They Love It!

The homemade dog food was a success.  The dogs love it!  We are mixing it in with the old kibble to allow their bodies to adjust to the new food.

Dogs enjoying their meal

We have already seen some improvements like excitement at meal time and better breath.  I am pleased with them having better breath.  Their fur might be improving as well, but its hard to tell if its the food or the change in season.  Below is the recipe that I used.

Dog Food Recipe

Ingredients Ratio:

4 oz        Cooked Chicken
1 3/4 C   Cooked White Rice
1/4 C      Cooked Brown Rice
3 T          Cooked Vegetable Puree - see recipe below

Blend all ingredients in food processor until it makes a well blended paste.  Makes a little more than 2 cups of paste.

Homemade dog food paste

My two boys are currently getting 1/2 C and the little one is getting 1/4 C mixed with their kibble. Next week we will increase the ratio for the boys to get 3/4 C with kibble and keep the little one at the same ratio until the kibble is gone.  After the kibble is gone we will give them just the homemade food and adjust servings as need.  I estimate the boys (55-60 lbs) will eat about 2-2 1/4 C and the little one (20 lbs) will have 3/4-1 C a day.

Storage:

We have a FoodSaver so we are storing the food in sealed canning jars.  If you have a FoodSaver I highly recommend purchasing the jar(s) attachment. We freeze 90% of our food with jars, quick easy and reusable, we use both the wide mouth and standard.

We have the dog food we are currently using in the refrigerator and the rest in the freezer until we need it. The dog food should have a refrigerator shelf life of a week and in the freezer 3 months.

FoodSaver and Canning Jar with Dog Food

Lessons Learned:

• I made a huge batch of this because I knew the dogs would go through the food.  I do not recommend making a huge batch (20 times the ratio) it was a long day and I did not get it all completed. Also the rice was tricky cooking at that scale, I had to put some in the Crock-pot and some on the stove, it was a mess. I am going to make it in smaller batches and use my Crock-pot.  
• Crock-pots make awesome rice steamers
• Blending several batches of this food in a Ninja processor puts a lot of strain on the motor.  Do not recommend using a Ninja for this, my motor got hot after 3 jars worth of food.  I stopped using it and went for my Kitchen Aid food processor.
• Do not fill the jars completely full when freezing.  Fill it up to the bottom rung of the jar max, so the food has room to expand.  
• Recommend using wide mouth jars for the food, scooping the food out is easier, no weird scrapping under the mouth to get the last morsels out.

Vegetable Puree:

2 C       Carrots
1 C       Sweet Potatoes
1 C       Spinach
1/2 C    Peas
1/2 C    Tomatoes - remove the seeds and stems

Put vegetables in a sauce pain, add water to cover, about 1 inch above vegetables.  Cook until tender. Pour cook vegetables (do not drain) in blender, blend until smooth.  Makes about 4 cups.

You can research what vegetables are good for your dogs and create your own puree.  My next batch will be vegetable and fruit puree, it will include beets, pumpkin, apples, and blueberries.  I will experiment with more foods after more research.