Does this sound reasonable?

    • Gold Top Dog

    Does this sound reasonable?

    Hi. I just started feeding my dogs home cooked meals. Could you tell me if this sounds like a balanced, complete meal? They won´t eat kibble any more. I will probably give them the same menu for a week, and change it weekly so they eat different types of food. This would be the menu for the first week. Please tell me if you think the amount of total food is correct, if something is missing, etc. All opinions will be greatly appreciated.  

    The menu for a 35 kg Bouvier des Flandres daily meal, with a medium level of activity, would be:  
    400 gms chicken, 50% breast, 50% thigh, no skin
    150 gms white rice
    200 gms barely steamed broccoli
    100 gms raw carrot
    150 gms raw green peas
    5 gms wheat bran
    3 grams plain yoghurt
    A bit of salt
    2 gms olive oil
    5 grams flax seed
    5 grams barley seed
    6 gms bone meal  

    That gives a total of 1400 calories, of which  19% are grains, 45% is meat and 34% are vegetables.
    What do you think?  
    Thank you so much. Mariana
    • Gold Top Dog
    Wish i could help you, but I have no idea.  Mine get a little home fixed with their kibble, but it just consistes of fish 4 times a week (fresh, baked if I have caught some, canned salmon or mackeral if I haven't got fresh) along with canned (unslated) green beans and carrots.  The other nights they get boiled meat---chicken liver, gizzard, hearts, beef liver or heart, sometime ground beef or chicken.  I sometimes cook sweet potato chunks, white potatoe chunks or squash with the meat.  Sometimes one of the cooked veggies and either the canned beans or carrots, sometimes only canned veggies.
     
    For brekfast they get kibble, but occasionlay I will add scrambled egg, cottage cheese, regular cheese, applesauce as a treat.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Mariana,
     
    I just started homecooking for my dogs a few weeks ago.  Use canola oil instead of olive oil.  I give my 32LB. cocker spaniel with medium activity, 1/3 lb. of meat
    and maybe 1/2 cup of wheat free pasta, potatoes or sweat potatoes.  I add green beans, oat bran 2 teaspoons of bonemeal and salt or salt substitute, whichever the recipe calls for.  This meal makes two servings per day.  I give him a cup of food 2 times a day and 1/4 cup of kibble for a bedtime snack due to vomiting on an empty stomach.
     
    Michelle
    • Gold Top Dog
    IMHO not enough fat or meat compared to veg,i would use a maximum amount of 20% vegies,and up the meat and particularly the fat content,dogs need fat.Why are you using skinless chicken?? You're feeding 450grams veggies and 400grams meat???
    Are you pulverising the vegies?
    Your recipe contains no offal?? Such as liver,kidney etc The diet should consist of around 5-10% offal daily OR 2-3 good size servings per week.
    When alternating the meat i would also incorporate heart.
    Green tripe in my opinion is an essential to any home made diet,preferably raw green tripe,but canned will do,you cant really find the enzyme's and vitamins and mineral it contains in any other one food.

    I would feed rmb's instead of relying solely on bonemeal.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Thanks everyone...I´ll take into account all your suggestions
    • Gold Top Dog
    Thanks everyone...I´ll take into account all your suggestions


    You dont have any more questions?? Or perhaps you could answer mine from my last post[;)]

    Can i ask,did you make this recipe up,or find it in a book?
    • Gold Top Dog
    ORIGINAL: Edie

    Thanks everyone...I´ll take into account all your suggestions


    You dont have any more questions?? Or perhaps you could answer mine from my last post[;)]

    Can i ask,did you make this recipe up,or find it in a book?


    Hi Edie!
    It´s not that I do not have any questions. The problem is that I am drowning myself in questions. I don´t know where to start to feed my dogs home cooked meals, and I am trying to decide which opinions I can take into account, and which ones I can´t.
    The answers to your questions:
    I might be giving them too many veggies. I am not sure. I don´t think it´s got to do with the weight of each, but with the nutrients they give. I´m not sure about giving chicken with skin, I´ll have to read about that.

    Yes, I am pulverising the veggies.

    No offal in the main recipe. As I said in my first post, I want to develop a basic recipe to give them daily, and offal would be given 1-2 a week.

    My dogs won´t eat any kind of raw meat, so no raw green tripe, etc.

    No RMB...I find it to risky. Bonemeal is a good alternative for me.

    Seems to me you are suggesting a BARF type food. I do not think that diet is the most adequete for my dog.

    I developed the recipe. I have been trying to match this diet to the daily nutrient requirements for adult dogs. Protein and carbohydrates are close to the ideal, vitamins and minerals are really low. Still, some values aren´t even close to what they should be
    • Gold Top Dog
    I developed the recipe. I have been trying to match this diet to the daily nutrient requirements for adult dogs. Protein and carbohydrates are close to the ideal, vitamins and minerals are really low. Still, some values aren´t even close to what they should be

     
    What you're doing is very admirable but it's better to consult a canine nutritionist for recipes. Here are some websites that you can go to;
                                                     [linkhttp://www.petdiets.com/]http://www.petdiets.com/[/link]
     
     They have veterinary nutritioniists and will design a balanced diet for your dog.
     
                                [linkhttp://www.monicasegal.com/]http://www.monicasegal.com/[/link]
     
      She will also design a diet for your dog. She offers books with nutritional information and recipes. A good one to read is K9 Kitchen; [linkroducts_id=66]http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25&;products_id=66[/link]>http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25&;products_id=66]http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25&;products_id=66[/link]
     
      The booklet " Cooked Diet Recipes " is also good; [linkroducts_id=87]http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25_26&;products_id=87[/link]>http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25_26&;products_id=87]http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25_26&;products_id=87[/link]
     
       I hope you don't mind these suggestions; good luck with findind what you're looking for.
    • Gold Top Dog
    WOW!!! Thank you very much!
    I have been trying to find someone who will help me develop a recipe. I haven´t found someone who will help me, but this sound great! Of course I don´t mind. This will be a lot easier, and safer. I will contact them tomorrow...
    • Gold Top Dog
     You're very welcome. [:D]  There is a member of this forum who homecooks for her dogs and has a recipe that was developed with the help of an animal nutritionist. She will e-mail you the recipe; the only "catch" is she asks for a donation for the MS walk. Her name is Glenda and her user name is glenmar.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I mostly use the book, Better Food for Dogs when I do homecook.  It's a very easy to understand book, it goes into why you need certain ingredients and gives charts at the end so you know you are balancing correctly.  It's really easy to use although that probably makes it sound complicated. 
     
    Also, I like it because they use ingredients that you would buy/use anyway, like beef, chicken, fish, you can rotate your veggies/fruits and use rice, potato, they give alternatives for everything. 
    • Gold Top Dog
    Thanks for the plug!  Actually my charge is "consideration" of making a donation to the MS Walk, but with the walk less than 2 weeks away and me wanting to still raise another $250.......
     
    My recipe was developed mostly by me, but tweeked and approved by a canine nutritionalist, and I'm always happy to share.  And even happier for the chance to get someone ELSE to consider making a donation to the MS Walk......
    • Silver
    Dogs do not get all the nutrients or vitamines from whole or cooked vegies. You are better off putting the vegies through a processor raw then freezing in meal lots so you only have to take one out for each day per dog (this is what alot of people call vegie slop) you can put in in the microwave to warm but no more then 10 seconds. Cooking vegies takes all the nutrients out of them. I was feeding pasta to my dog until I found out pasta and rice are bad for them, along with potatoes, grapes and onions.Beans are good they fill them up which is what pasta and rice do so add a few more beans.

    It sounds to me as though you are feeding a raw diets another website you can look up with great info is DR Billinghurst's on the BARF diet this has great info on feeding and vegies. This is where I got alot of info
     
    I feed my boy raw meat and bones then give processed vegies with each meal. yes it can take some time to prepare but I only do his vegies once a week then freeze, and his meat I buy in bulk and place in bags enough for each meal so I only have to take one lot of each out of the freezer every morning.