How to Keep Your Dog or Cat from Getting Sick from Storebought Foods

There's been so many recalls on cat and dog food sold in stores that it started to scare me. I love my pets and I want them to be healthy. Since I have no control over what goes into store bought pet food, and never know what they are truly ingesting, I decided to come up with my own homemade pet food. I know that a balanced diet for a dog or a cat not only includes meat, but they also need vegetables and grains, but not in the quantities typically found in store bought foods. Also, raw foods are far healthier for an animal than cooked, and store bought dog food is cooked. All the ingredients for this recipe costs about $20.

You will need:

1 large frozen turkey
1 large bag of frozen broccoli
1 large container oatmeal (not instant)
Food processor

Frozen turkey is almost impossible to work with, so you will need to defrost the turkey. To do this, you need to put it in the refrigerator for about 3 or 4 days. The broccoli will also need to be defrosted. It only takes a day in the refrigerator to become defrosted.

After your turkey has defrosted, you will need to get a very sharp knife and cut as much meat off the bone as you can. Having a sharp knife is crucial in this step, so please be very careful. Go slowly. It is easiest to carve the turkey in the same way that you would carve it if it were cooked and being served for the holidays. Once you have the meat off of the bone, cut the meat into strips, trying to get the cartilage and grizzle off.

At this point you can give the grizzle, cartilage and bones to your dog. Raw bones are not dangerous for your dog because they do not become brittle like cooked bones. In fact, raw bones are actually healthy for your dog. Your cat will, at least, find the whole thing interesting.

The next step requires shredding the turkey meat. To do this, put it in your food processor and grind it until it is the consistency of mash. There is a lot of meat to deal with, so you may have to clean out the bowl of the processor four or five times before you are able to shred all of the turkey. Put the shredded turkey in an extra large bowl, or several bowls, whichever you have on hand. It will be approximately a third of the ingredients of the finished product.

Now put the broccoli in the food processor. Chop it up into fine bits so that it will easily mix with the meat. The smaller the pieces, the better, especially when going into cat food. Once you have the broccoli shredded, add it to the meat and blend is well with your hands. Fold it over several times until it is even throughout.

Add the oatmeal straight from the container. Mix it thoroughly in the same way that you mixed the broccoli in. You want to make sure that all the food is evenly distributed.

Finding out how much to feed your cat or dog is the tricky part. You don't have to feed him as much of your mixture as you do the store bought food because yours has more nutrients in it, making them get full faster. However, because the taste is so good, a dog will tend to gorge himself on it until he makes himself sick. Roughly, you only have to feed your cat or dog one half to three quarters what you normally feed him.

For a medium sized dog, the dog food will last for about two weeks. Store a week's worth in the fridge, and the rest in the freezer to keep the turkey from going rancid.