Home Cooked Meals for Dogs: All Natural, All Safe
A few factors can be attributed to the success of commercial pet food, namely- lack of time, laziness, the hassle of doing multiple things, and so on. Sadly, many dogs suffer from ailments stemming from commercial dog food.
Canine essentials
The most common mistake people make is to source Vitamin C from external sources for their dogs. Dog foods like Royal Canine often have it in the form of ascorbic acid. The proportions of Vitamin C are regulated so that they don’t harm a canine’s liver, which synthesizes Vitamin C itself. However, continuous intake of the vitamin can take its toll on a pet by weakening the entire digestive system, thus making them vulnerable to multiple gastrointestinal disorders. The key here is to know what makes for the right dosage of Vitamin C for your dog. Another thing to consider is whether a brand of dog food comprises Ethoxyquin, a pet food additive that claims to act as an antioxidant and preservative, but has been found to cause of disorders ranging from simple allergic reactions, skin problems and behavioral changes to major organ failure and cancer.
Striking the balance
Dogs usually have two square meals a day. However, three meals and a moderate exercise regimen rev up their metabolism. For high nutrition and palatability, boiled eggs and boiled green beans ground and mixed with chicken stock is a good choice. The bean ends contain riboflavin which fights skin problems, weight loss and oral infections. Other meals should contain steamed/boiled fruits and vegetable smoothies (except for onions, eggplants, and tomatoes; potatoes and broccoli should not be fed in large quantities) and boneless chunks of meat (50% muscle and 50% organ meat, including the skin), boiled with garlic, a little salt and turmeric. The stock is usually mixed with the smoothie to give it flavor. It also consists of minerals derived from the meat and vegetables. Curd is also important for canines since it contains both calcium and riboflavin and keeps the digestive system healthy. Feeding a dog vegetable and fruit (not citrus fruits) chunks is of no use. Their small intestine is shorter than ours and can’t break them down, resulting in increased stool volumes. Grinding them instead aids proper digestion and delivers the intended benefits. In case your pet refuses to have this, make a fruit/veggie paste and mix it in with the ‘stock smoothie’.
Homecooking for Your Dog
With so much current debate about dog foods and canine nutrition, some people have chosen to cook at home for their dogs. Others are intrigued by the idea of cooking for their pets but they’re afraid to take the plunge for fear that they won’t be able to provide their dogs with a nutritionally balanced diet. Is it really that hard to cook for your dog and meet his needs? Can you provide nutrition that’s as good as or better than what’s found in commercial dog foods?
Let’s start with the reasons why you might be interested in cooking for your dog. Commercial dog foods can vary tremendously in quality, even in foods coming from the same manufacturers. Many manufacturers produce a line of products that range from their high end products with better ingredients to their least expensive foods which can have unnamed sources of protein and fats. Even with the better quality foods, the ingredients can be sourced from many different places. Not all ingredients are from the United States. This isn’t a matter of patriotism. The United States generally has some of the highest standards in the world when it comes to food production and most ingredients have to pass through at least some cursory inspection by the Food and Drug Administration. Animals used in food production, such as cattle and sheep, are inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture. When ingredients are sourced from other countries there is a greater likelihood that they could have problems.
However, even for foods produced in the U.S., not everything can be inspected. The FDA is woefully understaffed. Inspectors with the FDA have been cut for budgetary reasons each year since 2001. And the USDA cannot inspect each slaughterhouse in the U.S. or each facility that manufactures pet food. At a congressional hearing concerning the pet food recalls in 2007, officials stated that they were satisfied if they could inspect pet food facilities once in a three to five year period.
All of this means that the pet food industry must largely be self-regulating. Virtually every major manufacturer of dog food has had a recall at some point, often affecting thousands of dog owners. The reasons for recalls have included aflatoxins, mold, melamine, e. coli, salmonella and other problems.
In addition, many people question the quality of ingredients used in some commercial dog foods. There are claims that some of the poorer quality foods rely on the 4Ds to make their food: dead, dying, diseased and downed animals. These animals would include pets euthanized by vets and animal shelters, diseased farm animals, and generally other unhealthy food sources. The pet food industry sharply denies these claims. And, to be fair, it seems unlikely that some of these sources would be used in making pet food for the simple fact that, if true, they would be devastating for sales. They may have been true at one time but they are probably not true today, despite the claims of pet food critics.
That doesn’t mean that all pet food is made from healthy ingredients or good quality sources of protein. It isn’t. “Animal by-products” and “animal fat,” for instance are probably not something that you want to feed your dog since they can include some very unsavory parts of unknown animals. For all of these reasons, many people have decided that cooking at home for their dogs is a much healthier course of action. You will be personally choosing each element of your dog’s diet rather than relying on a manufacturer. You will be cooking for your dog at home instead of depending on the industrial cooking process, which usually cooks foods at such high temperatures that all of the vitamins and minerals are destroyed and have to be added back in. But is it really feasible to cook for your dog?
Practitioners of homecooking point to the fact that you cook for yourself and your family all the time and you’re able to meet all of your nutritional needs quite well. You don’t have to be a nutritionist to prepare properly balanced meals. Variety is the key. If you prepare a variety of meals for your dog, consisting of different meats and organs, and make sure that he gets the proper vitamins and minerals in his diet, then your dog should thrive on a homecooked diet. Homecooking for your dog doesn’t have to be more expensive than buying dog food either. If you are feeding one or two dogs then you can easily purchase poultry and meats in your grocery store counter and spend less than you spend on a quality dog food. You can add some vegetables and a good nutritional blend of vitamins and minerals, along with some fish oil or salmon oil, probiotics (beneficial bacteria for your dog’s intestines), and digestive enzymes.
If you are homecooking for several dogs you may want to talk to friends about bulk ordering. You will probably need a separate freezer. It helps to buy meat in large quantities in order to save money.
When you cook for your dog you should avoid giving him any cooked bones since they will be much more likely to splinter than any raw bones you might give him. This means that your dog will be missing out on a natural source of calcium in his diet. To make up for the calcium he’s missing you should add 900 mg of calcium per pound of food served, or 1/2 teaspoon of ground eggshell. Organ meat, such as liver or kidney, needs to make up about 10 percent of your dog’s cooked diet. Organ meat is very rich but it is very high in the nutrients that your dog needs.
Animal protein sources should make up between 50 and 75 percent of your dog’s diet. This can include not just meat but also dairy products such as eggs, yogurt and cottage cheese. These products are highly digestible for your dog. For the rest of your dog’s food you can include vegetables. You should remember that you need to make the veggies into a mush or puree for your dog. Otherwise he won’t be able to digest them since veggies aren’t really a natural part of a dog’s diet. Plan on feeding your dog two to three percent of his body weight per day. This means that a 100 pound dog needs to eat two to three pounds of homecooked food per day. You can divide the food into two servings. A fifty pound dog would need one to 1 1/2 pounds of food per day.
Your dog does need plenty of variety in his diet to make sure he’s getting all of his nutrients. Plan on feeding your dog various meats, organs, dairy products and veggies. It’s often easiest to cook a big batch of food to last for 2-3 days and then rotate to a different combination. If you like, you can make food in greater quantities and freeze them in small portions. Most dogs will let you know their particular preferences but don’t fall into the trap of only feeding them one or two different things. They do need plenty of variety for homecooking to be a success. Don’t forget fish as a source of protein. It’s one of the very best protein sources for your dog since your dog can digest about 92 percent of the protein in fish. If your dog has allergies to some of the more common protein sources he may do very well with fish as a protein source. Cooking for your dog doesn’t have to be difficult but it does take some thought and some work. Most dogs love homecooked meals and are very happy to clean their bowls.
