home cooked dog food

Question
QUESTION: I have a 5 yr old basset hound and a yr and a half old beagle mix.  I have always fed them store bought dog food (as I always have with other dogs I've had).  If I want to start feeding them home cooked (or raw) "people" food, what foods are best and does it matter that they are at different life stages and are very different dogs?

ANSWER: Hi Shannon,

First of all, it's great that you are asking questions and not just jumping on on the assumption that anything is better than commercial diet. It's very important when home preparing meals, that the nutrient content be correctly balanced for the individual dog. You can accomplish this with a short list of ingredients and a longer list of supplements, or vice versa, but variety alone is not assurance of nutritional adequacy. The proportions of fat, protein and fiber in the diet are as important as which foods you choose to supply them. And yes, each dog needs varying amounts of nutrient according to bodyweight, age, activity level, to some extent breed...so your two will require somewhat different diets. If they tolerate the same foods, you can, for example, roast a whole turkey and use the meat along with some brown rice, sweet potato, beef liver and sardines to create a solid basic diet, but it may well be that one dog does better on lower fat, or is intolerant of rice, and so on. Certainly their requirements for vitamins and minerals will be somewhat different. Individual needs are of paramount importance, as are the foods we use to meet them.

My first piece of advice to you on this would be to start learning more about canine nutrition before you jump in and potentially make some mistakes. You need to learn to distinguish scientific facts from pop diet theory. Dogs, for example, may be descended from wolves, but they are NOT wolves, and a prey model raw diet does NOT suit all of them. Similarly, a home cooked diet that uses too much fat or fails to supplement correctly can be a disaster.Any book or website that insists there is one correct way to feed all dogs is usually not run by a trained person, and in my experience, will push rhetoric over fact most of the time. Use the science, and keep an open mind.

With adult dogs, the system is more forgiving, but with puppies or seniors you can create serious problems if you mess up the mineral content, for one example. Start with a couple of good books - Dr. Pitcairn's Natural Health for Dogs and Cats is a classic, and one of the few I can whole-heartedly recommend. You might consider joining my discussion group, we feature a free online tutorial on starting a home made diet - I consider this my contribution after the pet food recall has left so many people stranded and worried about what to feed.  And it's always a good idea to have your dogs thoroughly checked out by a vet prior to starting a home made diet. If there were to be an underlying digestive or other problem, a home made diet would need to be created with this in mind.  

Bear in mind too that the difference between raw feeding and cooked diets is often a matter of philosophy, and either one can be balanced or unbalanced. Regardless of which route you follow, the nutrient requirements of the dog need to be met. This will always be true whether you decide to follow prey model,go grainfree or use a little grain,follow a book like Dr. Pitcairn's, or go on your own and make the food following the NRC Guidelines (which is what I do). I see so many badly put-together home prepared diets of all kinds, I have to say I feel it would be better for those dogs to be on a premium commercial diet with some fresh food as supplement.

The message I want you to take away is; if you're going to do it, do it right. Feel free to ask more questions anytime, and the yahoogroup may be helpful for you in a more indepth way.
Good luck! Catherine



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for the information, very helpful.  since I see this is something that's going to take serious time and research, I have some follow up questions.  Is it safe to add to their regular food? I typically add scrambled egg in the morning and was wondering about a chicken and rice alternative for dinner.  also, I feed them Wellness dry food, any info on that? Thanks again

Answer
Hi Shannon,

It's wise to put in the research, and not just follow some Internet diet or popular book. I've been working with canine nutrition for many years and I have to say, I see as much or MORE damage from badly formulated home made diets as I see problems associated with kibble. If you take the time to learn about nutrition, it will serve you well over the years ahead.

As for adding to the regular diet - it can be not only safe but healthful - provided you don't overdo it or constantly use the same foods. I like to see a commercial diet "supplemented" with some fresh foods, but these should be used wisely, and if they constitute more than about 15% of the total energy intake, you can definitely upset the nutritional applecart. Eggs are wonderful foods to add, since they are the most biologically available form of protein for the dog, and dogs don't have to worry about cholesterol! I might suggest making that a boiled or poached egg instead so you don't need to use heated fat. (Heated butter is the safest, along with coconut oil, never feed margarine or a heated vegetable oil to dogs). You can vary that up with a few sardines if they like fish, some cooked sweet potato or other vegetable in moderation, cooked or raw beef heart, plain, wholefat yogurt, even fruit if they like it. Chicken and brown rice mixed together is fine to use a few Tbsps, although chicken is a common allergen and I would vary this mixture by using liver and rice one night, turkey in place of chicken wherever possible, some beef heart, fish and so on. Canned tripe is an excellent addition (just a Tbsp or two or you will have the dire rear!) Moderation and rotation are key.

If you want to make a chicken and rice meal, however, you need to get it balanced, by adding some other foods and supplements, since a whole meal should provide more nutrition than just those two foods - especially for a growing dog.

One thing to bear in mind as a concept when adding to a commercial diet, is that most kibbles are already very high in required nutrients. So if you're adding yet more of something that can be problematic in excess - say, calcium - you may run into trouble. So add an egg, but not the shell as some like to do. Liver is high in copper, which can be overdone as well. There's no need to stress if you are keeping these additions to the 15% mark, though - and don't overdo any single food (eg, feed it daily).

As for Wellness, I do like some of their products and are less impressed by others (although overall,the company is far better than Purina, IAMs etc). Which one are you using? I also like to vary kibbles - rotate - since I have issues (which may strike some as minor) with all of them. I often use a food like, say, Canidae All Life Stages, which I like a lot, mixed with about 1/4 - 1/3 of one of the protein focused foods (Wellness CORE is my favourite, actually, but not as a fulltime thing and never for a puppy).

Hope this helps a little - let me know which food you've decided on and how they do.
Catherine