Homemade Dog Food: The Final Chapter

Since my sole intention for blogging about homemade dog food was to add to the available resources for parents who are interested in switching their dogs from commercial food to a healthy and inexpensive homemade diet, I've decided to follow up with one final post that includes the recipes that I've settled on and the total expense.

Dog Kibble (approx. 2 lbs/1 gallon bag)
 - Whole Wheat Flour, 6 cups
 - Corn Meal, 2 cups
 - Flax Seed (milled), 1 cup
 - 4 Eggs Beaten
 - Chicken Bone Meal, 1 cup
 - Crushed Egg Shells, 1/3 cup
 - Meat, 1/2 - 1 lb.
 - Chicken Broth



Meat: I've used cooked liver, raw ground beef/turkey, raw bone dust from the butcher, etc.

Top: Chicken Bone Meal; Bottom: Crushed Egg Shells

Chicken Bone Meal: Separate the bones from boiled chicken. Boil just the bones until they're clean and the water is milky white (save the water and use as broth later). Bake the bones at 200-250 degrees for about 3-4 hours or until they're completely dried. Smash them into smaller pieces that fit easily into a food processor and grind them up into a powder. Use a wire strainer to separate any visible pieces of bone from the bone meal and you can further process those small bone pieces into powder by using a spice mill.

Crushed Egg Shells: Save all of your eggshells. Rinse them and then bake them at 200-250 degrees for an hour or until completely dried. Crush them up and turn them into powder using a spice mill.

Cooking Directions: Mix all of the dry ingredients with the meat and beaten eggs. Add broth until the dough is the desired consistency to be easily rolled out. One softball-sized dough ball will usually fill a large cookie sheet once rolled out and will also freeze easily if not being baked immediately. Roll it out to the desired thickness and bake at 200-250 degrees for about an hour or until crunchy.

Expense:
I can make two batches of dog kibble (4-5 lbs) with the following supplies
(and still have a little left over):
Wheat Flour, 5 lbs.  .....  $3.66
Corn Meal, 5 lbs.  ........  $2.04
Flax Seed, 12 oz.  ........  $2.36
Eggs, 1 dozen  .............  $1.80
Ground Turkey, 1 lb. ..  $2.88
Total Cost ................... $12.74

Soft Food: Chicken and Rice
 - Chicken, whole fryer
 - White Rice, 4 cups
 - Corn Meal, 4 cups

Boil the chicken until it's easy to debone. Save the chicken broth and use to boil rice and corn meal and for dog kibble. Mix all of the cooked ingredients together at one part chicken to three parts rice/corn meal. This makes A LOT -- freezes easily.

To feed eight dogs for a week, I usually make two batches of the chicken and rice. The fryers cost about $5.50 ea. on average; a 20 lb. bag of rice is about $10 (and lasts for about a month) and 5 lbs. of corn meal is about $2. The monthly expense is roughly $62 -- or about $7.75 per dog.

Our dogs have been thriving on this diet. They've all achieved a very healthy weight and allergies, vomiting and diarrhea have stopped. Before the homemade diet, at least one of the dogs was suffering from one of these ailments each day and they were all over weight. Now, they actually eat more volume, but they've gotten back their waist lines! Our dogs get the kibble for breakfast (along with the extras listed below) and the chicken and rice for supper.

Here are a few extras that I add to their daily diet for different reasons:
 - 1/3 cup of yogurt (calcium, vitamins and gastro health)
 - 1/4 cup of cooked liver (extra protein and vitamins)
 - 1 slice of whole wheat bread with each meal (vitamins and filler)
 - 1 tbsp of dried yucca powder (anti-inflammatory and gastro health)

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Homemade Dog Kibble

It's going on two weeks since we've started the conversion process from commercial dog food to homemade. So far everything is going really well, but figuring out how to fit this new regimen into my already dense schedule will be the challenge. I know there's a way to make this work.

So far, I've determined that meat meal isn't going to work for us. The dogs need more bulk in their diet so I've decided that boiled meat is the way to go, which is a huge relief because making the meat meal was just too time consuming and too much work! That first batch of meat meal lasted us about five days for the eight dogs, but we were still feeding them commercial kibble in the mornings so that was helping to offset the lower volume of food. I was hoping that the higher levels of protein in their diet would appease their appetites and allow us to decrease the volume of food they were consuming, but that hasn't worked yet. Luckily we ran out of the meat meal and commercial kibble at about the same time so making the transition to whole cooked meat was easy. On the downside, the meat meal was MUCH easier to store (I could fit two chickens in a storage container) -- the boiled chicken takes up a good bit of space in our freezer.

It became obvious pretty quickly that I was still going to need to supplement the dog's meals with kibble for a few reasons. First, I needed a viable solution for feeding the dogs the bone meal. I tried putting it in the rice initially -- but I had to feed that mixture to them quickly because it wasn't going to last long before going rancid. Second, I was worried that the amount of the rice mixture I'd have to give them to meet the volume of food they needed each day would be a little too simple carb heavy. Third, I've always read that dogs need the crunchy stuff to keep their teeth and gums healthy -- and there certainly wasn't anything crunchy in the chicken and rice. So that's what I've been experimenting with for the last week and I think I've finally gotten it down.

I adapted this recipe from several that I found online. Each recipe I found was different and many wanted you to add fruits or veggies to the mixture, but most of them had the same core ingredients -- so I kept those. I decided to leave the fruits and veggies in the rice mixture and I added the flax seed, bone meal and egg shell powder to help cover essential vitamins/minerals/oils they need.

8 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup of milled flax seed (takes care of the Omega 3 dietary needs)
2 cups of dry milk powder
2 cups of whole oats (uncooked)
1/2 lb of bone meal (from the butcher)
4 eggs
4 tablespoons of egg shell powder (calcium)
meat broth

Mix all of the dry ingredients well. Add the beaten eggs and slowly add the meat broth about a cup at a time until the dough is the consistency you desire. I like my dough to be very stiff because frankly, I'm terrible at rolling out dough!

Roll it out to the thickness you desire. I like to keep the kibbles small -- I just find it easier to work with.

Then use a pizza cutter to cut up the dough into the kibble size you prefer.

Then bake at about 200 degrees until all of the moisture is cooked out and they're crunchy. Mine usually take a little more than an hour at that temperature. This usually makes about a gallon sized bag of kibble and because they only get a small amount each day, each bag is lasting a couple of days. And most importantly, they love it!

My dogs eat twice a day -- a small breakfast and a more significant dinner. So, the new meal plan for the dogs is a slice of whole wheat or whole oat bread cut up into cubes, and about 1/3 of a cup of kibble for each meal. For breakfast, in addition to the bread and kibble, they get a 1/2 cup of yogurt and a tablespoon of yucca powder. (The yucca is an anti-inflammatory and also aids in digestion - the dogs LOVE it!) For dinner, in addition to the bread and kibble, they each get 1/4 cup of organ meat ground up to the consistency of canned food, 3/4 cup of shredded chicken and about two cups of the rice mixture. This gives them approximately the 4-cup volume they're accustomed to and it meets the 1/3 protein 2/3 carb/veggie dietary requirements.

Next project ... to try to make my own bone meal.

It's a Dog's Life

The Backstory ...

Wow! It's been 15 months since I've blogged anything. Partly because I'm not getting the interaction I'd hoped for but mainly because life just keeps happening. Right before starting today's entry, I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes, "Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once." Thank you, GOD, for that! This past year brought a lot of changes - most significantly the shifting of most of our extra time and energy to figuring out how to co-exist with eight dogs as we venture into the world of dog rescue. Yes, I said eight dogs. Yes, they live inside with us (they've taken over the largest room in our house); and no, our house doesn't smell like eight dogs live inside. (That's probably where 80% of my "extra" time is going now!)

When I started this blog, my intention was to create a dialog with people from all over about GOD and theology and Christianity. I still hope that happens, but in the meantime I realize that we are involved in this dog rescue thing for a reason and it's our job to blossom where we're planted and spread the seeds, so ... This blog entry will be the first in a series on life with the dog pack. Once again, I'm sincerely hoping for some interaction. I'm not writing this blog just to spew my own thoughts out to the world -- seriously, I want input, feedback, suggestions and dialog!

If you have one or two dogs expenses usually aren't a big concern. You can afford to either buy a high-quality commercial food and treats or even make your own, and you can bring them to the vet for all of their health maintenance. But when you have eight dogs you start looking for opportunities to minimize expenses pretty quickly -- especially when your monthly food bill before treats is about $160. We're lucky to be surrounded by friends who are also animal lovers and who've all been excellent resources for us in one aspect of pet care or another. Not everyone has that support system so I'm sure that, like me, many people turn to the internet in the hope of finding resources.

I'm constantly researching one thing or another in regard to the dogs -- especially economical-but-still-healthy options for foods and treats. If you've ever Googled that topic, then I'm sure that you were just as overwhelmed as I was, and you were probably left with more questions than answers because most of the information online is un-researched opinion. That was when I came across an article on Dog Food Advisor that gave me way more information than I ever wanted to know about commercial dog food. But, what has been seen cannot be unseen, and that was when I decided that I cannot in good conscience feed commercial dog food to my dogs anymore. And so my quest begins ...

I've decided that my Christmas break this year will be dedicated to two initiatives -- (1) figuring out how to transition to a menu of healthy homemade dog food, and (2) working on building up a pet portrait side business/hobby to help generate revenue to support the dogs and our rescue efforts. Yesterday I began working on the dog food and dog treats. I started at about 9am and finally called it quits around midnight. Today, I've already put in another 2 hours. Hopefully as I figure all of this out the production time and process will get A LOT quicker and easier! And, if this blog truly becomes interactive, we can all share our successes, failures, tips and tricks and come up with a really good set of recipes and options.

Homemade Dog Food - Trial Run

In doing my research I found many articles with homemade dog food recipes, and they're all about the same and they all require a vitamin supplement. I also found a report on a recent study from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine that found most homemade dog foods nutritionally inadequate. But I suspect what we'll find with regard to animal nutrition is the same that we see with human nutrition - very few of us ever meet the minimum daily requirements of every nutrient we're supposed to ingest, so you just do your best, take vitamins and make alterations to your diet as needed, and in most cases we don't notice that we were a few percentage points short on this vitamin or that one on any given day.

The basic recipe floating around out there is protein source (30%) plus carbohydrates and healthy fats. Most recipes call for rice and vegetables in the carb category, but there seems to be a lot of discussion about white rice versus brown. Many people argue that white rice is nutritionally devoid and puts too much sugar in the dog's system and others argue that brown rice is too hard for dogs (who have short digestive tracts) to digest. I've also read that white rice is a good quick energy source for active dogs and that brown rice is more easily absorbed if it's cooked long enough. I've decided to "split the difference" for my first batch and I've prepared three cups of white rice, one cup of brown rice and three cups of whole, rolled oats. My theory is that where one ingredient falls short, hopefully one of the others will make up for it. I cooked all three in meat stock for flavor and to retain the nutrients that boil out of the meat as you cook it. I also cooked about two cups of chopped carrots and celery in the stock and added it to the carb mixture for the complex carb properties and for bulk.

As I said earlier, I've been blessed with some great resources which includes a friend at a meat processing facility who gave me about eight fresh beef kidneys and a few one-pound packs of bone meal to experiment with. I don't know what this would have cost if I purchased it, but I don't think the expense would've been much. My research indicates that both of these ingredients will make great additives, but neither should be used as the main source of protein. Food grade bone meal is a good source of vitamins that are easily absorbed, but it's high in phosphorus and low in absorbable calcium - so it needs be included in low quantities. In this first batch, I mixed about 1/3 of a pound into the rice/oat mixture. The kidneys are a very nutritious supplement, but organ meats are too rich to feed to dogs as their primary source of protein, so I'm going to try making it about 10% of the daily ration of the total protein.

So, for the main protein I decided to try to make a meat meal -- which according to Dog Food Advisor is more nutritious. I didn't find a lot of instructional information on making meat meal, so I decided to just jump in and sink or swim. According to that article, I knew that I had use a rendering process which is to boil the meat and then bake it, but I didn't know any details about times, temperatures or any other steps that might have been obvious to a professional but not necessarily a layman. I chose a chicken to start with because it seemed easiest to tackle as a novice. I boiled a whole chicken, neck, organs and all, for a little more than two hours until the bird was falling apart. Then I put chunks of the bird, bones and all, into the blender hoping that the blender would literally make minced meat of it all. Not so much. There were still significant pieces of bone and shards. So, I put it all back into the pot with the remainder of the broth it was boiled in and continued boiling it on the stove for another two hours to get further along in the rendering process and to hopefully soften the bones a little more.

At this time, most of the water had evaporated and the consistency was kind of like a concentrated potato soup (but much more fibrous in appearance). I decided to try to bake it at this point, so I put the entire mixture into a glass baking dish and set the oven to 350 -- I baked it for two hours. By now it was midnight and I could tell that this was going to take a while longer so I turned off the oven and left the chicken in the oven to cool. This morning I got up and started baking the chicken again after stirring it in the pan to mix it up and expose some of the moist center to the heat. I baked it for two more hours, stirring it up every 30 minutes and it was finally ready to be chopped again. This time the chopper made easy work of the chicken and it came out the consistency of moist saw dust.

The next step would be to figure out how much of each food item to feed the dogs. I used the dog food calculator on Dog Food Advisor to figure out how much total food the dogs needed based on their weight, activity level and daily caloric needs. Because of the varied array of ingredients in the carbohydrate mixture, I had to guesstimate the actual calories per cup. One cup of cooked white rice is approximately 170 calories, half a cup of oats is 150 calories and a cup of brown rice is about 200 calories. Cook them in meat stock and you increase the calories, plus add in the calories from the bone meal and other ingredients I added to the mixture like coconut oil, oregano oil and fish oil -- I'm estimating that one cup of that mixture is approximately 300 calories. I have no idea how many calories are in the rendered chicken, but a cup of cooked chicken is about 200 calories so I'm guessing that a quarter cup of rendered chicken might be the same.

My dogs are large and due in part to the poor quality of affordable commercial foods, and probably more specifically due to poor parenting on my part, they're accustomed to eating a certain amount of food each day - about 4 cups in volume. I've tried to introduce healthy alternatives to their diet in lieu of just straight kibble -- foods that would meet some nutritional deficiencies I was observing and that would help boost their immunity. So they were getting about 2 cups of kibble, 2 slices of whole wheat or whole oat bread and 1/2 cup of yogurt -- but what I've been afraid of in switching to a homemade, more nutrient-rich diet was that the volume of food would decrease and they would feel hungry because of the missing volume. According to the calculator and my caloric guestimations, I should be feeding about 2-3 cups of this food to the dogs each day. Luckily the carbohydrate mixture is fairly bulky, but when I measured everything out in the recommended portions (one cup of the carbs, 1/4 cup of the rendered chicken and 1/8 cup of the kidneys) the volume was still a little low -- I think if the chicken was just boiled and not rendered the volume would be dead on. So, I'm going to keep feeding them the bread and yogurt to fill the void. This also helps keep a variety of animal- and plant-derived proteins and complex carbs in their diets.

But this still leaves their diets lacking in calcium. According to everything I've read egg shells are the best source of calcium for the dogs. They're pretty easy to prepare and include in a dog food or dog treat recipe. More information on the calcium to phosphorus ratio and the amount of calcium per egg shell can be found here. Since dogs need about 1,000 mg of calcium a day, I thought it would be easiest to put the calcium in dog treats. There are a number of easy recipes for dog treats available so I won't go into them here. To prepare the egg shells, just clean them, bake them in the oven for a little while to dry them out (I put them on the cookie sheet with some of the dog treats and left them in the oven for the same amount of time and that worked just fine). Then pulverize them or grind them up in a spice mill to make a powder. Each teaspoon of ground egg shell has about 2,000 mg of calcium.

So there you have it -- the sum of my research and experience so far with homemade dog food. Yesterday the dogs began their transition from commercial food to the new homemade menu so I'll post updates as we progress. So far, they're loving the new palette! Whether or not this proves to be a more economical solution remains to be seen, but I think the health benefits (especially in light of all of the recent recalls) are obvious. My total expense so far has only been the $6 for the whole chicken -- everything else was either something we already had in the cupboards or was donated. Normally I spend about $20 a month on yogurt, and $10 a month on the bread (I buy bags of feed bread from the local day-old bread store and freeze them until I'm ready to use them - I only buy the freshly bagged bread, nothing that's already expired). I'm estimating that the carbohydrate mixture will last about five days in the quantity I made it and it looks like the reduced chicken may last just as long. Right now the economical aspect seems very promising.

My hope is that others who are interested in making their own dog food and treats will find this blog and leave comments, suggestions and questions and in doing so we'll create a network and a great resource that leads to happier, healthier lives for us and our pets!

The End Is Near ... ?

No rantings and ravings today. Just one simple question for you ...

Have you ever thought about why the United States, currently considered a super power, doesn't seem to be a major player in "the end times" according to the book of Revelation and the Old Testament prophesies from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah?

Defining GOD

The more time I spend online, the more I realize that people are really, truly searching for GOD. They're looking for GOD within ... looking for GOD in the things they enjoy ... looking for GOD even as they reach out to others for support. The problem seems to be that most of them don't know that it's GOD they're searching for; and many of those who do seem to realize it are falling into idolatry.

Be very careful when you try to define GOD. Be aware that none of us has the ability to wrap our brains around the great I AM. For you or I to be able to define GOD would be to declare that we are capable of passing judgement on GOD. To say that "The god I follow, would never do 'x' ..." is to establish your own deity based upon your own set of beliefs, and when you do this you have actually established yourself as the creator -- not the creation. And furthermore, you're worshiping the thing you've created -- idolatry.

If you find yourself searching and feel that there's more out there and that you're lacking something, there is a simple solution. There is only one place to find GOD -- the Bible. Many people try to discredit the Bible by saying that it was written by men. That's true, but consider that an omniscient, omnipresent GOD would never allow a mistake in the one document that is intended to lead us to HIM. And in spite of mankind's unfortunate propensity for twisting things, the all-powerful GOD can still make the Bible perfect. The Bible, being the only resource for us to truly know GOD, would have to be perfect because GOD is not willing for any to perish. (2 Peter 3:9)

So, when you feel disillusioned, lonely, empty, discouraged, angry or powerless, pick up the Bible and read. Instead of searching for fulfillment in the things you do, or in approval from others, or by trying to define your own idea of god based upon what you read on the Internet (Mark 13:22) -- get to know the one true living GOD.

Don't let anyone else tell you who GOD is -- find out for yourself. (Jeremiah 29:13)

Establish a relationship with GOD and know HIM, but do not be deceived into trying to define HIM. (Exodus 3:14)

You will NEVER be good enough to go to Heaven, and neither will I

I'm not saying that we won't be going to Heaven. I'm just saying that no one is ever going to be good enough to make it there.

I've seen a lot of posts lately where people are speaking out about the way that Christians should treat others -- whether they are also Christian or not. And obviously, a Christian should know how to act toward others -- after all, we had the greatest example who ever walked the Earth. The only man good enough to get into Heaven on his own merit. So, there must be a problem, right?

First of all, we need to all realize that just because a person goes to church, that doesn't make him/her a Christian. And, just because a person believes that God exists doesn't mean that he/she has put faith in God. (You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.) If a person is a Christian, you should see the fruits of the Spirit in their life (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) bearing witness that he/she is in fact a child of God.

But sadly, even true Christians do bad things. Sometimes we're mean and selfish and worse. We allow ourselves to get caught up in the distractions of the world and carried away by emotions. We lose focus, and we forget what's important. Every so often we need to get re-focused. 

So here's the thing, there's really only two things that Christians need to be "doing." Jesus summed it up in response to the Pharisees who wanted to hold everyone to the letter of the law. Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” If we, as Christians, are "doing" these two things then everything else will fall into place.

Love God with everything that you've got. Hold others in the same regard that you hold yourself. Simple. Perfect.

If your focus is always on God and your biggest concern is that others will have the same happiness, the same blessings and the same love that you enjoy then your actions will follow suit and you won't have to worry about whether or not you've been good enough -- you won't have to live in fear of punishment or Hell. We are not granted access into Heaven by what we do or what we don't do. We are not condemned to death or Hell because of what we do or don't do. Do you understand why? Because we can never be good enough! There is nothing we can do to right all of the wrongs we have done.

If it was up to us to earn our way into Heaven, then Heaven surely would be empty. How could you even keep score of the good things you've done versus the bad? How can you place a value on a tear, on a broken heart, on a broken spirit. Oh yeah! You'd better believe it -- we've all caused others that kind of pain and worse! And we never even know the full repercussions of our sins. Remember the ripple effect?

Thank GOD that my salvation isn't dependent upon what I do, or how good I am! By grace, God restores us into eternal life. Jesus Christ did the only thing that could ever be done to get us into Heaven by laying down His perfect life as a sacrifice to purchase God's mercy for those who love the Lord.

So, just love God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. Don't stress about being good enough -- something you'll never be. Let go of the guilt when you make a mistake and draw closer to God to avoid making that mistake again. And most importantly, please don't ever let the actions of a Christian behaving badly or a person who doesn't really know or love God keep you from having a personal relationship with God and loving other people.

The Battle Within: the Still Small Voice vs. the World

I think the hardest battle we fight is the battle within -- and that battle seems to be getting more and more complicated as time goes on, the older we get and the more 'connected' we become via TV, radio and interactive media.

Most people say that they are born with that "little voice" inside them that tells them basically what is right and what is wrong. But for many people, what they hear from that voice doesn't always match up with what they read in the Bible or what their pastor tells them. Why?

The first question should be, what is that voice and where is it coming from? Well, for the most part that voice is shaped by the things you bring into you (what you consume) -- it doesn't originate from within you. So whatever you spend your time consuming is what you're feeding that voice and we've all heard the cliche, "You are what you eat." 

Now, for the "Why?" Why is it that something you feel so deeply in the core of your inner being, what that little voice within you screams so loudly, is sometimes at odds with what you're told is God's will? Well, that's up to you to figure out! It is possible that what you're being told is God's will may be incorrect. Sure! There are false teachers and false prophets who profess to believe in and preach the God of the Bible running rampant throughout the world today. If something that you hear doesn't sound right to you -- look it up. Find out for yourself!

If you see a scripture quoted, go to that chapter and read the whole chapter to get the context of the scripture. If your Bible has textual footnotes read them because they often help you better understand the audience the scripture was originally intended for and what other events were going on at the time it was written. But I urge you to seek understanding with an open mind and the intention of finding the truth.

If you find that you just can't reconcile what you're reading in the Bible with your image of what a(n) _______ God would do or say, then consider that may be creating an internalized idea (image) of what God is to you based upon your beliefs, which up til now have been shaped only by what you've consumed. In short, you're filtering God through your very limited perspective and experience.

Is it possible that the little voice inside is really coming from God? Sure it is! And the way to find out if it's God or if it's just your own emotions is to compare what it's telling you against scripture. When God speaks to you, it always lines up with scripture. Always.

To truly know and understand God, you're going to have to read the Bible. In Romans 12, Paul tells us "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." You're going to need to renew your mind because, to be honest, we've all been conformed to this world. It would be nearly impossible to exist in this day and time and not be conformed to the world when we stay so connected to it through our TVs, radios, computers and phones.

Become like the Bereans -- examine the scripture for yourself and find out the truth.

Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.