# homemade(cooked) food advice



## AngelsMommy (Nov 3, 2012)

You need to find out your baby's caloric needs are to find out how much to feed. That is always a good place to start. I would make sure that you are getting enough calcium and phosphorus in balance too. As it is critical for health. I googled a huge amount to find out about the prey model that I use, but it is raw, not cooked. I know that there are good places to get recipes for homecooked, but right off of the top of my head I am not sure where I have stuck the ones I found.  I will check and see what I can turn up for you. But I know there are others on here who are cooking their baby's food and maybe they will chip in too. Good luck.


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## Dawnsohma (Jan 24, 2013)

well as far as the poodle goes the more she eats the happier i am its a struggle to keep her gaining weight no matter what ive fed her she is very picky. she actually weighed less then my chihuahua when i went to the vet last (5 pound poodle) (6 pound chi). they currently both weight 7 pounds but id like to get her closer to 10 since she is a mini. with the chihuahua lol he would eat anything and everything if he starts getting on the chunky side i just cut back a little on the food. ive been reading alot lately when i decided i wanted to do this. the book the whole pet diet which i based this stew on was saying you could grind egg shells for the calcium i was thinking of trying that. i know there has got to be some people on here that cook for there babies too who can give me some advice as well tho! i thought about doing store bought raw but i decided that wasn't something i wanted to do.


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## AngelsMommy (Nov 3, 2012)

I totally understand where you are coming from! I was in the same boat when I first got my Angel. She was on the worst food for her! She was soooo skinny. I bought the food I was told that she was on and she just didn't eat! 

So I started experimenting and found that she was very scent oriented. If it smelled odd to her, she would not touch it. Even small things, like she hates the smell of plastic, and will not eat or drink from steel bowls. She will do glass or ceramic but that's it. 

If you are interested in adding raw to her diet, I make up Satin balls from raw and other food, that is what I use to put weight on Angel. She loves them! But they are raw meat based. But is is a great way to add raw. I use it to hide Angels organ meat as she doesn't care for the taste alone, but will eat it seared or in satin balls. So satin balls it is.  

Is is also a place to add the ground egg shells which work quite well. Before I got Angel used to chicken, we added the shells to other foods to add the calcium and phosphorus she needed. Here is a link to the Satin Ball recipe: Holistic Dog - Satinballs Satin Balls
I also add coconut oil to the recipe and flaxseed as opposed to wheatgerm. 

The website that I got the satin ball recipe from has good info on what foods not to feed too. 

This: Founders Veterinary Clinic - Home cooking and home made dog food for your dog is a great site for ideas on a 20 lb dog, so you can kind of figure the difference maybe.  Hope this helps.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I feed a combination of raw and cooked - the meat I cook comes with 10% ground bone, but if you are not feeding bone you really do need add a calcium source. The calcium/phosphorus balance is the essential thing to get right.

I cook up various minced meats (chicken, turkey, rabbit, duck, beef) with some offal (about 10-15% of heart, kidney, etc) and 5 - 10% of vegetables (either a frozen mix, or a little of whatever is in the fridge, usually including something orange like carrot or sweet potato and a green leafy veg like spinach - although too much spinach has dire results), and freeze it into meal size portions. I mix minced salmon with cooked rice and bake rice balls, as that is the only way Sophy likes it! Salmon balls once a week or so covers the fish oil requirement. Liver they get as liver cake treats, as too much gives them diarrhoea. Probiotics are taken care of by regular meals of raw green tripe. Occasionally they get a meal of eggs, or a can of sardines. I don't worry too much about supplements - I checked the nutritional value of what they eat, and all the important vitamins and minerals are well covered, and I think there may be more danger from over supplementing than under. Pippin gets a JointAid tablet for his arthritis, and any other animals around tend to get one too, because they like them! They get seaweed in their PlaqueOff, so I don't add more to their food.

Two very useful sites for information, advice and reassurance are DogAware, for excellent, well researched advice on diet: DogAware.com: Diet & Health Info for Man's Best Friend and the USDA National Nutrient Database for information on the nutritional value of specific foods: NDL/FNIC Food Composition Database Home Page

I started by setting up a spreadsheet, analysing foodstuffs, calculating calorific values, working out recipes to the quarter ounce ... and once I got going just cooked for them as I do for myself, eyeballing quantities, chucking in anything that looked good, and aiming for a reasonable balance over a few days! If they get a bit plump, I increase the proportion of veg, cut back on treats, and walk an extra mile each day. If they feel a bit skinny, they get a bit more meat.


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