# Making Home Made Dog Food



## jdudziak (Sep 19, 2012)

Hi- How is everyone? So I have a Jack Russell who last year had quite a battle with bloody stool. After much evaluation it was determined her food was causing the issue. I had always fed all my dogs Purina and never had an issue. They liked it and were happy and healthy. Of course they got treats to but then this came about so we are trying new foods. We tried the Rachel Ray Rice and Lamb food. Well they didn't seem happy with the food and about two weeks after we started the dogs on the food my 9 yr old Dauschound had a seizure and then passed away about a week later. To my knowledge one did not have anything to do with the other but it does make you wonder. Nothing else in her life changed and she was very healthy. So then I went and purchased Avoderm. They are not happy with this and it is not being eaten at all. So we are giving them treats to supplement there diet which is probably not the best idea either but they are refusing to eat it. So I have decided it is time to make my own dog food. In the past there have been times where I have given my dogs bland diet so just a basic ground beef and rice diet. When I made it I would make it a little soupy. I figured the water would be good for them anyway. So this is what I am thinking of doing. 

2 lbs ground beef 80/20
1 bag of brown rice 
then boil it together in water
Once everything was cooked I was planning to add a bag of frozen veggies. This way the nutrients are not cooked out. 

This should be pretty close to 40% protein/ 30% starch/ 30% Vegetable mixture I read about online. 

Then I planned to freeze it in small portions for the dogs. If I were to make it in the future I could change the meat/veggies depending on what was on sale. I am not really sure on changing the starch with the Jack Russells previous reaction. The Jack Russell is 15lbs and the Papillion is 8 lbs. Both are adult dogs. Does anyone have any suggestion on this diet? How do you know how much to feed them?


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## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

First of all, you need calcium. Well actually a proper calcium to phosphorous ratio for a healthy dog. That means something like edible raw bones, or bone meal. Things like ground egg shells provide calcium which is the important part but it doesn't provide phosphorous.

Second, dogs don't need that much carbs. If you insist on feeding carbs I would use peeled potatoes instead of rice. If you insist on using rice, I would use white Californian rice and not brown rice for reduced arsenic levels.

Third, 80/20 ground beef is very fatty, especially since you're not planning on draining it. A majority of the caloric content would come from the fat rather than protein. Adding that to a mostly carbohydrate diet and you end up with very little protein per meal, maybe even too little.

For the frozen veggies, dogs being carnivores, aren't really designed to breakdown and absorb raw vegetables. If you want to add those, puree them and then freeze them to try and break up the cell walls before feeding it.

I'm not sure how food is causing the bloody stool but there are lots of better food than Avoderm that you can still try. If you are set on the homemade route, I would recommend more research. There is a lot more to feeding a homemade diet. Nutritional completeness is a concern when you're just throwing stuff together. 

You can look at this site for some resources http://dogaware.com/diet/index.html You can look at the NRC nutritional requirements for dogs but that can an overwhelming amount of information to process. For a carb heavy diet, you can try reading Dr. Strombeck's or Dr Pitcairn's books. Most people won't like the high amounts of carbs in those diets but atleast those author both have PhDs on top of their DVMs and are well educated scientifically.

There are other good raw feeding sites out there too if you want to take that route. Raw is probably easier and most would say it's better. 80% meat, 10% edible bone, 10% organs is a simple template to follow though there is a bit more to it. You can look at www.preymodelraw.com if you're interested.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

A bag of brown rice boiled up could be a lot more rice depending on your bag size! To have your desired ratio you would need to feed 4 pounds of meat, 3 pounds of COOKED rice and 3 pounds of veggies. 4 pounds of meat, 1 pound of raw brown rice and 3 pounds of veggies would be about right. 

Brown rice can cause reduced blood taurine levels so I would prefer not to use it myself. Dogs are supposed to do just fine making taurine unlike cats which must have adequate dietary sources but some don't seem to do a good job synthesizing it. http://www.vetcontact.com/en/art.php?a=1524&t= My dog suffered from a few mild seizures as a youngster plus had a scary vet visit where the vet suggested he might have DCM and low blood taurine has been implicated in both those health issues.

Calcium is definitely where it is at. If you are switching now just add the powdered egg shell from 2 eggs to the 4 pounds of meat and done. Add the eggs as well, good stuff in eggs! In the future disregard any recipe meant as a complete feed that doesn't mention calcium. Dogs need a lot more calcium than humans. My 38 pound dog requires as much calcium as an adult human!

I prefer hamburger for cooked food, hope it works for your dogs. Super easy to use and has lots of the trace minerals dogs need. Just don't get the super cheap 70% fat stuff. Dogs need fat but that stuff is too fatty. I like the 85% fat stuff. Red meats like beef, pork and lamb have more iron, zinc, copper than poultry.

For veggies, be aware that if you use peas or beans or corn you are likely to see the hulls in the stool unless you blend those veggies before feeding. Not nice to see to be sure. They mostly add bulk so vary them at your whim. 

Feed as if the dogs were on raw food, about 2% their ideal body weight a day, 16 ounces for a 50 pound dog, 8 ounces for a 25 pound dog for starters and increase or decrease according to how the body condition goes. Small dogs like yours probably need a bit more, start at 3% their ideal body weight 12 ounces for a 25 pound dog, 6 for a 12 pound dog. For a very rough estimate you could figure 2 cups per pound. Don't go by how the dogs act, smart dogs want to get the good stuff while the getting is good! My Max gained 33% of his body weight eating grainy cooked food. Since this is real food the measly 1-1.25 cup he needed per day didn't look like enough for my best buddy and he got far more than he needed. Max is 38 pounds, 19" tall - a cup of food? I just plain couldn't do it. Had the same problem feeding EVO kibble, fed more than he needed, soft poop instead of gaining weight in that case and gave up on the stuff after feeding through 2 bags. Human error!

Every time you change the recipe the calories change so you might want to figure out how to use nutr to check on what the dogs are getting. For example 70% hamburger is 93 calories per raw ounce and 85% is only 60 calories per raw ounce!

For loads of reading please look at http://www.dogaware.com/diet/homemade.html. There are lots of recipes there to start off, books to look for, how others feed fresh and so on.


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

I second www.dogaware.com You need to read before making your dogs food. Good luck!


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## jdudziak (Sep 19, 2012)

Thanks so much for all the wonderful suggestions. I am definately going to try this. I am visiting http://www.dogaware.com/diet/homemade.html to become more educated. I think the eggs will do great. I am almost thinking of adding a raw egg on top for them. We'll see how it goes. I am going to talk to my vet too just to see what he thinks.


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

Keep in mind most vets don't know much about raw food. They will give you all kinds of myths. Like you have to cook the meat, don't give raw bones, you have to add carbs and veggies. All myths.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

If you want to consult the vet you need to find a recipe that mentions NRC or AAFCO as those are the vet accepted standards for nutrition. Monica Segal's recipes are 'complete and balanced' and your vet would probably be fine with one of hers. One of them is posted on the dogaware article I posted but the link isn't working right now. Here is the list of newsletters, there are some recipes in them.
http://www.monicasegal.com/newsletter-archive.html

Or much easier, Dr. Strombeck's recipes. I don't care for them as they are lower in protein and he will use lots of dairy and even soy but he is a traditional vet.
http://www.dogcathomeprepareddiet.com/index.htm

Or Dr. Susan Wynn's Paleothic Diet.
http://www.susanwynn.com/Homemade_Diet_Recipe.php


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## jdudziak (Sep 19, 2012)

So I gave it a try. I used the 2lbs of ground beef, 8oz rice, 4 eggs and shells, a can of pumpkin, carrots probably 6 small. I put everything in the food processor. I cooked it up and then mixed it half with the dog food. While today Masha had her first truly solid poo in a very long time. I think I am on the right track. I still will do more research but I think this is a good start.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Wow, that is terrific! While Sassy's poop on mostly chicken and rice was really good, when the dogs had an actual episode of diarrhea what finally got things back to normal was chicken and rice AND pumpkin. 

Watch for flecks of white egg shell in the stool though. I dried the shells and powdered them in a coffee mill to be sure the calcium was getting absorbed. Some dogs can digest the egg shell as is but I never wanted to take a chance.


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