Thinking of switching to homecooked meals instead of commercial

BryanAndLarrysMama

BryanAndLarrysMama

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We have two male sibling Shelties who will be 1yr old on July 16th. Week before last one of them, Larry, suddenly refused to eat his food. Pro Plan Plus Savour chicken/rice flavour. He would eat his treats (apples, carrot, berries) but no way would he eat his kibble. On the Friday he threw up a few times, even when just eating boiled chicken and rice. That same day his brother, Bryan, also threw up and refused his kibble. We decided to go to the vet the next day. That morning, Saturday, Larry pooped a huge puddle of blood. We rushed them to the vet hospital ER. Tests showed that it wasn't pancreatitis and no foreign objects. They had a bacterial infection from an unknown source. The vet thinks perhaps it was the food, as they were turned off THAT food, but not their fruit treats. Larry spent 24hrs in the hospital and Bryan came home. Both spent the week on medications and probiotics, and homemade food.

So that's the history....

We're reluctant to go back to commercial food. We lost a pet years ago due to contaminated food. I can't even think of letting these guys go back to food.

I discovered BalancIT supplement powder, which looks promising and have ordered it. The boys LOVE their homemade food (chicken, brown rice, carrot, brocolli, keeping a bit of variety like a spoon of pumpkin in it) and their energy is super high and they feel good.

Is anyone else making homemade cooked food for their doggos? Supplementing anything? I'd love to hear what you are doing.

Please don't hate - if you have constructive criticism I am certainly open to it. I made homemade food for our malamute years ago and he thrived, so homemade isn't new to me, but homemade for two shelties is.
 
I make home-cooked for several of my dogs who have medical issues...one, for skin allergies and one, for early stage kidney failure. I use the recipes from Natures Farmacy, and my dogs have done very well on them. Their experts there are great and happy to talk to you and advise on making your own food, or help you adapt a food to a medical condition. My vet has also endorsed the recipes I'm using in conjunction with their supplements.

I rotate proteins between turkey, chicken, beef and pork, and use ground meat for all of them. I make enough for about two weeks and freeze food in containers. I toss everything except the supplements in the slow cooker, meat, veggies, etc. and cook it that way so it's super easy. My other dogs get home cooked for one meal a day since cooking for 5 is a lot! I feel good about what they eat and they love their food. If you have any questions or want more information, feel free to PM me. I did post my supplements on the other food thread where you asked the question.
 
BalanceIT is a very popular way of doing home cooking for IBD dogs. We don't have access here so I've paid for a veterinary nutritionist to do a couple of meal plans for my girl.

I did used to cook for my dogs for many years, but they always had kibble for breakfast to ensure they got a balance of essential nutrients.
 
I can certainly understand why you'd want to switch to home cooked, especially after what you just went through with them! While this never happened to my dogs this is the exact reason I stopped feeding kibble!
I don't feed a cooked (I do a mix of raw and dehydrated raw) but my boys love their food! I agree with what Ann said that you want to switch your proteins and you'll have to add supplements because you lose some of the nutrients by cooking. I don't add a lot of nutrients (you can easily go overboard) but I do give a fish oil (with vitamin E) as well as Green Lipped Mussel and kelp powder and they get a raw bone every other day.
 
I've been feeding raw for 20 years. There's tons of info out there and tons of theories. You can get lost in the weeds pretty easy reading some of the arguments about what is best. Back when I started, it was just Dr. Billinghurst and a few other vets touting the switch back to real food for dogs.
Some raw feeder groups go a tad nuts, IMHO, with the daily diet. My guys get meat, bone, veggies every day. I used to supplement with salmon oil or fish oil. It was expensive, a pain in the butt and could go rancid fast. So this year I switched to adding a bit of sardines everyday. If you are interested in raw, be happy to help. PM me.
 
Ann said:
I make home-cooked for several of my dogs who have medical issues...one, for skin allergies and one, for early stage kidney failure. I use the recipes from Natures Farmacy, and my dogs have done very well on them. Their experts there are great and happy to talk to you and advise on making your own food, or help you adapt a food to a medical condition. My vet has also endorsed the recipes I'm using in conjunction with their supplements.

I rotate proteins between turkey, chicken, beef and pork, and use ground meat for all of them. I make enough for about two weeks and freeze food in containers. I toss everything except the supplements in the slow cooker, meat, veggies, etc. and cook it that way so it's super easy. My other dogs get home cooked for one meal a day since cooking for 5 is a lot! I feel good about what they eat and they love their food. If you have any questions or want more information, feel free to PM me. I did post my supplements on the other food thread where you asked the question.
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Can you provide a link to the recipes from Natures Farmacy, Please.
 
It's been over a year since we switched to the homemade diet. We use Balance IT, switch the proteins around, use quinoa you name it. Our vet approved the diet, and says our boys are super healthy. We had blood work done at their last vet visit (yesterday!) and everything is within perfect ranges for them, and their coats are just glorious. We do use Fortiflora from the vet daily, too. Once in a while I wonder if we should switch to a regular food, but the boys love their food, I love making it (even with the price of meat going through the roof thanks to the pandemic), and it's part of our daily routine now.
 
BryanAndLarrysMama said:
It's been over a year since we switched to the homemade diet. We use Balance IT, switch the proteins around, use quinoa you name it. Our vet approved the diet, and says our boys are super healthy. We had blood work done at their last vet visit (yesterday!) and everything is within perfect ranges for them, and their coats are just glorious. We do use Fortiflora from the vet daily, too. Once in a while I wonder if we should switch to a regular food, but the boys love their food, I love making it (even with the price of meat going through the roof thanks to the pandemic), and it's part of our daily routine now.
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That’s wonderful that it’s going so well, thanks for the update!
Not sure where you source your meat from but you could check out any raw feeding groups in your area and look for any co-ops. I mention the raw just because some producers sell and post on these groups. You can still cook it.
I purchase a ground beef as well as chicken meat and have even seen fish available. If your doing a cooked diet I’d just avoid any meat that has bone in it. It’s still expensive but not quite as much as bad as grocery store prices.
 
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I finally managed to get some BalanceIT mailed to me. Got held up in customs for months and months the first time but I just ordered another bottle and it got here within a couple of weeks.

It definitely is so much easier to use than second guess vitamins, wish I had known about it years ago. Tully is still on a Vet nutritionist diet but the nutritionist has us supplementing with BalanceIT. I hadn't realised it was actually developed by UC Davis Vet nutritionists. I have sometimes thought about putting the others on home cooked, but I can't be stuffed cooking 3 different meals for the dogs (Tully is on expensive crocodile).
 
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