Does anyone here feed only "real" food?

My dog's breeder posts a lot on facebook about real food and how much better it is than kibble. Crush was showing some signs of food allergies-some itchiness, occasional foot biting, and lack of interest in her food. Last week I started making her food. The first time it was rice, chicken, peas, olive oil, eggs, carrots, and blueberries. This week was the same, but with turkey. I've never seen her so excited to eat and now she eats it all rather than picking at it throughout the day. Does anyone else make their dog's food, and what ingredients do you use?

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Permalink Reply by Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle on July 24, 2014 at 10:20am

BASIC FACTS ABOUT ALLERGIES IN DOGS (Includes tips for how to lessen the itching and discomfort)

Permalink Reply by Deborah Brown on July 28, 2014 at 7:38am

I also cook for my doodles. They eat Orijen in the morning and Orijen mixed with home cooking in the evening. I have three dogs who eat about 1300 calories per day. That is roughly 3 cups of Orijen. Right now 1/3 of this is home cooked. They absolutely love it and I feel good about it because the home cooked portion is high in protein and using fresh ingredients.

Having said that, it is a major undertaking to keep up with feeding three big dogs. I try to cook about a week's worth of food at a time and it is a time consuming process. Just cutting up 6-8 pounds of chicken is a bit of work. Sometimes, I use ground turkey which saves a step. Their food usually contains sweet potatoes and sometimes other squash or carrots. The leafy green veggies, red peppers, apples, etc. go in a good processor.

I've posted this before and I use this guide in general: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/15_7/features/Home-Prepared.... I put the ingredients into a spreadsheet to make sure I'm getting a good balance. Dogs need more fat than we humans are used to and a lot of calcium.

A typical recipe for my dogs includes:

6-8 pounds of protein

chicken gizzards, hearts and/or liver

3-4 pounds of sweet potatoes, carrots or squash

3-6 cups of spinach or kale (food processed)

1-3 apples

1 red pepper

other left over veggies: asparagus, peas, lima beans, etc.

eggs - as many as needed to get the calorie/nutrition balance that I am looking for

rice - occasionally leftovers or brown rice

soybean oil if I need more fat - don't use olive oil as it doesn't have enough omega 6 fatty acids

6-8 tsp ground, cooked egg shells for calcium