Healthy Homemade Dog Food Recipe

HAWAIIAN TWIST
A canine combination of chicken, cottage cheese and sweet potato, along with added pineapple and mango. A twist of tropical flavors that will make your dog sit up and hula-la!

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 Cup of lowfat cottage cheese,
1 Large, skinless chicken breast
1 Cup sweet potato, baked in skin, peeled and mashed
5 Tablespoons pineapple, fresh or canned, diced and mashed
5 Tablespoons mango, raw, pealed, diced and mashed.

SUPPLEMENT(S):
Essential Fatty Acids — Toy breeds and small dogs 500 mg, Medium and Large dogs 1000 mg (in capsule form) of fish oil daily, (Carlson's fish oil capsules come from a very reputable source, who tests regularly for ocean contaminates).


Vitamins
Add a vitamin and mineral supplement formulated for dogs. Dose according to label directions. Mix well into food right before serving. Pet Tabs or Canine Basic Nutrients made by Thorne Veterinary, are both reputable products.

Calcium
Calcium Citramate - Calcium Malate together has demonstrated superb solubility and superior absorption when compared to other calcium salts. It has approximately six times the solubility of either calcium citrate or calcium malate individually.

A reasonably optimal canine diet should contain a calcium to phosphorus ration of roughly 2 parts calcium to one part phosphorus. Meats are very high in phosphorus and very low in calcium. Since many home cooking recipes recommend fairly high amounts of meat (in general, a good idea for carnivores), there is no reason to supplement phosphorus. Many dog food recipes floating around the internet recommend using bone meal (may contain lead), which fails to take in to account the high phosphorus in the diet. The result is excess phosphorus in comparison to calcium. The solution is to simply feed a calcium supplement to compensate.

Example dog dose for a human product containing 150 to 160 mg of Calcium Citramate: 1/4 capsule for every 15 pounds of body weight, mixed into food twice daily.

PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Unseasoned, grill or roast the chicken and chop it into small pieces. Bake the sweet potato (wrapped in foil) in the oven at 350° until its real soft. Once the sweet potato is cooked, let it cool, mash it and add it to the chicken. Add cottage cheese and mix well. Measure the pineapple, and mango, mash the fruit and mix it in with the other ingredients. Stir in the Essential Fatty Acid, vitamin and mineral and calcium supplement. Recipe yields: approximately 4 cups of food.


How Much To Feed:

Example: If your dog eats 2 cups a day of commercial dog food you would feed the same amount (2 cups) of this recipe, to meet his daily requirements. The same principle applies to a dog who eats 1/2 cup or 1 cup of commercial food daily, they also would receive an equal amount of the homemade diet as what they are used to eating.


Batch Cooking:
Large batches of food can be made by multiplying the recipe's ingredients.


Storage:

Prepared food can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks. Supplement(s) should be added freshly to the food, right before it is fed. Thawing and heating vitamins will degrade them. You can thaw or heat your pets food in a hot water bath. Never use a microwave to cook or reheat you dogs food. Microwave heating changes the molecular structure of the nutrients and proteins in our food.

Rotating the Diet:
Varying wholesome ingredients from day to day lessens the chance of developing food allergies, boredom and exposes the dog to a healthier range of nutrient sources.

For more ideas on keeping your pet healthy visit our website - Pet Remedy Charts.