Home cooking for pooch?

Well, we always cooked chicken ir minced beef or fish for our dog. The we watched Trust me im a vet who said that home cooking is fine but you are almost certsinly misding out on some minerals/vitamins.
So now we are buying a high quality dog food which he loves.

Saying that the programme said that price does not equal quality and you should feed tbem a complete variety.

You pays your money and takes your choice!!!!

My Mum used to have a Shitzu called Theo. He was a very fussy little chap and wouldn't eat dog food. Mum used to buy him fresh chicken every week, don't know how many, and boil them up for him. Sans bones of course. He literally lived on chicken and a little Winalot. Healthy little soul. There weren't the ranges of canine vitamins around then but I suppose if your dogs like the food you give them and they get all the required vitamins that should be ok.

Oh! Alima/Whitewave,

Thank you so much for your replies!

Yes, my main concern is while they may think it's tasty, I worry I wouldn't know the right amounts of what to give them and then could ultimately miss out on some important nutrients that are very important.

I also saw that Trust Me I'm a Vet show too. It put me off the idea of feeding them raw stuff (I have looked at a few raw diet things for them, but none of it looks too appealing!).

I will look into doggy multivits, perhaps if I can find a powder I could mix it through....hmm....

Thank you again!

My granny used to boil up nameless disgusting substances for her dog
My xmil used to go to the abbatoir and buy a bucket of tripe to boil ?

We used to have meat delivered for one of our dogs years ago - it looked like ordinary meat but was apparently 'unfit for human consumption'. He seemed to thrive on that and Bonios. It probably wouldn't be allowed now (H&S and all that).

DD's dogs have meat and occasionally she gives them pasta with tuna. They have vitamins too.
My friend cooks chicken for her shitzu.

All seem perfectly healthy.

ps we used to give our dogs cod liver oil too.

My mum used to cook up a stinky mixture called 'liver and lights'- some kind of offal. The dog thrived on it. She also pressure cooked a large marrow bone which she gave to the dog and made soup for us from the stock. And no, she didn't serve up the liver and lights for our tea!

Thanks for all the replies!

Yes, I'm afraid I would have to draw the line at boiling up bits of guts from the abattoir I bet it would stink the house out to high heaven. Doing a big marrow bone might work though!

I wonder, maybe the best option would be if I could find the kind of fresh food I want to make but that I could buy in, that way it would take the mystery out of getting the balance right and I wouldn't have to worry.

I might do some searching about online and see what I come up with. Please keep sending your ideas though, they've given me plenty good ideas....

L x

I buy a whole chicken ,my husband only eats the breast so the rest is cut up and fed to our kitten over the course of the week... along with a dry food he's a very odd wee cat,he doesn't eat anything with fish in it..though I do try him with different makes sometimes it simpler to give him the chicken .Never did it for our last cat who died 30 years ago and she lived to be 13 and was healthy until cancer struck 6 weeks before she died

Raw food is best, but failing that, home cooked food is better than commercial pet foods which contain all sorts of rubbish. I wouldn't worry about vitamins and minerals as I think a healthy mix of meat and veg plus scraps is far more balanced than the stuff we're encouraged to buy based on propaganda from the very lucrative pet food industry.

Nor would I take advice on feeding pets from a vet; that is not their field of expertise and they are pressurised by pet food companies to promote and sell their stuff. Many of these have very dubious ethical credentials, testing their products on laboratory animals in very cruel ways and killing them when they've finished. If you look into it the industry is totally corrupt.

My breeder friend used to feed her dogs on sheep's heads (cooked). Seems like an excellent idea to me, uses up waste bits so that no extra animals have to die just for pet food. I'm not sure you can still get them though. The same person fed her cat on lights (which I believe are lungs) and that, supplemented by locally caught (by the cat) wildlife seemed to provided everything the cat needed.

We regularly bought sheep's heads for our labrador and doberman,they loved it! It did pong though! ?

It was the eyes that used to get me Lona! Staring at me from the pan

My dog polished off beef ragu that we've had for lunch with spaghetti. We had spaghetti Bolognese and she had the mince with Pedigree mixer. She is really picky at the moment and turns her nose up at food she used to love. She'll be 18 next month so I don't mind cooking for her.

You could always take them out for a meal in a restaurant see paddyann for a recommendation!!
Or her thread "Dogs welcome"!

dont think my cat would be welcome ....he's still at the climbing the curtains stage ...lol

Apparently dogs shouldn't have tomatoes but no-one told our terrier as he loved spaghetti bolognaise.

He also loved raw vegetables, especially carrot and swede and would sit by the sink when I was peeling veg hoping pieces would fall his way!

I suggest you search BARF (bones and raw food), where there is lots of advice and SF50 powder is a good supplement. Used to feed my dogs raw until they got cdiff. Vet refused to treat them unless we stopped as we could not get rid of the infection.

I used to think commercial foods were terrible until one of our dogs got an urinary problem - the special diet food he now has sorted him out.

Oh I have just checked back, thank you again for all of your ideas!

Mine too love raw veggies and often scrape the peelings/leftover tops and tails into their bowls. Luckily the internet is awash with info about what they can and can't have so I do often have a quick check to make sure I'm not giving them something that will upset their tums.

I googled a few things this evening and 'dog food delivery London' turned up these guys butternutbox.com/ I think I might give them a bash, it seems to tick a lot of the boxes I am trying to tick. Has anyone used them before?

I certainly going to look into making my own raw treats too as extras or for when we're out for walkies! Chicken wings look like a popular option.

I always think it must be really boring just eating that dried stuff day in day out even if it is supposed to be good for them.

How did dogs survive before that was invented?

Yes! Jalima, I imagine it is like having to eat dry toast twice a day every day! deeply dull.

I have had my wee dog from 8 weeks and he is now 8.1/2. I tried dog food but he wouldnt touch it so from therein on I cook homemade. I make up batches of chicken breast, rice, mixed veg and alternate weeks he has beef mince, with same ingredients. He also has a small dish of dry pellets during the day and is a very healthy, full of life all the time unfortunately. Keeps us on the hop 24/7 so my home made food hasnt done him the least bit of harm. I would prefer to know what he is eating than buying ready meals for dogs. wink.

I forget to mention that he also likes raw carrots, any kind of veg and sits in the kitchen when I am cooking, waiting for anything that may fall and then goes into hoover mode....

I par cook veggies for our dogs and feed them meat such as chicken or mince. I don't buy dog food. I slso buy chicken frames, which are very meaty, as well as the wings and legs and give them that. Teeth are lovely and white and they just seem much better on home cooked diets. Not as whiffy either. Just a note of caution, I never give my dogs cooked Jones, especially chicken as they splinter very easily. So much easier just to cook up the dogs dinners with ours ?