Advice on homemade dog food needed

[i_am2bz]

I forgot, she also told me to give them 1/2 a multi-vitamen. Maybe I was just lucky, but all my dogs turned out okay. I was glad to go back to store-bought food, tho...it was a pain.

I've heard dogs eat grass to make themselves throw up...but my dogs eat grass (or whatever else grows in the backyard) all the time, with no ill effects that I can see. Except one ate a mushroom last summer...THAT required a trip to the vet.

 

[Gallina Vecchia]

I do not feed commercial dog food either. Dr. Richard Pitcairn's Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats has been very useful. He has a lot of recipes for food and supplements -raw and cooked.
Our latest addition had really stinky skin when we got her, especially when her coat was wet - that went away when I switched her from a salmon based dog kibble to homemade food when she joined our clan. Her coat is much smoother, too. What ever you decide to switch to, just remember to make that switch slooooowly to prevent GI upset.

 

[tortoise]

Wild dogs will eat herbivore poo, which can still contain a fair number of nutrients. For a year I was dumping horse manure where I would be putting my pasture, building compost piles to later be spread once we were ready to plant grass. During that time, the coyote scat was often mostly horse poo!

They will eat grass, as all cats and dogs do, and the intestinal contents of their prey. They will also eat things when hungry that they might not normally eat. I see apple bits in coyote poo in the winter when prey is scarce. They don't digest the vegetable matter well, as it is very recognizable in their poops. I have been monitoring the local coyote population for years this way....

Feeding "green tripe" or the unclean lining of a ruminant's stomach is excellent. It is CHEAP (usually free) when you get it from a butcher.

The stomach contents, particularly that of silage fed cows, is rich in nutrients, including vitamin E which is essential for the safe use of fats.

Dogs lack cellulase, the enzyme that breaks down plant cell walls. For this reason, any plant matter in a dog's diet should ideally be fermented. (Although both domestic dogs and wolves are observed to eat fresh grass, apples, etc.)

 

[citylife]

I have 4 dogs and they all eat a RAW diet of meat and bones. They eat, chicken, rabbit, eggs, beef, buffalo, elk, deer, pig, antalope, duck, sardines, mackerel (whole and canned), and anything else I can find!
The reason for RAW is when you cook bones it breaks them down and they splinter and can be extremely dangerous.
When switching your dog to RAW, you need to make sure your dog chews his food. Learns to chew the bones. Some dogs get all excited and try to gulp and some dogs are like what in the world is this???
Now, all that said.........

If she is on a good quality grain free diet the only thing I would change is cut her food in 1/2. Then use canned pumpkin, ( not pumkin pie filling. no sugar or seasonings.) in place of the 1/2 you take a way. it will regulate the bowel movements, give added vitamins, probiotics and all kinds of other things!!!!! I also, give me spaniels a tsp of local honey 3-5 times a week and the big dogs a TBSP 3-5 times per week.
If you decide to change your dog to raw........ do your research. Talk to people like myself who have been feeding for at least a year or more......... And be open minded. Every dog is different. not all get along with the same kind of food.
Use your own common sense to decide what you want to do with your own animals. But educating yourself as much as you can is always helpful.
good luck


The lady w/4 dogs, 4 city chickens, 5 meat rabbits, their kits, and a lizard

 

[tortoise]

In addition to what citylife says about educating yourself - be CAREFUL. There is an enormus amount of misinformation out there about raw diet (and homemade diets in general) that can have devestating health effects. You can actually kill your dog by screwing it up!

So get GOOD information. I use veterinary textbooks, and I asked questions from about 8 defferent veterinarians.

My fiance is a veterinarian and our first conversations were about dog food.

 

[ORChick]

"......Then use canned pumpkin, ( not pumkin pie filling. no sugar or seasonings.) in place of the 1/2 you take a way. it will regulate the bowel movements, give added vitamins, probiotics and all kinds of other things!!!!!"

I can't argue with anything said here as I don't have dogs, and my cats are fed a commercial food. But the above quote puzzles me. So far as I know canned anything will be devoid of probiotics, simply through the heat used in the canning. The added fiber, vitamins, and "all kinds of other things!!!!" are likely true, but for probiotics you are much better off giving your animals yogurt or kefir or homemade sauerkraut (if they will eat it ).

 

[tortoise]

Yeah - I missed that probiotics statement. I agree. I do think that is excessive pumpkin also. Typically, you would only add 1 or 2 Tablespoons per day. In addition that is a serious drop in the number of calories per day.

I didn't comment earlier because it's unlikely to do any harm.

A more common "switch" from kibble to raw is to begin adding probiotics for a week, then begin adding ACV + probiotics. Then begin adding a raw egg per day + salmon oil + vitamin E. THEN (after 2 - 3 weeks) start with larger RMB's like meaty chicken necks with most of the skin stripped off. At this time is is crucial that raw and kibble foods are not fed within 4 hours of each other. After another week, the kibble can eliminated. If the dog has any diet/food allergy issues, this is time to begin an elimination diet and add one food ingredient every 2 weeks or so until you know what your dog does and doesn't react to. If your dog doesn't have foo allergy issues, don't do this as it is not a balanced diet full of variety.

As far as added vitamins, may raw feeders use supplements like alfalfa and kep powders, but one again, you must educate yourself. Oversupplementing is often more dangerous than a nutritional deficiency.

 

[Dace]

Wow, this is the first time I have been back in a few days....great info thank you all!

I do not think that I am comfortable with feeding raw. So I will do some research and then probably ask a few more questions of my local experts (you all )

Thanks for all the input!

Tortoise, I really appreciate the break down of how to transition the dog from one type of food to another!

 

[freemotion]

Just to add more cautions to the mix...too many raw egg whites can cause a biotin deficiency. So, especially if you have hens, don't go crazy with the raw eggs.

I eat raw egg yolks but not the whites. I cook up the whites and feed them to the pigs or back to the hens, or just toss 'em if I'm in a hurry and only had, say, a couple of egg yolks in a shake.

 

[tortoise]

Just to add more cautions to the mix...too many raw egg whites can cause a biotin deficiency. So, especially if you have hens, don't go crazy with the raw eggs.

I eat raw egg yolks but not the whites. I cook up the whites and feed them to the pigs or back to the hens, or just toss 'em if I'm in a hurry and only had, say, a couple of egg yolks in a shake.

Yes, egg white binds biotin making it unavailable.

BUT, egg yolk is a rich source of biotin.

So as long as you feed whole eggs (not just egg white), all is good and no worries.

Raw feeders tend to feed eggs 3 days per week. Some say the calcium in the eggshell is enough to balance out boneless meat diets, but it is NOT. I've done the math on it. It isn't even close.