If you do, I found a great book with recipes and a lot of helpful information. I read a book called Pet Food Nation that opened my eyes to the world (and dangers) of commercial pet foods.  So, I'm no longer feeding my dogs store bought foods and instead am cooking for them. 

Pet Food Nation gave some good basic recipes, but I found this book last night and thought I'd share.  'The Healthy Dog Cookbook  ~ 50 Nutritious and Delicious Recipes Your Dog Will Love'  Authors:  Joann Anee with Mary Straus, Canine Nutritionist  Shwawn Messonner, DVM   I liked too that it touched more on why cerain things are so important in a dog'd diet, so am excited to delve into this somemore.

Thanks for the info!!  I may check it out...

Teri, love your last 2 avitars!! I have Pet Food Nation but I am such a loser I have not sat down to read any of it yet. I want to start incorporating more homecooked for my two. On the weekend they mostly get what we make, Lots of chicken beef and rice. If I ever read pet food nation I will have to check this one out next.

Teri, love your last 2 avitars!! I have Pet Food Nation but I am such a loser I have not sat down to read any of it yet. I want to start incorporating more homecooked for my two. On the weekend they mostly get what we make, Lots of chicken beef and rice. If I ever read pet food nation I will have to check this one out next.

Thanks Val!  The one before this was Chloe and this is Bonnie.   You're funny.  You're  not a loser just cause you haven't read it yet.  I love the fact that you are still considering doing it!  And adding to their kibble diet already.  Sometimes it takes baby steps to accomplish big things

So far, I'm really liking this because of the number and varieations of the recipes, so I'm pretty excited to try some of these. 

It's such a time thing. Between Guy's surgery and back, dog training and work I have time for hardley anything, well except to surf on here!!

I do want to get away from kibble, mostly because as soon as you find something you like they switch it all up and the fact that I am not sure what goes in it!!

I was reading one of your posts about letting dogs run free and I didn't realize how young your girls are. So Bonnie is quite the chewer!!  Not to long ago Alice squatted right in front of us to pee, I wanted to kill her. I have no idea why. They have the dog door but she went right in the house as you said Chloe did. I wonder why??

Yep- they're both just little young'ens still!  We have a ways to go before the chewing stops at our place.  And the accidents in the house too obviously!!  I have no idea why they do that!  Little stinkers! 

I really do enjoy cooking for my girls... BUT I cook up more like big batches of a "stew" in the crockpot. I use assorted meats (usually whatever is on sale when I'm ready to cook it up) and then just add a variety of -- yams/sweet potatoes, rice/pasta,  veggies etc. -- different each time for variety. When cooked I just shred it all up with a couple of forks, and freeze in snack size baggies. One bag is enough for 2 dinners, when added to the top their regular kibble. I heat the stew to warm it up, and then add about 2-3 tablespoons of plain non-fat yogurt, then stir to make a gravy. The dogs love it, and since I'm not exactly famous for putting the best in home cooked meal on the table for us (humans)...  many nights the dogs are eating better & healthier than we are!  

Teri)

My message was garbled--I do have problems with commercial food, which is why I am thinking of giving her home cooking.

When I said please palate, I meant that the plain human food without sause should be good enough for her  if it is for me.

I am saying, that I cook chicken, fish, meats, vegs and fruits, non transfats oils---that I alwasy have some left over and could easily give her what we eat without making special recipies--and I think she would love it--as far as proper nutrients I don''t see how anything could be missing with a diet like this---it is the best in the world for people)

She only eats a cup of food a day of the kibble--I cant imagine that my leftovers can't get her a decent meal????

Thank yee

Melo

gotcha Melo   sounds like you are introducing/adding very healthy foods and I'm sure along with the kibble your dog is eating very well.  If you do switch to only human food- my only concern would be that because a dogs dietary needs differ from humans, the amounts and combinations of foods along with needed added supplements (fat, calcium, minerals, vitamins, etc)  should be considered.   And you are right, sauces aren't necessary for people or pets!

Which of the two books do you prefer for the recipes? I do mostly raw but occasionally I cook for my dog and a little dog I fostered last year had an auto immune disease so her meats were cooked. Do they include any vegetarian recipes? I do feed my dog one meal with cooked, mashed pinto beans in olive oil and abit of garlic and add it to soaked barley flakes and baked acorn squash or sweet potato for breakfast. Evening meal is usually Primal raw meat or canned pink salmon (rinsed)with raw, crushed veggies. He also gets low fat plain organic yogurt every evening. Snacks are fruits and veggies and several times a week a raw egg yolk. The Primal is ground with the bone.

anneh

I cooked for Tinkerbelle during her pregnancy because she had a hard time holding food down in the beginning and then she just got picky and wanted me to keep cooking for her.  I boiled several chicken tenderloins at the beginning of the week and would just cut those up and mix them with rice, cottage cheese, boiled egg and sometimes a little pumpkin if her stool was too soft.  Then I cut out the rice and mixed it in with puppy kibble, so she could still get all the vitamins and nutrients that a dog needs. 

Which of the two books do you prefer for the recipes? I do mostly raw but occasionally I cook for my dog and a little dog I fostered last year had an auto immune disease so her meats were cooked. Do they include any vegetarian recipes? I do feed my dog one meal with cooked, mashed pinto beans in olive oil and abit of garlic and add it to soaked barley flakes and baked acorn squash or sweet potato for breakfast. Evening meal is usually Primal raw meat or canned pink salmon (rinsed)with raw, crushed veggies. He also gets low fat plain organic yogurt every evening. Snacks are fruits and veggies and several times a week a raw egg yolk. The Primal is ground with the bone.

anneh

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Anneh,  I liked the recipes in the Healthy Dog Cook book over the ones in Pet Food Nation (but still recommend reading PFN!)   Nope, no veggie recipes at all- in either.  I think both books explained why dogs require animal protein and shouldn't be on vegetarian diets.  Plant proteins, although proteins, aren't the same as animal proteins.   I'd have to read it again to exlpain the problem, but I wouldn't consider a vegetarian diet for dogs (or cats).   One thing to think about with the veggies is that raw is ok once in a while, but veggies really should be cooked so that the dogs can benefit from them nutrionally.  In raw form dogs cannot procecss them well enough to get the nutrients they need from them.  When I cook mine- I'm careful not to overcook, and then run them through a food processor to make them smaller and easier to digest.  Grains should always be well cooked. 

Melody-  I'm not sure what the recommended daily allowance of carbs is for dogs.  But then I don't cook/feed that way.   Also, carbs come in different forms (sugars/starches) so I just try to use some common sense when I cook and try to follow the recommended proportions from the recipes.  (sorry it took so liong to get back to you!)

Hello All!

I'm new here and yes, we cook for our doggies.  We only started a few weeks ago, and they love it!  We use a 16 qt. pressure cooker.  Can do 2 whole chickens at once.  Best part is that you do the entire chicken, bones and all!  (we take off any excess skin and fat we see first).   It takes about 2 1/2 hours for them to cook.  The bones are so soft, they are ok to eat.  Then we add some steamed veggies (potatoes, carrots, peas and what ever else we have around).  Cook up some rice or pasta and mix it all together.  These guys are so spoiled, they will not eat anything that has been frozen after cooking, so we have to can everything.  It does save a lot of money and they get better food.  I buy chickens when they are on sale, same with beef.

They also get a good kibble and a pet tab to make sure they aren't lacking any vitamins.  Their favorite treat is a chicken jerky strip.

 Oh, by the way, my name is Sue and I live in Port Angeles, WA with an English Cocker, 2 Pugs and one Rattie.  We had a Rattie/Doxie  mix, sadly he was put to rest about 6 weeks ago.  Very sad,  aquired an immune deficiency last summer, his platelet count was only 19,000, treated with steroids that in turn fried is pancreas leaving him with diabettes.  He was getting two shots per day and my vet really didn't have much experience with diabettes, she was mostly textbook.  I read everything I could find on the internet and asked a lot of questions to which she said I was wrong... but I wasn't and I should not have listened to her.  We finally took him to see an internist who agreed with me.  Once we finally got him regulated, his thyriod was off, a couple more pills per day and he seemed to be doing ok... then he got sick and fell over on his side, rushed him to the vet and we think he was having some mini strokes.  His lil body was failing and we couldn't do any more for him.  As long as he had a quality of life and wasn't in pain, we did all we could for him.  He was also blind for the last 6 months, but that did not stop him.  He knew his turf and was barking at the fence the night before he got sick.

Anyway, sorry for the sad story, I'm just able to really talk about him w/o crying.  We now have a full rattie to add to the pack.  His name is Luke.  Smart and into everything!  He will be 5 months old on the 17th and is going to be neutered on the 19th.  He's a good boy and is getting along with the rest of the pack. Now, there are 3 males and one female.  The female pug has taken over being pack leader.  The lil doxie/rat was previously.

Ok, back to cooking for the furbabies.... if you don't have time, we use a canned dog food called Evanger's.  It's pricey, about $3 per can.  It's real food... chicken drummets, chicken wings, hunk o beef... they pressure cook in the cans themselves.    Better to feed them good healthy food now and have less health problems later!  Mine also like the baby carrots for a treat.  There's another company that makes low-fat doggie food too, cooked in a human plant.  I'm trying to remember their name, the company was named after 3 strays.  Our sick lil guy ate that... the vet was trying to push that Science Diet... he did not like that at all!

Nice chatting, but I need to get some sleep now.

terry--interesting what you say about the raw veggies. I never give her veggies, but I gave her some baby carrots the other night, thought they might be good for her teeth and no calories

Well she ate them casue I put a bit of peanut butter on them----BUT that morning she cried to get out of her crate and when she did jumped up on my bed and did a very dainty orange throw-up---No more veggies for her!!!!

Melo- I'd be really surprised if the carrots you fed are what caused her to throw up.  I hope  you'll reconsider giving cooked veggies.  Veggies can be VERY beneficial to dogs just as they are to humans.