Making your own dog food at home

I recommend buying or borrowing from the library some dog cookbooks, the three I love are Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way, The Three Dog Bakery cookbook by Mark Beckloff and Dan Dye. And Real Food For Dogs by Arden Moore (and there is a Real Food for Cats out there for cat lovers.)

I will post a few recipes now that my dogs (2 shih tzu's) love and are pretty easy. These recipes last the 2 dogs 4-5 days so Samson, the cutie, may get 3 days, and I would imagine for the entrees the recipes can be doubled.

From Real Food For Dogs:

Bark-Va-Lous Dish

0.5 lb. Ground Chicken (I sometimes use Ground Turkey too)
1.5 TBSP. vegetable oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 cups white rice (our one dog is rice intolerant, so I use the same amount orzo pasta)
1 cup peeled and sliced sweet potato (in order to make this softer I baked it in the microwave for 3 min. after peeling)
1 cup diced green beans (I use a small can)
1 carrot, diced

1. Brown the ground chicken in pan with 1 Tablespoon oil and the garlic. Drain.
2. Steam the rice (or cook pasta) per package directions.
3. Saute the sweet potato, green beans, and carrot with 1/2 Tbsp. oil.
4. Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly, serve when cooled.

Now from Cooking The Three Dog Bakery Way:

Little Eataly Meatballs (makes 24 muttballs):
2 cups quick rolled oats
2 large eggs
2 pounds ground chicken or turkey
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, using your hands. Scoop out a tablespoon or two of the mixture and roll it into a ball. Continue with the rest of the mixture.
3. Place the meatballs on an ungreased shallow baking pan. Bake for 40 minutes.
4. Cool to room temperature before serving.
Store in covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or wrap well and freeze for up to 2 months. (Thaw before serving.)

And for dog treats from Cooking The Three Dog Bakery way:

Pupovers (says they make 12, I got 18 out of this recipe):

6 large egg whites (I use Egg Beaters Egg whites, very easy!)
1 cup skim milk
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 cup All-purpose flour
Honey

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick vegetable spray.
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and oil until blended. Gently stir the milk/oil mixture into the egg whites. Fold in the flour until the batter is smooth.
3. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden.
4. Cool to room temperature. Drizzle lightly with honey and serve.
Store in airtight container for up to 3 days, or wrap well and freeze for up to 2 months. (Thaw before serving.)

Suggestion: (that my dogs LOVE!)
Fully cooked lean meat may be added (I dice up pre-cooked chicken pieces or strips). To do so, simply fill the muffin cups 1/3 full with batter, add a spoonful of chopped meat, then cover the meat with more batter. Bake as directed, store in airtight container in refrigerator.

And 2 more recipes I haven't tried yet, but plan to, especially since they are so easy, again, recipes may have to be adjusted for size of dogs.

Again from Real Food For Dogs by Arden Moore

Baby, Oh Baby:

3 small jars beef or chicken baby food
1/2 cup Cream of Wheat

1. In a glass bowl, mix the baby food and Cream of Wheat with a spoon.
2. Cover the bowl with a lid and place inside the microwave. Set it to high for 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Cool before spooning out.

Birthday Breakfast Bonanza

1 Tablespoon margarine
3 eggs
2 ham slices, diced
2 cheddar cheese slices

1. Heat the margarine in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the eggs and scramble until they are fluffy.
3. Add the ham and cheese slices and stir until they are well mixed.
4. Remove from the heat and cool before serving.

I can understand your fear at feeding your Samson a commercial food (he's a handsome doggers by the way ). I know you have to be super careful when making your own foods to ensure you are meeting all of the vitamin/mineral requirements, so if you go that route be sure to run any recipes by your vet. I have checked out some recipes online and some of them are downright dangerous, calling for raisins or onion which can kill a dog! So be really careful. I've switched my dog and all my cats to the Newman's Own Organics brand of hard and soft cat foods. It's U.S. ingredients of human quality, so no fear of the contaminated ingredients finding there way into them!! Also, the chickens they use are vegetable fed and free-run, so you are supporting a healthier industry if you buy their products.
it's not a bad price either, it's less expensive than the Hills Science Diet I used to buy.

YumSugar recently wrote about this! Read it here: http://yumsugar.com/205886

Thanks grl! I'm not sure I would ever feed my dog raisins or onions because he def. wouldn't eat them anyway, but thanks for the heads up! Tonight I made him a meal of chicken, white rice (I know that brown rice is better, but white was all I had), green beans and fried egg. It made enough to probably feed him through tomorrow, but i think after that, I might go with the Newman's Own idea, that might be much easier. Thanks for the compliment about my Sammie poo, he knows how handsome he is and gets anything he wants from me! Thanks for the advise grl!
Party, I'm going to check it out right now! Thanks for the link!
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"My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!"

Glad Samson got some homemade goodies!

I actually don't think the kind of rice matters for dogs as much as it does for people. I have not seen a recipe in any dog recipe book that called for anything other than white rice, and I know it can be good for dogs with "upset stomachs" as we used for our first dog, just not anymore that we have a rice intolerant one. But pets don't really benefit from what humans need all the time, they need basic vitamins/minerals that they break down, but not nearly what we need.

Also I am a fan of Newman's Own products, we use their treats. We use Innova Evo (Evo is the grain free variety) dry food,
and Merrick Wet food, Merrick also is human grade, holistic and organic.

Whatever brand you choose just please make sure it's AAFCO (Assoc. of American Feed Control Officials) approved, it will say so on the bag or can. They really care about pet food and making sure the highest quality and manufacturing methods are used.

And I'm assuming everyone knows to never switch up dog food cold turkey, as it can severely upset your pooch's insides. We start by giving the new food as treats for about a week, a week with 1/4 cup, then we're set, that seems to work best for our sensitive stomach dog.

One final tip is if your dog gets eye gunk and build-up around their eyes, to add some parsley to their food. Good for their breath and clearing away the eye junk!

Thanks so much for your advise, you are so knowledgeable about this!
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"My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!"

I've been looking into this as well, thanks for asking about it on here!! My problem is, my one dog is allergic to meat. A dog ... allergic to meat. =P So, I'm having serious issues finding things she's ok with.

Schaianne the book I suggested above Real Food For Dogs has an entire chapter on Vegetarian meals, as well as other recipes made with fish, or plenty of vegetables.

If you'd like me to send you a couple to try, I will do so.

I just did a quick search on vegetarian dog foods and came up with this list if that's any help to you.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=vegetarian_vegan

Sure, that would be great! Thanks!
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"Oh Hayden!"

Sorry, just noticed that comment was not directed at me! :ROFL: I would like for you to send them to me as well if you don't mind...
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"Oh Hayden!"