# Home cooked food.



## Rosary94 (May 17, 2010)

So my mother is jumping on the bandwagon to give Ted home cooked food. Note: this is after a co-worker told her about how she feeds her Pomeranian cooked food. So... all my talking was for nothing. Thanks, Ma. Glad to know you'll take my word for lots of things. *rolls eyes* 

Anyhoo...

Plus, Ted doesn't seem to really like canned food anyway, lol. My guess is that his previous owner must have fed him human food. This little guy is too much of a picky eater, unlike his mama, who'll eat anything in sight. I have the appetite of a starved dog, so seeing Ted not eat (sometimes he won't eat for days, and I have to give him dog bone treats to make up for it), is quite irritating and worrying.

If you have any tips or recommendations, pass 'em along here! 

So far, I've been looking at this site, Home Cooked Dog Food - LoveToKnow Dogs to give me a head start.

The ratio of how much to give is what I'm mostly scared of messing up.


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

This is exactly the kind of site I have been looking for, thanks for posting it!  (Even though the people of the site are on the "raw is bad" bandwagon!)

I am completely considering cooking for Tate after a nice discussion about home cooking with Barb (plumcrazy). My mom cooked for one of our dogs whose kidneys were failing and she thrived on it, so it is a wonderful thing. (I bet Lucy loves her home cooking, too!)

I think it will be hit or miss to see what veggies Ted likes at first... especially if he is the picky eater you say he is! Tate is pretty picky too... and were he a baby, he would totally be "failure to thrive"!


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## taxtell (Sep 17, 2009)

A friend of mine recommended this book for me to share with clients of mine who want to cook for their dogs. I really don't blame them, with all the food recalls out there. If I weren't feeding raw, this is the way I'd go.
She said there were good, practical recipes in this book, though it seems pretty pricey.

Amazon.com: Complete Holistic Dog Book: Sports & Outdoors


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## Rosary94 (May 17, 2010)

I have fed Ted a few types of veggies: broccoli, carrots, and my mom introduced potatoes. In fact, he stole a small potato last night. Caught him chewing on the thing while I was doing my laundry. >.< 

But really, what's up with the picky eaters? Sometimes in dire moments of hunger (and my laziness to make something or call for takeout on time), the dog food looks... good. Never in a million years will I eat it, but I'm just saying, lol.


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## Rosary94 (May 17, 2010)

taxtell said:


> A friend of mine recommended this book for me to share with clients of mine who want to cook for their dogs. I really don't blame them, with all the food recalls out there. If I weren't feeding raw, this is the way I'd go.
> She said there were good, practical recipes in this book, though it seems pretty pricey.
> 
> Amazon.com: Complete Holistic Dog Book: Sports & Outdoors


Wah! I'm looking for cheap recipes, lol. More munch for the buck. But I'll take a look into the book, maybe find a used one. Thankies!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I don't see any mention on the site shown above of the need to provide the right quantity of calcium to balance the other ingredients. I use one ground eggshell (about one teaspoonful) per pound of meat. I found this site DogAware.com: Homemade Diets for Dogs very useful, for explaining the principles clearly, and giving advice on balancing different types of meat. 

There are so many different views on the need for vegetables and carbohydrates I think there has to be an element of trial and error to find the balance that suits each dog. Until there is a proper, controlled, long term study, I doubt we will get a clear answer - and as the pet food manufacturers fund most research into canine diets, I don't think we will be seeing a study like that any time soon!

I have worked out that feeding my two toy dogs and two cats raw or home cooked costs around half to two thirds of the price of premium kibble and cheap tinned cat food - and that is buying mainly at UK supermarket prices. I looked into giving them premium canned or pouched food ... that's when I started cooking!


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## taxtell (Sep 17, 2009)

Yeah I know the book is expensive, but the people I know who have it swear by it.

I'm interested in picking it up myself, so if I do I'll let you know about the recipes.


I am still a firm believer that dogs are carnivores and do best on a natural raw diet though.

Both of my dogs have gone through amazing positive changes since switching them over.


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## plumcrazy (Sep 11, 2009)

Spencer said:


> (I bet Lucy loves her home cooking, too!)


Oh, *YEAH*, baby!!! :lol:

Lucy was also one of those "picky" kibble eaters. She'd eat it, just not with enthusiasm - and only after looking at it for awhile, as if she was working up the energy to actually put some of it into her mouth! Our other three dogs love their kibble and are doing well on it so they're all still on bagged (for now...) 

I took Lucy to a visiting holistic veterinarian earlier this month, and after doing an evaluation, the vet determined that Lucy's individual needs are a little more specific... She tends to retain "damp heat" because her innate tendency is to be a hot dog (no, not the small tube shaped piece of unidentifiable meat products, but that her body temperature runs "hot") For example, while Meau prefers to lounge on the carpet or snuggled next to a human, Lucy is most comfortable lying flat on the coolest tile she can find in our house... Meau is cool, Lucy is hot.

Because Lucy retains this damp heat, she has a tendency towards gunky ears. The vet explained that the best food choice for her is a cooked diet made with "cooling" foods - she said that Lucy should not eat kibble or raw (although she does advocate feeding raw to other individual dogs who can process it better, so she's not "anti-raw" at all) The vet prescribed 1/3 proteins (fish, turkey, pork or rabbit) 1/3 carbs (barley, brown rice, or millet) and 1/3 vegetables (broccoli, spinach, celery, cucumbers or kelp.) We can combine any of the proteins with any of the carbs and/or veggies - We find she likes the turkey better than the fish (thank goodness, because cooking the fiss made my house smell baaaaaaaad - right Cherie?? ) and she likes any of the veggies or carbs... I haven't tried the rabbit because to get good, ground rabbit meat in town it's like $8 per pound - the $1.99 ground turkey is much easier on the budget... we may try rabbit someday for a special occasion!

We are also adding vet recommended supplements and vitamins and our next step will be to get her diet "balanced" through the people at the Gourmet Doggie Diner here in town - they will put us in contact with someone who can balance her diet - I _think _it's Monica Segal out of Ontario... Once her diet is balanced, we will know better the exact amounts of everything we'll need to feed her, including supplements.

We started out cooking just a bit of each type of food to see if Lucy liked it and if it agreed with her digestion-wise... So far there have been no problems with any of the offerings. When we started feeding home cooked meals, our "picky" eater completely disappeared!! She now entirely enjoys mealtimes, while before it seemed to be more of a chore to get her to eat anything! I have also learned that I need to keep her ears back with something, otherwise they drag in the food dish (and it's not nice having fishy smelling, crusty ear leathers!!) I'll try to get a picture of her wearing her homemade snood! It's hilarious!!! When we pull out her headgear, she gets SOOO excited because she knows it's time to eat - she actually shoves her nose into the snood to make us go faster!! :lol: it really makes me feel much better to know she actually LIKES her food now!!

This diet and nutrition stuff has been a journey for us. Luckily my husband is totally on board with our changes (anything for his princess!!) and helps me by watching grocery store ads for sales. What a good daddy!!

So that's our home-cooking story for now... I'm sure if there are any additional chapters to our saga, the forum will be apprised! 

Barb


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## Olie (Oct 10, 2009)

taxtell said:


> Yeah I know the book is expensive, but the people I know who have it swear by it.
> 
> I'm interested in picking it up myself, so if I do I'll let you know about the recipes.
> 
> ...


I agree - amazing changes! Suri has no sign of stomach issues at all. Had we not went to raw, we would not be doing agility. And we started last week.

I would probably homecook as a second choice too. I went to Utube when I was looking for home cooked dog recipes and they were relatively affordable.


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## Rosary94 (May 17, 2010)

We started Ted on homecooked food today. Some small square pieces of beef, some pasta, and a few carrots. The little guy ate that bowl clean. Like food was never put into it.


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