Home made diet

[Sarah01]

Hey all

I was wondering if anyone on here could help me out with some advise about home made diets as I have no idea where to start, even a shove in the right direction would be helpful. I have a 3yr old Staffy who has food allergys and hip dysplasia so as you could image the price of really good dog food that causes no allergys together with supplements for Hip Dysplasia is getting a bit over the top. As far as I know Venison and goat are pretty good for a allergy ridden dog as they have no fat, Can I make a stew type meal with the meat together with some vegetables (spuds, rice etc)..... Any input would be most appreciated.

Thank you!

[KennelMom]

Are you looking for home 'cooked' or info on feeding raw. I know several dogs with allergies that have made huge improvements on a raw diet.

[calgal]

There are many dog recipe books, and if you go to google just type in dog recipe there are lots of recipes you can just copy.

[Sarah01]

KennelMom
Either cooked or raw, i'm not too fussy about this just wanting any info anyone thinks might be helpful.

[GreenleafGreyhound]

I would actually advice against using any old recipe you find on the Internet. Not only could it lead to eventual malnutrition, but you don't have the cold, hard facts behind the ingredients and what kind of nutritional benefits it will provide your dog with. Rather, I'd suggest you go with a more legitimate source: a holistic veterinarian and/or various home-made diet books.

The most popular books include:

Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale
Give Your Dog a Bone by Ian Billinghurst
The Ultimate Diet: Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats by Kymythy Schultze
Dr. Picairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Richard Pitcairn and Susan Hubble Pitcairn <---They recently published a new, 3rd Edition. It should be interesting to see what changes they made to the newer edition because I only have the 2nd edition.

I believe all of these authors have their own website, so you can Google any of these and something ought to come up.

While the BARF diet is very popular, I found multiple discrepencies in the book and reading it made me even more skeptical to start the homemade diet, LOL! While I still use it as a referance because it IS loaded with a bunch of important information, I do not use BARF as the basis for my dogs' diet. Instead, I feed my Greyhound according to Schultze's diet plan and my Pekingese receives a diet heavily based on Pitcairn's recipes. My suggestion for you is to read all of these books, consult a holistic veterinarian if possible, and choose whatever method is most comfortable to you. I also wanted to add that if you don't want to fully submerse yourself into the raw diet, you might want to look into a partial raw/Innova EVO diet. Many others use this way of feeding, as do I. Good Luck and be sure to check out the sticky we have on raw feeding!

[Shalva]

I would suggest doing allergy testing.... it costs about $200 bucks although a friend just had it done for 175 and they can tell you exactly what your dog is allergic to.... if you are planning on feeding venison and duck you might find that a raw or homemade diet could be a bit more expensive unless you hunt .... that having been said.....
I would recommend the allergy testing so you would know exaclty what to include in your diet.... I have been feeding raw for about 6 years now and while I started with a BARF Diet... I now feed more of a Milbrose Retrievers diet ... which means I read alot of books and basically feed my dogs a good variety of different foods and meats and they are doing great..... I have weaned puppies onto a raw diet.... I have switched over very young puppies.... who have all grown to be healthy and beautiful dogs..... I do believe in variety and if I layed out what I feed it would probably be a bit confusing but basically I feed an assortment of meats and fish..... turkey, chicken, duck, beef, lamb, mackeral, sardines..... baked beans..... sweet potatos, a variety of ground veggies although not as many as I used to.... I do feed grains... specifically oatmeal because my dogs like it well they all like it except for Cuinn..... but many dogs have trouble with grains.... I feed yogurt and cottage cheese.... they get dinner leftovers... the other night they had shepherds pie and sweet potato.....

so I can't make suggestions but I can tell you that my dogs are healthy and shiny coats and loads of energy..... but you need ot have that allergy testing done first.
s

[calgal]

This topic always raises more questions than answers. Buy Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide To NATURAL HEALTH for DOGS AND CATS. It's the most comprehensive guide to natural health care for pets. He will tell you what to feed and what not to feed.

[Sarah01]

Thank everyone I will certainly check all those out.

Shalva - The reason for trying the homemade diet is to cut down on costs (we are still paying off the last vet visit which was around $300), my dog has hip dysplasia which means expensive supplements and nemerous vet visits as well as the allergys which aren't confinded to food (more vet visits and usually antibiotics and creams). My husband and I are also expecting our first child in April so funds are limited at the moment. Hubby does a lot of hunting so the venison and goat meat aren't a problem to get but allergy testing is just means more costs. As far we know he is allergic to dairy products, fatty meat or food such as dog roll and beef aswell as products in most of the cheep dog foods, the allergys are also seasonal and some plants set him off as well, oh and spending to much time in the sun! :-). However when he is in good condition on a good diet everything seems to be fine, he also has an exensive cream which helps soothe rashes early on and usually prevents them from getting much worse.
I probably should just talk to the vet at our next visit in a couple of weeks and get her opinion.
Will let yous know how I get on.