Our Cindy (miniature black & white Jack Russell) just had some major dental work done with 13 teeth being removed...(she already had 9 missing).....I've had to rearrange her diet. With our home-made biscuits being far too crunchy now for her now.
The other day, I bought trays of liver and kidneys....and two trays of cheap minced beef. I had beef and pork bones in the freezer to make some serious stock once home. I forgot to buy chicken carcasses....so it's just beef, lamb and pork for this batch.
Once I had a pot of stock brewing, I got on to chopping up veg in the whizzer to add to the dog food....I was also chopping veg for coleslaw and soup for the community garden...so one mess for three different projects. Brilliant!!
To make the veg fine for the dog food, I put it in the whizzer and added some stock from the stove (in batches)....this makes the veg move around the blades easier and get chopped up nice and fine. I also did this to cut up the kidneys and liver. (Thinking that Cindy won't be doing much chewing, I kept everything fine). Each batch then got put into the big boiler pot, along with the two trays of browned off minced beef.
A good heaped cup of rice, as well as small pasta was also added to the meat and veg mixture.....I then added a few heaped dessert spoons of garlic powder (good for keeping fleas at bay) and more dried herbs..(there was lots of herbs in the stock too)....Covered with the stock I made earlier, it was all left to simmer for a few hours. I also thickened it with some gravy powder.
My cooking was cut short with a huge fall in the kitchen, catching my toe on a milk-crate I had bought into the kitchen to sit on to get down in those deep corner cupboards.....(bugga! those cupboards, bugga! that milk-crate)......Once I was able to get up off the floor, I got DS17 to turn the stove off, while I hobbled off to lie on the bed and he went and got the ice-packs.....All I could keep thinking was...."Hubby is on his way home for the weekend....and I'm going to spend my time in the hospital having x-rays". The ice immediately paid off...because this morning I woke feeling very sore, but I really don't think I have broken anything. I certainly done some short term damage with my bad leg, as I feel like I'm walking in a moon boot again.....I definitely hurt an area on my leg where there are screws and a plate....with pain in the same area where I broke my leg last year.....don't worry, I will keep an eye on it.
So....the following morning, I found how thick it had turned out....lovely! For my puppy dogs anyway! It actually smells pretty darn good...and the dogs were circling while I was packing it all up for the freezer. I decided 3/4 cup for each dog, but froze it in double batches.
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| This pot was full to the top. |
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| 19 meals for two little dogs. |
Do you make your puppy dogs their own food?
What's your favourite recipe?
If you have blogged about it....leave a link to the post
I'd love to read about it.
our Molly is allergic to so many things, including grains, chicken, carrots, fish and brewers yeast among the food items, that I only buy a VERY limited ingredient dog food. Before we figured out what she was allergic too (Had her tested) I did make her food and she just loved it.
ReplyDeleteGood for you making your doggies food.
Gill in Canada
HI Narelle, 3 times a week i boil up some rice and once it has been drained/rinced off but still warm i add a tin of Sardines or Tuna to it and give it a quick mix with a spoon and wall'a. The reason i do this 3 times a week is the oil in the sardines and tuna are very good for you dog's coat ( keeps it nice and shinny ) as well as goood for stopping that bloody arthritis getting them so quick. sometimes i even use pasta shells instead of the rice. As most of us know tuna and sardines are full of all the good stuff. my ma gives her dogs 1 fish oil capsule almost every night. i would mind a recipe for some dog chews / biscuts but with out the liver, kidney as i cant stand the smell of it cooking, it has the worst smell. have you been up to " High Country Meats " near the cinamas???? we get all our dog food from there as they always has clearence meats, hearts, tonges,livers, kidneys, chops, steaks, bangers you name it.
ReplyDeleteregards
Lee
Hey Narelle, How are you feeling after the fall? Better I hope.
ReplyDeleteDog is like a human being also, their body needs a very nutritious food that can help them to have a strong bone, grow, and free from sickness and diseases. There are lot of ways on how we can monitor their food in-take one of those is by preparing them a food from raw materials. But before doing so, we need to see first the vet for his/her food recommendation for your dog. You can visit http://www.howtomakedogfood.org/ for more homemade dog food that you can prepare for your pet. May you enjoy doing it, that can give a smile on your pet's face.
ReplyDeleteI only started making our dog's food out of desperation. We were out of dog food and out of cash and had extremely limited prospects in acquiring more. Our pantry & freezer, however, were still well provisioned. I once knew a woman that made rice & chicken for her dogs so I figured I could do that too.
ReplyDeleteThe wonderful bonus of it all is that not only is our dog food expense smaller, my dog is much healthier - she used to have ear infections and skin problems but all that has cleared up!
My general recipe is first make a big batch of broth with chicken backs and necks or beef soup bones. Remove any meat and skin and discard the bones (or let the dog have the beef bones if they are big ones). Add water to make 12 cups broth, return meat to pot and bring to a boil. Add 6 cups rice, 4-6 chopped carrots (or squash or sweat potatoes, etc.) and some sort of fat- 1 to 2 cups of chunks(I occasionally have access to pork and/or beef fat from a friendly butcher). Lower to simmer and cook for 20 minutes. I add *6 or 8 eggs when it's done and sort of roughly stir it through. Then I let it rest, covered for 10 minutes to cook the eggs.
*If there was sufficient meat on the bones, I forgo adding the eggs
This makes about 2 gallons of food and lasts my 48# dog about 9 days.
I always look through the refrigerator for likely additions like left-over gravy, veggies, soup, meat bits, cottage cheese or yogurt that is getting close to the "use by" date, etc.
I have learned wheat sets off her old problems so I don't use pasta (but she does get some in scraps) or bread like I used to. I never use corn of any kind as that seems to be her main problem.
Also of note: my veterinary tech. niece says that dogs do not digest Irish potatoes (like russets, white or yukon gold) so you can use them as filler but they add no nutrition so should constitute a very small portion of a dog's ration.
Wow you all seem to go to much more effort than we ever did..
ReplyDeleteMum would save all the vegetable peelings and sad looking fruit and vegetables and put them in the freezer, when we had a big enough batch she'd put that, chicken pet mince from the butcher (was like $1-2/Kg) and a cup or 2 of homebrand rolled oats or a cup or rice. Was cheap, mostly made of leftovers and the dogs used to go mad for it :)
Thanks everyone for all the great ideas.... For a first batch, I did go overboard but I needed soft food for Cindy straight away....but I'm saving scraps now for the next batch.
ReplyDeleteHi :)
ReplyDeleteI stumbled across your blog yesterday and have spent hours and hours going over posts. You have totally inspired me to start a 'simpler life'.
I LOVE that you share so many tips and hints and make everything seem easy to do for the 'everyday person'.
Thank you for sharing and I look forward to becoming a regular reader and experimenter along with you.
I started my first batch of citrus cleaner this morning and I cant wait to get to use it!
I do have a question about your vanilla extract. 1)Do you take out the vanilla beans after a certain time, 2)can you reuse them to make more vanilla extract? 3) does it expire after a certain time?? Thanks in advance :)
Karen
Hi Holly, thanks for asking of me after my fall...all bruises are healed up now...I'm just dealing with some on and off bronchitis now....health is in my future I'm sure....lol.
ReplyDeleteKaren: Welcome to my blog, I'm happy to hear you are enjoying the read. I haven't removed the vanilla pods from my extract, but if I needed them to infuse something else, sure; I could take them out and dry them first. I am still using an extract I made 2 years ago, and it's fine...I can't see why it would expire as it is only vodka. Hope that helps. I give away lots of vanilla extract as gifts, and I've had no complaints but lots of additional requests when they have ran out of it....But I get them on to making their own then.
it looks really amazing! Thank you for sharing the recipe with us! can't wait to see if my dogs agree with me!
ReplyDeleteDelurking to say
ReplyDeleteMissing your blog ....
Hope all is well with you and yours
Pat :~)
Hello. This has nothing to do with dog food, but I had to tell you this. I finally remembered to cut off some orange peels and made some citrus cleaner. WOW! It is fabulous. Now I'm starting some with grapefruit peels to see if that works. Next it's lemons. Yippee!
ReplyDeletebrenda from ar
Wow! You really love your dog, considering the effort you put into her dog food just so she could eat despite her dental work. So how did your dogs find the home-made dog food? I bet it was great because of all the effort and love you’ve put into it! Just make sure the food won’t cause them any kind of indigestion. Their stomachs also react when they don’t eat the right food.
ReplyDeleteYes, we love our pets very much, her mouth has healed well, and she has learnt to eat almost everything with what little teeth she has left.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to feed my dog a best and naturally balanced food and now I think this food will also better for my pet dog. I am trying to make this at home.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your sharing, it helps me a lot and I think I'll watch your post more.
ReplyDeleteDog probiotic powder