Cooking for your dog

[Jenko109]

I have three dogs. All of them have kibble, but the bulk of their diet is raw (or is supposed to be )

I have one who will eat whatever is put in front of her. As a result she ends up with very little biscuit and mostly eats raw.

The other two are a challenge. They wont eat raw unless it is poultry based and even then they are very hit and miss, not seeming to enjoy it, often leaving it all together and just pick at the biscuits.

I am debating cooking my own dog food. They would still get kibble, but as a mixer to make it more palatable and enjoyable for them.

I'm thinking low fat mince, vegetables, low salt meat broth and some rice or similar. Perhaps some oily fish mixed through. Batch cooked and frozen.

Has anyone done this or anything similar?

 

[Moobli]

For years now I’ve fed a variety of food to my dogs. I tried full raw but they started to get picky and seemed to enjoy it much more a few times a week rather than every meal. I often lightly boil mince with a little water, cooled then mixed through the kibble. I also give raw eggs and oily fish a few times a week. The odd can of Butchers tripe too.
My dogs have cast iron constitution too.

 

[some show]

Before mine became a bit prone to pancreatitis he would have quite a variety of raw, kibble, boiled white fish, potato/sweet potato, pasta, pilchards, eggs, porridge, etc. I used to make him bone broth and freeze batches of that too. He now just has low-fat raw mince with tinned chappie which is boring, but suits him.

It sounds like a good idea if you've got the time. The raw I buy and the wet chappie have shot up in price in recent times

 

[IrishMilo]

Mine get a variety - some phases they get kibble other times I cook from them and often chuck in raw too. My go to if I'm cooking for them is 500g mince, a raw egg, a sweet potato, two carrots, a cup of oats and a big glug of olive oil.

 

[CMcC]

I used to cook for my Lurcher, she had an auto-Immune disease, one of the signs was anorexia, so I wanted her to eat well. I was advised that she probably would not tolerate a raw diet. So I cooked.
Chicken pieces or a whole chicken. Chicken livers
Sainsburys used to do (May still do) a huge turkey drumstick which I would roast
i used to prowl around the fridge where the reduced price meat was - mince, stewing steak, lamb. Fish - mostly salmon, again from reduced counter.
mixed meat with veg - sweet potato, kale, beetroot, carrots, broccol.

I did buy a very good book called ”Fresh Food and Ancient Wisdom, preparing healthy &. Balanced meals for your dogs” by Ihor John Basko. Lots of ideas and recipes.

 

[Clodagh]

I used to cook when I was skint, and I do think it’s a good way to feed the dog. I wouldn’t use any commercial broth though, even lo salt is more than they need IMO.
I used to cook rice, veggies and meat all together with water. Meat was usually kangaroo or camel, was living in Australia, but whatever was cheap.

 

[Chucho]

I home cooked for three of mine for years for various reasons. The dogs absolutely loved it and looked great for it. We would make up stews of protein (including fish and eggs), grain (rice, sorghum, millet, oats), and cooked/minced veg. The advice given to me (vet) was that if it's more than 25% you need to be sure your balancing your calcium and phosphorus. Plus also your fats. And I personally wouldn't feed a large breed puppy homemade just because I'm not confident enough about managing calcium intake whole they're growing. But for mature dogs it's really easy to do with a little research. Dr Pitcairn was always my starting point. The latest (4th?) edition is full of vegan dog food suggestions and he doesn't include his supplement mix recipe (they're trying to get you to buy it from a collaboration in the US) so I'd avoid that version (given the potential links between legumes and DCM) but earlier editions do give you what you need to put it together from scratch. Alternatively, Feed your Best Friend Better by Richard Woodford was less technical and more accessible. I enjoyed it more and used more recipes from here. Can get it on Amazon.

When we lived in the UK, my cheapest source of meat was offcuts from the butcher which were super cheap but very fatty. One dog was fine, another couldn't cope with the fat. Second cheapest was Nature's Menu raw minced meat frozen blocks. I liked these as they didn't contain bone so I could cook them and balance the calcium myself without having to guess how much bone was already in there. For any with digestive issues I found blending the cooked stew made for easy digestion and super small firm odourless poos.

Currently we only have a puppy so it's kibble for us. But once I'd got my head around what I needed to do to create a balanced homemade diet, it was easy and it's definitely my (and the dogs) preference.

 

[Goldenstar]

I have cooked in the past for older dogs who needed tempting .