I believe dogs die of cancer because of what we feed them. They are like slaves…they have no choice in when or what they are allowed to eat. They eat what we give them…or go hungry. And we usually give them commercial dog food that is over-processed, un-pronounceable and mysterious ingredients..much of which is not real food and whatever “meat by-products” are come from old, diseased, unfit animals that cannot be used for human food.
My wife and I recently tried some fancy “farmers dog” type foods…and our dog was generally not interested and after the introductory-offer expired we couldn’t justify the cost anyway.
So we developed our own dog-food from real people-food, … it costs less than regular dry or canned dog-food…. and our dog loves it. It’s really not troublesome to do after-all.
Here’s the recipie:
A 10lb bag of chicken hind-quarters from the local grocery costs $6. This is the basis for our recipie. It meets FDA requirements for human consumption (it’s in the regular grocery meat section) and has no hormones or added “stuff” per FDA rules.
Put the entire contents in a large kettle, cover generously with water and bring to boil then simmer for two or three hours until the meat is ready to fall off the bone. (I use tongs to grab the drumstick bone at the end and while submerged in the broth…vigorously give it a “shake” and the bone slips right out of the meat and gets tossed into the garbage or buried for fertilizer in the garden.) Using a large strainer-scoop such as for when boiling crawfish, lift up the rest of the meat and use the tongs to pick out any other bones and toss them.
Cut up and dice 3 or 4 sweet potatoes (washed but skins On) and toss them into the simmering pot. Thirty minutes later Toss a 2lb bag of frozen mixed soup-vegetables (lima beans, English peas, carrots, etc) into the still simmering pot. Twenty more minutes throw in 2-3 cups of dry oatmeal (Quaker State style, simmer 5 mins) to absorb almost all the broth, leaving the entire contents “mushy” or slightly wet even.
Leave the pot to cool while covered overnight.
Next day, using a large soup-ladle…. Ladle 3 large scoops (big dog) of the food into quart zip-lok bags for the freezer. Keep one or two just for the refrigerator for the next day or so of servings. We bring two days servings out of the freezer and into the refrigerator to defrost ahead of time, and have found the dog prefers it either cool or room-temp…not so much warm.
Makes 10 days food (about 20 lbs food for a big dog…20-30 days smaller breeds). Cost around $12.
Our dog is a large white German shepherd type and she tells us when it’s 5PM and time to eat. She loves this food and never tires of it.
Our cost is less than previous genric-brands or Pedigree/Alpo/Good-Sam stuff and we know it’s better for her. It smells good enough to eat ourselves.
NO SALT or spices should be used.
OOOPS>>> I COMPLETELY FORGOT another ingredient: AFTER IT’S ALL COOKED AND while adding the oats…I stir-in two cans of canned-pumpkin….stirring to mix it in thoroughly . No need to cook further when adding the pumpkin and oats…the oats don’t really need cooking since they’re added when the pot is till hot and has overnight to cool down.
We have recently made a slight alteration when we accidentally allowed our deep-freeze to partially defrost (grandkids left the door a-jar after helping themselves to ice cream.) We had a frozen turkey left-over from last year when the grocery gave them away as post-Thanksgiving promotionals. It was a 15 lb bird and I cut the spine out of it, quartered it, and then used it in the above recipie instead of chicken.
Queenie Loves It!
She is active and her poop is normal so we know it has the right amount of fiber (the sweet potatoes and oats. Rice can be substituted for oats but our dog prefers the oats if vigorous eating means anything, and oats are better nutritionally anyway.)
Hope this finds favor with you as it did for us.