Dog Food - does anyone make their own?

[newmomnewjersey]

The thread below about sick pets got me thinking. Years ago I was talking to a groomer about my Cocker Spaniel's dry skin. She agreed that most commercial dog food is crap, and she swore by the following diet for all her dogs for 20+ years: chicken, rice, carrots, a couple of scrambled eggs, scoop of plain yogurt. She would make huge Tupperware containers of this mixture on the weekends and freeze it in small batches - they got 1 cup per meal along with a multivitamin. Does anyone else do anything similar? I'm going to look around online tonight and see what I can find out. I'm wondering if it may even be MM if you buy the rice in bulk, chicken and frozen veggies on sale, etc. I don't have a ton of extra time on weekends to be cooking for the dog, but if you boil the chicken it shouldn't take too long.

I read a little about the raw food diet when I adopted my most recent dogs, but it seemed a little overwhelming to manage. I know it's supposed to be wonderful for them but the idea of frozen chicken hearts as "treats" was a little much for me. lol

[hamster]

We ultimately decided on a high quality kibble,and supplement with raw snacks, vitamins and now a probiotic. He gets decent nutrition without the hassle.

[Deleted]

Only when she has a GI issue and needs an easy to digest/bland diet. She gets good quality kibble with a scoop of pumpkin and a plain frozen yogurt kong daily.

[dexteroni]

I cooked for Dexter for close to two years when he was old and wouldn't eat dog food anymore. I varied what I made from week to week, but I used all the foods you listed, plus green beans, sweet potatoes, apples, sometimes beef or lamb, and probably some others I'm forgetting. It worked out well, and I was glad to be able to find foods that he would eat, but it was time-consuming, and I wouldn't do it voluntarily for healthy, young dogs. I think the "all dog food is crap" sentiment is a bit misguided; many dogs live long, happy, healthy lives eating commercial dog food.

If you're interested in raw but are skeeved out by having raw animal parts on your kitchen floor (I was, plus I was concerned about health/parasites), there's dehydrated raw and frozen raw. Either of those will be a little more convenient than cooking (although you still have to plan ahead to mix it or thaw it), and I imagine are higher quality than kibble. We fed Dexter Sojos dehydrated and Instinct frozen for a while after he stopped eating kibble but before he would only eat people food, and he liked both.

[cajunmom]

Raw feeding is easy but can be expensive. When we fed our dog raw, we fed him exclusively meat and organs. No veggies or anything else. Dogs are carnivores, they don't need veggies or grains.

I couldn't keep up with the raw after we got our second dog, so now they just get raw meat as a treat. We are getting half a hog in a month or so and we're getting the organ meat from it and dividing it up for treats.

[rubytue]

We do a hybrid. Chicken and sweet potatoes cooked in big batches. One cup of that mixed with high quality kibble and probiotics. We also add fish oil during the winter for her coat. Also glucosamine.

We've tried other veggies, but she is picky. No carrots, nothing green. If there are green beans or peas, she will literally lick them off and spit them out on the floor. Carrots if she notices. She also hates peanut butter and will not sweep our floors. Weird dog.