I'm Making Homemade Dog Food

Sometimes I feel like I'm doing something wrong with raising my dogs! It seems like almost every dog I've had, needed some sort of special diet. Either from allergies or illnesses, I've had to cook for them! I've even had to make homemade treats for one of my dogs! Pumpkin Biscotti he absolutely loved, but was soooo time consuming to make. Here's my Hogan (he passed away at age 9 years), who developed food allergies and would get terrible ear infections from store-bought treats ...

A few months ago, my vet told me that my Paisley was overweight and I needed to change her diet. Now mind you, just 2 short years ago when Margo was a puppy I was told she had food allergies that were causing her failure to thrive. The food she was eating was going right through her instead of absorbing into her system. She was constantly hungry, had diarrhea, ate the other dogs poop all the time and wasn't gaining any weight. I went through soooo many dog foods trying to find something that helped. After numerous brands and products, I finally found one that worked and all 3 of my dogs have been on it since. These are my 3 current furbabies (Paisley age 3, Chesney age 7 and Margo-Rita age 2) ...

Now, my vet was telling me I had to change Paisley's diet, so initally I shrugged it off. However, the last couple of weeks I finally admitted that she was overweight and I started looking into healthier food. Well, that 'fresh food' that we keep seeing advertised? Yeah, that would cost me over $200 A WEEK!! for all 3 of my dogs. If I only order for Paisley, it would be over $60 a week. I figured I'd try homemade first.

I remember my vet explaining that most dry dog food is made up of mostly carbs, which causes weight gain. He suggested that I cut her dry food down from 1.5 cups a serving to 1/4 - 1/2 cup, add 1 cup of leafy vegetables, and 1/4-1/2 cup meat protein. I remember laughing at the time imagining feeding my dogs a handful of lettuce.

But I decided to give it a try. I checked my freezer to see what meats I had on hand. I ended up grilling 1 pound of hamburger, a boneless porkchop, a boneless chicken breast and 1 pound of liver and chopped it all up. Then I steamed some sweet potatoes, spinach and green beans, and chopped them all up. I grabbed some baggies, measured out about 1/2 cup of meat and 1 cup of veggies. I only used about half of all the meat when I ran out of the veggies and came out with 7 servings. Which if I only feed Paisley this, would last 3.5 days. I added 1/2 cup of dry dog food at feeding time and she loves it! I also added a little spoonful to the other dogs dishes and they love it too!

Today, I decided to try a new (hopefully cheaper and longer lasting) recipe. I took the leftover chopped up meat, a container of fresh Spring Greens and some frozen berries. I know, the berries are added sugar, but it's all I had lol. I chopped everything up, measured them out and came up with 12 servings! That sounds much better to me lol. I'll be starting Paisley on this new diet tomorrow, so hopefully she likes it. The vet had suggested adding a little bit of beef broth if she doesnt like it, so I'll try that when I mix in her dry food if needed.

Funny side note ... today is Wednesday, I just started Paisley on the new diet on Sunday night. The hubs was laying on the couch, petting Paisley last night (Tuesday night - so only 3 full days on the diet) and says to me "Do you think she lost any weight yet?" I just kinda looked at him dumbfounded and said "If she did, we need to eat this diet too!"

Have you ever made dog food? I'd love to hear your story. And if you have any recipes, I'd love to try them out! Feel free to share below, or add them to my Facebook page (link below).

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Here's a picture of Paisley as she is now at 88 pounds. Hopefully she'll be a lot thinner and healthier the next time I share a pic of her ...

xoxo

Dawn