Homemade Dog Food

[allan]

Hey Justin, why the interest in homemade dog food?

[FireWater]

Justin finds a lot of home made stuff.

We feed ours a once a week meal of grilled or raw veggies, brown rice, and some form of meat as a treat. I also mix in the brown rice and veggies through out the week a couple times. When ever I grill or smoke meat I pass the bones to the dogs under supervision. A good friend of mine is a vet and I follow his recommendations. He told me the rice is a filler, the veggies aid digestion, the meat because they are animals and crave it, and the bones for teeth. We will also get snouts and ears for chewing too. I always pull the bones or any other item away from them when they try to eat it or swallow to avoid issues and never use small bones that splinter easily.

[BSJF]

I think the occassional approach is best unless you have an underlying problem you are trying to address.

My dog's favorite treat is raw carrots. They also get healthy leftover stuff - veggies, rice, meat.

[Europhyllia]

do you know anything about raw egg for dogs. Is raw egg good/bad/doesn't matter?

[justahobby]

Eggs (with shell ground up for calcium) is good. That was another ingredient I kept seeing and felt safer about after hearing they are less susceptible to bacteria. Plus I have access to my dad's free range eggs.

I've always been dead set against feeding left-overs as well. My grandparents always fed scraps and their dogs were chunky. That takes a lot considering the 200+ acres they roam freely. And I never worried in TN when my dog would help herself to my cats' kills. What I am seeing is you want to get meats from a butcher where the meats are fresh. Less chance for poor packaging and storing. Definitely stay away from preground and animal by-products.

I'm not concerned with the price because you basically feed the same as what I would eat minus skin, fat, and raw bones (bones are important for providing the calcium). Green veggies and fruit, organs and the above mentioned are all cheap and wouldn't cost much more. Less than feeding an extra person everyday.

I've always been extremely conscientious about what I feed my dogs. With my first dog I literally turned every bag over in petsmart and read the analysis and ingredients. With Jade, english bulldog, I made several switches trying to combat hair loss, paw licking, and gas. I started w/ things like eukanuba, then royal canine specifically for bulldogs ($65 per bag and was the worst) and as a last resort I chose purina one and it helped a lot, but wasn't a complete fix. Now that season is changing she is shedding profusely again and I noticed a couple scabs where she has been licking her inner front legs too much. So, I started thinking back to homemade food.

I can cut out all gluten, corn, and grain which are common allergens and hopefully give her a well balanced, better meal.

[allan]

Justin,

If you like I can save you the hearts and livers of my harvested animals if you feed those to your dog. Including some of the larger bones. I typically throw those away. Can put it on ice if you want as well.

[justahobby]

That would be great Allan!

[Europhyllia]

Wow $65 for a bag of dry food! And I felt I was splurging for getting the Red Flannel brand at the feed store (also been reading labels and msot seem to have corn as the main ingredient.
I do agree though: changing the food makes a huge difference. My Catahoula mix used to get terrible skin and we figured it was due to a reaction to fleas but weird enough as long as he is on the better food (better in my world -probably total crap compared to your stuff) he stops scratching himself crazy even if he isn't on Frontline.
I've been doing some reading on the eggs just now and some people say the egg whites contain an enzyme that messes with biotin absorption and could actually lead to skin problems. Interesting, huh?

[justahobby]

That is interesting. I've always heard the opposite, that it is good for the coat. Do you have a link?

Yeah, I was pretty annoyed that all the things it claimed to help worsened.

Off brands always have a ton of fillers like corn. One of those "pay me now or pay me later" things.

[justahobby]

I just read the same thing but as long as it isn't a daily diet you have nothing to worry about. Funny. I saw on webmd where they were saying no bones, raw meat, fat, etc. I think you have to consider that those type of websites are anticipating their readers are looking for supplemental treats, not a full diet. And also not expecting the average person to seek out quality fresh products.

Webmd also recommended pasta.... go figure