Homemade Dog Food

In the spirit of trying to provide our dogs with food these days that is healthy and without fillers and additives, try this meatless recipe for dog food. Making our own dog food seems to be one way to ensure what our dogs are ingesting and knowing that they are not being subjected to poor quality dog foodsor harmful chemicals. The added food dyes alone are staggering and you have to wonder why they are putting them in.

My son, Jonathan has made this recipe many times for his lab breeds and forwarded it on to me although I am unsure of the source for it. Vote on whether it was a hit with your dog or not.

Photo: Audrey Kirchner

Kibble Recipe – Makes 20 cups

INGREDIENTS

Make in small quantities to keep fresh

2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup soy flour (found at Walmart or some grocery stores in health food section)
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup nonfat dry powdered milk
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brewers yeast
1 tablespoon salt
1 large egg
5 tablespoons corn oil or other oil
3 cups water

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In large mixing bowl, combine the egg and the oil.
Stir water into the dry ingredients.
Then stir in egg mixture and mix all of this well. This will be a thin batter.
Divide the batter between lipped baking sheets spreading evenly about 1/2-inch thick to about pizza thickness.
Bake 45 minutes.
Cool the kibble.
Break into small pieces.
Store in covered container in refrigerator or divide into individual servings. You can place in freezer bags and freeze.

What A Dog Needs

According to the articles I have read on dog foods, a good quality dog food should contain the following for dogs at different stages:

PUPPY

28% protein
17% fat

ADULT DOG

18% protein
9-15% fat

PERFORMANCE DOG

25% protein
20% fat

RACING/SLEDDING DOG

35% protein
50% fat

LACTATING/NURSING DOG

28% protein
17% fat.

However, remember that as in so many things in life, quantity is not as important as quality. The source of the protein is extremely important. They claim that 32% of poor quality protein found in dog foods could end up giving your dog too little protein, which seems a contradiction but that means that pet food companies can get away with adding low-quality protein products such as meat and bone meal by-products and corn gluten meal.  This will increase the percentage of protein (crude) that shows up on the label without making a decent food. Low quality proteins are hard to digest and therefore go right through the dog without being absorbed properly.  You may be paying for a dog food that your dog cannot metabolize

I have a large breed puppy – a malamute – and frankly have found Eukaneuba, Purina, Iams and the like lacking in the diet my puppy needs to build a strong body while claiming that they are perfect for large breed dogs. I had my now 7 or 8 year old malamute on Eukaneuba and found that she was not doing well on it at all. My malamute with Addison’s disease could not tolerate these so-called high quality dog foods and we ended up switching him to a diet of venison and potato and adding in such things as brown rice, beef or chicken homemade foods and broths.

Making your own dog food is not for everyone and it is not the ONLY way to feed any dog at any stage in life. However, do your homework and if you do feed your dog a commercial dog food, make sure that it is a high quality dog food and that you are not throwing your money (and your dog’s health) away on the wrong diet.

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