Homecooking Intro Article or Book?

[porterscota]

Hi,

Having researched many topics on BW and finding that there is often thread or article that covers a topic, I was wondering if there was one for Homecooking on the website or if there is a good book that someone can recommend?

We have a 9 year old and a 4 month old and we are interested in homecooking but obviously each dog will have different needs/amounts to feed.

There is a local company that prepares homecooked food that we will start them on but I would like to eventually do it myself or supplement with my own.

They are both on Addiction rehydrated dry food mixed with canned food. Not being educated on the all the nutritional information of homecooked, we could either do a mix of commercial with homecooked (which I saw some members do) or go 100% homecooked.

Wondering how strongly people feel about the homecooked value?

Thanks!
Lissa
Mom to Porter (at the bridge), Scota and Rogan

[MOMTOGUINNES]

Guinness used to have a terrible time with his stomach. Some days the rumbling of his stomach would wake us up (as he of course sleeps with us). He would refuse his food or a treat and I would have to give him an antacid and tolucene (from the vet). He would storm around in a panic to get outside and would stay at my side all day - sure sign he felt bad. Usually about four in the afternoon all the meds would kick in and he would eat his meal and be fine until the next time. I was concerned that this was happening so frequently. The vet checked his pancreatic levels during one episode and they were so high the vet was amazed the dog was walking around.

I started feeding him a diet of either cooked chicken or hamburger mixed with cooked brown rice and raw carrots (shredded in the Food processer), once a day I add a cooked hard boiled egg. I feed him twice a day. Once or twice a week I substitute some type of fish, either canned salmon or sardines. He loves this food. I unfortunately spend more time cooking for the dog than for us ! He hasn't had a tummy problem in two years and the vet says he is doing great and to keep up the diet. I notice that he doesn't drink as much water as he used to and the vet says that is because the homemade food has much more moisture than regular dog food. I will never go back to processed food for him.

[gmacleod]

There are a number of reasonable books around on homecooking. One you might try is Dr Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats. It covers homecooked diets, including with recipes (they're a bit grain-heavy, IMO, and more modern ideas would suggest reducing the grain content some - but its still a good starting point). Other ideas here: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/information.html