cooked food?

ok, maybe a stupid question...or not...
i have a book on cavaliers, and the author advises against canned food which i agree with because of the gummy texture and the preservatives and the meat products are not human grade- unsuitable to be eaten by humans, so she suggests adding some chicken or meat and pureed veggies to the kibble. She personally uses raw meat and says for those unfamiliar with how raw diets work say you can cook the meat and then add it. I have been giving lexi shredded chicken for the past week and of course she loves it, had no problems, had nicely formed stools. So we just ran out of chicken so i cooked up some lean ground meat, drained of all its juices and ground it up a bit more so it wouldnt be so chunky. My question is, has anybody been feeding their food cooked? I see so much on raw diets here. Will it hurt her to eat it cooked? She loves it and we havent had any problems but i dont want to do anything that will harm her in the long run, or cause her to be overweight. Im just personally not comfortable feeding raw, im paranoid she'd get sick, but i know thats just me. So is there anything wrong with feeding it cooked?


Thanks in advance

I am pretty sure Karlin gives her dogletts cooked foods. If memory serves, she often makes them up big stews full of meat & veggies & all sorts of goodies. Just be sure to not put any onion in it as it can be harmful to some dogs.

Cooked is great! Denatures some of the enzymes in raw, but it will give you peace of mind Just make sure never to feed cooked bones, only the meat.

thanks to both of you for giving me peace of mind :wggle:

My dogs occasionally get cooked food as a special treat, most of the time they get raw - If you're only using it basically as canned food would be used, I see no problems with it! I advise against completely home cooked diets, however, for anyone but the most experienced owners that really understand canine nutritional needs and how to balance them - I feed raw because it's easier to give the dogs a proper balance of nutrients with raw. The problem cooking that meat brings up is A: It kills alot of the beneficial enzymes and B: MUCH more importantly - Cooked bones are NOT safe! The challenge of a cooked diet is that it's much harder to make sure your dogs get appropriate levels of calcium to balance the diet out - Without enough calcium, the high phosphorus level of meet can really cause some problems fed long term! And C: You loose most of the dental benefits of a raw diet - Chewing on raw bone and tearing at the meat and skin does wonders for keeping a dog's teeth and gums healthy!!!

no i was just mostly throwing some meat on top of the dry kibble like i would with the canned food just to make the kibble a bit more appealing, shes a little picky eater. i dont use bones at all, i have only given some shredded chicken breast and some ground meat. i dont cook much at all and anything too complicated is out of my zone! hahaha
but thanks for the advice

There are numerous recipes for cooked diets in the Library section and adding cooked meat to kibble is pretty common -- I do it all the time. I generally only feed cooked meat not raw.

As some of the others have already said, cooked is great for the dogs as well as adding a few veg, there are some great recipes in the Library section, Thanks for putting them there Karlin!!

I used to feed my dogs cooked food as well. Some of the pet foods are just so bad to them. I switched them over to a raw diet about five years ago. From what I read, dogs digestive system doesn't handle cooked foods as well as raw foods, which is similar to what they eat in the wild.