water. Remove. Boil in the stock about 4 cups brown rice with a mix of potato, sweet potato, carrot, broccoli - all whizzed up in the food processor. A dash of iodised salt sometimes.

Shred the chicken and throw the bones into the bin. Meat into the pot, mix well and allow to cool. Pot and freeze.

It takes about ten minutes work a few times over the course of a few hours. Topped up with leftovers, it lasts about 4-5 weeks. It probably costs about $12 in total which is pretty good on a per diem, I think.

I've been thinking about this –I've always fed kibble before and I've been looking into cooking for my Ddog when he comes home from the resuce, but I fell down a rabbithole on Reddit about raw feeding and how to create a balanced diet that includes everything they need, and it scared me off....

Would love to understand more about it – if anyone has any clear, well-researched resources that don't scaremonger too much!

I cook for my cat. White fish poached with added tuna in spring water.

I do it once a month into ice cube trays and bang them out into bags and store in the freezer.

It works out so much cheaper than branded foot and she's not allergic. She goes horribly scabby and weapy with anything but Iams kibble.

But I fear Iams have slightly changed their recipe since it rebranded about a year ago. We have a slightly scabby cat again!

I feed her Iams alongside her fish just in case she'd be lacking vitamins.

I used to , we have a very picky dog and when we’d tried loads of other things - raw , raw nuggets , quality wet food etc I started doing him turkey mince and liver . I did a batch every 3rd day and kept it in the fridge . However I then discovered Applaws small tins which he loves and I feed them with a small amount of Millie’s Kibble , way more expensive than me cooking for him but a lot less effort .

www.choice.com.au/outdoor/pets/products/articles/wet-vs-dry-

I top up kibble with cooked mince (lamb or beef) and she has cooked chicken some days. I figure she gets the essentials in the kibble that pure meat might be missing and she finds plain kibble boring. She will NOT touch veg tho!
Every so often I slow cook liver/ kidney and once cooked cut into small cubes for treats ..they are popular !

Thanks for your input guys, I'm going for it. Made up some batches today, one with turkey mince, sweet potato, carrot, little bit of liver, all done in slow cooker. Then when cooled I added flaxseed and crushed egg shell that I had dried in the oven. The next batch was minced beef, brown rice, brocolli, with the flaxseed and eggshell.

I've noticed a huge reduction in poo already. I won't get excited yet but we'll see how it goes. Neighbour said to add bonemeal or eggshell regularly as they need calcium and definitely to add salmon or some sort of omega with a little vitimin E in it.

I hope it's fairly simple, my brain can't handle complicated!

All sounds good and I hope your dog loves it!

I would recommend though to give bones/antlers/yak chews or something similar as a treat if they're getting cooked food rather than biscuits etc as this helps to keep the teeth clean and in good shape!😁