Homemade Pet Foods

[Old Fashioned]

Ii know this has been discussed in several threads and we may even have a thread dedicated to pet food recipes but I couldn't find one, so it is.......and it will be a looooong one, so I'll break it up in smaller posts.


I want to say a few things first & foremost........several years ago when I first considered making homemade pet foods, I had read somewhere that all store bought/processed pet foods are required to be 'nutritionally complete' The differences in brands and price comes from the quality of ingredients used to make up the nutrients.........In other words, even the cheapest nastiest processed foods out there do have all the necessary vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbs, micros like zinc, copper, magnesium, calcium, etc. To compare it to a human diet, the expensive stuff would be us eating healthy whole foods and the cheap stuff is like eating sawdust with a daily multiple vitamin.

Also, many people swear by feeding raw food diet because it's healthier, and that may be all well & good........but I'm not one of them. I had been raised that if a dog got the taste for blood, it would make them more dangerous. Either by attacking/harming the people around them, or going after other animals. Whether any of that is true or not, I'm not willing to take that chance and have always cooked the food.

I'll start with cats....which I couldn't find as much info about cats as I did dogs. But cats are 'obligate omnivores' and require animal proteins and fats, and also vitamins/minerals from fruits/veggies. They don't need carbs or grains. Atleast one very essential nutrient is Taurine, without it they can get very sick or even die. Natural sources of taurine are found in meats, especially dark meat poultry. Chicken is good, turkey, duck, goose, etc are better. So making a homemade food is pretty simple, just meat, some fats and veggies.

Here is a link to a bit more info and recipe ideas......

https://www.veterinarians.org/homemade-cat-food/



As for dogs, I can find a ton of info about it and they require proteins (meat/animal), fats (oils/animals), carbs, vitamins & minerals (fruits/veggies). There are a gazillion recipe choices out there that can be as simple or complicated as you choose to make it. When I was doing the research about homemade diets for my dogs I wanted to keep it simple and easy to remember the ratios of ingredients to cover their needs. One site said proteins/fats should be half, with carbs, veggies and a bunch of microsupplements in varying amounts for the other half. Seemed way too complicated for me, not to mention expensive for those micro supplements. This is the main reason I have not feed homemade foods exclusively, but I do mix homemade with purchased. I do try to stay away from the cheapest stuff, but there's no possible way I can afford the top of the line foods either.

I went with a 1/3 protein/fats, 1/3 carb, 1/3 veggie/fruits, then mix that with their dry kibble, 2/3's homemade & 1/3 kibble. Actually that's where I start and some days depending on what I have available, that's what they get. Sometimes the ratios don't always add up, but for the most part, that is my baseline target. And more often than not, the protein/fats are closer to half, with the other half split for carbs & veggies. Also amounts of kibble vs homemade don't always add up either. But overall, I figure it pretty much balances itself out over time.


Another point to make here is dairy. I don't have a problem giving the dogs cheese usually as a treat or part of some leftover something and it's all good. I had seen where yogurt was also good for dogs digestion and the probiotic thing. Great......except it made my dogs sick. Sam threw up once and Scooby couldn't stop. For 2 days he couldn't keep anything down, not even water after I had mixed some yogurt into their food. Late on the second day, I gave him a few small pieces of chicken and he was able to eat it & keep it down, but had been pretty mopey and lethargic for the 2 days. By the third morning, I watched as he struggled out the doggy door and made THAT decision to call the vet to put him down. I looked up the number, had the phone in hand and started dialing thru watery eyes when that little bugger came busting thru the doggy door like a pup on a sugar high. He was jumping and prancing with ears perked up and a smile on his face. He just looked so happy and being spunky, that I put the phone back and never made the call. I figured he went poopy. But I'll never feed my dogs yogurt or other dairy again. Except cheese of course


OK enough babbling. Here is a link to AKC dog food recipes and nutritional needs......

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/nutri ... gredients/




Also, I found this site to use to make up a recipe........but it doesn't include amounts of ingredients, and doesn't include all foods. On the screen you can scroll down for more options, or at the top use the search for anything not listed. But it allows you to make choices from what you have available, to feed your dog. Once you've made your selections, down at the very bottom, click 'create dog (or cat) recipe', it will come up of whether your choices passed their nutrient requirements for the different types of recipes (high protein, high carb, etc). I have played with this thing a gazillion times over the years and it always comes up saying there are deficiencies in my choices, without their product. So I'm guessing they're just trying to sell you their stuff......which is like $60 (a couple of years ago) for a jar of powdered supplements that you need X amount added to your food choices. The best I could come up with, was 7 deficiencies........and that's another reason I mix homemade with store bought. much cheaper option


https://secure.balanceit.com/ez/



OK, enough for now. I'll post what I did today later

[Old Fashioned]

OK here's what I did today, canned 12 quarts with about a pint leftover to use right away. 2 of the jars didn't seal, those too will be used up right away. 11lbs pressure for 75 minutes.


Homemade Dog Food


Measurements are approx.

Pot #1......
2 to 3 cups leftover cooked rice
about a hefty handful of leftover noodles
plus a sprinkling of cut up pea pods and broccoli

Pot #2 (in the back)....
2 containers (20oz each--40oz total) chicken livers
3 or 4 globs of chicken fat (small handful total), cut into small pieces (missed these when I rendered the skin/fat trimmings from the leg quarters)
8 eggs
1/2 C. dried yellow summer squash
1 C. dried green beans
2/3 C dried strawberries
1 C dried blueberries
heaping tablespoon of powdered greens (kale, spinach, lettuces, carrot tops, radish tops, celery leaves)
Enough water to cook & rehydrate it all, about 2 or 3 cups


Pot #3 in front......

20lbs leg quarter meat (weight before deboning & trimming off the fat & skin)
and broth from cooking it.

separate.jpg

When I mixed it all together in my 10gallon pot, it only filled a little over half, the consistency is pretty soupy..........

mixed.jpg

Filled the jars with the soupy mix and stirred it up to debubble and settle, then topped it off with water to well below the threads and stirred it up again to mix the water in.......

filled jars.jpg

And this is what they look like out of the canner.......

done.jpg

Adding the extra water and leaving a bit more space in the jars, allows everything to expand without having 'explosions' in the canner from being too full. Also, when filling more jars for the second load, the mix had evaporated or soaked up alot of the liquid, so I added more water to it to get that soupiness.



Tonight I mixed 1 quart of this with about 3 cups of kibble and that fed Sam & Scooby. That extra pint was divided between the pups and mixed with their kibble.

[Old Fashioned]

Today when I was putting the jars away, I found some jars from previous canning. I had thought I'd used them all.

The jar on the left is from yesterdays canning. Middle jar (dated 05/22)is where I tried 'stacking' it with I think turkey on the bottom, Wallys bag of frozen mixed veggies and blueberries, and I used sweet potatoes for the carb instead of rice. The jar on the right is chicken, frozen mixed veggies & rice, no date on it but has been within the last year

more.jpg

[patriceinil]

Thanks OF, I’m definitely going to have to try canning some food for Percy once I’m feeling better.

[Farmfresh]

All the cooking I do for my dogs consists of the fuzzy stuff I find at the back of the refrigerator. They clean pans, get plate scrapings, questionable eggs and those fuzzy leftovers. We also feed Purina Dog Chow.

[Old Fashioned]

Farm.....are you serious that you feed them moldy food??



Patrice.....You could probably get away with canning in pints for Percy, then mix with dry kibble......half in the am, half at night

[patriceinil]

I was thinking of doing pints because a quart would be too much to use in one day.

[Farmfresh]

Heck yeah. I dump the junk out in the yard and between dogs and chickens it gets eaten. There are a few things ... rotten cabbages and the like that JUST chickens get. I can avoid the gas that way. Dogs... big dogs ... are sort of made to digest things that are not in it's best condition. The closer your breed is to being a wolf the better their digestive system.

[Rhodie Ranch]

they have a very high pH in their stomachs. This is why they can eat lots of different older things. I remember Bandito digging up another pet carcass and eating off of it, way back when. It stank to high heaven and I used a rake to take it away from him after I found him knawing on it.

[Farmfresh]

Exactly. I wouldn't make it their only food choice, but they eat what they want of it on top of dry dog food and seem to do well.