# Questions about cooking food for your dog



## Rails (Aug 24, 2010)

Hey Everyone... I just recently found this forum & I'm hoping maybe someone out there might be able to give me some advice & answer some questions I have about cooking food for my dog Josie

I adopted my dog Josie 6 years ago. She's a pit / sharpei mix who's currently 8 years old. About 3 years ago she started to get allergies. After years of being unsuccessful with 2 different vets I recently brought her to see a dermatologist when things flared up really bad. It's hard to believe but less than a month into treatment & she's almost 100% back to normal.  

Just before I went to see the dermatologist I noticed her eating slowed down. I wasn't too worried at first because Josie always seemed to self regulate her eating. Sometimes she would eat everything. sometimes a little, sometimes nothing. This was normal & her weight was never an issue. I became a little concerned when I started giving her the meds & noticed she still wasn't eating. She also showed a little weight loss, nothing major but she was down a couple lbs. I spoke to the dermatologist & she doesn't believe the allergies are food related so I decided to try making food for her to see if I could get her to eat. It seems to be working & she's now eating the entire bowl every time I feed her. 

I started off making her boiled skinless chicken breasts (no seasoning) & brown rice. I use boil in bag rice & add no sodium beef broth to the water it's boiled in for taste. I did some research to find out what vegetables, fruits, vitamins, etc I should be adding to the meal. I started to add boiled pureed carrots to the mix as well as some salmon oil. A week or so ago I went out & purchased a couple different Gerber organic baby foods so I could try some vegetables & fruits with Josie's food to see what she likes. I picked up green bean, sweet potato & a blend of banana, strawberry & apple. I mixed equal parts of all those with the carrot puree & I'm adding 3 heaping tablespoons of that mixture to her food. I was also thinking of adding yogurt (with at least 7 live cultures I think I read on here) to that mix. I just started to add 1 hardboiled egg with eggshell per week to her food. I'm also doing some research into adding a multi vitamin to the mix. 

Here's where I finally get to all my questions....

- Should I be baking the chicken instead of boiling it?

- How much of my baby food vegetable & fruit mixture should be adding to the mix? I currently add 2-3 heaping tablespoons. 

- Should I not be adding the fruit in every time?

- Am I wasting my time with baby food or cooking vegetables & should I just start pureeing raw vegetables instead? If I do go that route any recommendations on how much I should be adding to the food?

- Should I include yogurt in all of Josie's meals. If so is 1 tablespoon enough or too much?

- Should I be adding more than 1 hardboiled egg per week to her diet?


I'd love to hear what you folks have to say. If you have any suggestions or ideas you want to share I'm all ears. Now that I'm making dog food I just want to be sure Josie is getting what she needs. 

Thanks!!!

Mike


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## DueceAddicTed (Sep 28, 2009)

Hello Mike,

Sorry I can't help you much on cooked foods only because I'm a raw food feeder.
Our more knowledgeable member on nutrition in various forms of feeding is a bit busy with a few things at this time and I'm sure once she settles she will be back.

As far as meats if I'm correct she prefers them blanched hopefully I got that right.
I add vegies to my guys raw meals a few times a week raw and pureed into the mix.

You can go to the search box above in the tool bar and type in geisthexe this is Deb's member name and it should pull up threads she created. Or go to her page and click on the statistics box and look for threads she created. Hope this helps.

Ps: have you read any books on home made meals? i would recommend you do and not just get info off the net. One book I can recommend that was given to me by one of my vets even tho I chose to go the raw way. The name of the book is:
Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats. 

If I find anything else I'll post ... sorry I'm not able to give you more on this ...


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## Rails (Aug 24, 2010)

Hey DueceAddicTed,

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the recommendation on the book. I'll definitely check it out...

Thanks as well on the heads about about Deb. I'll search her posts & see if I can find some answers to my questions. Hopefully she'll read this at some point because it sounds like she can point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

Mike


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## Rails (Aug 24, 2010)

I updated my initial post a little after doing some more research & reading Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats. (thanks again DueceAddicTed for the recommendation)

I took one of the recipes in the book & changed it slightly. I'd love to hear feedback if anyone has any.

- 2 1/4 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 cup (1/2 lb lean meat)
- 1 cup cooked kidney beans

This yields approximately 4 1/2 cups. The serving size says I should be giving Josie 6 to 7 cups of this mixture.

To each meal I will also be adding the following:

- 1 1/2 tsp of Solid Gold Steamed Bone Meal

- 1 to 2 tsp of Pet Kelp (Antioxidant Formula)

- 1 1/2 scoops of Nupro All Natural Dog Supplement

- 1 tablespoon of Cascade Fresh Fat Free Yogurt (with 8 live cultures)

- 1 1000mg Natures Bounty Cold Water Salmon Oil Softgel Pill

I'm also still currently adding 2 tablespoons of the Gerber baby food fruit & veggie mixture I described in my first post until I figure out the best way to include veggies & fruits in her diet

The recipe calls for adding 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil for added fat. I'm still doing some research into if should be adding that or another type of oil (olive or canola?)

It also says you can add an egg for additional protein. I'm thinking of adding a hardboiled egg maybe 2 or 3 times a week. I'm assuming I should now add it without the shell since I'm adding the bone meal for calcium.

As far as proteins go from what I'm reading it sounds like it's not a bad idea to rotate them from time to time. With that in mind I picked up some organic ground turkey & some bison that I'm going to try out.


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## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

If I were you I would not use baby food I would buy the real veggies in the store and either puree them raw or slightly cook them and puree them. I never feed my son baby food to much garbage in there imo. Also I would use chicken wings raw as they have the best calcium/phospherous ratio.

I like Dr. Pitcain's book. I used it all the time when cooking for Chalice.


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## Rails (Aug 24, 2010)

Thanks for the heads on on baby food. I didn't realize there may be stuff in there I should be concerned about. I was mainly using them as a way to see what veggies Josie likes before I purchase the real thing which I do plan on doing very soon.

I've checked out RAW diets & it's something I may try in the future. For now I'm thinking maybe partially cooked or blanched for the meats & blanched or raw & pureed for the veggies. I figure if I do decide to go RAW in the future I can lessen the cooking time on the meats over a period of time to make the adjustment.


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## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

I can see cooking the veggies but I really would consider feeding her the meat raw. You loose alot of important stuff when you cook the meat plus she isn't getting the bone when you cook if you were to feed raw meat she could have the bone then you would not have to supplement with bone meal.


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## johnupwork9 (6 mo ago)

can the best cupcakes in Sydney. be best for my dog or not. my dog wants everyday cake. this is best for it or not.
Thank You


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