Anyone making their own dog food??

[mwilson]

Just curious if anyone else is making dog food as opposed to feeding the poor quality dog food available lately??

A friend of ours has done it for years, dogs always in good health.

We feed high quality dry food and had been supplementing it with good canned food. All of a sudden the canned food doubled in price and the quality obviously slipped.

Wife bought some chicken legs, rice, carrots and peas last night. Took her about a half hour to cook it off with a total expense of about $10.00. She figures that made a weeks worth.

 

[Regcabguy]

I use Costco's dry food supplemented with organic wet. Our dog thrives. Occasionally I'll buy some boneless thighs,boil them up and dice.
I do have a friend who supplements her dogs food with carrots,peas and brown rice.

 

[BSeyler]

I've always fed our dogs Purina Dog Chow. Purina puts a lot of time and money into research. Our veterinarian daughter also feeds that to her dogs and says it is a good choice. We are down to just one dog, so she's pretty cheap to feed. Will be watching this thread to see what others are doing.

 

[GrantP]

Sorry, but I read the subject line and thought you might be referring to my wife's cooking abilities.

 

[seafish]

MANY years ago my lab mix got a bone tumor in her front right ankle. Had to have the leg amputated. My vet at theme recommended putting her on a fresh food diet, one f the original designed by another vet. It was simply amazing how HEALTHY Daisy was, and how much vigor she had, after changing over to that diet, despite her having cancer and only 3 legs!!!

It DID take several hours once a week to cook for her...various whole and cracked grains, root and leafy vegetables, organ meats, dairy products, all with their own cooking times. I can't even remember what else went into the cooking pot, and then I still need to separate out portions to freeze them. Eventually I started to mix the fish food half and half with a quality kibble and that still seems to work well. Of course, no diet in the world could save her when it came her time about 2 years later. tat being said, if I had the time, I would do it again!!

FUNNY story about it... many times while at the supermarket checkout line, I would invariably get a a comment on healthy my diet was based on what the person saw in my cart.... I would simply laugh and say, "well, this is for my dog !!!"

 

[GCroyle]

Sorry, but I read the subject line and thought you might be referring to my wife's cooking abilities.

Yeah, I was a bit confused too. Sorry no more dogs but I did have leftover meatloaf last night, does that count?

 

[mwilson]

Sorry, but I read the subject line and thought you might be referring to my wife's cooking abilities.

My goodness, some of you guys live dangerously!!!

 

[GCroyle]

My goodness, some of you guys live dangerously!!!

Mike,

You referring to eating her cooking or the REMOTE chance she'll see this post!

Gary

 

[mwilson]

Mike,

You referring to eating her cooking or the REMOTE chance she'll see this post!

Gary

The latter....but after reflecting on it for a bit the former could be equally fraught with danger........especially if she reads the latter first.....

 

[GrantP]

The latter....but after reflecting on it for a bit the former could be equally fraught with danger........especially if she reads the latter.....

Ha, after 27 years of a happy marriage it's not going to matter. She's well aware of her kitchen limitations, she got it from her mother (now THAT might get me in trouble). Sorry to derail the thread Mike, I'll stop.

 

[mwilson]

Ha, after 27 years of a happy marriage it's not going to matter. She's well aware of her kitchen limitations, she got it from her mother (now THAT might get me in trouble). Sorry to derail the thread Mike, I'll stop.

No, don't feel that you are derailing anything...I enjoy the various directions that a thread can take...

Makes it like a conversation....

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

No, don't feel that you are derailing anything...I enjoy the various directions that a thread can take...

Makes it like a conversation....

And deflects the fact that Mike is exploiting immigrant labor on the ol' homestead!

 

[mwilson]

And deflects the fact that Mike is exploiting immigrant labor on the ol' homestead!

I'm sure that I violated some international law, treaty or even several of the Geneva Conventions......

 

[jhenderson]

We’ve been feeding our dogs a raw diet for over 10 years. They love it and have had few health problems. Right now we buy from an outfit that comes here from Md. once a month. Beef, chicken, turkey, duck, goat, rabbit, and tripe to name a few. We buy it ground, frozen, and packaged similarly to a loaf of Jimmy Dean sausage. It’s far more affordable than what the chain pet stores sell for raw food.

 

[mwilson]

We’ve been feeding our dogs a raw diet for over 10 years. They love it and have had few health problems. Right now we buy from an outfit that comes here from Md. once a month. Beef, chicken, turkey, duck, goat, rabbit, and tripe to name a few. We buy it ground, frozen, and packaged similarly to a loaf of Jimmy Dean sausage. It’s far more affordable than what the chain pet stores sell for raw food.

That's interesting!! I didn't realize that even existed....

 

[Ozymandias]

Google for BARF feeding.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding

 

[jhenderson]

You can break it down even further. We feed predominantly bone in for the calcium and marrow. Beef bones are to tough for almost any commercial food prep but all the others can be ground. It can be bought without bone. You can also buy organ meat ( heart, liver, kidney, etc) and tripe which is much richer and should be mixed with standard ground food. It’s becoming more and more available. There’s someone about 20 miles north of us that’s just started making small batches for sale after making it just for themselves for years. We do a little business with them just because their local and just starting out. I’d like to do more but I owe at least some loyalty to the outfit we’ve been buying from for years.
P.s. the cleanup after my 140lb Shiloh reduced by 50% after switching from commercial dog food to raw feeding. No filler means a lot less waste.

 

[jgillott]

I had the opportunity to be inside the former Mars Petcare plant here in Everson PA several times when they had small fires or industrial accidents. Let me tell you, the sites in that place make you seriously reconsider feeding commercial pet food.

Here is a link to the article when they got shut down back in 2008.

https://archive.triblive.com/news/everson-pet-food-factory-to-shut-down/

Now I'm not going to lie to you and say that we never feed commercial food to my GSD. However, more often than not, we are trying to make good food for him.

 

[BigPapa]

Well, I, too, had different thoughts on the title....

Just put a comma in the right place and you may read what I read.

Anyone making their own dog, food?

Oh, well. Made myself giggle a bit, Mike.

- Scott

 

[BIGNASTY]

Define "HIGH QUALITY" when I had my own truck as one of my back hauls to commiefornia was out of Flagstaff AZ. for Purina Pet foods. Waiting to get loaded I was talking with some drivers that supplied products to make chow. Meat Meal from around Phoenix ( Mesa I think) its the left overs from butcher shops, slaughter houses, ROAD KILL, dead chickens from egg ranches & other unthinkable sources where they grind it up and incinerate it into a dry powder. I went in to use the head and noticed the packaging line one product with two separate bags One Purina High Pro the other Stater Bros (a Local market chain in Calif) As a consumer you haven't got a clue to the quality of the product you buying because in shipping I went to get my BOL they had a bag on the wall of every product they produced for, it was amazing.