# Dog food?



## NH homesteader (Sep 1, 2016)

I am looking at moving from all store bought dog food and making most of my dogs' food.  We have plenty of meat available,  etc.  I do not want to do a raw diet, I have a young daughter and these are house pets,  and  I am not interested in having raw meat around my house. 

Anyone have experience doing this? Suggestions? Or places to go for information?


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## Southern by choice (Sep 1, 2016)

What kind of dog?


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## NH homesteader (Sep 1, 2016)

A Chow/Australian Shepherd/golden retriever mix and a Spanish Alano


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## Southern by choice (Sep 1, 2016)

how old


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## NH homesteader (Sep 1, 2016)

My mutt is 6 and my Alano is 2. The Alano is high energy and needs a lot more protein than the mutt. He's a lazy chow!


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## Southern by choice (Sep 1, 2016)

I like Earthborn. I raised my pups on a mixture of 2 different types of it and another feed.

I prefer chicken based feeds. Beef is #1 for allergy causes. Lamb is better than beef but for many dogs it can cause intestinal upset.

Alano-
http://www.earthbornholisticpetfood.com/dog-food-formulas/grain-free-holistic/large-breed

Chow mix-
http://www.earthbornholisticpetfood.com/dog-food-formulas/holistic/adult-vantage

Ok- I am a dolt... just realized you want to make your food....  
 I misread and thought you were switching and didn't want to do raw.

Making your own food is truthfully very time consuming and expensive. I left the post in case you were interested anyway.


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## NH homesteader (Sep 1, 2016)

Is it that expensive? Mostly in meat? 

I'll check those out thanks! My chow mix has to have grain free food,  we've been using Taste of the Wild.  Otherwise our lovely vet has to ahem...  Attend to his anal glands. 

Do you have a starting  point for where to look for homemade dog food recipes? Or any idea of portions?


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## Baymule (Sep 1, 2016)

We butchered roosters and I canned the bony backs and feet (scalded and peeled, toenails cut off) for the dogs. I put in rice, squash, and green beans too. I do feed a good dog food, all meat and no grain. What I canned is not a complete diet, but will be used to break up the monotony of kibble.


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## cjc (Sep 2, 2016)

I have two dogs with health issues. One with chronic pancreatitis and one with stones that just won't go away. I am forced to cook for them because the dog food is either missing something or has too much of another thing. Our vet gave us this book: http://completeandbalanced.com/recipebook.html and I would highly recommend it.

It was expressed to me by my vet its important to use lean meats. I use white meat chicken or turkey and sometimes tuna and salmon. I only feed salmon once a week as it's a fatty fish and because we live by the ocean and my husband loves to fish we don't have to pay the expense of buying salmon. I use canned tuna once a week as well. I always boil the chicken or turkey to remove fat. I add a bit of brown rice and a vegetable. Some vegetables I have to stay away from but a few good ones are broccoli, carrots, spinach, beans (in moderation). I also add a TBS of cod liver oil and safflower oil to my mixture. It's important you ensure all the vitamins and nutrients are in the food you make and this book would help you achieve that.


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## TAH (Sep 3, 2016)

I did 
1/2 cup of oats
A handful of spinach 
A handful of peas
A handful or carrots
1 cup of chicken or turkey
1 tsp of coconut oil
1 egg
And sometimes cod liver oil.


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## purplequeenvt (Dec 4, 2016)

I know this post is really old.....

I recently switched my 13 year old Border Collie to Honest Kitchen dehydrated food. It's a simpler way to feed a raw diet without having to handle lots of raw meats. 

My dog loves the stuff and her coat is looking happier.


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## NH homesteader (Dec 4, 2016)

I've never heard of it but it sounds interesting.  And expensive, is it?


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## purplequeenvt (Dec 9, 2016)

It's is definitely on the more expensive side, but not horrible. There's no way I could afford to feed it to all my dogs, but I'm happy to feed it to my old girl. She was having trouble eating kibble and now she's super excited when I pick up her dish. I also add Brewers yeast to her food to help repel fleas and help with her skin and coat.


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## tabishop32 (Jan 23, 2017)

OK, So this is an older post, but just thought I would share what I have learned about feeding dogs a 'non commercial diet'. I have raised many dogs from weaning to old age and honestly can't remember last time I purchased ' dog food', they are healthy and happy. Brief rundown first, it's not rocket science, it's not expensive either, variety is key! I had a good friend who was an old fashioned vet who I learned a lot from. Basic dog diet, adjust as needed for size, age, and activity don't worry, after a while you'll get the hang of it, just like parent hood. I feed twice a day, most meals are half meat, half veggies and rice mix, I cook everything. Use the produce that's in season at the time ( no onions or peppers) and look for meats that are on sale ( I use a lot of venison and eggs). You can sub mash potatoes or pasta for the rice. Peanut butter adds extra protien. I use a balancer ( Nupro) to take the worry out of complete balance. My dogs get a lot of leftovers too, but they have grown up on it so they have a great digestive system and don't get upset, yours may take time slowly add your food a little at a time. I suggest look up all the foods that are toxic to dogs first, write the list and hang on the fridge. I know that my mutt dogs are in wonderful condition and have never had a bite of kibble ever!! I hope this helps, here is a pic of a standard meal tray, that's about a 3 lb pan for my dogs about 4 days worth.


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## NH homesteader (Jan 23, 2017)

I forgot about this post! Lol

I have to say I think it greatly depends on the dog. After this post I briefly tried cooking my dogs' food. Results?  My chow/aussie/golden mutt was fine. My Spanish Alano was not. I fed her a ton of home cooked food, including venison and meat we raised on the farm. She couldn't keep weight on. I would have to feed her a huge amount of meat and eggs (hugely expensive) to meet her needs. She is a hunting dog, high energy and burns a ton of calories! I feed her extra protein (chicken necks, organ meat, etc.) along with her dog food now and she looks fantastic again.


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## tabishop32 (Jan 24, 2017)

I'm glad you found what works! So true that just like us, dogs have different needs to be healthy. My mutt dog is the chunkiest dog I've had in a long time, whereas the hog dogs stay slim and trim.


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## Red the butcher (May 14, 2017)

tabishop32 said:


> I'm glad you found what works! So true that just like us, dogs have different needs to be healthy. My mutt dog is the chunkiest dog I've had in a long time, whereas the hog dogs stay slim and trim.


What breed hog dogs? Thats what the alano espanol is breed for that nh is talking about.


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## kdogg331 (May 15, 2017)

Right now I'm feeding Pure Balance from Walmart and believe it or not, it's actually a good food imo (unlike most foods from there) and my dog does well on it. It's grain free but they do have grain ones. We switch foods every month though because he gets bored. In fact, we just switched from Victor and still have  a half bag because he started starving himself  we had to give him cans, eggs, etc so he wouldn't.

BUT. Victor is actually an excellent food and the best part is the majority of the protein comes from meat instead of plants like a lot of foods. And he liked it at first so don't let his brattiness put you off (he tried another food he liked better and then decided he hated this stuff now lol).

They have TONS of different flavors/varieties and lots of grain free ones but all their foods they take out the gluten I think. They even have a very very high protein one for active dogs like your alano and sled dogs etc hah some of their foods are pretty low protein and fat though and some are high so you have to look at the recipes. They have like 17 so it can be tedius lol but i actually took the time and wrote it all down if you want the info. I'd have to find it though. 

We also love NutriSource grain free but chewy.com is not going to be carrying it anymore. 

Luckily our local feed store carries it but not that many flavors. Only a not grain free, a puppy food, chicken grain free, and seafood grain free. The seafood is too low protein and rich for us. My boy LOVES lamb and they have several new flavors too so this is unfortunate for us.  

But I just stocked up and bought 2 lamb bags while they still have them in stock haha you could try that.

And he will eat chicken too and like I said we rotate so it's not so bad.

We also loved Zignature and they have a lot of flavors but it's more expensive than the others but still more food per bag/cheaper than some fancy brands. And if your dogs have allergies it's great as it has like no allergens haha and is grain free.

We have tried Horizon Pulsar once too and they have a slighter better line but I forget the name, Horizon something. They are a Canadian company.

I've been meaning to try Hi-Tek too but there were some minor problems recently so idk if they had a bad batch or changed the recipe or what. But still a great food, pretty cheap (they even sell 44 lb breeder bags), and they have high protein for active/working dogs.

Fromm is good too, especially Gold, and TOTW as you know.

We have also fed Earthborn Holistics Primitive Natural (and the feline version) and that one is great and it is grain free. I have heard that is the best one of their foods but others are good too. This particular one is real high protein for your active dog.

Merrick is another good one but they got bought by Purina last year. Still good though I think.

We tried Canidae all stages too and he had lower energy on it but other dogs do great. 

Another excellent food is Wellness. Their CORE formula is grain free. My dog LOVED it and did really well.

We have tried most of the good foods and the worse ones haha we haven't tried Orijen or Acana because they are very expensive and as much as I love Gator, I do draw a line haha. Plus I have heard that they have changed the recipe so it's not as good now AND decreased bag size but kept the price the same. That seems to be the case with a lot of foods these days :/

We rotate monthly or at least when the bag runs out. He doesn't eat much for as big as he is.

Hope this is helpful. 

All of these foods are available on Chewy.com (we love them although now that they have gotten bigger some prices have increased :/ ) and several at TSC too or any pet store.


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