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?

Have you looked at Bella and Duke? It’s about £70pcm for my 2 medium sized breeds, plus they have Lily’s kitchen dried, treats and and whatever food we may have that would be suitable for them. I don’t find it bad value as they waste considerably less than other foods.

Have you tried boring old Butchers Puppy Perfect?

Or half and half kibble and wet?

Will look at at Bella and Duke, and Butchers'... Thank you.

Bella and Duke works out at £5 per day . Is that right?! That's nuts. It's about what I spend on 1.5 humans per day.

@Ylvamoon - and anyone else feeding broccoli - I just wanted to mention that the Kennel Club has broccoli on their list of potential toxins (alongside cabbage, cauliflower, swede, turnip and by implication all brassicas).

I've just done a bit of googling which suggests that a small amount is fine (and I can't imagine many dogs eating a huge amount of it) but (having given my dog a kale stem to chew today and then felt awful about it) wanted to warn other dog owners.

I often give our dog scrambled eggs as we have hens so often more eggs than we need. She loves them, sometimes mixed with dog biscuits, Sometimes not. Occasionally I give her a bowl of plain pasta if there's some left over. And on a Sunday she gets a leftovers Sunday lunch. Otherwise she's on a dry dog food diet.

Dog food was invented in the 1960s. Marketing genius.

Across a month my dog gets about 1/3 kibble, 1/3 different dog (it's like butternut box) and about 1/3 cooked food. I'd do more cooked to be honest and replace the different dog but it's more about convenience than anything else. Plus I like scatter feeding in the evening.

For home cooked food the Lily's Kitchen recipe book is fantastic and once you get the idea of portions you can just make it up as you go along.

And just to say I'm with you when you say that it's just variety and getting all the nutrients they need over time not at once. I never understood why that is so important for dogs yet as humans we don't do that- if it was that important surely we'd all be eating astronaut food?!

For home cooked food the Lily's Kitchen recipe book is fantastic and once you get the idea of portions you can just make it up as you go along

Thanks for this. Dinner for Dogs is currently £1.99 on Amazon for the Kindle edition so have bought a copy.

My older bitch is 9, she’s been turning her nose up at kibble (bakers senior) since we got a new pup (She’d previously turned it down when her teeth were bad) so I don’t know if her nose is out of joint or that she knows that if she turns down the dry I’ll give her wet. I mix them together but she just licks out the wet food. I keep it in a plastic takeaway carton and when she’s done put more wet on top of the kibbles, mix it, and put it in the fridge, sometimes with a bit of water so it all soaks through.

I feed raw DAF complete mixes for my 25kg dog, prob works out nearly £10/pw with his treats, supplements like the occasional egg, nat yoghurt, carrot
Could you buy ready mixed raw, and then cook it for the days needed to be extra-cautious? Only cook the bone-free mixes though. Wouldn't be human grade but obvs cooking it is a bit different.
Ddog is not that food driven, he will eat his food frozen, raw, but he does like it cooked occasionally.
Beware, cooking a mix with tripe absolutely REEKS.

Thanks for all these great ideas. The raw daf looks to work out about £12.50 for her current weight so that's not bad at all. Warning heeded about cooking tripe