A Quick Way To Make Homemade Dog Food
By Michele Welton, Dog Trainer, Breed Selection Consultant, Author of 15 Dog Books
Real meat is the best food for your dog…. nothing else even comes close….. but not just “muscle” meat …. your dog also needs organ meat and bone.
As one dog lover to another, I think you’ll agree with me when I say: It’s really hard to look at all the dog foods out there today and know for sure that you’ve found the best one for your dog.
Or is it? It turns out you can dramatically increase your dog’s chances of living a long, healthy life by making one simple choice. In this post, I’m going to tell you what that choice is… and exactly how to get your dog started on the path to a l-o-o-o-n-g, healthy life.
Cutting right to the chase, the best food for your dog is….
Real food. Real chicken, turkey, beef, bison, venison, lamb, fish. Carrots, broccoli, zucchini, pumpkin, apples. Eggs, cottage cheese, plain yogurt.
No, this is not “people food” or “table scraps.” Real meat, real veggies, real eggs, etc. are fresh, wholesome, nutritious foods. All living creatures deserve real food.
Now understand, when I say real food, I’m NOT talking about deli foods like bologna, sliced turkey, or processed cheese. No hot dogs or bacon, or macaroni and cheese. No french fries, pizza, or spicy tacos. That kind of “people food” is terrible for dogs. And honestly, we all know that most of that stuff isn’t particularly good for us either!
Homemade dog food recipe
Raw Yeast Dough: Cant Eat
It is extremely unsafe for dogs to eat raw yeast dough.
Raw yeast dough is a concern because yeast cells produce alcohol as they ferment, which may lead to alcohol poisoning and death if your dog consumes it .
Furthermore, dogs that eat raw yeast dough may experience severe bloating, as the dough expands in their stomachs. This can cause difficulty breathing and weakness .
Grapes And Raisins: Cant Eat
You should never feed grapes or raisins to your dog.
Grapes and raisins contain toxic compounds that are harmful to dogs. They have the potential to lead to rapid kidney failure and death .
Even small amounts of grapes and raisins can make your dog sick, so its important to avoid giving them to your dog altogether.
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If Your Dog Eats What They Shouldnt
No matter how careful you are, your dog might find and swallow something they shouldn’t. Keep the number of your local vet, the closest emergency clinic, and the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center — 426-4435 — where you know you can find it. And, if you think your dog has eaten something toxic, call for emergency help right away.
How To Selecting The Best Human
Just like how humans are all a little different, your dog may have unique nutritional needs based on their breed, activity level, weight, and other factors. Some dogs might need to lose a few pounds, others may need a special heart-healthy diet, and others may just be extra picky! Whatever the case may be, Pet Plate can help.
We take quality control and nutritional expertise very seriously, and every batch of food we make is flash-frozen to lock in the freshness. Plus, its formulated by our very own veterinary nutritionist, so you know youre serving the best of the best to your pup.
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The 10 Worst Foods To Feed Your Pet
May 25, 2021 | Pet Health
Sometimes the best intentions can have the worst outcomes. Slipping Fido or Miss Kitty a treat from the table seems like a special indulgence. But, in some instances, it can have life-threatening consequences. Some of the foods we enjoy the most are the ones you need to make sure to keep away from your pets. These include
Moist Foods Are Good For A Dog With Kidney Disease
An internet article about how the word “moist” is the worst word ever went viral, getting four million views, but whether you hate that word or not, “moist” is a useful word to remember when feeding a dog with kidney disease.
After all, kidneys are all about water. Water helps everyone’s kidneys remove waste from the blood, coming out of the body as urine.
“When a dog is having kidney failure, its vital that his food is moist to provide much-needed hydration,” says Dr. Patrick Mahaney, a holistic veterinarian based out of Los Angeles. He owns California Pet Acupuncture and Wellness and provides holistic treatment for cancer patients at the Veterinary Cancer Group.
“In kidney failure, the body is not properly excreting toxins through the kidneys,” Dr. Mahaney says. “As a result, more moisture is needed to flush out nitrogen, creatinine, phosphorous, and other metabolic wastes from the body. Therefore, my primary recommendation is to feed a diet that is moistened by water or low-sodium and free from vegetables of the onion and garlic varieties.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to buy canned brands of dog food that are formulated for kidney disease, or that you should stay away from dry dog food brands formulated for kidney disease.
Dr. Mahaney also recommends that protein sources be “highly bioavailable, which means that the nutrients are readily absorbed and cause minimal stress on the body in the digestive process.
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What Can You Feed A Diabetic Dog
If your dog is diabetic, you have to be more careful. Some human foods contain high amounts of sugar, which may dangerously affect your dogs glucose levels. That said, there are some human ingredients that are perfectly safe in moderation, and may even help your dog get some vital nutrients.
Most diabetic dogs do well on a high fiber and low fat diet. Fiber helps slow the entry of glucose into the bloodstream, whereas low fat meals can help keep your dogs weight in check. This is important keeping your dog at an ideal weight helps their cells use insulin more effectively.
With this in mind, heres a short list of healthy human foods for diabetic dogs:
- Plain chicken
- Cauliflower and broccoli
Can I Feed My Dog Human Food
Now that you know to avoid all of the questionable ingredients above Whats a responsible pet owner to do? Is it a better idea to just feed your dog human food, then?
The answer to this is a little tricky. Before we explain, lets dive into some of the dos and donts when it comes to feeding your dog human food instead of designated pet food.
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Give Your Dog A Tasty Whole Food Diet With Side By Side
While a whole food diet for your dog can offer amazing benefits, it can be a hassle to make it from scratch. Thankfully, you can still give your fur baby the best in whole food nutrition with Side by Side!
To get started, take Side by Sides Pet Health Assessment. This unique pet assessment tool helps you better understand your pets nutrition in just three minutes! After sharing a little about your pet, youll receive a customized warming, cool, or neutral diet recommendation that is unique to your pets needs.
Each of Side by Sides diets is crafted to perfection to ensure your pet only receives the best. By combining Eastern Food Therapy with hand-picked human grade ingredients, Side by Side creates delicious, gently freeze dried diets your pets will love. Plus, Side by Sides diets only use the best food we dont use fillers, additives, or synthetics in any of our dog food diets.
With Side by Side, you can feed your pets the very best whole food diet that they are sure to enjoy!
Ready to discover a delicious way to feed your furry family member the very best?Visit Side by Side today and show your pet some full belly love with some whole food goodness!
Diet In Diabetes Treatment For Your Dog
Regulating the blood glucose levels is the key to controlling and treating the symptoms of diabetes. Without a properly controlled diet, keeping the blood glucose levels within acceptable limits is impossible. This is because any food that your dog eats has a direct impact on its blood glucose levels. The types or quantities of food will cause differing reactions.
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Preparing Meals For A Dog With Kidney Disease
Whatever you and your veterinarian decide to go with, whether canned or dry dog food, or fresh and cooked meats, the hardest thing about having a dog with kidney disease is often not what to fix but to make sure your dog is eating regularly, Dr. Bailey says.
“Dogs with kidney disease tend to have trouble keeping weight on,” Dr. Bailey says “They tend to not have a great appetite, so I would lean towards feeding your dog a few times a day.”
She adds that you’ll also want to make sure your dog has easy access to water. That’s vital for all dogs, of course, not to mention all living creatures, but especially so if your dog has kidney disease.
If your dog has not been diagnosed with it, it may be hard for you to know for sure whether your dog has kidney disease. But at least at feeding times and every time you fill the water bowl you can feel good knowing that you’re making a difference in your dogs quality of life and possibly extending his or her lifetime by years.
“As a general statement, a lot of what you do at home has a very good chance of extending your dog’s life,” Dr. Bailey says.
“We can only make the recommendations. What you do at home definitely matters in this case. It’s kind of like going to your cardiologist. They tell you to go on certain medications, and it’s your decision whether you do it or not,” she says. “Your pet’s health is to some extent in your hands, so you want to make sure you make good choices.”
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What Nutrition Do Dogs Need
Dogs are carnivorous, meaning the primary component of their diet should be meat. But they arent obligate carnivoresor only meat-eating. In the wild, dogs survive mainly off of prey animals and some seasonal vegetables. Wild dogs will also occasionally eat fruits. When youre deciding on your dogs diet, it should primarily revolve around these food items.
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Choosing The Best Dog Food
The best dog food for your dog is ultimately up to you to decide. As an owner, you are the one who sees your dog on a regular basis. If your dog produces firm, healthy stool, is active and fit, and has a healthy appetite, then your dog food is probably working just fine.
Your veterinarian is a valuable resource to you during this process. They know more about pet nutrition than the average owner, and they also have access to research and resources that owners do not have. Your vet can help you narrow down your options and should be more than happy to help you find the answers to your questions about your dogs food.
AKC is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to akc.org. If you purchase a product through this article, we may receive a portion of the sale.
Why Do Dogs Like Human Food
There are various factors at play here. First off, human foods tend to be nutritionally more dense than many low-grade commercial dog foods. In addition, they tend to be tastier. With this in mind, its no wonder that your dog may turn their nose up at kibble to come beg at the dinner table!
Studies have also shown that dogs are perceptive they can tell you are really enjoying that steak right now, and they want in on the action. On the other hand, none of us are chowing down on kibble and enjoying it immensely, so your dog thinks that your food is simply better than theirs.
And would they really be wrong? Eating kibble every day, thats filled with meat byproducts and artificial ingredients, doesnt exactly sound enjoyable. Of course, some human foods can be dangerous for dogs. But many arent. With the correct preparation and nutritional balance, human food could be a much healthier source of nutrition for your pup.
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The Best Raw Food For Dogs
When feeding a raw food diet to your dog, you should keep in mind how a dog would eat in the wild. Dogs are opportunistic animals and will eat just about anything that contains meat, but wild dogs also eat plant matter such as occasional fruits and vegetables. They eat eggs and fish when they have the chance. They also eat partially-digested vegetable matter in the stomach and intestines of their prey. Whole vegetables can pass too quickly through a dogs digestive system to be of much nutritional value for them but when they are already partially-digested by other animals, vegetables can provide important nutrition for canines. So, it may seem kind of gross to think about dogs eating the stomach contents of other animals, but this is an important source of vitamins and minerals for them. So, while many dogs like to munch on raw carrots when you offer them, and they can be a nice treat, your dog wont derive much nutrition from them or other vegetables unless they are broken down in some way first. When veggies are broken down first by pureeing to mimic a prey animals digestion, for example, they are a good part of a dogs raw diet.
- Chicken
- Squirrel
- Venison
What Is Beef Meal And Chicken Meal
If you see an unspecified meat or meat meal listed, for example, its important to know what that means. With such an ambiguous label, it could be just about anythingincluding rendered and highly-processed meats. If youre not familiar with the rendering process, this is when manufacturers take a bunch of meats from potentially-questionable sources and cook it down into a powdered meal.
Meat byproducts is another one to watch out for this refers to parts of the animal that are technically edible but certainly not nutrient-dense. Think chicken feathers, beaks, and feet. Vague product labels such as with beefopens PDF file only require that 3 percent of the total product is beef, and beef flavor simply implies that there is enough beef in the product to be detected. To avoid this, look for specific meats listed in the ingredients, such as chicken, lamb, or beef.
If youre not choosing whole foods, you might also be serving a host of chemicals and pesticides to your pup. And dont even get us started on preservatives and artificial ingredients. Ethoxyquin, butylated hydroxyanisole , and butylated hydroxytoluene are the most common offenders, and have been linked to canceropens PDF file in animals.
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Lemons And Limes: Cant Eat
Lemons and limes can be toxic to your dog.
This is because the skins of lemons and limes contain a substance called psoralen, which can cause dogs to have gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea .
If very large amounts of psoralen are consumed by dogs, more severe symptoms, such as muscle tremors, difficulty walking, liver failure and death, can result.
How To Switch From Kibble To A Raw Food Diet
When switching between different types of kibble, its widely known that you should slowly mix the new food with the older food and gradually increase the amount of the new food. This helps to avoid any digestion problems like vomiting or diarrhea. However, when switching to a raw food diet, it needs to be done cold turkey. Reason being, cooked food and raw food is digested quite differently. By feeding both, it will force your dogs body to digest two completely different types of foods in two completely different ways. So when switching to raw food for dogs, you want to make the switch a quick one.
Be aware that there is a break-in period. Some dogs will adapt to the raw diet immediately while others will take several weeks to adjust. Typically, the longer the dog has been on kibble the longer the adjustment period will be. During this adjustment period, you can expect some diarrhea, constipation, and sometimes occasional vomiting. While a bit unpleasant, this is nothing of serious concern and the symptoms will eventually subside. Once the symptoms do subside, you and your dog can enjoy benefits to a raw diet for the rest of your dogs life. When making the switch its important that you feed your dog a relatively bland diet at first. Feed raw meaty bones and some bland vegetables such as chicken wings and squash or pureed carrots, for example. Dont start feeding richer raw foods, such as organ meats or eggs until your dog has begun to adjust to eating raw foods.
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Vet In Clear Lake Texas
A well-balanced diet should take into consideration your dogs age, size and activity level. All dogs need protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates, and essential vitamins and minerals in their diet. Store-bought foods are prepared with these nutritional requirements in mind. However, if you are making your dog food at home, its wise to consult your veterinarian to ensure your dog is getting the specific nutrients they need.
As a veterinary hospital serving Clear Lake and Webster, Texas, we are passionate about pet health and wellness. While we dont encourage feeding dogs human food from the table, we are supportive of a healthy, homemade diet. If there is a food you are wondering about that is not on the list, give us a call at Nasa Pet Hospital and well be happy to let you know if it is safe for your pup.