help with cooked food diet

[milliegirl]

hi, can some one please help me
how much do i feed my 3 month old pup when making my own meals for her she likes beef-chicken-turkey-liver-lamb, all from a good butchers used for years.
how much do i give her with rice and veg added.
there would be no added salt-sugar etc other than what is in the food itself. no convenient food where you just put it in the microwave.
pet shops can only tell me how much commercial food she can have but homemade they have no idea.
hope someone can help
many thanks

[emmabeth]

http://www.amazon.com/Home-Prepared-Dog ... 0813821495

READ the reviews before buying.

http://www.amazon.com/Pitcairns-Complet ... F8&s=books

Ditto.

Home cooked diets are VERY risky.

How do you intend to provide bone? You cant cook that, and dogs do need it, for its calcium content, for chewing, for teeth cleaning.

You can supplement calcium, but be warned. Get it wrong and you can do SERIOUS damage to your dog. Overdosing can cause the bones to grow too fast which can cause serious joint and tendon problems and worsen predisposed ones (like hip dysplasia, a crippling condition)... underdose and the dogs bones wont develop properly with similar results, crippled dog.

Where commercial petfood has its advantage is this, it WILL have the correct calcium levels in it.

Raw feeding does too. Cooked feeding doesnt, and its horribly easy to get iit wrong.

The roasted ones int he pet shop are no safer than a bone you cook at home btw.


You will have to search the internet more for sites for home cooked dog food, DO be aware that some diets are better tahn others, and just like with commerical foods, some will suit, some wont.

Id avoid feeding grains, oats are usually not too bad, ditto rice. If you rely on one food source for too long you are more likely to find your dog develops an allergy to it, especially with grains that are not a natural food for dogs.

I feed my dogs a diet that is primarily meat, meaty bones, veg/offal, fish. No grains at all.

Personally, if you wont feed raw, id stick to a good brand of complete dog food, Nature Diet is a good quality wet food, natures menu is also pretty good.

Em

[milliegirl]

thanks for that advice will look at some websites un do some more research.
she does not like dried food if it is wet, does prefere our food, commerical food like pedigree gives her the runs, does not like butchers-winalot (they are the only commercal ones that do puppy food).
Does not like natures way she a funny dog or should i say fussy dog.

thanks
wendy

[emmabeth]

Whats happening when you try her on a new food?

I ask because at 3months old, you can only have had her a max of say 6 weeks, more likely four.

Four weeks is not a long time to make the point to a pup that 'this is your food, eat it or go with out' which if you feed a complete diet you MUST do, or your dog will quickly cotton on that if she refuses, she gets offered something nicer..... and youve tried at least four different brands in that time... so id guess she HAS learned that if she holds out you will offer something new.

Which food is it you tried, Natures MENU (made by Anglian Meat Products) or Nature DIET, different company.

Both are very good wet foods.


Em

[KathyM]

I was just about to recommend Nature Diet or Nature's Menu. I think you can cook the Nature's Menu frozen foods too from what they advised me when I was looking for a rice free alternative to Nature Diet for Dharma.

I have done the Pitcairn diet and the book is really helpful, BUT, it's very hard work and extremely time consuming (and expensive) for basically a very similar outcome to Nature Diet. I would say hands down Nature Diet is better than the Pitcairn diet was, purely for the amount of effort it took to do the meals. You get a very similar result from Nature Diet and don't have to worry about dosages of what Pitcairn calls the "Healthy Powder" etc. Also can be difficult to source ingredients for the Pitcairn diet.