It's dog food cooking day!

[Mr.Bill]

Today we are cooking 4lbs. of groung Chucken breast, 3lbs of chicken hearts, two cups of rice, cooked in the liquid that came from cooking the chicken. And because my dogs hate and refuse to eat vegetables, several cans of mixed vegetable will be pureed and mixed in and they will never know they were there.

This will last about two weeks, bagged and frozen then thawed as needed. They are small dogs, two of them, a Poodle/Terrier and a Maltese/Yorkie. We've been doing this for a few years now and the dogs love it and seem to be in excellent health. The fat one has even lost a little weight.

Total cost for this batch is under $20.

[Faux pas]

1. ...

Sounds like it's good enough to eat

[WVGal1963]

2. Wonderful!!

Several years ago, our beloved dog Jack was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma……it was in his muzzle and he was only 3 years old! There were NO good options and our vet gave him 4-6 weeks. My husband and I embarked on that awful journey - - heartbroken!! I started learning about anti-cancer diets for dogs and got completely consumed with changing his nutrition (and our other dog Alli’s as well) to give him a fighting chance. With his new human grade/homemade food, Jack survived for 6 months and it wasn’t until the last few days that he showed any signs of pain so OF COURSE he got the strong pain meds that the vet had given us. We’ll never go back to feeding any kind of kibble and I am VERY cautious about anything our dogs eat. (We adopted another dog - Jack - a few months after losing Mack.)

Alli (65 pounds……boxer mix….) is now 12 and she runs like a puppy - - her eyes are perfectly clear, her coat is amazing and she has no health issues whatsoever!! Mack, our “court jester” is 5 and he’s enjoying the same healthy life.

It’s daunting, at first, to learn all nutrition “needs” for dogs, but I read and research all the time and I’m so glad that we can do this for our beloved fur babies.

[Mr.Bill]

3. I will admit that what I am doing

would be quite expensive for large dogs. One of my dogs weighs 20lbs, the other weighs 4lbs.

Our main issues were two things. We have to watch our money on a retirement budget. This is actually cheaper than a good quality dog food. The other thing is we have to use soft food, as both are older dogs and have had about half of their teeth extracted. We have the meat grinder attachment for out Kitchen Aid mixer and everything is finely ground, and as I mentioned, the vegetables are pureed.

[WVGal1963]

7. Oh I understand

But after learning a whole lot, I found ways to make our food too (like you) without “sticker shock” because it would have been really tough for my husband and me to afford everything! I totally get it!! We were convinced that buying the most expensive “designer dog food” made us the BEST pet parents!! Little did we realize back then that making our own was not only cheaper, but so much better for our dog’s health.

[LakeArenal]

4. Our doggie loves cooked carrots. If there's no carrots he gets all picky.

And chicken.

[Mr.Bill]

5. My Maltese Yorkie

will find a tiny piece of carrot or one pea mixed in with store bought wet food and lick it clean laying in the bottom of the empty bowl.

[LakeArenal]

6. That amazes me how they do that. Can spit out the littlest peas.

Then look at you like WTF???

[niyad]

11. My Alaskan Mal absolutely adored raw carrots and mushrooms. Well,

actually, he adored all people food. I would give him a whole carrot, and he would hold it between his paws and eat.

[LakeArenal]

12. Oh no. Mine have to be cooked.

[niyad]

13. Oh, he loved them cooked, as well. He loved artichokes, and knew how to

eat them.

[Karadeniz]

8. I made about 3-4 gallons of food for about 20 years... so much healthier than commercial. Had to

stop due to tendonitis in my hand!

[Delarage]

9. I've been cooking for my pup, too!

I used boneless chicken breast, which I boil. I use the liquid to cook a 50-50 mix of brown rice and quinoa. Then I add various veggies (she'll eat most, so I just mix it up). Broccoli and peas seem to be her favorites, though. Now that I'm getting lots of cucumbers and zucchini from friends, I've been chopping some of them up and throwing them in, too.

I heat all that up (except the cucumbers when I have them) and then dump it in her bowl with fruit (blueberries and raspberries are her favorite) mixed in with a tablespoon of greek yogurt and pumpkin puree. A couple squirts of salmon oil and mix it all together.

My friends think I'm crazy.

[Mr.Bill]

10. You're not crazy,

your dog is simply a gourmet.

I have been using ground turkey from a discount grocery store nearby. Two lbs for $6.49. But they didn't have any this time, so I saw that they had boneless, skinless chicken breasts for a $199lb. I bought about 3.77 lbs. Cost me less than eight dollars. I did have to grind it myself.

[Delarage]

16. Sales are good

I'm a vegetarian, so keeping tabs on meat prices is new/icky to me. Cooking it is even worse for me, but she's worth it!

She camps out in the kitchen when it's chicken-cooking day, supervising the process. One time my local grocery store had ground bison meat on clearance (was approaching "best by" date) so I snagged a few and froze them. My pup turns out to be a major bison fan---but it's like $10/lb regularly, so she'll have to wait. I check every week.

[Duncanpup]

14. Awesome

[GentryDixon]

15. I do that for my pup.

Chicken thighs, brown rice, red & yellow peppers, carrots, celery, cabbage, frozen peas & broccoli. When I shred the meat off the bones & drain much of the liquid from the soup, I mix in organic Flax seed. It makes enough for just over 2 weeks.