Does anyone here make their own dog food

[Paz]

If so do you have a recipe or a website that recommends what ingredients to include?

[*anj*]

I don't, but there is a woman on my local Freecycle loop who periodically makes a request for any freezer burnt meat she can get. I happened to have a bunch of freezer burnt venison on hand, and she was delighted to have it for her dogs. She gets whatever meat she can, cooks it, grinds it, and I guess that's it. She didn't give me her recipe, she just told me the basics. Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this is I thought you might like to look into that option for obtaining meat. Dogs aren't as picky about flavor as humans are and it keeps people from wasting food they wouldn't otherwise eat. :D

[Sunny]

I feed raw. I dont' "make" or cook for the dogs, as I feed more like what a natural wild dog would consume, as best I can. BARF is the typical term. (bones and raw food) or (Biologically appriopriate raw food) is another defintion. If you google them, you'll come up with tons of links. THe best book I've read is Raw Dog Food (http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Dog-Food-Make-Easy/dp/1929242093/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201895207&sr=8-1)
Raw Dog Ranch (http://www.rawdogranch.com/rawdiet.htm)is a great website describing in good detail about it.

I've been feeding this way since I got both my pups. One is 3 yo now, and healthier than I ever would have dreamed. The 1.5yo also has perfect coat of hair, clean teeth, small poops, clean smelling. Amazing what food can do for a dog!
I had a co-op available to me when in CA. Now, I have to do more searching, but it works and is fairly easy. Easy as pie iwth a co-op. More work if you have to find your own suppliers, but still really easy to feed.

[kdeno]

and she cooks rice with ground beef and those frozen diced mixed veg. Then they mix a can of science diet twice daily with some of the homemade food. Feel free to email or pm me as I am having a hard time keeping up with the boards.

Kari

[Rebecca in GA]

I cook my dachshund's food sometimes. When I do, I cook a package of ground turkey and carrots in enough water to cover, then add cooked rice and lots of garlic powder (to discourage fleas, ticks and mosquitoes).

[2cents]

We did during the pet food scare. We're using Pedigree canned now with ONE. When I cooked, I would buy muscle meat (no ground meat), Hearts, and liver. I put a combo of meat in the crockpot with some sweet potato, green beans, and some oils that I got at the pet store. I would cook off of it then pulverize it all together in the processor. Then we measured out 3/4 cups in individual ziplocks and froze them. It would make about 22 days worth of meals. It was a lot of work but worth it at the time.

[Margaret in GA]

Ditto to Sunny's post about BARF. Our dog eats plenty of chicken wings, turkey mixed with raw veggies, and other bones and meat. Also wanted to say that she is quite healthy and her coat is beautiful. It's so easy and we're so used to it that I barely remember life with dry dog food.

-Margaret