Home cooked diets

[Snaplittledragon]

What does everyone think?

I only know of two dogs who were fed exclusively home cooked food and both lived long, healthy lives but I am very conscious of the risk of vitamin/mineral deficiency.

My dog has had most brands of food over the years, she was made quite ill once by one particular brand (a high end one!), a lot of brands seem to have very poor ingredients, I’ve been feeding her butchers for a while now and notice that only about 50% of the ingredients appear to be disclosed on the can so I bought her a more expensive food that I’ve given her before.

It arrived today and the bloody lids appear to be blown!
I have contacted the company to ask if it’s safe but tbh, I’m not sure how happy I feel about feeding it even if they say it’s okay.
In short, I’m feeling very distrustful of the companies responsible for feeding our dogs.

So, i was thinking, if I gave her ‘healthy’ human food, lots of plain cooked meat, some fruit, veg, yogurt etc, basically whatever we are having sans onion/garlic/avocado/chocolate/sultanas/Sharon fruit would that be okay or is it a truly terrible idea?

You might need to do a bit of research on what dogs need in their diet?

I use Butternut Box butternutbox.com, and one of my dogs terrible wind has stopped whilst the other one's coat is now sleek and glossy rather than dull and fluffy

I would really, really recommend raw.

Have done raw before but I honestly don’t have the space

I’m wondering about this too. I have a 12 week old springer spaniel who is on chicken and rice for the second time in the four weeks she has been with us! Vet reckons she has a very sensitive stomach. But I don’t really know where to begin.

I’ve had time to reflect on this since putting this thread up.

I’m going to stick with the Natures Menu country hunter food as I have fed it in the past and found it really good, despite the eyewatering cost I will buy it direct from natures menu in future as I couldn’t fault their customer service after I contacted them.

I don’t have the space for full on raw but I’ll continue offering the odd raw chicken piece or bit of mince here and there, the occasional egg, scoop of plain yogurt etc.

I think trying to do it all by myself is probably end up in me inadvertently making her deficient or overdosed in something or other.

We do half kibble & half leftovers without any onion etc the quality of meat is questionable in the dry food so this seems a good compromise between raw (which like you we can’t do) and kibble.

Sandy Dog (bt) is totally on home cooked food. I boil a chicken and in the stock goes brown rice, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas, potatoes. A tsp of salt. Strip the carcass, chop it up and add back.

Her tummy loves it, she produces neat little torpedoes twice a day and is usually at the vet once a year. The kennels serves much the same. I got the recipe from the Australian version of Which so assume that it covers all dietary requirements.

@TheSandgroper

Sandy Dog (bt) is totally on home cooked food. I boil a chicken and in the stock goes brown rice, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas, potatoes. A tsp of salt. Strip the carcass, chop it up and add back.

Her tummy loves it, she produces neat little torpedoes twice a day and is usually at the vet once a year. The kennels serves much the same. I got the recipe from the Australian version of Which so assume that it covers all dietary requirements.

Could you please link the recipe? Really interested in working out daily amounts for my 7 month old puppy.

Apologies. I can’t find the recipe on the site anymore. It may have dropped off due to old age.

However, in an 11litre stock pot, I have about a 1.8 kg chicken, well covered with water. Bring to the boil and simmer until very well done.

Remove the chicken and add 4-4.5 cups brown rice, 1/2 orange sweet potato, 1 large potato, 1 large carrot, 1/2-1 broccoli (all whizzed for quick chopping), a bit of iodised salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour. I turn off the heat and allow it to sit until the stock is absorbed.

Strip the bird while it’s still warm and loose, chopping roughly. Include cartilage, knuckles etc - just no bone. Stir back through with peas or chopped beans. Allow to cool and I freeze in bucket loads of about 2 litres.

Sandy Dog gets about 3 heaped dessert spoons twice daily. May have our leftovers stirred through. Check a website for your breed for guidelines. If Sandy Dog has too much leftover meat over a few days and not enough of the above mix, her farts become very unsociable.