# Homemade Dog food



## doxiemomma87 (Feb 22, 2008)

*None*

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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

I feed a raw diet. There are some excellent threads here on the forum about home cooking and raw ideas. And my new favorite books are the ones by Kymythy Schultze. Lots of good ideas for supplements for dogs with various troubles in her book on nutrition.


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## doxiemomma87 (Feb 22, 2008)

I'm not completely familiar with the raw diets. Isn't it basically feeding your dogs raw meat? Or do you feet them other things?


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## GreatDaneMom (Sep 21, 2007)

i have a homemade dogtreat business... but i dont feed meals that are homemade. i just use a high quality dog food that i trust.


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## Brandismom (Jun 25, 2006)

I've been home cooking for my dogs for years. I simply don't trust manufactured dog kibble anymore. My kids are healthy and happy on my recipes and the vet says they are the best fed dogs he has in his practice. I do keep kibble on hand because I foster for our local sheltie rescue often and it's not fair to the new owner or the dog to feed home cooked foods to a dog that may have to return to kibble.


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

A raw food diet is feeding raw meat, bones, and optional vegt/fruits/grains. There are plenty of good threads in the food forum at the stickies on the top of the page to look through for more info.


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## doxiemomma87 (Feb 22, 2008)

Thanks so much for all the info. I think I will look into raw feeding. Sounds very interesting. I feed my dachshunds raw veggies and some fruit as treats. They love them!



GreatDaneMom said:


> i have a homemade dogtreat business... but i dont feed meals that are homemade. i just use a high quality dog food that i trust.


How is your business going? I thought about selling some of my dogfood to local dachshund owners in my community. My vet has told me that the food I make is doing well for my boys, and that it is a well ballanced meal.


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## Yorkie Fan (Feb 15, 2008)

I feed my Yorkie a homemade diet.
She has been on this diet on and off since the recall and I am going to keep her on it. I trust it so much more than dog food.
Dr. Remillard from Angell Memorial in Boston forumulated it for her.


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## mvpelicanpoint (Feb 24, 2008)

we have a ten year old schnauzer (mini), that we got from the shelter when she was three. she had a bout of pancreatitis, so our vet told us to feed her rice, chicken, green beans, & cottage cheese. so we did. then we went cruising (she's a boat dog), & since we don't have lots of refrigeration, i switched from cottage cheese to tofu. i also added carrots to the mix (i cook them in with the rice). we also add the missing link brand of vitamin powder when we mix up a batch. my husband thinks that she is reacting to the tofu & carrots--she's an itchy girl. has any one else run into this? has anyone heard whether carrots and or tofu (soy) is a bad thing for dogs? anyone have any other suggestions to relieve her itching? we spray her with a number of things--primarily aloe with tea tree oil...whattya say, out there in the ozone?


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

Dogs do not assimilate soy very well. It could be causing th itchiness.


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## doxiemomma87 (Feb 22, 2008)

Yorkie Fan said:


> I feed my Yorkie a homemade diet.
> She has been on this diet on and off since the recall and I am going to keep her on it. I trust it so much more than dog food.
> Dr. Remillard from Angell Memorial in Boston forumulated it for her.


 That is great, what are the main ingredients in your diet? I use rice, chicken, green beans, carrots and low fat/low sodium chicken broth.


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## flipgirl (Oct 5, 2007)

mvpelicanpoint said:


> we have a ten year old schnauzer (mini), that we got from the shelter when she was three. she had a bout of pancreatitis, so our vet told us to feed her rice, chicken, green beans, & cottage cheese. so we did. then we went cruising (she's a boat dog), & since we don't have lots of refrigeration, i switched from cottage cheese to tofu. i also added carrots to the mix (i cook them in with the rice). we also add the missing link brand of vitamin powder when we mix up a batch. my husband thinks that she is reacting to the tofu & carrots--she's an itchy girl. has any one else run into this? has anyone heard whether carrots and or tofu (soy) is a bad thing for dogs? anyone have any other suggestions to relieve her itching? we spray her with a number of things--primarily aloe with tea tree oil...whattya say, out there in the ozone?


I would go back to the cottage cheese for a couple of weeks to see if it's the soy- it's a common allergen for dogs. Do you also give her an Omega 3 supplement? I feed my dog semi homemade food, meaning that I buy a mix called Urban Wolf and mix it with meat, oil and egg but I also give her 2 salmon oil (wild not farmed) capsules a day and add salmon or mackerel in her food. That may help relieve the itching. Iknow it helps with my ezcema. You may also want to add blueberries to your food as they are an excellent anti-oxidant. I add blueberries too. Carrots aren't bad for dogs at all/ they're a good source of beta carotene and antioxdants as well. You can also substitute sweet potato for carrots for some variety.


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## GreatDaneMom (Sep 21, 2007)

doxiemomma87 said:


> Thanks so much for all the info. I think I will look into raw feeding. Sounds very interesting. I feed my dachshunds raw veggies and some fruit as treats. They love them!
> 
> 
> 
> How is your business going? I thought about selling some of my dogfood to local dachshund owners in my community. My vet has told me that the food I make is doing well for my boys, and that it is a well ballanced meal.


my business is doing really well thank you for asking. i just shipped some treats to the united kingdom (im in new york, so thats a huge deal) and some to alaska. i have local groomers and health food stores that carry them too for me. heres the problem with selling food. since you are feeding a food, and not a treat, its more complicated. because the food is a whole diet, you need a lot more licensing, everything you produce HAS to be sent to a lab and processed to be diganosed to give you a garunteed nutritional list, and all that junk. thats about $100 for every product for the lab processing. you also have to have someone come in and do an inspection to make sure you can operate your business where you want to. this usually means, no pets. as dumb as that may sound when youre making pet food, its the truth. so theres a lot more to go through when youre trying to market food, and not treats. plus youre going to have a lot of people who will be very sceptical unless you have a degree in nutrition or something, or are a vet, etc. which is where i stand right now. i can do all the research in the world i want, but because i dont have a degree in canine nutrition or anything right now, its going to make it harder for me. people can ask "well how do you know so much about nutrition" well my only answer is "i researched it for a long time on my own" so right now im thinking about going to school so i can get something to give me some kind of credit.


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## Yorkie Fan (Feb 15, 2008)

mvpelicanpoint said:


> we have a ten year old schnauzer (mini), that we got from the shelter when she was three. she had a bout of pancreatitis, so our vet told us to feed her rice, chicken, green beans, & cottage cheese. so we did. then we went cruising (she's a boat dog), & since we don't have lots of refrigeration, i switched from cottage cheese to tofu. i also added carrots to the mix (i cook them in with the rice). we also add the missing link brand of vitamin powder when we mix up a batch. my husband thinks that she is reacting to the tofu & carrots--she's an itchy girl. has any one else run into this? has anyone heard whether carrots and or tofu (soy) is a bad thing for dogs? anyone have any other suggestions to relieve her itching? we spray her with a number of things--primarily aloe with tea tree oil...whattya say, out there in the ozone?


Are you supplementing with calcium?



doxiemomma87 said:


> That is great, what are the main ingredients in your diet? I use rice, chicken, green beans, carrots and low fat/low sodium chicken broth.


I use chicken or egg with brown rice and/or steel cut oats with a mixture of veggies with oil (olive or canola) and BalanceIT K as the supplement.


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## GreatDaneMom (Sep 21, 2007)

mvpelicanpoint said:


> we have a ten year old schnauzer (mini), that we got from the shelter when she was three. she had a bout of pancreatitis, so our vet told us to feed her rice, chicken, green beans, & cottage cheese. so we did. then we went cruising (she's a boat dog), & since we don't have lots of refrigeration, i switched from cottage cheese to tofu. i also added carrots to the mix (i cook them in with the rice). we also add the missing link brand of vitamin powder when we mix up a batch. my husband thinks that she is reacting to the tofu & carrots--she's an itchy girl. has any one else run into this? has anyone heard whether carrots and or tofu (soy) is a bad thing for dogs? anyone have any other suggestions to relieve her itching? we spray her with a number of things--primarily aloe with tea tree oil...whattya say, out there in the ozone?



most likely its the tofu. soy is a very common allergen. thats why i use no soy, dairy, wheat, or corn in my treats. thats also why you have to watch a lot of the low allergen dog foods. although they dont have maybe wheat or corn, they might have a lot of soy, which probably isnt going to help. i dont think your carrots are a problem. spraying her isnt going to stop her from being itchy if its coming from the inside out. it might help relieve the soreness from constant scratching, but it wont stop the itching itself.


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