Making Your Own Dog Food
- Step 3 -
Raw and Home Cooked
Making your own dog food is Step 3 of the Dog Diet Guidelines. After implementing the first two steps have you noticed the bad dog breath is gone? Hot spots are healing? Less itching, scratching, and dandruff? Each dog is has a different healing rate depending on previous health problems and genetics. I can attest to this because of my own five dogs. I have one who looked worse before she started looking better because she had more toxins to get out of her system. In fact, she's still working on it after a year. Why didn't I give up on her? Because I've learned real health doesn't happen overnight and I can tell she feels better! It started with the look in her eyes. It progressed to not looking so stiff when she moved (especially getting up) and now at 9 years old, I'm making jokes about putting her back on junk food because the crazy dog won't slow down. She seems excited to get up in the morning, thrilled to go outside and at dinnertime - look out! Like a dog on a racetrack, 80 pound Helen runs a big circle using all the free space in the living room and kitchen. Because of her speed, when she gets to the kitchen, she creates her own form of drifting. Her legs stop running as she slides six or seven feet into the kitchen. Then there's a scramble of feet to help her change direction and head back to the living room for another round. All this energy and she still has a lump on her back near her tail. Do I worry about it? No (I'm fibbing, sometimes I still worry). It seems a better choice to monitor it. It is shrinking at an extremely slow rate. The point to all this about my own dog is to help you understand the improvements you will see. By utilizing the previous sections of Step One in Healthy Dog Diet and Step Two in The Road to Nutritious Dog Food here's what will have happened. For your dog: - The gradual diet change has left him with little or no stomach upset.
- By eliminating the toxins from his diet, there is less stress on his internal organs.
- By adding real food and a health food supplement, he's receiving the nutrition he needs to start getting the old toxins out of his body forever. In other words, enabling his body to cure itself.
- Congratulations, your dog is now beginning to get a taste for real food and may turn up his nose at kibble if not mixed with real food.
For You, the gradual addition of real foods has: - You used to thinking about what your dog is eating.
- Begun the good habit of adding human grade food to the dog bowl every day.
- Given you a sense of pride and accomplishment for taking the responsibility of your dog's health into your own hands.
- You making your own dog food without even realizing it.
You are now ready for Step 3, where your dog can learn to crave what he needs. Of course I have an example. Two of my dogs are now happy to chew whole fresh cloves of garlic and plain Vitamin C tablets. These same two dogs surprised the heck out of me the other day. I was getting ready to swallow a few capsules of Echinacea and Goldenseal when Helen sniffed the air and promptly sat at my feet begging. Moo followed suit. Mostly out of curiosity I let them smell it. Both dogs chewed one up! Amazing. When I offered a second they just wagged their tails but did not take it. (Of course both dogs will still eat a potato chip, but I'm not going down that road again.)
Step Three - Making Your Own Dog Food
Since dog kibble comprises such a small portion of the meal at this point, you can stop feeding it altogether. You've really been making your own dog food anyway, just using the kibble as one ingredient. By now your dog should be enjoying real food and switch happily. You may choose to feed:- Raw meat, cooked meat, raw bones, raw grated or pulverized vegetables, cooked vegetables, cooked healthy whole grains, *beans and legumes.
- Continue giving dog health supplements to be sure nutritional needs are met and giving an extra boost to fight against dog illnesses.
- Add bone meal, as a calcium and phosphorus source, especially to replace raw bones.
*If you are surprised to see beans and legumes on the list, I understand. They are high in protein and if cooked correctly, will not cause gas. They are the most time consuming ingredient in making your own dog food. I had big doubts about beans so they were the last thing I tried. I cook pinto beans after soaking for 12 hours. Amazingly, my dogs love them. This entire step by step process has amazed me many times. Before I end this page about making your own dog food, I feel I must add something about raw meat for dogs.
A Respectful Note About BARF Feeding
While I understand the proponents of BARF feeding (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) and their low or no grain feeding practices, here are my beliefs on the subject - and they have changed somewhat since I started this website:- Wolves travel 50 to 100 miles a day and need the high protein of meat. Most domestic dogs travel from the couch to the back yard, with an occasional migration to the dog park via the family car.
- I simply can't afford to feed the 10 to 12 pounds per day of quality raw meats my five dogs would consume. The cheaper meats I feed have their own toxins such as growth hormones and antibiotics just to name a few so I would rather give my dogs less meat until I find a healthier source. See Canine Raw Diet, The Search for Meat.
In closing, remember health is a process and even if you don't get your meat, vegetable and grain ratios perfect when making your own dog food, you are so far ahead of the game by not buying pseudo-food dog kibble, it's not funny.
Homemade Dog Food
Dog Nutrition
Raw Dog Food
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