Make Your Own Pet Food

If you feed your favorite pooch ordinary, store bought dry and/or canned dog food, you may unknowingly be poisoning them.

Always mindful of health factors within my control I try to plan our family diet based on an array of wholesome, balanced ingredients that will help us avoid unnecessary ailments and diseases that afflict many Americans today. So it seemed a natural extension to become interested in my dog's diet.

And a good thing I did. My research uncovered very disturbing information about the ingredients that go into prepared, store bought dog food-whether it's costly, premium, or sold by your favorite veterinarian.

You'll find the most common ingredient on dog food labels is "animal byproducts." My research revealed this mysterious euphemism to be any part of an animal that is dead, diseased, dying, or disabled; In other words everything unfit for human consumption!

What's more, animals condemned for hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and residues of other drugs are sourced for dog, and other pet foods. Byproducts can even include euthanized (killed by drug overdose) dogs, cats, and horses. And, you'll see that these ingredients are listed in the first few on the labels of most pet foods because they provide the protein source so important to canines and felines. It doesn't seem to matter to the manufacturer how toxic the product is for your favorite pooch, as long as it sells.

BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin are toxic preservatives commonly found in pet foods. How else could foods have such long shelf lives?

And the manufacturers mask these untasty foods with fats to increase their palatability to the animal. Discarded, used restaurant grease is a known source for this fat.

And if the toxicity theme is not enough to convince you, consider that there's virtually no nutritional value in these foods. We're malnourishing man's best friend.

Within a week of switching my 10-year old pet canine to a completely human-grade food diet I witnessed a marked difference in her health and energy level.

Her energy level increased exponentially; She had been sluggish for more than a year, unable to accompany me on long walks. With the new diet she began chewing her rawhide bones again which she'd completely lost interest in, could take (and was interested in) long walks again and was generally much more alert and playful.

Her eyes became clearer and brighter, skin and hair quality improved-hair became shinier, skin less dry and flaky. She also became more relaxed around strangers-As a result of being abandoned and abused by her first owners and in a shelter cage for two and a half years, she's highly anxious by nature. Additionally, her teeth are cleaner and breath is markedly sweeter. My husband is pleased that she's less flatulent with the new diet. I believe she is allergic to wheat that is a major component of most dog foods, so now I feed her none.

Even with proper exercise she's always been a chubby dog, about 7-10 pounds overweight, but with the new cooked diet the excess weight was shed with a month. She's slim and sexy now!

And overall, she's just a MUCH happier pooch. It's truly noticeable.

Certainly consult with your veterinarian before switching your dog's diet, and bare in mind that a dog's food should include a mix roughly of 60 percent meat, 20 percent vegetables and 20 percent whole grains and starches.

Here is a basic dog food recipe template I've come up with for my dog through experimentation. I cook it in healthy olive oil because she doesn't like raw food, but I've read many accounts of people successfully feeding their dogs completely raw, people-grade food diets-That's what their wild ancestors ate, so it makes perfect sense. But, find what works best for your pet by watching them closely and experimenting.

Meat/Dairy/Fish Regulars:
Ground turkey meat (fresh)
Sardines (canned)
Salmon (canned)
Dinty Moore Beef Stew

Meat/Dairy/Fish Rotators:
Ground beef
Lite Spam (low salt, low fat)
Eggs
Plain yogurt

Whole Grain Rotators:
Whole grain brown rice
Whole rolled oats
Whole grain barley
Whole grain quinoa
Whole grain spelt

Fruit/Vegetable Regulars:
Pumpkin (canned or fresh)
Frozen peas and carrots

Fruit/Vegetable Rotators:
Blueberries (frozen or fresh)
Strawberries (frozen or fresh)
Tomatoes
Cauliflower (frozen)
Spinach (frozen)
Green beans (frozen)

Kitchen Scrap Rotators:
Several times per week I mix leftovers from our family meals including whole grain pasta and sauce, fish, meat, other vegetables; Pretty much anything as long as it's not TOO spicy. If it is I rinse it if I can, or don't give it to her.

Raw Meat Bone Regular:
I give her a beef spare rib bone a few times per week. This is the only thing she'll eat raw.

Nutritional Supplements Once Per Day (mix well into food):
The Missing Link Superfood Supplement, Canine Formula, Omega3Basic (1 teaspoon)
Doctors Foster & Smith Vitamin Tabs Plus (1 tab)

NEVER FEED YOUR DOG CHOCOLATE.
And I've read that you shouldn't feed your dog onions, but my dog loves well-cooked onions and garlic and seems to do well with them in her diet.

*Note: I don't purport to be a health expert of any sort, just a lover of my dog Hudson. The advice and recipe are gleaned purely from recorded anecdotes from others and my own personal experience with my own pooch. I also make no claims that you will achieve the same positive results with your dog by changing his or her diet as I did with mine. I do recommend that you experiment, use common sense, do further research and watch your dog closely.