Dog Food and the making thereof

I have made my dogs' food for about 15 years.  Yes, that would be right because the 2 oldest are over 14 and have only been given store-bought food as an occasional treat.  Like you give your kids a healthy diet and throw in the odd outing to McD's for a junk fest.

This came about at the dawn of the internet age and I was doing some research and found some information on the horrible shit that goes into mass-produced pet foods and the problems it may cause in your pets.  The list of symptoms went on and on and read like my last dog, Sammy's, vet records.  I was horrified that all the health issues he had could have been brought on by my buying commercial dog kibble and I was unaware and apparently so were all my vets, as not one of them ever suggested this as a root cause.

That led to more and more research as to what goes into dog (and cat) foods and what alternatives there could be.  It took me back to when my first-born Sparky was just a small chubby baby and I had stocked the pantry with jars and jars of Gerber's in anticipation of his moving up to baby foods.  And then the news hit that there were recalls of Gerber's due to ground glass showing up in the food.

Now I may not know a lot about a lot of things, but I knew that ground glass was NOT one of your top nutrients for growing a healthy child.  So I went to the store and bought a baby food grinder.  Just one of the hand crank items that is easy peasy to clean and use and went to town making my own.

This is the same philosophy I applied to the dog food situation.  Make your own.

If you make your own, you can control the calories, the worthless fillers, the crap that doesn't need to be in there and provide a clean, healthy, nutritious chow for your dogs.  It costs so little compared to the bagged stuff, AND!  get this!

When you make your own and you don't add in a bunch of things that your dog's body doesn't need and only things it does need, most of the food gets metabolized and you have LESS WASTE coming through your dog.  Now, who doesn't want THAT for a side benefit?

I have 3 dogs.  A 14 1/2 year old Siberian Husky of about 40+ pounds, a just 14 year old Mini. Schnauzer of 20-something pounds, and a 4 year old pitty-mix of 75 pounds.  I make one big pot of dog food per week.  It lasts between 7 and 8 days for all 3 dogs.  The Schnauzer gets 1/2 cup per meal, the Husky about 1 cup and the big dog gets 1 1/2 cups all twice a day, double it for once a day feedings.

I spent quite a bit of time researching dog foods and typing up recipes and put them all in a binder.  But what has happened over the years is that I have settled on a recipe and vary it up a bit each week.

Write this down and follow it and I swear you will never go back to store-bought kibble for your doggies.

And I am sorry I am not going to be able to do this in a traditional recipe format, I have too many sidenotes to do it that way.  Here goes!

Natural Dog Food Recipe

6 pounds lean meat (either ground turkey, beef, chicken or whole chicken pieces)
3/4 cup canola oil
4-5 cloves garlic (there are TONS of people on both sides of the "can dogs eat garlic" debate, I come down on the "yes they can" side.  If you don't, then leave it out)
10 cups of chopped, shredded vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, kale, spinach, celery, cauliflower, bean sprouts, red peppers, beets, lettuce, tomatoes)
2 or 3 cans of kidney beans (sometimes I use lentils, too)
1/2 cup molasses
3 cups raw rice OR 32-42 oz. dry raw oatmeal

Optional: you can add in eggs, crushed shells and all.
Also a doggie vitamin for good measure.  Recipe for a good supplement powder to follow, if you want to make your own.

In a really large stock pot brown the meat in the oil.  If you are using whole chicken pieces rather than the ground, start by boiling it instead.  Then add the oil and the rest of the ingredients to the chicken and the stock, after you have taken the chicken out and deboned it and returned it.

Now that you have the meat and oil in the pot, add the vegetables, the balance of the ingredients and a quart or more water.  You will need more water if you choose rice and less if you do the oats.  Also if you use rice, turn the heat down and let it cook till the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed.

If you use the oats, add the water and then cook just a few minutes stirring well so that it doesn't stick like crazy and turn off the heat while it continues to absorb the liquid.

**My notes:  What I have found is that my dogs can't tolerate white potatoes, corn, peas or other starchy vegetables.  They get horrendous gas.  My Husky can snatch up a mouthfull of food and spit out all the lentils whole with not a toothmark on them.  Don't ask me how she manages to do that little trick!

Dogs don't need extra salt added, so do not add any.

Here is the recipe for the Healthy Supplement Powder in case you want to make your own to sprinkle on the food:

2 cups nutritional yeast
1 cup lecithin granules
1/4 cup kelp powder
9,000 mg. calcium or 5 tsp of ground eggshells
1,000 mg. vitamin C powder

Mix well and sprinkle 1 tsp. on each dog's meal.