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

[Cam & Oski]

By special request....

[katherine willis]

I, too, am preparing home made meals for Sandy. Do any of you have guidelines for how long cooked rice and kidney beans last in the frig? I keep these separate and add them as I prepare his meal? How about other vegetables? What is your experience? As an aside I have been using V8 as a vegetable provider. he loves it but watch out for the sodium.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Leave out enough for a few days and freeze in couple days size bags. When one is almost empty, take the next one out of the freezer and when you're ready for it, it will be thawed. Small sandwich sized bags should be good.

[fergie11]

OK I got ambitious today. I cooked up 5 chicken breasts and pc of liver - added some cooked white rice and left over mashed potatoes. I added peas and carrots and eggs along with the egg shells. Put this all in the food processor and it came out looking like canned food. I got 6 zip lock bags and froze most of it. Fergie loved it. I think I gave her about a cup of it. Is that how much a 45# dood should get. I then offered her some kibble and she didn't want it.
Lately I've been adding yogurt and stuff or good quality canned food. I don't think she likes plain kibble anymore. Is that OK? Aren't dogs supposed to eat plain kibble for their teeth?

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

They don't have to, if you give marrow bones or milk bones here and there, you could brush their teeth also. Or what I do is put about 2 cups in a bowl and just leave it out for them to graze throughout the day. She may not have wanted the kibble after your yummy meal.

[fergie11]

I can't leave Kibble out at all because my puppy - Lucy is such a pig. Hopefully she'll grow out of that. I think if she got into the bag she'd eat the whole thing and burst.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I used to think that, too, but in researching it, the experts say the kibble really doesn't do much for keeping their teeth free of tartar; you need bones or rawhide type things for that.
One cup seems like a good amount for a 45# dog, but I'm no expert. Does she get fed once or twice a day? I know she is also getting homemade liver treats. MaybeLynne's recipes in the DK Recipe section will give some idea of the quantities you should feed by weight.
I am so impressed with you homecooking for Fergie, and I know Lynne will be, too. You are really a devoted doodle mom!

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

It is really not as hard as people think. Once it becomes like habit, it is, well, a habit. If your goal is to Balance over Time rather than Complete and Balanced then it is much easier.

[fergie11]

What do you mean by that comment - Balance over Time rather than Complete and Balanced? I'm new to this stuff and I don't know what your talking about, sorry. I do want to learn though.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

The Dog Food Companies want you to believe and they have fostered the thinking, that we have lived with for 50 years, that dogs need a C&B meal everyday. But in the wild and before the advent of DF, dogs got their nutrition over time. A little meat here, an egg there, a fish the next day, etc. That is the premise for homecooking. Balance everything over the course of the week and they are still getting their nutrition. That is also how people eat and I have found it to be healthy for my guys for 2 years now. I was worried at first that they weren't getting everything but not so much anymore.

[fergie11]

OK - I get it. I would believe in Balance over Time. That makes common sense.

[fergie11]

I'm making the best food for my furry little friends. I bought a 10# bag of chix thighs at wal-mart (.59 cents a lb.) and threw them in my big crockpot overnight. I didn't add anything. They're cool now and I pulled off skin and bones. It turned out so tasty that DH keeps eating it. He thinks i'm nuts. When i add the ground up eggshells hopefully he'll stop eating my girls food. I'm going to add chix livers, rice, sweet potatoe, carrots, peas and parsley.
I have to say I've created a very very spoiled young lady. Fergie won't eat her kibble anymore unless it comes with goodies. She's not even satisfied with kibble and cottage cheese or kibble and plain yogurt. I am going to keep up with the plain yogurt for her even if I have to add this stuff to it.

Lynne - I'm afraid to feed this to my puppy - will it be too rich for her? She's eating her Innova Puppy Food very good so should I just keep with that until she gets older?

Thanks to this group and especially Karen and Lynne. I really enjoy making this stuff for my girls. My human kids are gone now so I really needed these puppies in my life at this time. I'm very happy!