Feeding Homemade Food

[Gigi]

I believe my dog is a Basenji mix, still haven't done the DNA testing, but will be doing it soon. She is almost 1 year old now and we're still having issues with her nipping and being very strong willed. Her diet consisted of Primal Dehydrated Nuggets and Orijen Raw Dry food, she's very solid, strong & healthy, but I am concerned about this raw diet adding to any aggression issues. She is at her worst after eating...super high energy and nippy.

So, I decided a week ago to switch her to a homemade organic diet of chicken, turkey, wild-caught salmon, sardines, eggs, most green vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and pumpkin, apples, banana's, yogurt and oatmeal, brown rice, organ meat once a month or so...supplemented with Dinovite and bone meal and powdered eggshells for calcium. The transition went smooth because she was already eating all those foods as well, she's just eating them 100% now - and she is very happy about it.

I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything or giving her something she shouldn't be having. I am trying to do a healthy ratio of protein, carbs and little grains. I am finding this way of feeding her so easy and less stressful because it's the same foods my husband and I eat, plus it totally eliminated my concern of dog food recalls. I'm happy to be off the store bought dog food wagon! Thank you for any suggestions and help with this!

[elbrant]

This afternoon I told my son that I thought a good name (for our "invisible dog" would be "zuzu". :D What are the odds?
[ps/ I don't actually think I have an invisible dog. We just haven't gotten her yet.]

Can I ask (as well)... are you feeding raw or cooked meats/veggies? I was considering a fresh diet for our future dog as well, but hadn't sorted out the logistics yet. Are you simply setting aside a portion for your Zuzu before you cook your dinner? Are you tackling this as weekly meal prep? Or are you doing one of those CrockPot volume cooked frozen portion recipes? (say that 3 times fast!) Thanks for the topic...

[Gigi]

How funny that you thought of that name for your "invisible dog."

My dog was on a freeze-dried raw food since she was a couple of months old. Right now I'm cooking her food with mine and my husbands' meals being we eat basically most of the same foods. It's easy enough to just add some extra foods for her - and I'm finding that it really saves money too. I make enough to last her a couple of meals at a time. it's important to give a supplement to make sure they're covered nutritionally - and most importantly you have to give a good calcium supplement to balance all the phosphorus they get from eating meat. Too much phosphorus can cause problems with the kidneys, etc.. I just learned that I'm better off giving her ground up organic eggshells as her calcium source than bone meal (bone meal can be contaminated). I'll be returning the bone meal tomorrow and ordering an eggshell product for pets at Amazon. What I plan to do is make her Doggie Meatballs adding a few ingredients to them and those I will freeze. Some people bake them in a muffin tin, it's so easy just to give them a meatball or two for each meal, just have to be sure to change up the recipe so they get a good variety of foods. YouTube has some "how to" videos that I found useful. I'm like the mad scientist right now...researching and learning fast!

[elbrant]

@Gigi Before you buy a calcium product... it is my understanding that you can dry out your morning egg shells and grind them (in a coffee grinder) to produce your own unadulterated pure calcium powder. Obviously less expensive as you are about to throw away the egg shells anyway. And you will know that the calcium hasn't been cut with other ingredients, it's just pure egg shell. I don't remember which website I read that on, but it seems both logical and reasonable. The only thing I would add is that you might want to pick up an inexpensive grinder just for the egg shells, so your pup isn't getting any morning brew. (Also, no clue on the shelf life of egg shell calcium powder.)

[kjdonkers]

Please don't feed carbs and grains. It's not what dogs eat. They do well on meat and vegetables. If you want to make it yourself you cand find input online: e.g. https://www.wildatheartpets.com/pages/what-to-feed-how-much. What I have seen in our dogs and other dogs who went from kibble to raw is that they became healthier all around. Good luck with Zuzu!

[Gigi]

Hi Again, I have not been able to get on the forums since I last posted, been getting errors telling me that I don't have permission to access certain areas, which turned out to be all areas. Was instructed to change my password a few times, but still couldn't access. I was just pleasantly surprised I was able to access this forum now. Hope it lasts. I'm responding to all posters in this one post because I don't want to get shut out again...lol

Elbrant, thanks for responding. I'm giving my dog grounded organic eggshells. I've been grounding them in a Bullet for my cockatoo parrot for a while and figured I might as well give them to her too. I'm still not totally sold on raw diets so I am feeding her cooked meat and a small amount of lightly steamed vegetables. The only ones she likes raw are carrots and romaine lettuce. It's only been a little over a week, but she seems to be doing well, no digestive issues, stools good and she is loving this way of eating. She will still eat 1/3 a cup of Orijen before bed. I also mix into her food a natural supplement called "Nupro" and she likes the taste. I have "Dinovite" here too, but don't want to over supplement her either. Ingredients look similar.

Hi kjdonkers, thank you for responding.The majority of her diet is meat based, I use the veggies, fruits, grains like a garnish. Some say give the grains, others say not to. I wish I could really find out the true answer, but she does love a little grain, we eat all organic and we only eat the ancient grains once a week or so, no white flour or junk single carbs. I could eliminate them though. She loves and eats eggs too. She gets them cooked, some people feed them raw. How do you feel about eggs?

[kjdonkers]

We don't give grains or fruits (sugar). Some say dogs have developed the capability of processing grains, but I'm not sure, I would't count on it with basenjis being an old breed. Grains are not so good for humans either, depending on which and how much. Eggs we do give, raw, maybe once a week - we split an egg for our two sisters. They love it, and will hunt for eggs if they get the chance (we have a lot of birds where we live - geese eggs: BIG!)

[Gigi]

I'm convinced my girl does not know she is a dog, she wants to do everything we do and eat everything we eat. We only eat ancient grains ourselves about once a week because I'm not so sure if grains are even very good for humans, but she begs until we give her a few noodles. When she gets fruit it's only a slice of apple or banana a few times a week, otherwise no sugar for her either. She loves eggs, might try feeding them raw and see if she eats them. Meat is 75% of her diet, because we don't eat beef it's mostly chicken, turkey, salmon, and some sardines. I often wonder if I should be giving her some beef too? What she is missing is real bones...I'm hoping to find a healthy snack that contains ground up bones for her. I'm open to any suggestions on that. Just got a kitchen scale to weigh her food, it's making life a little easier.

[kjdonkers]

Sounds good. We feed lamb ribs for chews (when in season) - soft enough but still good for the teeth. Any non-weight bearing bones are good. We get ours at a butcher shop, sometimes for free. Otherwise we find stuff in specialised (web)shops: camel hide, kangaroo, tendons, trachea, dried lung. There's a lot of stuff out there.