hiitdogs and dog lovers -- cooking for your dog?

hottiescientist

hottiescientist

Cathlete
Hi all! So, I have a wonderful dog named Evee (face of a lab, front of a pitbull, behind of a greyhound) in my life for almost 3 months now. She's acclimated beautifully to my me and husband and I can't imagine a world without her anymore. I do my best to take care of her but also in my budget. I was thinking about cooking for her, and I was wondering what things I could give her or any meals that you guys give your dogs. Some specific questions -- can I give her edamame pods? She seems to go for them...can she have soy? which vegetables should I avoid? (I know I shouldn't give her onions for example)... what kinds of meat do you give your dog? Do you ever cook them for him/her? Any advice is greatly welcomed.

(Just FYI -- I've been giving her Natural Balance with good results. However, I just got turned on to the rather expensive Lotus Dog food but man, she loves it and it just seems soooo good for her. It seems I can only really get them in SoCal though there is national wide shipping: http://www.lotuspetfoods.com/dogfood_chicken.html. That said, the food is more concentrated so I should see how much more I really get out of a 30lb bag...)

Thank you in advance!
 
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I don't have an answer, but can we get a picture? That's a Heinz 57 dog if I ever heard of one. Sounds like a cutie. I love mutt dogs:):):)

Nan
 
Sure, let's see...

This is her with our friend:

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This is her full profile....

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And this is one of my favorite pictures of her...

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hottiescientist said:
Hi all! So, I have a wonderful dog named Evee (face of a lab, front of a pitbull, behind of a greyhound) in my life for almost 3 months now. She's acclimated beautifully to my husband and I can't imagine a world without her anymore. I do my best to take care of her but also in my budget. I was thinking about cooking for her, and I was wondering what things I could give her or any meals that you guys give your dogs. Some specific questions -- can I give her edamame pods? She seems to go for them...can she have soy? which vegetables should I avoid? (I know I shouldn't give her onions for example)... what kinds of meat do you give your dog? Do you ever cook them for him/her? Any advice is greatly welcomed.

(Just FYI -- I've been giving her Natural Balance with good results. However, I just got turned on to the rather expensive Lotus Dog food but man, she loves it and it just seems soooo good for her. It seems I can only really get them in SoCal though there is national wide shipping: http://www.lotuspetfoods.com/dogfood_chicken.html. That said, the food is more concentrated so I should see how much more I really get out of a 30lb bag...)

Thank you in advance!
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Very cute pictures!!!

I use ground turkey for meat with chopped carrots, and some green beans for veggies. I use turmeric powder, little bit of minced garlic, minced ginger, and salt for seasoning. I make it a little wet so when I reheat the meat over brown rice, the rice gets nice flavor. It's simple and my dogs like it.

Penny
 
I cook rice and vegetables--carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, garlic all together in one big pot usually my pressure cooker. The combination of vegies varies. I think it is best to avoid broccoli. Separately I cook whatever meat or chicken-- I will then add to the vegie and rice mixture. I buy chicken, beef either ground or stew beef, and sometimes lamb patties that my local butcher sells. Usually I saute the meat but occasionally I grill it on an electric counter top grill. They love that and the cats will eat it too. You can make enough to freeze in individual servings tho I tend to keep the 2 two things separate and then mix it when I feed them. I find cooking for the dogs easier than hauling around the big bags of kibble plus I am completely suspicious of pet food no matter where it comes from.
 
I forgot to mention one of the recipes has beer or wine added and I have not researched the benifit of that as I would never give my dogs any alcohol.
 
For the recipes above that add garlic, in an excess of caution, I would recommend skipping it, as I believe that garlic is a member of the onion family and onions can be fatal to dogs.
 
I found this book at my library and copied their recipes:

Better Food For Dogs

I can't remember if they feature a list of foods that are off limits, but I would imagine that's in there. If not, definitely Google it. Most of the lists agree with each other. Chocolate, onions, garlic, grapes, raisins, and macadamia nuts are the ones that come to mind right away for me.

Like Phyllis, I cook up brown rice and veggies. The above mentioned book gives you a list to work with so you can change it up from week to week. I add to that some kind of cooked meat ~ fish, chicken, beef ~ and throw in cheese and fruit. The veggies and fruit are pureed to make them easier to digest.

I have found it very easy to cook for Snoopy (I sometimes bake for him too...heh). I set aside about an hour on Sunday to cook up a huge pot and then separate it into bags as single-serving portions. That way whoever is available to feed him at the time can just reach into the fridge or freezer, grab a bag, and warm it up in a bowl. Just as easy as scooping out of a bag of dried dog food (only a lot healthier). And he practically turns inside out as I approach his food dish. :)

Regarding the budget, I plan both his and our meals around the sale paper. So if ground beef is on sale, that means he's getting beef, and DH and the kids are getting spaghetti and meatballs. It works out great.

Your Evee is adorable. <3
 
Morningstar, I agree about the garlic. I don't put any in my dogs homemade recipes. I have seen a lot of recipes for dogs that use it and have read that it is supposed to be a flea repelant but don't trust using it because it is in the onion family.
 
I put one large clove of garlic in 2 cups of uncooked rice. That makes quite a few meals so from what I have read that is OK. I liked the idea of fruit especially apples which I have not tried. Sometimes I make them brown rice with sweet potatoes and egg and some cheese. One egg for 2 dogs--they love this. That is sort of a treat they get for breakfast once a week. Actually talking about this here makes me realize I have fun doing this and coming up with food I know they will enjoy.
 
PhyllisG said:
One egg for 2 dogs--they love this. That is sort of a treat they get for breakfast once a week. Actually talking about this here makes me realize I have fun doing this and coming up with food I know they will enjoy.
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Hee...I do this too. I love making eggs and potatoes for the family on the weekend, my fur baby included. :)
 
Oh thanks for all the input -- I only buy stuff on sale -- i'm cursing myself for not buying more of that lotus stuff actually. You see, I'm allergic to full price. ;)

I learned about onions sort of the hard way with Evee...my DH was grilling some and he put them on a plate and next thing I see is Evee eating some and her mouth frothing. That was fun -- hello human I just met a short time ago, why are you shoving your hand into my mouth?? I give her super chopped up stalks of broccoli raw sometimes but more like a treat on top of her normal dog food. But the purree'ing is a good idea. The dog I grew up with as a child loved cheese...I haven't tried dairy products on Evee just yet. The ground turkey dish that one of you mentioned sounds like a real Indian dish (keema) that I make. I'll keep that in mind. The egg and potatoes sound great considering that my favorite breakfast.

Actually, this is a cute story that backfired on me. Evee was really beggy when we were eating. One night I had made super spicy chicken curry and she just wouldn't get off my case. Finally, after I finished all the food on my plate, I thought, heh -- the dog can no way handle this heat. I'll let her lick off the plate and maybe it'll teach her not to beg. So I put the plate down near her food and water bowl. I watch. She licks the curry plate. I swear, Evee was smiling. But then she shoved her mouth into the water bowl. But then back to the curry plate. And then back to the water bowl! And so on! I was both thrilled that she loved spicy food and flabbergasted because I made the begging worse for sure...
 
What a pretty dog!! Congrats on the new addition.

I do the same thing Lori does, I pre-cook and put the stuff in those food saver baggies and put it in the fridge or freezer.

I rotate home cooked, raw and sometimes Nature's Variety frozen patties or kibble. Raw is whatever I can get (I try to find organic), chicken legs, chicken wings, lamb shanks, meaty bones (mostly buffalo), etc or the Nature's Variety patties - those get kind of expensive though with 5 dogs :eek:

I cook brown rice, oats, millet or whatever grain I have available and mix it with ground meat but I don't cook the meat, I just mix it with the hot grain. For veggies I use whatever I get from the local farmer's market, beans, carrots, broccoli (in moderation), cauliflower, etc. or whatever pulp I have from making my juice. I also add some ginger, flaxseeds and / or oil (I use Udo's 3-6-9 or Dream Coat by Halo) and an herbal anti-inflammatory called Zyflamend, daily for one of my dogs because of hip dysplasia and after a long run or if they went to their herding or agility classes and had a "hard work day" :D

I am not sure I am buying the thing about garlic being bad for dogs, Dr. Pitcairn recommends it in his books, I have used it with my dogs for years, not a lot but some and they are in pretty good shape and their bloodwork is fine.

I use Flying Basset Organics Daily Maintenance Nutritional Complex which is a whole food based vitamin supplement and additional vitamin C but only when I feed with grains, no additional vitamins on a daily basis.

HTH!
 
Hey carola

Yeah, I think I want to rotate like you do. My mother warned me crazy no to let the dog have wet food. My childhood dog would go on literal hunger strikes when she knew of better food. So once we got her canned and she just stopped eating the dry. And then we got her better canned and refused to eat the other stuff. I keep her on dry for the most part but I would like to rotate the food more often. I've also been giving her glucosamine because I think her joints bother her sometimes. At first I was worried about the way she ran (like both hind feet are off the ground at the same time) but apparently this is more common in greyhounds but she sits really weird. She always sits at a side angle and slides her butt down the floor -- maybe almost like a side saddle?. Never a sit the way I've seen it in other dogs (I'm comparing to retrievers and german shepherds mostly though). She's doing better with the glucosamine it seems and after making DH back off on running her so much (it was a bit hard since he loved losing the weight from his four legged personal trainer).

Perhaps its garlic in excess? A little garlic or maybe if its cooked probably is fine...though its all confusing. My mother didn't believe me that some dogs were lactose intolerant because my dog had milk every morning. I'm sure a lot of this is breed specific...
 
I have cooked for my dogs for many years and have always added a small amount of garlic. There are quite a few dog recipes out there that recommend it. I spoke to a friend who is a dog breeder, trainer and nutritionist and he gives his dogs garlic. He has 18 of them! His dogs sell for over $3000 fully trained. He really has an amazing set up for the dogs and they are very well cared for. I would watch the broccoli tho. I have a friend whose dog ended up in the ER after eating too many meals containing broccoli. He collapsed and the vet traced it to the broccoli in the homecooked food.
 
No idea about the safety of garlic (aside from what the article said), but I can only imagine what my life would be like with three wieners running around the house with garlic breath! Their breath is bad enough as is! ;) And broccoli in their food??? Talk about clearing out a room! ;)
 
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