dog feeding advice

Question
Hi,
  With all the pet recalls I am wanting to switch my dogs over to home made food.  They were on Iams for years, but about a month ago I switched them (slowly) we switched to a premium brand called "California Natural"  I thought we were doing good by making this switch, but now the food Natural Balance had a recall which is similar to the California Natural.  It seems like everyday I turn the TV on, there is yet another pet food/treat recall.  I would feel much saver just making them home made food.  They currently get only home made treats and they seem to like them much better then the store bought ones.   I have done some research, but still not sure I'd be giving them all that they need in their diet going home made. I've read  40 percent meat, 30 percent vegetables and 30 percent starch.  I have several recipes and am more than willing to make them for my dogs.  I have a 10 year old beagle, an 8 year old beagle and a 6 year old Chihuahua.
I would appreciate it so much if you could give me your feedback on what you think of the homemade food thing and the California Natural dog food.

Thanks, Michelle  

Answer
Hi Michelle;
I too am getting too concerned about the safety of pet foods.
I heard about an all natural food that uses ONLY products made in this country, and the problem with the recalled foods is a grain grown in China, and contaminated by an herbicide or a pesticide.
I forget what the name of the food is, but in my area the opnly places that carry it is the Real Life health food store, and one groomer.
Senior dogs need less protein, so I would be more careful of the meat, and especially the beef.
Chicken, and lamb is better for senior dogs. The red meat and higher protein diets can affect their liver count adversely, so you need to take that into consideration.
Rice is good, also barley and whole grains like that.
Corn would be ok, but not the cornmmeal we make corn bread out of, it has all the nutrients stripped out of it.
My dogs love corn, so I put green beans, green peas, carrots, and corn in the soups I make them.
I skin the chickens to get as much fat out as possible. My dogs are senior too.
There is always the vitamin suppliments you can get from your Veterinarian, or he can recommend what over-the-counter ones to use.
Get your Veterinarian working with you, and you should be able to give them a balanced diet.
at their age, if they don't get 100% of every vitamin they need, everyt day, it is not going to hurt them a lot.
With the concern of these products contaminating the grains, I just no longer trust grains grown in other countries.
They just don't have the care we have about their animals.
Now that several of the dry foods have been effected, I am going to go to Real Life andd buy that food there for my dogs.
If you research and find out the things NOT to feed like, pork, chocolate etc ( some herbs are harmful to them, that we eat safely)you can probably do better by them that taking the chances the old stand-by foods are about now.
Just too great a chance of getting some mor contaminated grains etc.
Ask your Veterinarian for guidelines about calorie count etc.
Also, go to this site. There may be some information there about the calories they need at what size and age.
    www.dogage.com

Charlotte