Does anyone have a recipe for homemade raw dog food?
By Sharon Rafferty from East Hampton, NY
Fairly often I will make this recipe for my cocker spaniels and they love it. Use a pound of ground meat & drain off all fatty liquid after frying. (I use deer sausage or left over meat) Add in large skillet and use a lid, two different kinds of vegetables a can of peas, greenbeans or carrots with minute rice. Add the juice from the peas and carrots to help steam the rice until done. The green bean juice is a little too salty. I just estimate the amount of rice to be used.
My dogs love it and my daughter fixed herself a bowl of it and when I told her I was making it for my dogs, we both laughed and then she said it tasted really good and she thought I was creating something different for our lunch.
Once meat, veggies and fruits are cooked with a heat above 110 degrees, all the benefits of the digestive enzymes in these items is killed by the heat.
I don't have a raw recipe to share with you. However you can get the benefits of raw meat by giving your dog a high grade kibble daily and adding 2 - 4 oz of any good raw meat you get from the grocery store. 2 oz for a small dog, 4 oz for a larger dog. The benefits of this is the digestive enzymes in the meat. Each day your dog will get thousands of these enzymes and they will build up in your dog over time.
High grade kibble should NOT have any grain in it. Grain is deadly for dogs and cats and it should contain a high amount of meat. Here are three good examples of good kibble brands:
www.petfooddirect.com/
www.petfooddirect.com/
www.petfooddirect.com/
By adding the small amounts of fresh uncooked meats to the above kinds of kibble, your dog gets the advantage of raw and a well balanced diet from the high grade kibble.
If you haven't been feeding your dog raw, it is best to introduce raw meat slowly into the diet. Using about a teaspoon daily to start and slowly ramp up to the amount you want to give. This can take a few weeks to a few months to get the dog acclimated to the raw meat.
Jim in Jax
You can try the raw variant of the chicken feet recipe that is available here: http://homemade-pet-food.blogspot...
You will find many interesting raw dog food recipes in that blog, just take a look.
I have been raw feeding our 2 dogs for over 5 years. All they eat is raw meat, not cooked, no veggies, grains, nothing. One dog ( 10 years old about 130lbs) developed severe grain allergies. Dogs are not omnivores, so they have no need for veggies. Since I've started raw meat (chicken, venison, pork, beef etc), neither dog has gone to the vet, no hot spots, no ear infections, shiny coats, excellent health!
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Have a 2 y/o K-9 raised German Shepherd who was raised on raw chicken legs and thighs. He will not eat kibble unless it is mixed with cut up raw chicken. He will go for days without eating if no raw chicken is added to his diet. Is this safe and healthy?
By Carol R.
Personally, I don't feel it's safe because of the high amt. of salmonella in almost ALL raw chicken. One of my dogs even got food poisoning from a roasted turkey leg because the vet said the marrow of the leg probably didn't reach proper temps to kill salmonella.
I would say it is safe to feed some raw chicken under certain circumstances. I have raw fed one of my cats for 10 years with no problem. What I do is get very fresh raw chicken (7 to 10 days from pull date and from a local source)
This has required me to get to know my local meat guys and have their cooperation because the stuff in the case is always too old. They are usually holding the fresh stuff until the older stuff sells. Ask for chicken with a better pull date and they will usually get it for you.
I wash my chicken only because it requires me to go over it carefully for anything that looks suspicious. I then dry it and cut it up and freeze it. I do this all on the same day I buy it. You can freeze chunks on a cookie sheet and bag them and take out as needed.
Cats, and dogs to some degree, have shorter digestive tracts than humans. They do not develop food poisoning like humans do. Which is not to say they cant get it, they can. But it requires a higher load of bacteria than for humans.
My cat has never gotten sick from his food, and salmonella is very common in raw chicken. Do not feed bones, especially cooked bones. Cooked bones may splinter and cause intestinal perforations that can be deadly.
Do any of you have any experiences or comments on the benefits of feeding dogs and cats a raw diet? I would love to hear all your comments, concerns, and experiences, either good or bad.
Regards.
By Robyn
I had my dogs on a raw diet for awhile. It is a big pain and lots of handling raw meat; but, I thought it was good for them. However, one of my pups got a very rare parasite from the raw meat that is incurable. Since he wasn't a puppy he will probably be ok but if he had been a puppy, this particular parasite is fatal in young dogs. Just do your homework and make sure that the meat you buy is high-quality and from an reputable grocery (I think the bad meat I gave them came from a ethnic, cheap market but I'll never know). Proceed with caution... and good luck!
My cat has a congenital disease that causes him to have seizures. The seizures appeared when he was about 18 months old There was nothing the Vet could do for the condition. I tried a raw food diet (chicken) and the seizures were reduced a great deal. I have continued to feed him this diet for 5 years now. He continues to have great checkups and blood work.
I used the recipe and advice from Dr. Lisa Pierson at www.catinfo.org. It is a lot of work. I am down at the market every Tuesday for my ingredients and then home for an hour or so with the meat grinder(which cost $200). I do not freeze the food which would make things much easier. I noticed the diet was less effective when frozen but I think that is just my case, which I think is unusual. Most folks can and do freeze.
Be prepared for a fishy stare from some Vets. I ran across one who just couldn't believe my cat was healthy even though she was holding his excellent blood work in her hand. Most Vets are great about it. I do use supplemental vitamins that I get from Only Natural Pets (online). My cat is gorgeous. I never saw fur shine like his does. If you have questions, feel free to ask. Best of luck.
