home cooked diet? am i feeding rigt

[master2]

Hello

recently I have had to feed my GSD a cooked diet and I want to make sure I am feeding him right.

Sherlock was on a raw diet like my Italian spinone but Sherlock started throwing up really badly and once the vet ruled out any medical problems and said he was fine it was just the throwing up he was taken of raw and was fed a dry food for 4weeks and he improved straight away after being taken off raw after 4weeks the vet tried raw again as he said raw was the best to feed any dog but that it dose not agree with all dogs. once he was fed raw again he threw up. we then knew 100% it was raw, however I did not want to feed dry and Sherlock did not seem to finish the bowl so I decided that I would buy the food myself and cook his meals rather than feed him raw I looked in to home cooking diets for dogs and this is what he has been fed for the past 2months and seems so much brighter and happier and is still at his ideal weight and his fit and healthy and is finally running around like normal again playing with Watson.

Sherlock's Meal plan/

Monday

morning: Scrambled egg (I use 2 eggs) with veg and chopped apples. (I use 2 small apples and veg is mashed up like how he had it when fed raw)

Evening: haddock or cod fillet, veg, sweet potato

Tuesday

Morning: cooked liver with veg, fruit
Evening: Chicken breast fillet with butternut squash ,veg

Wednesday

Morning: Porridge oats with natural yogurt and fruit
Evening: sardines with zucchini noodles (I turn a fresh zucchini into noodle shape) and veg

Thursday

Morning: scrambled egg, veg, fruit ( I use 2 eggs)
Evening: Lamb with butternut squash and veg

Friday

Morning: Cooked liver with veg, fruit
Evening: salmon fillet with sweet potato and veg

Saturday

Morning: Porridge oats with natural yogurt and fruit
Evening: sirloin steak fillet with butternut squash and veg (sometimes as a treat I feed plain boiled pasta instead of the sweet potato)

Sunday

Morning: scrambled egg, veg, fruit (I use 2 eggs)
Evening: Sunday roast/ chicken breast fillet, veg, normal potato's (I use doggy gravy and he dose not have a Yorkshire pudding)

dose this sound ok as my neighbour said he was not getting the right nutriments that he needs although she feeds her dogs pedigree .

and dose anyone know how I could make my own gravy for him as I know the doggy gravy from petsathome is not healthy.

Many thank
Maaster2, Sherlock and Watson

[master2]

Hi

I forgot to say when I feed egg I crush the shell into a powder and sprinkle it on top of the oats and yogurt meal on wed and sat.

also I don't add anything to the scrambled I just scrambled the egg I don't use butter or oil.

[JudyN]

I don't know much about cooked dog diets, but there's a lot of variety there... And OH says can he come and live with you because it's better than what he gets!

[master2]

Hi JudyN

thanks for your reply

I just phoned my mom who feeds raw and she tends to know a lot about diets for dogs. she said the same as you that there is good variety there. but she said that I should swap the oats and yogurt meal for another egg meal as eggs are very healthy for dogs and that I should only give liver once a week.

im looking forward to what others say and if you or anyone else on the forum thinks it might be better to give egg rather than oats and yogurt. that means I would be feeding 2 eggs, 6x a week would that be ok?

[Fundog]

Hi, the bone and organ ratios in cooked should still be pretty close to what they are in raw, I believe. So the liver should comprise no more than 10% of his diet by weight (so for every ten ounces of meat, one ounce of that would be liver or kidney or other secreting organ).

Your best indicator, or course would be in the stools as well as his overall appearance of vitality (and blood work can be helpful too). If the stools are good, then your ratios of bone meal and organ are probably balanced. Though the oats and veggies could play a role too.

[master2]

Hi Fundog

thanks for your reply.

he does not eat any bone meals as he does not like them and I thought cooked bones were bad.

so would feeding him liver twice a week be ok.

and what about egg 6 times a week. im not really following a raw diet.

[JudyN]

It doesn't matter how often you feed liver, it's the overall percentage that is important. A lot in one go would give some dogs a runny bum, so they would be better with a little every day. Ideally it would be 5% liver and 5% other offal.

Twelve eggs a week sounds like an awful lot to me. I'd give extra meat instead.

You shouldn't give cooked bones, but you might be able to find ground bone which may be a useful addition.

[Fundog]

Yeah, what I mean by "bone meal" is an actual ground bone meal in powder form -- or as you're doing, ground up egg shells-- you can buy bone meal online, if none of your local stores have it.

Cooked bones are bad. But even dogs on a cooked diet need bone in some form, hence the bone meal powder or ground egg shells. The calcium helps to balance out the higher phosphorous content of the cooked diet.