Make food for charlie last night.

This is the place to share your best homemade dog food and treat recipes with each other! Remember to use caution if your pet has allergies and to make any diet changes gradually so that your dog's stomach can adjust to the new foods you are introducing.

Charlie

1208101

Barked: Fri Jun 22, '12 5:37pm PST


	I made a big batch of food for Charlie last night as he is not eating enough. It was a hit with all the dogs and I took some to a friend for their dog and cat. My friends cat is 18 and was not eating much. They were very upset as they could not find a food for her to eat. She right away eat up a days worth of food. Real glad this recipee worked. Here is my recipe if you see a way to improve it let me know. 2 boiled cut up chickens deboned. In chicken broth from boiling chickens add 3 cups cut up or baby carrots. Boil till firm add a small frozen package of broccoli and cauliflower. add a can of peas and about 3 tablespoons minced garlic. cook till soft puree roughly. I then add about 4 or so handfuls of instant oatmeal and chicken. I quessed the amount of oatmeal by how thick I wanted the food. I then pureed roughly again. just before packing it in tubs I addes 3 Tablespoons flax oil and about 1/2cup yeast flakes. I was not sure about what amounts to give on the oil, garlic and yeast. any ideas how much I should give.

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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!

Barked: Fri Jun 22, '12 9:50pm PST


	How nice your friend's cat ate your nice home cooked food! Must have made both of you feel so good. And the cat of course. Main thing dogs and cats need that is very different from what humans need is calcium. My 38 pound dog needs as much calcium as an adult human! Adding the powdered shell from a single egg to about 2 pounds of your food would do it. Stick that egg in there too, good stuff egg. Even better would be to use bone meal at a rate of 900 mg per pound of food. You don't need to worry about it until you cook up your next batch, contrary to what the dog food companies tell us they won't fall over with broken bones if they miss a little calcium or whatever for a little bit. Garlic is a traditional addition that is very powerful stuff. In excessive amounts it acts as a blood thinner. Since you could be already feeding or dosing stuff that acts as a blood thinner seems to be prudent to me to limit its use. I would rather not use any but a small clove sure does add a nice flavor to the food. You can also enhance the flavor by sizzling the chicken in the pan before adding water to simmer. Carnivores do better with fish oil than flax oil but either isn't a good addition to the cooked food, needs to be added when served. Or you could add in a couple ounces of a fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel or sardines to the food per pound. A couple drops of fish oil is enough for a cat, 1/2 tsp for a big dog per day anyway. I prefer to give Max fish oil capsules as the Omega 3 degrades very rapidly exposed to oxygen and light in a pump bottle. I haven't ever used yeast. It is a power house of B vitamins for sure. You might google 'healthy powder for dogs Pitcairn', it is a supplement made with egg shell, yeast and a couple of other ingredients to add to home cooked food. Then you wouldn't need to fuss with separate egg shell! I am not sure about the proportions you are using. You used all the cooked chicken with 4 handfuls of oatmeal or 4 handfuls of chicken and 4 handfuls of oatmeal? First is fine, second would be a huge amount of grain compared to the meat. Dogs and cats need meat. If you can use 50-75% wet weight meat/fish/egg/organ to 25-50% veggies and cooked grains it is pretty good. If you use just a bit of liver in the food it really helps - maybe 1.5-2 ounces per pound of meat so in your recipe if those were 4 pound chickens you could have added in 12-16 ounces of liver. If you use as much red meat as you can it is a good thing. Hamburger is fine and very easy to deal with. My stick blender can deal with cooked pork chunks just like chicken.

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Charlie

1208101

Barked: Sat Jun 23, '12 3:27pm PST


	Thank you Maxwell for your response. I added all the chicken and handfuls of oatmeal. I figure with everything added it is at least if not more meat than grain. I added the yeast and flax as I had it on hand. I will be looking for a better supplement to add to it in the future. I did not intend it for cats but figured they would like it too. I think I will look into getting some bonemeal like you mentioned. I am trying to give Charlie home cooked in am and kibble in pm. thanks again

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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!

Barked: Sat Jun 23, '12 5:24pm PST


	I figured you had it on hand. I don't have it on hand so wouldn't even think of putting in dog food! Good luck getting him to eat the kibble after getting the good stuff. Max turned up his nose at an Orijen kibble sample after he had been on cooked food. Chicken and rice was better than all that great stuff in even the best kibble I guess. If you want some reading check out http://www.dogaware.com/diet/homemade.html Fresh food is just plain good for dogs and that site has a lot of good info on numerous ways to feed dogs fresh.