Homemade dog food

[funsizeracing]

For some reason I was thinking someone on here said they made their own dog food at one time.  Anywho, I'm interested and was hoping they could chime in.

[vnvbandit]

Just leave your steak unattended on the coffee table and..........................................................   

[JBraun]

I feed my dog something called vital essentials. It's basically raw ground whole organs, tripe, bone marrow etc. All that stuff that contains good protein, but isn't tasty enough for us to eat. It's super expensive so I've considered making it myself. All of the materials would be available at a butcher shop for cheap if not free.
In the end I just buy it beacause I'm way too busy to justify the time and mess, but it could be done.

[HAWK]

Becca, be careful. A lot of people don't realize that while wolves don't eat veggies with their meat they do always eat the stomach of their prey and they get the vitamins and minerals they need from what the prey had eaten. A lot of people develop their own recipe for raw feeding and don't include all the vitamins, minerals and enzymes necessary for good nutrition. There are products you can find that will provide these missing bits to a good raw diet. I believe Alexa prepares Bronte's food herself, you might talk to her.

[spyderchick]

Yeah, Bronte's been on raw since about 4 months old. She's now 7 yrs old.

We give her 8 oz of raw beef (usually what's on sale), chuck or stew meat, (not ground) or raw chicken thighs skin and bones included. The bones clean their teeth, add calcium and make their jaws really strong. She gets about 2-3 oz of whole grains (kashi pilaf, brown rice or at times a whole wheat tortilla). Then we give her our left over cooked veg or fruit that we're eating, generally another 2-3 oz during the course of the day. With everything all together we end up spending about $40-45 per month on her food and vitamins, so it's cheaper than kibble.

For supplements we give her a multi vitamin, vitamin c, brewer's yeast and lecithin capsules.

She weighs about 75 pounds and while big for a female Samoyed, she's not overweight. The only health issue she's had was the glaucoma, but that was genetic. There are books out there that tell you how to prepare a bunch of recipes, but I keep it simple.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Edit: We also give her about a tablespoon or so of yogurt everyday.

[Expat2b]

In case you are interested and don't want to make your own:

http://wilddogfood.com/