Homecooking for your Doodles

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

A place to talk about feeding our doodles a variety of home-cooked foods, with recipes included. Ask questions, check on safe ingredients, share some tips. Please see The DK Cookbook Group for recipes, too!
http://doodlekisses.com/group/dkcookbook

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I could eat that Jane...really! Looks great :)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Thanks, everyone. It really has become a joke in our house, because I've become a bit of a finatic with the homemade food. My brother was over visiting yesterday, and DH went to the Fridge, pulled out the bowl of Guinness's food, and showed it to him. My brother is single, so it's way better than what he eats on most days. He thinks I've "lost it"....he's feeding IAMS, so need I say more.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

HOME COOKING - THE FINAL UPDATE
I wasn't too sure whether this should be a separate discussion or if it should just be added here....I opted for here. As many of you know in January I went to the "dark side" because of several months of intestional issues with Guinness. He was diagnosed with IBS at that time (after testing ruled out other potential diagnoses). Diet was key, and he was not tolerating any of the high quality foods, including grain free. So, with the help of the FG we started home cooking. It certainly straightened out his digestive problems, and I began to really enjoy it. He also ate with more enthusiasm than ever before....he was healthy and happy (and Mom was too). I developed a plan that has been included here in the past, and my Vet approved it, but she insisted that after six months we would run a full blood panel and urinalysis to be sure that there were no deficiencies that were negatively impacting him. Of course, I agreed and thought this final "test" was a wise precaution. Well it's been six months, and we now have the results of his tests. She did find a couple of questions, but they are not related to the fact that he's on home cooking. She actually said, "this seems to be the answer for Guinness, so keep doing exactly what you have been". He did have slightly elevated magnesium and phospherus levels along with some crystals in his urine. He needs to be drinking more water, and she wants me to cut back a little on his supplements. Other than that...we're good to go. I wanted to share this because I remember being really worried at the beginning that I wouldn't be able to effectively "balance" his diet. That's why this objective, fact-based confirmation was really important to me. I hope those of you who are worried about whether this diet is the right thing for your dogs will find this helpful. I also can't say enough about how important it has been to me to have the great support of my Vet and the FG through this journey. I'm on the "dark side"...no looking back now!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I am so happy to hear this! It is so great to get objective and reliable confirmation that what you're doing is right! Now we'll all have to help you think of ways ways to up Guinness's water intake! Thanks for this happy update, Jane!

[Diane Margetts]

I just read this post Lynn. First, I am so sorry about Magic--that indeed was a tragic, unnecessary loss. I love what you say about life prior to commercial dog foods. This is a bit of the problem I have with my husband. He grew up very rural and he and his father and brothers were all hunters. The dogs they had were hunting dogs. As you say, the dogs ate the table scraps from the family so no one "bought" dog food. To this day my husband has a problem with spending money on a good dog food because in the back of his mind, the dogs of his childhood never ate "bought" dog food and they lived to be 14 or 16 years old . . . He is finally coming around to understand that quality rules when it comes to food. In all honesty, my husband eats horribly, I don't want Dakota to eat scraps from my husband--I, on the other hand, eat very healthy--hard to imagine that we eat at the same table every night, but we do! He has recently spent more time watching Dr Oz and developing a concern for his own food consumption so it has been easier to get him to translate that to dog food. I have always tried to feed Dakota at least good dog food; he has been on Kirkland Lamb and Rice for about 4 years. But as the price of that goes higher, it's easier for me to argue that for just a bit more we can really get Dakota on a super-healthy diet (except for the snacks "Daddy" shares with him, of course!). The fact that my husband adores Dakota goes a really long way too . . . he really does want what's best for him--he has said that losing Dakota will indeed kill him, so he would love for Dakota to live forever . . . So, we are almost out of Dakota's current dog food--just a bit left to blend with the TOTW that we're buying. I have a huge container, vacuum-sealed, of diced chicken breast and brown rice (that my husband actually cooked!) and I will look into adding this and that to the mix. I am glad you said cranraisins are ok--I though they were but I know about raisins and didn't want to chance anything. I eat plain yogurt everyday and am happy to share with our boy!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Another issue that your husband is not thinking about regarding dog food is that in the past, there was no Free Trade Agreement. You could give your dog table scraps, Alpo, etc., and there may have been poor quality ingredients, chicken beaks or potato peelings in it, but there wasn't melamine from China disguised as rice or wheat gluten. The ingredients weren't outsourced from third-world countries by food brokers. The table scraps the dogs were fed started out as food that his family ate, purchased in Amercan stores from American sources. What killed Magic and the other dogs & cats who died from the 2007 recalls was not really poor quality food, but poor quality control on the part of the Big Dog Food companies.

[Diane Margetts]

Actually, he really is realizing that, as he thinks more about nutrition. His family, again they were rural, had gardens with fresh veggies, chickens with fresh eggs and meat, hunted venision and elk, fished for trout, etc . . . We have discussed that quite a bit and he is coming around more and more to reconciling the differences in food quality. . .

[F, Calla & Luca]

Amen!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Cranberries are fine the name craisins is misleading!

[Donna Vee]

This is all very new to me. It wasn't that long ago that the buzz was all about NEVER giving your dog people food. My mom's doby had to be put down because she couldn't process some table scrap and her liver started releasing toxins (I don't really know the whole story) but at that time all of the vets were very anti-people food.
Then... a year ago or so, I heard about the BARF diet (I know, totally not appetizing...lol) and that seems like the other extreme.

I've been reading through these posts for days. I'm looking for some long term test studies on the benefit of veggies and fruit in our dog's diet. That is not a natural selection for wild dogs. They are almost strictly carnivores right?
I do steam carrots and green beans and blend it up like baby food and stir it in with their kibble, reason being, when I give it to them raw or whole…It just ends up in chunky poop. I think they absorb it better when it’s mush.

Anyway, I just want to make sure that this isn’t a fad….that there’s some solid long-term proof that it’s good for them.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I've never seen the point in using "wild dogs" as a comparison when talking about feeding our dogs, although it's very common and unbderstandable. The fact is that our dogs were never wild, nor were their parents, or their grandparents, or their great-grandparents, and on and on back hundreds of years.  Have any of us ever seen "wild dogs"? There stray dogs, yes, but they eat anything they can find, from garbage to garden produce. Many people who have vegetables or fruit growing in their gardens report that their dogs won't leave the blueberries or whatever alone. And we know that a stary dog will eat anything...cotton candy, bagels, whatever. So talking about natural selection for wild dogs seems beside the point to me. The so-called experts on this disagree as to whether dogs are carnivores or onivores; I've researched that extensively, and most of the scholarly articles written by those who do not have an agenda (unlike the most radical raw feeding groups) seem to agree that dogs are omnivores. They will eat whatever is available. When you hear things like "dogs in the wild don't eat grains", keep in mind that humans in the wild couldn't eat grains, either. You and I couldn't eat wheat or rye as it grows, lol. Only ruminants can do that. It needs to be harvested and processed first. Yet, we know that whole grains are extremely beneficial for humans.

In the past, I believe it was the dog food industry that told people not to feed their dogs table scraps. Although there is an inherent danger in feeding table scraps, depending on what they are. Table scraps usually consist of the parts of the meal not fit for human consumption, including cooked bones, skin and fat from poultry and meat, etc. Too much fat is dangerous for dogs. Salt, seasonings, gravies, etc. are certainly not good for them. We don't know what caused your mom's dog's problems, but if the table scraps were anything like the ones at my house (all of the fat that's been cut away from the steak or porkchop, for example) that would have been the problem, and not table scraps per se.

I prefer to use the term "fresh food" rather than "table scraps", because it is true that for reasons that have nothing to do with health, you should never feed a dog from the table. But when I give "fresh food", here's how it looks: In the meal preparation area of the kitchen, I cut up some plain, unseasoned beef, chicken, fish, or whatever, with any fat or skin removed,  bring it over to my dog's feeding bowl, and put in in along with his kibble.

He also often gets scrambled or boiled eggs. His specialist recommends this for the added biotin eggs provide.

Jack doesn't like any veggies or fruits except for lima beans. I do give him those. Legumes are very high in protein, although not complete protein.

Keep in mind that this discussion was started more than two years ago, and has actually not been all that active for awhile. Back then, we were just starting our research and learning about the options. I would have to read back thru it to see what all we said back then, and i might disagree with a lot of it myself, not that I've had two years of research on these issues under my belt.

[Donna Vee]

Karen, you know I totally respect your opinion, that is why I posted here. I want to make educated and well researched decisions where my pets and family are concerned...lol, well I guess I shouldn't limit to just those areas. I know that this thread was an old one but it seemed like the best place to start. I hadn't thought about dogs eating anything they can get their lips around. That is certainly the case for Penny, completely food motivated, and Ginger used to steal tomatoes off my vines before we ripped them out. I guess the "wild dog" thing just made sense to me since even to this day, most dogs have a strong prey instinct. Dogs such as coyotes and wolves will still hunt meat over raiding someone’s home garden but as you say, it's probably more of a survival instinct...you know, the most bang for their buck? :)

Thanks for the great reply. I appreciate the time and thought you put into it. I'll keep reading.