I just wanted to share a recipe that I use for my five month old Shih Tzu puppies, Cooper and Bentley.
In a large crock pot, I use a whole natural chicken along with beef stew meat, chicken livers and chicken gizzards with added water and olive oil. That cooks about 8 hours.
Then in a stock pot, I boil 3 large yellow squash, 3 large zucchini, and 3 large sweet potatoes. I use fresh carrots and green beans with peas added, I also use 9 boiled eggs. Then on hand, I have a can of all natural pumpkin to add to this. I use 6 cups brown or white rice. I debone the chicken, you don't want splinters in their food. After all is cooked, keep in mind that I don't throw away the broth from the meat. We don't want the food to be dry.
It all cools for a bit, then I use my food processor and blend it all together. I don't make it too soft, but it is blended quite well. After that, I add the rice and pumpkin, mix it really good with my hands, put it into containers and freeze. They also get their multi-vitamins.
Since they have been on this diet, they are extremely happy and very healthy puppies. I consulted with my vet and she loves this diet. I'm not sure if you have picky eaters, but I have found my dogs to be very picky. I was spending a small fortune to find a healthy food in the stores and they would lose interest so fast. I enjoy watching them go crazy while their food is cooking. The best is watching them gobble it down. I hope you enjoy.
Total Time: 1 1/2 hours to complete
I have been making my 19 month old Collie's meals using mince, rice, and veggies, including carrots, pumpkin, silver beets, spinach, kale, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans. I also add some garlic if I have it. This makes up enough for 8 - 10 days.
Is this OK for her? She sure enjoys it. When I do a roast she loves the roast veggies and gravy, which is not made with an artificial mix. She really looks forward to her " roast" dinner. Is that OK?Dog food made at home, without a recipe from a trained vet or animal nutritionist, will not contain the needed amounts of required vitamins, minerals, etc. Dogs have specific nutrition requirements that are different from human requirements. Also, dogs are not able to eat the same foods as humans.
I strongly suggest that you seek your veterinarian's help in developing a dog food recipe that meets the nutrition requirements your dog needs. Your dog will develop nutrition problems and diseases if she does not receive the correct balance of nutrition she needs.
What is good enough for the queen's dog is good enough for my Pug. Our Pug was suffering from very bad skin allergies. It was so bad that there were raw patches in her skin. So we took her to the vet and they took care of the symptoms, but not the source.
I have heard that it is not good for Yorkies to eat homemade dog food, made with meat and veggies? Aren't they better for the dog than most dog food? Considering how they make dog food and what they put in it. What is right? Can you please tell me.
I have not heard of any homemade dog food that is breed specific. We have had amazing results with our diabetic basset since switching her to homemade cooked food. Last week, we were running late and I had some commercial food that someone had given me for one of our rescue bassets. I gave our girls a cup full of the commercial and her blood sugars skyrocketed. We had to give her double the insulin. We returned to the homemade cooked food and her blood sugars are normal again with half the insulin injects needed.
You must be careful with anything containing garlic, onions of any form, avocadoes, raisins, dates, coffee, tea, etc. I found out that even when using tomato paste or tomato sauce, you must check the label. Some brands have pure tomato puree while others add garlic, onions and preservatives.
About 2 months ago, I was making them turkey meatballs and I grabs the canister of bread crumbs from my pantry. Keep in mind that these are the same bread crumbs that my family eats. I happen to start reading the label and it was loaded with preservatives and even corn syrup. Why? Its bread crumbs. I started making my own bread crumbs for everyone. Now I have noticed that I look at ingredient labels more when shopping.
If you need some easy and quick, but very nutritional recipes - just let me know. I would love to share what I have learned over the past 2.5 years.
Picture is of our 2 bassets and son on vacation in a hotel room. They don't get to be on the bed at home...so they were treated like queens on vacation.
My dog has bad skin allergies so I thought I would switch to my home-made food. I found what seemed like a good healthy recipe, it was potatoes, carrots and ground turkey, I forget the proportions of vegeys to meat, but she contracted a bladder infection soon after starting the new diet, my vet said she was getting the wrong proportion of protein to carb and that caused the infection. My poor dog has been on cortisone for 3plus years now, I finally took her off, feed her "Eagle Pack" holistic select anchovy,sardine and sweet potato formula dry dog food, also I give her Benedryl twice daily, she hardly ever scratches now and her coat has grown back beautifully, I highly recommend this for those who have bad skin allergies, cuz that cortisone is bad news for the long term.
Just make sure they get the correct vitamins and nutrients they need and not too much fat. It can be difficult to get a balanced diet from a homemade diet if you don't know much about nutrition.
My little Westie, Nik, got a bad reaction from the contaminated dog food scare last year. I have now switched him over to mostly homecooked food like chicken , fresh veggies, some brown rice, sweet potatoes, as well as some vitamin suppliments. I still give him some organic kibble but have found that he is doing better on what I make. HTH
I frequently use my crock pot to make meals and that same crock pot leaves behind yummy smelling liquid. Sometimes, I use some of this to add nutrition and flavor to my dog's meals.
With money in short supply due to our economic times, the ones most likely to go without is our dogs. My tip is to buy a bag of cheap cornmeal and follow the directions for cornbread.
When I peel my veggies, I microwave the skins and any good parts, in microwaveable bowl. Use just enough water to cook thoroughly.
When cooking a full chicken, hen, or turkey, remove the insides and save. Later when you have time, boil and save in fridge as a treat for your pet. Not too many people eat the heart, liver, and kidneys anyway, but your pets will.
I make my dogs food at home, the recipe calls for 2 1/2 lbs of dry, tiny, whole wheat macaroni. To replace it with white rice how many cups of dry rice I need?
I know you love your dog and you make his own dog food for him to eat. But adding uncooked rice to the dog food is not a good idea at all. Any vet will tell you the truth if you want to feed the dog rice, which I do myself all the time, it has to be cooked. You can't just give the dog dry uncooked rice in his dog food.
It has been years and years since they outlawed throwing rice at a wedding because it was killing birds. If you can't feed birds dry rice then it is the same with your dog. Before you decide to add the rice to the dog food instead of the pasta you are using right now I would consult your vet first. This is not a good idea for me and I have been feeding rice to my dogs for over 20 years now. Plus on top of this, I always cook my pasta before I feed it to my dogs. I have never given my dogs uncooked pasta to eat. I know uncooked pasta isn't bad because when we were kids in school and they gave us a project with pasta to make most of us ate it. Please before you feed your dog uncooked rice ask your vet. This isn't good for him at all.
Has the recipe you're using been approved by a vet?
Have you been feeding this recipe with wheat for very long? If so, has your dog tolerated it without having stomach problems?
What is the reason you have decided to change the ingredients?
Wheat difficult to find? Cost? Just a change?
No matter the reason, there is a big difference in wheat and rice and a complete change may cause serious stomach problems so I would suggest you discuss it with your vet before making this change. Sometimes the size and age of dogs makes a difference in what type of diet they can tolerate.
If you decide to go with the change I would suggest you only do it half and half so the change would not be so drastic.
Measurement differences in wheat macaroni and white rice will be very difficult because I do not believe they will be the same size uncooked or cooked. This size difference will make a big difference in the final amount of cooked food so if measured incorrectly it would make a big difference in the quality of the diet.
This link tells the difference in the grains but I'm not sure how to tell you the difference as this link does show the size of different grains but it is not named so I cannot compare it to rice grain.
The other link only gives some types pasta to cups so you can see the size of the pasta will make a big difference in the how much to use to make the same amounts and not destroy the recipe.
Just an aside:
My son has 2 dogs - one small & one medium size - and he uses an approved recipe that is very easy and can be varied - add or subtract different ingredients just to vary the diet but not enough to change the approved recipe.
This is so easy but still nutritious and he occasionally adds pure pumpkin (not pie filling) and could probably add a little wheat and a little less rice. He does not make a large amount each time but this recipe has a calculator at the top right so different servings can be selected.
I love to cook for my 2 beautiful poochies. Here is 1 of their all time love dinner recipes! Use 1 cup cooked boneless salmon, 1/2 cup finely chopped cooked carrot, 1/2 cup finely chopped cooked broccoli...
