My dog is getting old, he will be 14 this spring. his teeth are not great, so I have over the last 2 years increased his wet food intake and slowly dropped kibble. The facts are that dog foods are mostly garbage waste products from human food production, and it's impossible to really know what is in it. The Chinese were putting melamine into dog and cat food that has caused countless animal deaths. In fact 10 years after the 2007 Melamine recalls here in The US, there is still no required testing for adulterants.
http://company.justfoodfordogs.com/10-years-later-the-pet-food-industry-a-decade-after-the-melamine-recall-of-2007/
And if you look at the history of pet food production, some truly dastardly things have happened in the quest for cheap meat. Ken-L Ration was a great example. In the 1930's they rounded up a train full of mustangs and sent it to Los Angeles. The horses died in the heat while enroute, and the company abandoned the rotting carcasses. I remember seeing horse meat dog food at the store as a child. KalKan Dog food was selling seals clubbed on the Farallon Islands outside San Francisco. None of these examples make buying dog food seem like it is ok for the environment or your pet.
My solution? Make it myself.
It is not hard, Takes me about two hours of real work to make and package the food.
I looked at some recipes, talked to my Veterinarian, and the following is what I do.
First off, My dog gets a multivitamin every day, at the Veterinarian's insistence, but I feel that I have his nutritional needs met with this diet The meat is somewhat interchangeable, I have used turkey, chicken, beef, and pork so far Today's is ground Turkey which is very lean, so I added oil.
Costs:
$21.03
This is enough food for 14 days at 2 cups per day, 1 cup in the morning and 1 i the eve. He is only 19 pounds, so that is PLENTY, but he disagrees.
Ingredients:
3 pounds Ground turkey 15% fat
1 cup olive oil(To add fat to the diet)
1 pound of sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced/cubed
1 pound shredded carrots
1 pound green peas
1 cup oats
1 cup green lentils
4 cups brown rice
Oregano, and light salt. Oregano helps with repelling insects, and it smells good.
+/- 9 cups water
Preparation:
Add meat and oil to large stock pot and saute until browned
While it's browning, prepare the Sweet potato and carrots. When brown add the sweet potato, carrots, green peas and stir it all in well, add the salt and Oregano.
Let that go for a few minutes, add the rice, lentils, and oatmeal, mix up and wait for it to get hot, add the water and let it cook on very low heat for an hour.
After the food cools, I bag it in ziplocks, 2 cups per bag, as a single day's food, and freeze it.
After that, Dweezel helps me do the dishes.
I have never seen a happier dog than when this is going on. He and my room mate's dog are underfoot and drooling the whole time. He eats this and has more energy, less coat issues and skin issues with the dry air, and it generally works out to be the same price or cheaper than crappy dog food and dramatically cheaper than premium dog food like Royal Canin, and, i get the satisfaction of knowing exactly what he gets in the bowl, and we don't have to deal with the stench of nasty canned dog food.
It's a win for everyone!
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