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Home cooked food but is the nutrients enough?

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.

  
Evo

45592		 
 
Barked: Tue Apr 5, '11 10:07am PST 
Hi all, I have been feeding my 2 babies with hcf for the past 7 years. Their normal meal consist of 40%brown rice, 20% of vege which consist of carrots, celery, brocoli or cauliflower, 40% meat, which can be pork, chix, mutton or fish.
Ocasionally i also feed them eggs, pumpkin or sweet potatos which they love. All the food is cooked by steaming.
Now that they are getting older, kinda worried if they are getting enough nutrients? They refused to touch any supplements that i have bought so wondering if anyone can recommend any other ways to boost up the nutrients in their food.
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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!		 
 
Barked: Tue Apr 5, '11 11:34am PST 
Hi Evo,

Where's the beef? It is super nutritious stuff. Get some into the diet. A bit of beef liver is really good for dogs too, they aren't getting enough copper if they aren't getting beef liver.

Are you putting calcium into the food? My Max weighs 38 pounds and needs as much calcium as an adult woman. 1/2 tsp of powdered eggshell per pound of meat is a good way to get some into the food.

Don't occasionally feed eggs and fish. A fatty fish meal once a week and some egg as part of a meal several times a week would be a good idea.

You are obviously doing a great job! Make sure there is a bit of calcium, use 1-2 ounces of beef liver per pound of meat fed, add some beef and mix it up with the grains if they do well on them. I would give Sassy potato, rice or pasta but barley and oatmeal are good foods too if you want to feed grains. Use the steaming water, it is very nutritious stuff.

If you want to step it up a notch reduce the grain to 25% and increase the meat to 50%.
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TaneyCo- Girley Girl

girley is the- bomb		 
 
Barked: Tue Apr 5, '11 11:30pm PST 
I also make my own food my basic recepie is
1/3 brown rics
1/3 veggies
1/3 protien

using brown rice can actually keep the primitive anal gland from needing to be expressed.
veggies can be most anything
meat i use skinned chicken, or low fat hb like 80/30 ground chuck

if you want then to gain weight you can use a fattier HB, leave the chicken skin on, but only while they are gaining their weight.
I make huge batches of dog food then package it up and freeze it, They love it!!

you can also make liver cake treats using blended chicken liver and equal weight of farm fresh eggs blend liver with egg add a little bit of whole wheat flour, grease a cake pan and bake it till a fork comes out clean cut into squares and freeze it.
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Halo

Howling good- times to be had- with me.		 
 
Barked: Wed Apr 6, '11 7:33am PST 
I don't like that much grain or veggie. I use 75% red meat, 10% grain and 15% fruit/veggie/treat/white meat or fish alternately.
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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!		 
 
Barked: Wed Apr 6, '11 7:33am PST 
If the dogs are getting fat then reduce fat a little but fat is an essential nutrient, every bit as important as protein. Kibble has a minimum amount of fat to keep dogs alive, 40-60% by calories is a better amount. I wish Sassy could have tolerated more fat, it would have improved her skin's health, reduced flakiness and probably made it less itchy, she only got about 30% fat by calories which is about 15% by weight - the way kibble bags express nutrient values.

Max needs more protein than most dogs to have strong muscles, Sassy needed more fat than most dogs to have healthy skin. I would give an itchy dog more fat and fewer carbs if possible.

Sassy's chicken and white rice had 1.5% fiber and her life long anal sac issues went from once a month to about once a year. Firm poop is what counts and she didn't need fiber to get it. Really I suspect the less processed simple fresh food is what did it, nothing to do with fiber.
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Evo

45592		 
 
Barked: Thu Apr 7, '11 11:46pm PST 
Thanks for all the replies! Am gona take the advise and start feeding them eggshell powder. Also gona feed them kelp also as it was recommended to me by some friends. =)
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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!		 
 
Barked: Fri Apr 8, '11 5:39am PST 
Just add 1/2 tsp of egg shell per pound, make sure it is powdered and mix in really well so the dogs don't notice it.

Kelp is great but it too is used in really small amounts. Start even smaller so your dogs don't balk at the taste if they are picky about new things. I am going to use kelp just as soon as the mineral supplement he gets now is gone at about 1/2 tsp a WEEK for his 38 pounds. If kelp is overfed it can shut down the thyroid gland because it is so high in iodine!
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