Jump to Recipe
Bug (short for Bebe pug) is my eleven-twelvemonth-sometime second-born daughter. (The outset existence my 12-year-old pug, Chinki.)
She'south a purebred, built-in from a line of AKC champion pugs, just with that came the typical hereditary joint diseases of overly bred "perfect" pugs.
Don't become me incorrect; Bug is perfect in every which fashion and I wouldn't merchandise her in for annihilation. But raising her these last few years, especially, has taught me a lot virtually dog health and nutrition equally both my girls settle into their senior years.
Simply before she turned 8, Issues started showing signs of degenerative joint disease. Her hips would give out a little every time she walked.
She grew upwardly in one-story homes with difficult floors, and subsequently the motion to our 1920s original bungalow, the split-level rooms and terraced chiliad seemed to exacerbate her status.
Disclosure: All products on this page are independently selected. If y'all buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.
Over the years, her weak hips somewhen gave out and she lost the apply of both of her back legs.
At home, she moves around by dragging her body with her front legs. (She has the strongest front legs of whatever canis familiaris I know!)
When she'southward out and most, she rolls effectually in a domestic dog wheelchair and we can barely keep upwards with her. I almost wait her wheelchair to take flame decals!
If y'all just saw her sitting, you wouldn't know that she had a handicap. She's full of smiles and high spirits, and doesn't seem to realize that she tin't walk on all fours similar her sister tin. She's still a speedy footling thing, especially when it'south meal fourth dimension or beach day!
Issues wasn't e'er like this though. In the month that her hip dysplasia finally advanced, she was weak, tired, frustrated, and we thought for a moment that nosotros were going to lose her.
Since she no longer had control of her hips to squat and potty, she became incontinent for a few weeks. With her historic period, and the fact that she showed no pain in her joints (merely lameness), we opted to skip whatever kind of corrective surgery and approached her condition more holistically.
One of our changes was in diet.
Cooking our way to a healthier dog nutrition
E'er since I started raising my own dogs, I'd ever wanted to brand their food at home but thought it would exist too expensive or too time consuming, or that they wouldn't get the diet they needed.
During the month of Bug'due south doggy low, I vowed to make her precious life (or what I felt might have been the final stages) every bit comfortable as possible.
Both of my pugs had a range of health issues growing up, which I unfortunately found out were mutual for the breed.
My older ane had persistent hot spots and itchiness that no commercial dog food could cure (and I've tried them all, from grain-gratis kibbles to lamb, veal, fish, and many more things she would simply spit out).
Problems was overweight for a while when she was younger, even though she ate the recommended amount of food for her target weight. Eventually, I settled on Wellness kibbles and they did well with that make.
But, I wanted to explore other options. I wanted to give them real food — fresh, nutritious ingredients that I recognized and could even eat myself.
I've mentioned in my post on homemade whole grain chicken feed that the entire household (humans, dogs, and chickens) all share the aforementioned whole grains and seeds that we purchase in bulk, likewise as the compensation that comes from our edible garden.
Everything our animals eat, nosotros can eat. (Well, I'll admit that fig beetles and other bugs are non our thing, only our chickens beloved information technology!)
When it comes to homemade feed for our laying hens, we stick to a tried-and-true formula that works for every layer: 16 to 17 percent protein (adamant past my chicken feed computer), vitamins, minerals, and amino acids from a broad variety of grains and seeds, and free range of a pasture for weeds, greens, and insects.
These numbers vary depending on the age of your chickens, but for optimal health and egg production, it's piece of cake to devise a diet that fits within those parameters.
Dogs, on the other paw, aren't bred for a standard function the way chickens are.
Like humans, dogs' dietary needs tin can vary wildly based on age, brood, health history, and activity level. What works for one dog may not work for some other.
When I first started thinking about this postal service, I near hesitated to share my recipe for homemade domestic dog food since it'due south then tailored to the needs of my pugs.
Simply, I wanted to bear witness other canis familiaris owners that homemade, wholesome, good for you food is possible, and doesn't take much more time than preparing your ain meal at home.
Depending on how many dogs you lot take and how much they consume, you may only need to prepare their nutrient one time or twice a week.
A general guideline for preparing homemade domestic dog nutrient
My DIY dog food recipe is more of a general guideline, rather than an exact meal plan that I follow each week. My dogs' diet changes the same way ours does, depending on what we practise and what we buy or abound.
However, nosotros almost always stay with this basic formula:
- l percent cooked protein
- 25 pct raw vegetables
- 25 percent cooked complex carbohydrates
- Fats and supplements
- Eggshells
Protein is always meat and normally chicken, though nosotros've also used turkey, pork, and beefiness. We feed any and all parts of the animals, only nigh commonly, we saute chicken breasts or chicken thighs in coconut oil and ground turmeric.
Kokosnoot oil has a host of health benefits for dogs, such as improving the pare and coat, increasing energy, aiding digestion, reducing allergic reactions, promoting wound healing, preventing yeast and fungal infections, and supporting arthritis or ligament bug.
Turmeric has long been studied for its powerful medicinal properties, including its utilise as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
We add information technology to the coconut oil since it is fat-soluble, and utilize it to support our pugs' joint health. (Turmeric-spiced night meat craven happens to be quite delectable to a dog!)
Speaking of nighttime meat, we feed thighs and breasts interchangeably. While we'll remove the skin from poultry and trim off excessive fat from red meat, we don't worry nearly ownership the leanest meat possible for our dogs.
A piffling fat is necessary for a well-rounded diet. (If your dog is prone to being overweight, you might want to stick with only lean meats.)
Raw vegetables come from whatever is currently growing in our garden. Sometimes nosotros'll even throw a few pieces of fruit in there, like in the fall when cranberries are in flavour. (Bug has a history of urinary tract infections, and so we typically give her a cranberry supplement as a preventive measure.)
We vary the vegetables each week so the pugs don't swallow too much of any 1 affair. In one meal they might get broccoli, celery, fava edible bean leaves, radishes, and nasturtiums. Sometimes apples, bananas, or feijoas that we choice off our copse… and even herbs, similar salad burnet, basil, or parsley.
This component provides cobweb to support digestive health, also as antioxidants and phytonutrients. In full general, the darker the vegetable, the ameliorate it is nutritionally.
Nosotros feed our dogs all the same vegetables we feed ourselves, and this includes black kale, royal carrots, and green romanesco broccoli. They are garden foodies just like nosotros are!
(Merely please don't think yous have to get this fancy for your homemade dog nutrient recipe — nosotros're simply able to requite our pets all the excess that grows in our garden.)
While this might sound like a lot, keep in mind that we simply need small amounts of each vegetable — a few broccoli florets or stems, a rib of celery, a small scattering of carrot tops.
They tend to exist the "leftovers" in our produce bin, and so we never take to buy, say, a whole head of cauliflower simply for the dogs.
We usually focus on broccoli and broccoli leaves as the primary vegetables because they are exceptionally food dense (particularly the leaves of the found, which nosotros grow in abundance at home).
A recent peer-reviewed medical study has plant that a compound in broccoli, sulforaphane, helps irksome the progress of osteoarthritis.
To a bottom extent other cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage and brussels sprouts, also comprise sulforaphane, but it'southward nearly prevalent in broccoli. In our household, with two aging dogs, articulation wellness is a priority.
The only vegetable nosotros definitely practice non feed our dogs is onion (and related alliums, like leeks and garlic), which contains a toxic chemical compound chosen thiosulphate. Even if ingested in modest amounts, thiosulphate can damage a dog'due south red claret cells and cause hemolytic anemia.
Circuitous carbohydrates typically come up from brown rice, wild rice (or any number of Asian rices the married man and I make at dwelling house, like red or black rice), oats, lentils, split peas, or starchy vegetables similar potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squash. Wild rice, split peas, and lentils, in particular, accept the advantage of also beingness loftier in protein.
These complex carbs provide energy and aid in gastrointestinal function, so don't think of them merely as filler. We switch up this component every week to give some diversity, and sometimes combine a grain with a starchy vegetable (say, brown rice with sweet potatoes).
Fats and supplements round out our homemade dog food, and they're very specific to our pugs' health needs.
Eggshells (from their chicken sisters!) are an important source of calcium and added during the preparation of their food. (Unless you regularly requite your canis familiaris raw meaty bones to chew on, you lot should always supplement with calcium.)
We dole out the rest of their requirements between ii meals a day. Wild Alaskan salmon oil (for omega-3 fatty acids), liquid glucosamine (for joint wellness), and powdered cranberry extract (for urinary health) are given in the morning, while brewer's yeast (for immune arrangement back up) and coconut oil (for overall health) are given in the evening.
Brewer's yeast is too idea to be a natural method for controlling fleas, as its sulfur compounds purportedly make a domestic dog less palatable to them.
(The jury is still out on that i, but I exercise believe in brewer's yeast for its vast array of B vitamins; I even add it to my homemade corn-gratis chicken feed.)
Preparation of our bootleg diet
All of the information to a higher place might seem intimidating, but I assure you that making the actual meals for our dogs takes no more than 20 minutes of actual hands-on time.
First, we cook our complex carbs, whether they're grains, legumes, or starchy vegetables.
While that pot is simmering on the stove, we melt the meat in a separate pan in kokosnoot oil and ground turmeric. After it's cooled a chip, we add chunks of meat to our food processor and pulse until they're broken down into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces.
Then, nosotros gather whatever vegetables or fruits nosotros have in the kitchen (usually an assortment of five or more than things), chop them up every bit needed, and toss them into the nutrient processor.
Nosotros also add a few make clean, crushed eggshells to the mix. A few pulses turns all this food into smaller pieces, making them more than digestible for our dogs.
Finally, we add together the cooled, cooked carbs to the food processor and do a couple more pulses to combine. Everything should have a finely crumbled texture by this signal.
(If you have a heavy hand and accidentally make this mix on the mushy side, that's okay besides.)
Since dogs have short digestive tracts, information technology's crucial that y'all interruption down the food to increase its bioavailability — that is, making all the nutrients in those wholesome ingredients more than digestible in a domestic dog's system.
I prepare enough food to final my two pugs an entire week. It'due south unbelievably easy, and I similar knowing exactly what goes into their nutrient. Friends will lookout u.s.a. feed our pugs and remark that it looks good enough for them to swallow!
Recommended serving amounts for homemade canis familiaris food
Every bit a full general rule, dogs will eat effectually 2 to 3 percent of their ideal body weight in fresh nutrient daily. Larger breeds may need as little every bit 1 1/ii percent, and smaller breeds may need as much as 4 percent.
This works out to be approximately:
- 2 pounds of nutrient per day for a 100-pound dog (two percent of body weight)
- 1 to 1 ane/ii pounds of food per day for a 50-pound domestic dog (2 to 3 percent of body weight)
- i/2 to 3/4 pound of food per twenty-four hour period for a 25-pound dog (2 to 3 percent of torso weight)
- v to half dozen 1/two ounces of nutrient per day for a ten-pound dog (3 to 4 percent of body weight)
There is much variation in what the ideal corporeality should be as information technology depends on how much your dog weighs and how active she is.
I feel that the best approach is to feed and spotter; if your canis familiaris is losing weight, requite more, and if your canis familiaris is gaining weight, give less.
For our pugs, we feed a scoop each in the morning and a scoop each in the evening, plus all their supplements.
Nosotros have an easy system for this: bootleg food is refrigerated in a sealed container with a measuring loving cup (always the same one, equally it portions out the exact amount of food needed), and all the supplements are lined up together in a closet in the kitchen. Keeping your ingredients organized and attainable will make feeding time fast and smooth.
Compared to feeding commercial food, where you might scoop out kibbles or open up a can, feeding homemade nutrient with all the supplements takes mayhap 10 seconds more. And fifty-fifty if it took 10 minutes more, fresh wholesome nutrient for our furbabies is worth it.
Transitioning to bootleg dog nutrient
Most dogs don't accept a trouble making the switch to bootleg food. If yours is prone to digestive issues, start slowly past mixing a little bit of the homemade food with the commercial food.
Over the course of a week or two, gradually increase the amount of bootleg food while decreasing the commercial food.
If your domestic dog vomits or has diarrhea, attempt introducing only a couple of new ingredients at a time until their systems are well adjusted to the fresh diet.
For dogs with health issues, please consult with a veterinarian (preferably a holistic one) if yous aren't sure what kind of supplements are needed. Use your best judgment, the manner yous would when feeding yourself or your family.
The results from feeding our DIY canis familiaris food
Back to the story of Bug…
Later on only a couple of weeks of feeding her a bootleg diet, the hubby and I were diddled abroad by how much her mental and physical wellness improved. And we wholeheartedly believe she was able to bounce back considering of her new food.
She went from an bilious, wearied, incontinent, tail-down dog to a happy, energetic, curious, chatty pup. While she isn't miraculously walking again, her hip dysplasia too hasn't progressed or caused her whatsoever hurting.
We've learned to watch for signs that she needs to relieve herself (past the fashion she barks or sits) as nosotros've realized she knows when she has to go, she just can't get there without our help.
Nosotros feed both of our pugs the same food, with the hope that nosotros can stave off whatever potential health issues for our older one.
When we travel, nosotros'll bring their homemade food on the road in a cooler. On occasion, we've even ordered their dinner from a eating house when we ran out of food (a beefiness patty, steamed veggies, and scrambled eggs can be found near anywhere).
If we're camping, we'll commonly just feed them whatever we're cooking in camp — they love corn on the cob, hobo packs (vegetables cooked in foil packets), and the whole assortment of tri-tip, sausages, and ribs that we've usually got going on.
As you might imagine… they love camping ground trips!
Bootleg dog nutrient gives us the flexibility to fine-tune their diet as needed. I'chiliad forever grateful for the extra time we were given with our dearest Bug as a result of the food we chose to feed her.
Since the switch to a homemade diet several years agone, neither of our pugs has suffered from their previous bug; no dermatitis, no weight gain, and no urinary tract infections. They've slowed downwardly in their old age, just their spirits are nevertheless as immature as tin exist.
Update: This article originally appeared on July fourteen, 2014. Issues was euthanized at home in June 2017, at fourteen years old, afterwards fighting the good fight with her articulation affliction.
Chinki died in her sleep from natural causes in March 2018 at the thou onetime age of 16 years "young"! Both pugs thrived on bootleg canis familiaris nutrient well into their senior years.
Bootleg Dog Food Sources
Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor | Viva Naturals Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil | Borderland Co-Op Organic Ground Turmeric Root | Grizzly Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil | Liquid Health Naturals K9 Glucosamine | Solid Gold Drupe Balance Supplement Powder | NaturVet Brewer's Dried Yeast
Prep Time xv minutes
Melt Time 20 minutes
Additional Fourth dimension 5 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons kokosnoot oil
- Footing turmeric for seasoning
- 2 1/2 pounds raw boneless meat of choice
- 1 pound raw vegetables of choice
- 1 pound cooked circuitous carbohydrates, cooled
- four make clean crushed eggshells
Instructions
- Rut a large skillet over medium-high heat. Melt the coconut oil in the skillet and swirl it around to coat the surface.
- Season the meat generously with ground turmeric. Add the meat to the skillet and saute on both sides until fully cooked (time varies according to the thickness and type of meat used).
- Transfer the meat to a cut lath. When cool enough to handle, coarsely chop the meat into 1-inch chunks. Set aside.
- Coarsely chop the vegetables into 1-inch chunks. Set aside.
- If your cooked circuitous sugar is a grain (like rice) or legume (similar lentils), you can leave information technology whole. If it's a starchy vegetable (similar sweet potato), coarsely chop it into 1-inch chunks and set aside.
- Add the eggshells to the bowl of a nutrient processor and pulse until finely crumbled.
- Add the meat and vegetables and pulse until finely chopped. (You may piece of work in batches, if necessary.)
- Add together the cooked carbs and pulse a few times to combine. You want the mixture to be fluffy, not mushy.
- Transfer the mixture to a big basin, cover, and refrigerate. (Alternatively, yous tin can transfer all or part of the mixture to a resealable plastic bag and freeze for hereafter use. Thaw the frozen food in the refrigerator before using.)
- To serve, scoop the nutrient into a basin for your domestic dog. (Come across Notes below for recommended serving amounts.)
Notes
Suggestions for Ingredients
- Meats: chicken, turkey, beef, bison, pork, lamb, venison
- Vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, zucchini, summer squash, spinach, kale, collard greens, chard, thawed frozen peas
- Circuitous carbohydrates: brownish rice, wild rice, quinoa, lentils, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, winter squash
Recommended Serving Amounts
- 2 pounds of food per mean solar day for a 100-pound dog (ii per centum of trunk weight)
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of food per solar day for a 50-pound canis familiaris (two to 3 per centum of torso weight)
- 1/two to 3/iv pound of food per day for a 25-pound dog (2 to iii per centum of body weight)
- 5 to 6 i/2 ounces of food per day for a 10-pound dog (3 to 4 percent of torso weight)
This data is not intended to replace professional person medical advice. Every dog'due south dietary needs are different. Delight consult with your veterinarian and utilise personal judgment when applying this information to your own domestic dog's nutrition.
This information is not intended to replace professional person medical advice. Every dog'due south dietary needs are different. Please consult with your veterinarian and employ personal judgment when applying this information to your ain dog's diet.
DOWNLOAD HERE
Posted by: grissomhishave.blogspot.com
0 Komentar
Post a Comment