Homecooked diet

[Sugah]

Anyone feed their Newf a mostly homecooked diet? What do you cook? Portions?

I cook all of our Irish Setter's food (she has stomach and digestive issues) and wondering if it is alright for an 8 month old Newf.

Her meals consist of 3-4 cups of chicken and rice/sweet potato twice a day with some snacks like cheese, apples, veggies and satin balls throughout the day.

Thoughts?

 

[Lauren W]

I think it's a really interesting idea. I feed kibble, but have read about doing home cooked and raw. It makes so much sense to me, but I have not been able to break myself of the kibble just yet. Maybe one day.

I love this book by Dr. Deva. It helped me understand more about nutrition. http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Khalsas-Na...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245944165&sr=8-1

 

[luvmynwfy]

Hi
I just switched my raw fed girl to a homecooked diet. I was confused about what I was going to do for calcium (you can't feed cooked bones) but the diet I'm following indicates that cooking turkey or chicken necks is fine - I give two per day for a full grown Newf.
If you're following a specific diet they should mention a calcium source for growing puppies. Even when you feed raw you have to be careful about amounts of calcium. There are lots of good diets out there with tons of info.
Good luck,
Marina & Timber

 

[luvmynwfy]

Hi
I have copied and pasted this home cooked diet I came across by chance and remembered you were looking for info. It does include immune boosting supplements, this was found on the yahoo groups for dogs with cancer so you could probably leave out all the extras for a dog that is healthy.

Hope it helps:
Homecooked Diets – Lew Olson (author of “Raw & Natural Nutrition for Dogs”)

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/cancer-diet/
Cooked diets also need to offer variety, and large batches can be packaged into meal sized portions and frozen for later use. Feeding amounts are the same, approximately 2% to 3% of the dog’s body weight daily.

For instance, a 100 pound dog would eat two to three pounds of food a day, a fifty pound dog would eat one to one and a half pounds of food daily, and a 25 pound dog would eat 1/2 pound to 3/4 pound daily. A cup is approximately 8 ounces or 1/2 pound, some dogs will do well on two meals a day, others may need three or four smaller meals a day.
More vegetables are used in the cooked diets, to use as fiber. Do not overcook the meat, but rather cook lightly which will retain more of the nutrients. Butter can be used for cooking (unsalted butter for those dogs with kidney or heart problems), for flavor and palatability.
Sample Diet One
(one meal for a 100 lb dog, or two meals for a 50 lb dog, or four meals for a 25 pound dog)
- One lb regular hamburger, 4 oz beef liver or kidney, cook with small amount of butter
- 1 or 2 eggs, scrambled or soft boiled
- 1/2 cup steamed or boiled broccoli
- 1/2 cup cooked yellow squash
- 4 oz whole milk yogurt

Cook meat, eggs and vegetables and mix. When cooled, add yogurt.
To this, add:
- 1600 mg of calcium or one teaspoon of dried, ground eggshell
- One teaspoon Bertes Green Blend (for trace minerals)
- One teaspoon of Bertes Immune Blend per 35 lbs of body weight daily
- Add 1,000 mg of EPA fish or salmon oil per ten pounds of body weight daily

Sample Diet Two
- One lb ground chicken, four oz of chicken liver, cook with small amount of butter
- 1 or 2 eggs, scrambled or soft boiled
- 1/2 cup steamed or boiled Spinach
- 1/2 cup cooked cabbage
- 4 oz Cottage Cheese
Cook meat, eggs and vegetables and mix. When cooled, add cottage cheese.
To this, add:
- 1600 mg of calcium, or one teaspoon of dried, ground eggshell
- One teaspoon Bertes Green Blend (for trace minerals)
- One teaspoon of Bertes Immune Blend per 35 lbs of body weight daily
- Add 1,000 mg of EPA fish or salmon oil per ten pounds of body weight daily



Sample Diet Three
- One lb ground pork, 4 oz of pork or beef liver, cook with small amount of butter
- 1 or 2 eggs, scrambled or soft boiled
- 1/2 cup steamed or boiled Bok Choy
- 1/2 cup zucchini
- 4 oz Whole Milk Yogurt
Cook meat, eggs and vegetables and mix. When cooled, add yogurt.
To this, add:
- 1600 mg of calcium, or one teaspoon of dried, ground eggshell
- One teaspoon Bertes Green Blend (for trace minerals)
- One teaspoon of Bertes Immune Blend per 35 lbs of body weight daily
- Add 1,000 mg of EPA fish or salmon oil per ten pounds of body weight daily

Sample Diet Four
- One can 16 oz Mackerel or Salmon
- 1 or 2 eggs, scrambled or soft boiled
- 1/2 cup broccoli
- 1/2 cup Kale or other dark leafy green
- 4 oz Cottage Cheese
Cook vegetables and eggs (no need to cook the canned fish, it is already cooked) and mix together. No calcium is needed as mackerel, salmon or sardines already contain soft, steamed bones for calcium content.
To this, add:
- One teaspoon Bertes Green Blend (for trace minerals)
- One teaspoon of Bertes Immune Blend per 35 lbs of body weight daily
- Add 1,000 mg of EPA fish or salmon oil per ten pounds of body weight daily

 

[Ocean's Edge]

I've been feeding a home cooked diet for probably 6 months now (since early June). The more I read about feeding dogs especially Newfs the more dissatisfied I became with what was commerically available without spending more feeding the dogs than I spend feeding US! So I went out and did a lot of reading and researching and adding that to the knowledge I already had. I started at http://www.dogfoodproject.com and then googled a lot of recipes for home cooked dog food, and discussed it with my vet and came up with what we feel is a pretty balanced meal / food plan - for all the dogs.

I'm sure more experienced people will add a lot more specific information for Newfs

I admit I'm not *rigid* about proportions, meat/carb/veg. But the thing I am happier about is that I know exactly what my dogs - and its all human quality food.

I cook two 12 qt pots of food approx every two weeks, freeze it in 4+ cup (one day's meals) containers. Usually one pot chicken and rice, and one pot of something else - ground beef and rice based macaroni, or ribs and barley, moose meat and oatmeal, cod fish and potato.....

3kgs chicken legs (simmered well, then debone - legs are the easiest to debone) or ribs or beef (if on sale for a good price) or ground beef, moose meat when we have it, or cod or fresh/frozen fish (no salt fish).
1.5-2 large sweet potatoes
1.5 lbs carrots
half a head of celery
1/2 a commercial sized can of diced tomato
bunch of chopped swiss chard, spinach, or turnip greens (depends on availability)
1/2 a 1kg bag of white beans (soaked overnight)

add the veggies to the water you've cooked the meat in, add the deboned meat back in, add 4 cups of rice, or barley, or a bag of macaroni (you can get rice based mac now), or oatmeal. Cook until the mac or rice is cooked and the whole thing has thickened up, add more water or broth if/as needed.

Buddy gets 1 cup kibble, and 2.5 cups cooked food
Kilo gets 1/2 cup kibble and 1 cup cooked
Pippin gets 1/4 cup kibble and a 1/2 cup cooked
(kibble is President's Choice Nutrition First Grain Free)

I'll often throw some extras in on top. Shredded cheese on top of ground beef and mac, chopped boiled egg on top of chicken and rice, cottage cheese on the moose meat and oatmeal.

Buddy gets 1000mg of glucosamine, and wild salmon oil supplements
they also all get raw turkey necks 3 times a week or so
sardine snacks, canned tuna (in water), marrow bones - good healthy snacks
they also get yogurt daily.

All the dogs are doing well on it. Kilo was pudging up for a bit but we wound her food back a bit and she's now looking much better. Buddy's weight has stayed very stable, and he looks good, coat is wonderful, and their poops have never been better.

Like I say - we've only been doing this six months now, but so far it seems to be working out well, the dogs are happy and so is the vet. But don't mistake this for gospel or expert advice

 

[luvmynwfy]

Hi
I have yet another source for home cooked diets (since I've switched to cooked from raw I'm going crazy checking out as many as I can).. right now I am trying complete and balanced (see www.completeandbalanced.com). They have home cooked diets that are specific for adults, puppies, seniors, low calorie, high calorie and many more for dogs with specific illness/weaknesses. The learning never stops....
all the best,
Marina & Timber

 

[BethNC]

Thanks for these links. Our Pei was fed a mixture of raw and homecooked so I knew I wanted to do the same for our future pup. This is a great jumping off point!

 

[Oliver33]

- 1600 mg of calcium, or one teaspoon of dried, ground eggshell
- One teaspoon Bertes Green Blend (for trace minerals)
- One teaspoon of Bertes Immune Blend per 35 lbs of body weight daily
- Add 1,000 mg of EPA fish or salmon oil per ten pounds of body weight daily

Where would I find something like this? Petco, Tractor Supply, health food store?

Also worried about switching my ~9yo newf from dry food as long as I have had her (about 2.5yrs) and who knows what before I got her. Should this be a concern?