Karla's homemade dog food recipe:
Update: I recently found a supplier of Taste of the Wild. It is a grain free feed that comes in 3 varieties. I am currently feeding the Pacific Stream Canine Formula, an all life-stages diet. I am still using the homemade dog food in conjunction with the Taste of the Wild. I found my dogs are picking the Taste of the Wild out of the Canadie when mixing it to make a smooth transitions. The most amazing thing is that the gas has gone down considerably.
If you would like to read some reviews on Taste of the Wild here is a link to Rate It All
4 quarts water
2 to 4 pounds of meat; we prefer not to use beef, it is higher in protein but slower to digest, in a pinch it will work:
or, whole chicken or chicken thighs and legs (boiled enough to take the meat off the bones)
or, turkey, can be ground turkey meat or breast/thighs (boiled enough to remove from the bone, then chop it up)
or, ground venison (deer meat) is easy, but you can use any cut, then chop, blend or puree.
Lamb or Goat, ground is easy but again you can use any cut (boiled, and cut up)
Duck works well too, treat it like a chicken.
2 pounds of ground or finely chopped carrots.
2 to 3 pounds of sweet potatoes.
2 pounds of brown long cooking rice (no minute rice type of rice).
2 pounds of dried split peas.
For fresh breath add chopped fresh parsley at the end so you just barley wilt, how much depends on your dogs breath and tastes, I use about a half of one of the bunches you buy in the rubber bands at the grocery or farmers market.
For heart health, you can add chopped garlic, no more than one head in this size batch.
In a large pot, add 2 quarts of water, bring to a boil.
Cook the meat first, when using a meat that has bones in it, remove from the water and let it cool on the side.
While meat is cooking, shred or chop your fresh carrots and sweet potatoes.
When you have removed meat that needs taken off the bones you can add your veggies and rice to the water. Add the other 2 quarts of water.
Chop, shred or puree your meat and add it back to pot after 20 minutes or so. If using garlic add it now.
Cook until the rice is swelled and tender.
Finish off with parsley and remove from the heat. At this point, your mixture should be pretty thick.
Add 2 cups ice and stir well. This helps cool the food faster. Put in containers you can freeze that will hold 2 to 3 days of food at a time.
Caution: there are no preservatives in this and it will only store thawed, in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.
- NOTES:
you can change meats in this recipe to keep it new tasting or use a combination of meats, make all changes slowly - the recipe above makes a large batch that can be frozen in small containers that you can use up in 3 to 4 days once thawed
- to make the above recipe it will require a 20 quart pot to complete, if you don't have a large pot or would like to make a smaller batch you can cut it in half or fourths
Flax Seed:
We encouge you to top dress each feeding with ground flax seed. For my 15 to 20 pound dogs I feed 1 teaspoon per day, 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons so feed a 60 pound dog 1 tablespoon, and so on. For more information about the health benifets of ground or milled flax seed Read Why Here http://www.herbwisdom.com/herb-flaxseed-oil.html
Flax can be expenisive when purchased in a grocery or health food store. I buy mine in the feed stores in whole seed form and grind it in a blender, a coffee grinder will work as well.
Why I use this in combination with dry food:
This homemade dog food is not intended to be a sole diet for a normal healthy and active dog. Read Why Here http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/bestfood.html
How to add this homemade dog food into your pet's diet:
I have found that the best transition from one dog food to another is to mix the foods together. This process should usually take about 10 days, but you can increase the transition time if you have a dog with an easily upset stomach.
- Day one to day two – add a small amount of the homemade food to your dry food.
- Day three to day ten – increase the amount of homemade food every day until at least half of your regular feed is now the homemade food.
If at any time during the transition, your dog experiences gastro-intestinal upset (diarrhea), keep the ratio of new to old food the same for several days. This will allow your dog to adjust to the new ratio before you incorporate more of the new food. Expect a change in your dog's stool even after the transition period. A hard stool is not any better for your pet than it is for you.
How much you feed of the homemade depends on the size of pet you are feeding.
I am feeding my 15 to 20 pound dogs, 1/3 to ½ cup for breakfast with 1/3 cup of regular dry dog food. Then they have dry food only in the evening. The correct dry dog food improves dental health.
A friend of mine has very large dogs and feeds about 1 1/2 cups, per serving, twice a day with the dry food. They have noticed a marked improvement of mobility, less shedding, less itching higher energy level and weight loss without having starving dogs. Not to mention the reduced cost of feeding 3 large dogs. His son started this program as well and seen huge changes for the better in his dogs. (See testimonial on menu)
We feed Canidae All Life Stage Formula as our dry food. There are 3 or 4 other dry foods that meet my standard for dry food as well. Please see the Rating Dog Food page.