Homemade dog food

[Indecisivelurcher]

Does anyone make their own dog food? I've got a bit trapped doing this for 14 year old lurcher, following some stomach issues. He's consequently turning his nose up at even 'posh' wet dog food! So i'm after ways to make this easier! And low cost.

I'm currently peeling and cubing sweet potato and microwaving it with frozen green beans. I puree this. Add a bit of turmeric and black pepper for arthritis. Then microwave frozen white fish and stick it on top. I'm making it almost every day.

It would be easier if I could find prepped frozen sweet potato and already chunked frozen fish, but I haven't found this in any supermarkets so far...

I've just started doing this for my dog who has suspected liver disease. Her diet is similar. I mash sweet potato for myself a lot so I just take a portion for her. I use frozen green beans and frozen haddock or cod, plus I buy fresh turkey or chicken and roast in a little water, then chop bits up and keep the rest in the fridge for the next meal. I give her broccoli or peas too at times. Grains are out ss they worsen her arthritis. My dog seems so much better after being quite unwell last week. I'm giving her supplements and herbs too and think it's making a difference. She managed two long walks today! I hope the diet helps your dog too.

Only following for recipes 😂

A bag of frozen chicken legs/thighs. Boil til cooked. Take the meat out and strip from bones. Cook rice in the same water or any veg.
When rice/veg cooked, drain excess water. Mix meat and veg together. This used to last 2/3 days for a German shepherd.

Ah I should have been clearer that he's only safe on fish right now, and definitely not chicken. Chicken is actually quite a common intolerance, apparently!

Have you tried raw?

You can buy frozen haddock at Sainsbury's quite cheaply. It doesn't take long to defrost and can be mixed with frozen or fresh veg of choice and a portion of potato. Potato sweet or otherwise can be frozen in portions.

Iceland or heron for frozen fish?
the sweet potatoes could be prepped once a fortnight and frozen in meal sized portions. Tesco do frozen sweet potatoes

No - my mum suggested this, but to be honest we've only got a small freezer and no local supplier.

Ours just get a portion of what we're having, so tonight pup had mash of potato, sweet potato, broccoli and grated cheese, same as us. They've all enjoyed meat & veg roasted in the oven in extra virgin olive oil, pasta or rice with fish.
We do feed kibble but they've always had home cooked food added.

Do you need to puree it? I mash it with a fork and add some water from the fish to make it a bit runnier/less stodgy.

I do think the dog's eating better than the kids at this point. Maybe if I address that I'll be able to give him what we are having sometimes. I hate fish though!!!

Yes maybe a mash with a fork would be ok! I've just been using a hand blender.

I used to , but , I got tired of cooking so often so now I have Butternut box. It’s so nice just grabbing a pouch rather than pots / pans / shopping always on the go .

We fed our GS/lab a homemade diet for years. We boiled sweet potatoes and added cooked turkey, rice and zucchini (he hated zucchini!). We followed the recipe in the book so also added glucosamine/chondroitin/dog vitamins. Oh! Eggs too. The book had tables for dog size, activity level etc. At 12 us of age he was healthy, energetic, and no evidence of hip dysplasia. It was heartbreaking when he died of a heart attack due to a never ending night of fireworks.

Tesco does frozen chunks of sweet potato. I have home cooked for my dog, he loved it, but I followed a balanced recipe, but if he was 14, I would just cook what he liked. I only stopped as it took a lot of time buying, preparing, cooking, blending and then washing up.

I do minced meat, steamed sweet potatoes and carrots, mixed veg and some beans, peas or lentils. Small scoop of kibble. A good quality supplement. No more expensive than shop bought food, and he is healthy and happy.

It's difficult to get the right nutritional balance with homemade. I made my elderly greyhound's meals for the last few years of his life as he had kidney disease. It's not cheap to do it right and you'll probably need a freezer unless you're prepared to cook a couple of times a week. I used a big slow cooker to make a batch of veg then served the meat raw.

Judy Morgan's Ying and Yang cookbook is good for recipes. This is her basic puploaf for dogs that don't have health conditions:

drjudymorgan.com/blogs/recipes/how-to-make-homemade-puploaf?srsltid=AfmBOor6iGNRfLKEJEOOiIAd1yTjusZM0fuaekJtP16mAgFS0eW3v65U

I used to make my border terrier’s dinners.

In an 11 litre pot, I would simmer a 2 kg chicken. Remove and strip meat once cooled a bit.

In the water, I would put in about 4 cups of brown rice with a head of broccoli, half a peeled orange sweet potato, a peeled potato, a carrot, some salt. All the vegetables would be whizzed before adding.

Bring to the boil, simmer for a bit and turn off the heat. Add the shredded chicken and allow it all to finish cooking in the residual heat. Everything should swell and form a thick porridge (if you get your volumes right).

I would fill some 2 litre ice cream buckets and freeze them. SandyDog would get to lick the pot once I was finished. All this would be topped with our leftovers, depending on what we were eating. All this kept her as healthy as a horse (until she died too young, that is).