I never thought I would be one of those people that made food for their pets. I secretly chuckled at a few that I knew did.
When we found our current Corgi, Monty, the breeder recommended making food, talked to us about it a lot, sent us home with plenty of literature on it, and a week supply for our new puppy. At that time, we also had a geriatric Corgi, Kirby, who suffered from shoulder pain which we hoped was arthritis, but it turned out to be bone cancer. She'd already had a bout with cancer three years prior. The breeder thought that Kirby might benefit from the food as well, since she had an arthritic German Shepard that saw some improvement on the food.
It recommended that you switch over a dog to this food without mixing, but there might be some detoxing where the dog has
diarrhea and just doesn't look good for a couple of days. Since Kirby was already suffering, I decided to mix it with her hard food. Wouldn't you know, she ate all the homemade food off the dry food and spit the dry food back in the dish. I didn't notice anything off about her as a result, and she always enjoyed eating right up until the end, three months later.
Monty still eats the food, and loves it. He dances around in circles when I'm bringing the bowl over. He's lean and muscular for a Corgi, which is a commonly overweight breed.
Now, here's one of the best things about feeding this food. The dog's poops aren't as smelly and in about two days, they turn white and break up into a powder. I'm told it's because they aren't eating carbohydrates (a filler in most commercial foods) which their digestive systems aren't able to process properly. This may be why many dogs and cats develop diabetes. This food can be fed to cats, also. So, onto the food...
As far as special equipment, you'll need a couple of really big bowls, 20 or so freezer containers and a meat grinder. I have a 575 watt Maverick Meat Grinder which retails for about $100, but you may be able to pick one up on
ebay cheaper.
Next you need some meaty chicken bones. You can use chicken wings (expensive), chicken bones from the butcher (cheap but troublesome since you'll have to cut them up to fit in the grinder), or chicken necks. I use the necks; they're only 59 cents a pound and they easily fit in the grinder. I buy 20 or 25 pounds at a time. That makes enough food for our 26 pound Corgi for a month.
You grind those necks up raw, bones and all. You may be thinking, "BONES?! You're not supposed to feed an animal chicken bones!" If they're cooked, you're not, because they splinter. Raw bones are fine. If a fox or coyote kills a chicken, what do you think it's eating? Some call this a raw food diet; others call it BARF (bones and raw food). There's a lot of information on the
internet about this, but don't get confused by all the different way of doing this. It's like parenting; there are a lot of different ways to do it and you've got to figure out what works best for you.
Once you're done grinding the meat, you'll need to grind a little bit of vegetable (I'll talk about quantities in a minute): carrots, parsnips, celery, sweet potato, broccoli, squash, ginger, garlic or green beans. Veggies grown above ground are stool softening and below ground are stool hardening, which you may want to consider. They don't need to be beautiful vegetables. I've used overgrown green beans from the garden, limp carrots and trimmings from broccoli stalks. This is clean out the crisper time, but avoid bell peppers and onions which make some dogs ill.
Then you should add kelp granules, alfalfa powder, cod liver oil and vitamin C powder. If you have an ill, ailing, injured, pregnant or nursing dog, there are other herbs you can add. I add Sportszyme (promotes faster healing if he gets injured), and Acidophlus (aids digestion). I get all these at Thomas Veterinary Drugs. I won't bore you with item numbers, but if you want them, just ask.
Finally, add some chicken broth, mix it all up, put it in containers and freeze. If you forget to take some out of the the freezer in time, don't microwave it. You don't want the bones to start to cook. Just put the container in a pot of warm water for about 45 minutes, and you can get enough from the edges for a meal.
How much to feed can be a bit of a trick to start. The rule of thumb is 3-5% of body weight depending on activity level to maintain weight. My 26 pound dog with moderate activity level gets 1 pound per pay, or 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup at night.
If you have a very large dog, or several dogs, you might think this would be too much work. It might be. It takes me about an hour to make a month supply for my dog. I figure my cost is between 30 and 50 cents per day for food. If you don't have freezer space, but have more time, you could make it in smaller batches.
At last, quantities:
4 cups of ground meat and bone
1 cup broth
4 T vegetables
4 t kelp and alfalfa
2 t cod liver oil
1,000 mg vitamin C
I have an Excel spreadsheet with quantities going from 4 cups of meat to 24 cups of meat, which I'll share if you want it.
An excellent book on this subject is Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats by Kymythy Schultze.
Since she likes to knit, I got her three skeins of red fun fur yarn. There are also aqua metal dot stickers, red taper candles, a Martha Stewart book on Parties and Projects for the Holidays (a thrift shop find), two pairs of handmade earrings (1 aqua, 1 red), three spools of ribbon, some Martha Stewart holiday nut ball mix, a red "green" bag (I love these; they fold up small so you can carry them in your purse until you need one), a strawberry pumice stone, an aqua felt flower frame, an aqua manicure kit and spray bottle, and a homemade aqua belt. I've got to admit to almost reconsidering the belt when I found out how talented she is with sewing (I am pretty mediocre), but the ribbon was so pretty that I decided to give it a go anyway.
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