Home Cooking/ Raw food

[diggydog]

After a recent discussion on interdigiat cysts it came to my attention that maybe Alfie has some food issues. I am now looking into either home cooking for him or taking an easier option and just buying a raw food prepared diet for him.
There is a really good supplier http://www.darlingsrealdogfood.com that I really like and deliver in scotland.
I know that a lot of people home cook for their dogs but to be honest the concept of it really scares me. I dont know where to start with what I need to feed, how much of it and I think I have read threads on people adding vitamins and different things suppliment a home cooked diet.

So for all you home cooking people any help or advice you can give me on this is much appreciated!

[eyelostit]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

Hi there,

Home cooking is not as bad as it sounds, I haven't reviewed your thread, after about 1 1/2 yrs with no success with Niki's bg and using just the dry and canned special diets it just was not working with Niki.

I use 1/2 c of Orijen blue bag, 2/3 C chopped green beans and ground turkey. She gets her vitamins & minerals with the dry food, I really think this has helped Niki over the years, I've never had any problems with her eating or any digestive issues.

I buy the frozen green beans let them thaw slightly then put them in the food processor just for a lil bit to break them up, I do 2 bags at a time and freeze 1/2 of it, I buy the 1lb tubes of turkey and cook 2 of them and freeze the other, its really not that time consuming, I don't cook the vegetables as water content makes it less food.

You may want to give it a try, do it on a day you will be home, the bg should come down some.

Dolly

[AlisonandMia]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

Hi Allison,

You may find that your vet has the screaming habdabs re feeding raw. While some vets favor raw (my vet sells it), some are totally horrified by the idea - particularly with a dog who could be immune-compromised, such as a diabetic. However, it is possible to cook (in a fat free way) the commercial raw food and so have all or most of the benefits of the diet without the risks - whatever those may or may not be.

You may also find that with a diabetic, the raw food as you buy it doesn't contain enough carbohydrate to counter the insulin so you may have to add in some sort of carbohydrate and maybe also some sort of fiber supplement to slow the carbohydrate down - depending on what sort of carb you use and how Alfie's happens to body handles it.

I think if my dog became diabetic (heaven forbid!) I'd first try feeding pretty much what he gets now - which is mainly commercial raw and some cooked sweet potato (the orange sort - don't know if you can get that but it's a very good carb) and psyllium (for fiber). (Because he's a completely healthy youngish dog, I also add a few other bits and pieces and basically play pretty fast and loose with his diet (half a banana here, some lean meat scraps there, maybe a boiled egg etc.) which is obviously something you couldn't do with a diabetic.)

Alison

[CarolW]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

My vet is one of those who gets the heebie-jeebies about feeding raw - because of the salmonella hazard. Some things about raw food, we might have some control over, but unless we have absolutely reliable sources, from right close by, well, for me, I won't do it.

But also, I don't myself think feeding raw is so crucial; I think we can provide excellent nutrition with cooked food.

There's a Yahoo group called k9kitchen. Owner is Monica Segal; the group covers all kinds of diets, including raw, and Monica Segal is well-thought of rather widely, so you might want to join that group so you can read there.

P.S. I'm so happy to read Alfie is doing better, even if he has some ups and downs (any pun intended).

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 11:42:27 (PDT)

[eileen]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

My vet is another that makes that odd frown while shaking his head as he says that he is really not all that supportive of feeding raw for the same reasons as Carol stated.

I home cook for Mildred which is not at all difficult.

I cook up an entire batch of food once a month and freeze in individual baggies, one for each meal that is easily warmed in the microwave before feeding.

[diggydog]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

Eileen if you dont mind and have some time I am really interested in finding out what you feed Mildred and how you go about it

I dont hold strong views on home cooking or raw food in particular but I cant help but feeling Alfie's food is just not right and he has been on 3different kinds of food since he became diabetic and so far nothing seems to work very well for him!

[eileen]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

Eileen if you dont mind and have some time I am really interested in finding out what you feed Mildred and how you go about it

I dont hold strong views on home cooking or raw food in particular but I cant help but feeling Alfie's food is just not right and he has been on 3different kinds of food since he became diabetic and so far nothing seems to work very well for him!

Because I don't know any other way to do this I have copy and pasted what I wrote to Harry for Fergy awhile back when he asked the same question as you.......(it is post #70 under Fergy's thread, you may want to go there and read as there is some other info before and after this that you might find helpful)

Harry,

I'll detail to you what I do for Mildred as I have home cooked for her for several years...maybe some of what I say will be helpful to you.

Because I want Mildred's meals to be very consistent from one to the next as I believe this is very important.

I boil boneless, skinless chicken breasts, drain and puree into a bowl and set aside.
I have also cooked barley which is in another bowl.

I use a scale to weigh out 4oz of chicken breast, dump this into another bowl. I then weigh out 4oz of barley and also put that into the bowl with the weighed chicken. Lastly I weigh 2oz of canned pure pumpkin which I mix thoroughly with the chicken and barley. I then bag this and repeat the steps until all chicken, barley and pumpkin has been carefully weighed, mixed and individually bagged, each bag representing a meal. I put into the fridge a day's worth of bagged meals, freeze the rest taking out one bag from the freezer everytime I use one from the fridge.

The above porportions are figured based on the number of calories that Mildred needs to sustain her current healthy weight.

Cooking everything separately and then combining makes each and every meal exactly the same which works much better with the insulin.
Maybe some of the problems you are seeing with Fergy's numbers are because his meals are not the same from one to the next, with more chicken in one to more of the veggies in the next?

I see no reason for you to add the 'pupperoni' sticks to his concoction...he will not know they are there and you will be adding unneeded 'junk' food.
Keep in mind that a dog has far less taste buds than we as humans have so can not distinguish half of what we sometimes think they need ;-)

In order that Fergy gets all of his needed vitamins it is important that they are supplemented when one goes the home cooked route.

I add a tsp of plain lowfat yogurt to each of Mil's meals after it has been heated in the microwave. In her evening meal I add fish oil, a multivitamin, milk thistle, vit -E and vet prescribed, Epakitin (calcium carbonate as one of the ingredients).

****since writing this to Harry I have added 2oz of squash to each meal. I freshly cook 1 squash every morning and add that to her already prepared food.

Hope this helps!

[diggydog]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

Thank you very much Eileen - I think I may have to put my food changes on hold for a while given the disaster of Alfie's curve but I am going to save your post so I can revisit it when Alfie is a bit more settled!

[AlisonandMia]

Re: Home Cooking/ Raw food

Just to hi-jack this thread a little bit (sorry) - it is odd that raw is presented as a source of salmonella and other nasty bugs (which could well be true - all raw meat needs careful handling, particularly chicken), when we keep seeing recall after recall of various dry foods because of salmonella contamination being detected. I have birds and bird owners have long been cautioned against allowing birds (parrots) to eat dry dog food and similar things because of the bacteria it can be expected to contain - parrots seem to have about the same ability to deal with bad bacteria as a one year old baby, so they are pretty vulnerable.

I feed my dog raw - BUT if I had young children or an immune-compromised household member I think I'd be cooking it, just to be on the safe side. And, under the same circumstances, if I was using a conventional commercial dog food I'd be using canned over dried for the same reason.

Alison