Home made food - does anyone do this?

[Goawayangryman]

Ddog 15 wks dislikes kibble, even very posh kibble, and who can blame her, really.
The trays of fresh stuff are always gobbled down in seconds but too £££ for long term.

Butternut Box likewise -loved it but too expensive.

For various reasons (vulnerable contacts) raw is probably not going to work for us.

Which leads to my actual question
.. home cooked stuff. Meat/ small amount of carbs i.e. sweet potato/ fish oils/ bones/ vit drops. Much cheaper and I'd cook 1* per week and freeze.

The whole dog food industry feels a bit like baby formula to me ... Feed them this or they will have deficiencies! These are pack animal scavengers who do not need every meal to be perfectly balanced... Surely?

Does anyone else do this?

I did it for a while but was cooking every other day as at that time I had a shortage of freezer space , what my dog could actually eat was limited and frankly it was an almighty faff . He has now settled on Millie’s wolf heart kibble and Applaws wet ( chicken in broth in the small tins) . It’s not cheap but he eats it and it agrees with him .

As a young puppy I would be worried about giving them the right balance of different nutrients hence why I stuck to compete foods. But then I had a puppy who was underweight.

As an adult dog who had stopped growing I wouldn't be as bothered if I cooked my own food.

As it happens I feed my dog a variety of different reasonably good wet tinned food.

I've got a fussy older dog who quite often turns his nose up at kibble but if I add salmon oil for dogs and warm water he eats it. Didn't try it till he was 13 but better late than never.

I agree, it's a lot of faff. My mum had a dog with multiple allergies and health conditions she used to cook for him....

I have recently switched to raw feeding (now that the DC are older). Didn't do it before as there is a salmonella risk. In the process, I found lots of fruits and vegetables that can be added to their raw mince. For example Apples, Peppers, Broccoli, Banana.

Thank you everyone.. we've already been through Royal Canin (nutritionally crapola).. and Millie's with and without a topper of good quality wet complimentary food. She is not in to any of it. Home cooked, it is gone in a flash. She is otherwise a very easy, even-tempered pup. Hmmm. Ill go away and research.

I do feel it is a bit like human babies. There is so, so much marketing and making you think you're doing it all wrong... My grandma had dogs all her life. Absolutely none of them got commercial dog food. They got butchers' cheap off cuts, bones, and whatever veg was going spare. They all lived very very long lives.

I also have other pets and there is no way on earth I would ever just feed them packet food. That would be such a miserable existence.

Maybe we will go for raw complete and just give her cooked stuff the two days before we see our vulnerable family member..

It might be teething discomfort with the kibble?
AwkwardPup went completely off dry food around that age; we fed raw (Natures Menu) for around 7 months. He was then diagnosed with IMPA & is on steroid treatment, so immune compromised. I'm also pregnant so didn't feel comfortable going back to raw at the moment.
He's very happily eating the adult version of dry food his breeder used again now
We have wet food trays for occasional treats / easy feeding when out and about.

How vulnerable?
I’m on immunosuppressants. I feed raw. I keep bowls clean. Wash hands well. Avoid letting dogs lick near my face and wash my hands after touching the dogs. TBH all things I would do anyway!!!!

Goawayangryman you have worded this so well and I feel exactly like you about it. Even vets are misinformed and recommend dreadful Royal Canin when it fares really badly in dog food comparison sites for nutrition.
There are ways of balancing home cooked food as i know certainly of a home cooking group on face book for cavaliers- i think it’s important to include a proportion of offal for example. I believe Judy Morgan is knowledgeable and had videos on you tube but I haven’t watched them

My previous dog I fed on homemade food as he was a very poorly dog when he was a puppy and he wasn't expected to live very long,he hated dog food of any kind so the vet told me to feed him table scraps and pray he would eat it.
He thrived on human food of chicken vegetables rice pasta and potatoes . The vet couldn't believe how much healthier he was once we had removed dog food from his diet. He lived I until he was 15 🥰

www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/christine-filardi/home-cooking-for-your-dog/9781617690556?gclid=CjwKCAjw5c6LBhBdEiwAP9ejG7DNSbOYg8Qw9vBsI14DAWlYyg5c5aRZs2j8-ab1ih-Ch8QMLusEjhoC1ZYQAvD_BwE

@AwkwardPaws27 could very well be teething but she has been not overly keen on the kibble since she came home at 8 weeks. I've tried softening it and no different. She can smell it a mile off. It does genuinely taste and smell grim!
@Wolfiefan middle of high-dose chemo regime, terminal, see them twice a week at least.

@TillyDevon thank you for some names. I'll check them out. Im about the least Gwyneth paltrow person you could call m across but this business has got my goat. It's marketised to the hilt and big brands have such poor quality ingredients. The posho brands are basically meat/bone/carb/ prebiotic and Ka Ching.

Yes I do. I do a whole chicken, some carrots and a bit of barley in the slow cooker. Then I freeze in takeaway containers and we just have one in the fridge and take out what is needed, Then it's mixed in with the one kibble that the dog will eat after trying countless different ones.

They need bone, offal (liver is essential) and muscle meat, as well as fish, eggs and small amounts of veg.
Bone should always be raw, never cooked as cooked bone splinters.
Bones should not be weight bearing of larger animals, as they are too dense and ciujd damage teeth.
Puppies need balance every meal as they are still growing. Older dogs can balance out over a day/week/fortnight……..

Read up on this and you will find your dog will enjoy his meals so much more.

I feed a mix of pre-made minces, whole prey and meals I make from meat/offal/bones from different sources.

Our dog always had home cooked food. Meat pieces/scraps frozen and cooked quickly in the microwave, an extra portion of pasta cooked when we did for us and put aside before adding any sauces, leftovers etc. Always very healthy

Thank you @ruralwanderer that looks great. I'll investigate that.
@santabetterwashhishands yes that's pretty much my experience. A variety of mottley mutts who did ok on what we would now consider a very uncontrolled diet, but probably quite balanced given it was war/ post-war/70s and not much junk or anything going spare.
@ItsAllComingBackToMe that is pretty much exactly what I've been feeding our pup with a bit of bonemeal and fish oil.

@Holidaytan that sounds great. I need to do more reading. I'd really like to find an affordable, ready-made complete food which isn't incredibly expensive or raw... If I can get into a cooking routine then that is my second best choice...

@Goawayangryman your best bet would be butternut box. You won’t need the ‘puppy’ food as all meals will be complete.

What are you classing as expensive? It is expensive to have a dog and to feed a good diet.

I was going to come on and ask the same thing OP. Pretty much the only commercial dog food mine will eat is butternut box which is expensive for what appears to be mince and veg. If I cook him mince, chicken, fish he just wolfs it down. I'm going to do a bit more research but definitely looking along the lines of cooking it myself now

For my breed butternut Box is £80 a month. That's before treats, routine vet care, toys, day care etc. Kibble works out around £40 pcm. I'd like something between £40 and £80. I feed my human family of 3 on £60 per week so I'd like to spend a bit less than £20pw on my dog's main food :)

We feed nature's menu complete nuggets and "blocks". You literally just defrost it and serve.
We have always fed raw but you really do need to ensure they get enough calcium, they absolutely need bones and offal as well as good quality protein.
Our new rescue dog suffered from secondary hyperparathyroidism caused by her original owners feeding her a home cooked diet that lacked calcium. She has a badly deformed leg and a curved spine because her bones were so soft.
I would highly recommend raw feeding but please do it properly especially whilst she is growing.

Thank you. Salutory about calcium.

My dog (black lab) really didn’t like her kibble and would often have an upset stomach. She would wolf down food I made for her but like you I was worried about getting the mix right. We have settled on Forthglade complete wet food. She loves it and no more stomach issues.