Homecooking questions... help please! THANK YOU!

[Chelle]

I've been thinking about homecooking for my Eury. Being military and overseas, there are many times when finding a good brand in the small size, as well as a brand she will actually eat, can be a serious challenge. Believe me buying several kinds of dog food and having to throw most of it away is frustrating and expensive. Not to mention all the negatives like recalls and such have me quite worried.

So all that said, I have a couple of questions:

1) What cookbook would you recommend? There are so many to choose from that it leaves me dizzy.

2) What do you do when you travel and can't refrigerate the food? Do you give them commercial dog food then? If so what type? We travel alot so this is a big issue.

3) I've read that if you homecook you should give them a supplement. What sort of supplements do you use and where do you purchase them from?

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

[Yorkieluv]

We use Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Health for Dogs and Cats...Some find the book overwhelming at first, but it's really not. It has a lot of wonderful information, and our dog is healthier than ever. The book tells you what supplements to add to the food, so you don't have to worry about guessing how much to put on the food on your own. He has you mix up some Healthy Powder mix, just do it once in a big batch, and then you don't have to mix it up everytime you cook. You freeze the food 2-3 day portions, and take it out as you needed.

[elle57]

Last Night I Cooked Up A Couple Of Lbs Of Ground Turkey And Beef , Added A Steamed Sweet Potato, Boiled Up Lentils , Brown Rice , Added Wheat Germ, Flax Seed , Peas , Then Divided It Up In Separate Containers , And Added Peanut Butter To One , Applesauce To Another, Baby Food Carrots To Another, Romano Cheese To Another. This Way Each Week He Gets Another Flavor. I Freeze Like 2 Months Worth At A Time . My Little Sammy Loves The Food. He Gets The Missing Link (1/4 Tsp) Per Day And A Half Of Super Vitachews Vitamins. I Have Been Cooking For Him Since The Food Scare , He Is 2 Years Old And 6.5 Lbs.

[Yorkieluv]

Sounds like you have a happy furbaby He gets variety and everything. I'm not familiar with the Vitachew vitamins, but do those vitamins include some sort of calcium carbonate or bone meal? That's important, in my opinion.

[marcerella02]

i also use Dr. Pitcairn's book, but i modify things a bit... we are travelling at the moment (in SSM to visit family) and i took a freezer pack in a cooler and just brought 3 bags of already frozen food with me. however if we are travelling from Canada to the US we use dog food.. Layla gets Fromms. Although travelling isn't too hard with homecooking. she sometimes gets grilled chicken from McDonalds or egg or cheese.. it is easier than you think!!!

[elle57]

Originally Posted by Yorkieluv

Sounds like you have a happy furbaby He gets variety and everything. I'm not familiar with the Vitachew vitamins, but do those vitamins include some sort of calcium carbonate or bone meal? That's important, in my opinion.

yes, the super vitachews are supposed to be really good for them. it is the ultimate brain and body nutrition. if you go to www.petmeds.com and look them up and you can see all the ingredients. to me it looks like it has everything . it says under 20 lbs give him one tablet daily, but he is only 6.5 lbs so i give half. i also give him the missing link which is also very good for them. i was just trying to make a variety of food so he does not get tired of it. he seems to be healthy and very lively !

[elle57]

Originally Posted by Yorkieluv

Sounds like you have a happy furbaby He gets variety and everything. I'm not familiar with the Vitachew vitamins, but do those vitamins include some sort of calcium carbonate or bone meal? That's important, in my opinion.

oh, and he gets cheerios ( plain) and gerber banana yogurt dessert , just a teaspoon once a day.

[Chelle]

Originally Posted by elle57

Last Night I Cooked Up A Couple Of Lbs Of Ground Turkey And Beef , Added A Steamed Sweet Potato, Boiled Up Lentils , Brown Rice , Added Wheat Germ, Flax Seed , Peas , Then Divided It Up In Separate Containers , And Added Peanut Butter To One , Applesauce To Another, Baby Food Carrots To Another, Romano Cheese To Another. This Way Each Week He Gets Another Flavor. I Freeze Like 2 Months Worth At A Time . My Little Sammy Loves The Food. He Gets The Missing Link (1/4 Tsp) Per Day And A Half Of Super Vitachews Vitamins. I Have Been Cooking For Him Since The Food Scare , He Is 2 Years Old And 6.5 Lbs.

That sounds really good. Did you just come up with that recipe or get it in a book or online?

[Yorkieluv]

elle57, that sounds pretty good

Aside from the homecooking, our furbabies get at least one tsp of Stonyfield organic fat-free yogurt, at least a tsp of cottage cheese.
In the mornings they get half a juiced zucchini or celery stalk. They get apples, watermelon, etc for treats too.

[Chelle]

Originally Posted by marcerella02

i also use Dr. Pitcairn's book, but i modify things a bit... we are travelling at the moment (in SSM to visit family) and i took a freezer pack in a cooler and just brought 3 bags of already frozen food with me. however if we are travelling from Canada to the US we use dog food.. Layla gets Fromms. Although travelling isn't too hard with homecooking. she sometimes gets grilled chicken from McDonalds or egg or cheese.. it is easier than you think!!!

That all sounds really good. When we travel back to the States, etc (we currently live in S. Korea) I think we'll have to do the dog food though. The flight alone is about 15 hours.

[elle57]

Originally Posted by Chelle

That sounds really good. Did you just come up with that recipe or get it in a book or online?

i asked on here and got some recipes and then i just added some things from one recipe and another one. i just do not want to make him fat wit hall this homecooking !

[Suzy]

Marcerella & Yorkiedaze were great helps to me when I started homecooking! I've been doing it for about a month, and it's going well! My dogs love it, and it's a lot easier and cheaper than I imagined it would be. I too use Dr. Pitcairn's book as the direction for homecooking for dogs. He recommends feeding meat raw if your dog will eat it that way, so that's what we do.

So far they've had oatmeal w/ground turkey and peas, hamburger and rice with sweet potatoes, brown rice and kidney beans with carrots, and barley, beef and veggies. They love it!

[Chelle]

Thank you so very much everyone!!! I'm definitely gonna check out this book that you all recommend!!!

[Suzy]

I would also like to add that it's really convenient to cook for them when you use up leftovers. For example, we had brown rice left from sweet and sour chicken on Monday, a tiny bit of pasta from dinner tonight, a few baby carrots from lunch my husband didn't eat, and a handful of frozen green peas in a bag in the freezer.

I chopped up the carrots small, and tossed them into a bowl with the peas, the rice, the pasta, and thawed a cup of frozen ground turkey. (I split it up into 1 cup servings when I buy it, and then freeze in ziplock bags until ready to use.) Then I added the healthy powder, some Vitamin E drops, and some calcium, and VOILA-dinner tomorrow night for the furbabies!