[gswahhab]

Hello All,

We have recently been switching from a kibble diet to a fresh cooked diet for our dogs. We started with half kibble and half fresh cooked recipe and are now going to be switching to all fresh cooked. They really love the fresh cooked food and i love seeing them so happy eating it.

He is what feed them:
Recipe 1
40% Ground Beef
30% Rice
30% Mixed Canned Vegetables

Recipe 2
40% Shredded chicken or ground chicken / turkey
30% Noodles
30% Mixed Canned Vegetables

My question is i want to make sure they are getting all the nutrients and minerals they need. Are my recipes providing this? Do i need to supplement them with anything? Any advise would be great.

 

[skelaki]

Check out the stickies at the top of the page. They will give you some advice and links to check out. Also get some books such as the ones by Dr. Pitcairn and Kymythy Schultz. One thing I would add to what you show so far would be some raw meaty bones.

 

[rosemaryninja]

Looks like a good human diet, but that's not necessarily a good dog one. Calcium, for example, seems to be missing.

Look through this website... it will help.
http://www.dogfoodproject.com

 

[gswahhab]

thanks for the site i am going to check it out.

 

[DobManiac]

I always tend to start with B-naturals and dog aware when I am researching any subject on dog health. And they both have some great info on cooked diets.

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/category/cooked-diet/

http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#Balance

That’s jut to get you started. But I would recommend doing extensive research before you switch completely to cooked. It’s very easy to mess up a cooked diet.

 

[Kathyy]

Ditto dogaware! Also check out the series of articles Ms Straus published in Whole Dog Journal, very good stuff.

I use the NRC levels [these are 20 years old, current ones are published in Optimal Nutrition by Monica Segal] http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309034965&page=44 and http://www.nutritiondata.com/ to be certain my dog is getting what she needs. I make up a recipe including anything I might use and put the value to .01 if not used this time. The nutrient search tool is handy to find that missing B6 or manganese.

More meat, some liver and some calcium for starters. Sassy gets 50% meat by weight daily and that is only because she is sick, otherwise she would get at least 75% meat. Feed what you have prepared and fiddle with the recipe a bit as you learn and it will work out fine. Dogs get over cooked rice and chicken when sick for weeks on end and are fine, nutrient reserves are a good thing! If you are concerned just use the good stuff as a kibble topper, replacing 25% of the kibble calories.

 

[gswahhab]

thanks for the advice everyone. i looked into innova evo and ended up finding a great pet store that carries some great kibble and keeps a great selection of frozen raw food. i ended up buying orgenics for now and i am going to look into more raw feeding for after this bag runs out. i am going to see how my boys like this kibble first

 

[zeusNzoe]

I am actually going to use Feed-Sentials and Sh-Emp essential oil and functional oil blend for my dogs. I did a lot of research on these the past few days and I think these are the best supplements for the Raw Diet.

 

[gswahhab]

interesting to hear. do the prepackaged frozen packages of raw food come with all the supplements and vegtables needed or are they typically just the meat?

on a side note i just figured out that by switching to the much healthier Origens kibble i actually am saving money as well.

I was using
Royal Canine ~10lb bag = $30 - serving size 1.5 cups cost per serving = $2.25 per serving
Origens ~30lb bag $60 - serving size 1 cup = $1 per serving

Thats a big savings

ps a serving is a days worth of food for each of my doxie

 

[zeusNzoe]

interesting to hear. do the prepackaged frozen packages of raw food come with all the supplements and vegtables needed or are they typically just the meat?

I'm not sure about everyone else but most of the prepackaged frozen meat I buy has veggies and some supplements. Not all but the patties and containers I get do. It does cost a bit more but it's well worth it.