Monica (who is a member of our board ) has given permission for the following email to be crossposted so I wanted to include it here as I know many people are wondering about alternatives to store bought food, given the recent problems with commercial diets.
I highly recommend visiting Monica's site as well, which is linked at the end.
I highly recommend visiting Monica's site as well, which is linked at the end.
Although I receive a lot of private email every day, today's requests =
are heart wrenching. Desperate to find a home-cooked diet to feed their =
dogs that were kibble fed just a few days ago, people have been emailing =
all day. I can't keep up with the emails, so maybe this can help. Please =
find below, two diets, one for a healthy 20 pd dog and another for a =
healthy 50 pd dog. These go against my fundamental belief that generic =
diets aren't a good choice, but due to the food recall, just about =
anything is better than feeding an unknown.=20
These diets are cooked because that's what people have asked for. I =
don't have anything against raw diets - just to make it clear Please =
understand that I won't be tweaking the diets if your dog happens to =
weigh 60 pds or 8 pounds or whatever. The booklets on my site would help =
most people much more than these recipes, but these should help in the =
meantime.
I've taken into consideration that most kibble fed dogs, especially ones =
eating foods containing wheat gluten, may have different food =
tolerances. I've also considered that these dogs are accustomed to more =
carbohydrates in the diet than what many of us feed. For these reasons, =
these recipes are *not* indicative of my usual diets. They use =
ingredients contained in many pet foods and are formulated to make an =
easier transition. They offer no variety, which is also not the usual =
way I go about things. However, people are asking for the simplest =
recipe possible, and I'm trying to honor the requests.
You may crosspost to other lists, if the list rules allow. My goal is to =
help dog owners, so go ahead and post to your breed lists, breeder lists =
etc - but please post this in it's entirety, or not at all.
Please note that I have no way of knowing what supplements someone may =
have access to, or what those supplements may contain. For this reason, =
the supplements in these recipes are ones from my site, however, I am =
not offering these recipes in order to boost sales of my supplements. =
You can go to my site to look at what a supplement provides and buy a =
product that's the same, or as close as possible, from another source. =
Just be sure that you are not adding more minerals, and that includes =
the iodine is various brands of kelp.
The amounts of foods and supplements are per day unless noted otherwise. =
The weight/measure of a food is the *cooked* weight/measure, not raw. =
Where weight is noted, use a kitchen scale, not cup measurements. Cups =
measure volume, not weight,
For a 20 pd dog:
4 oz chicken dark meat with skin, stewed
1 oz beef liver - every 6 days
3/4 cup enriched egg noodles
1 TBS carrot (optional)
3/4 tsp bone meal
1/4 tsp. NoSalt (found in grocery stores next to table salt)
1/16 tsp kelp
5 mg zinc citrate or gluconate
2 capsules, vitamin E -- per week
500 mg wild salmon oil or flaxseed oil
1 3/4 capsules magnesium citrate
2 capsules, Multi Mineral Complex -- per week
1/2 tablet, vitamin B compound, per week*
* B vitamins are water soluble and excreted through urine. They should =
be provided often, so feed 1/4 tablet twice weekly. Also, B vitamins can =
upset an empty stomach. Always feed with food. Best bet: tuck it in a =
hand held piece of food and feed as a treat.
For a 50 pound dog:
8 oz ground beef, lean, 15% fat
1/3 oz beef liver
7 oz brown rice (boiled as 1 part rice in 3 parts water until very, very =
soft)
1 oz zucchini
1/8 tsp NoSalt
1/8 tsp kelp
1 capsule, cod liver oil
1 3/4 tsp bone meal
2 capsules, Multi Mineral Complex -- per week
1 tablet, vitamin B compound -- every 2 weeks
2 capsules, vitamin E 200 IU -- per week
These diets meet 2006 NRC recommended allowances. Nutrient requirements =
are not linear to body weight. That is, a 100 pound dog does not have =
the requirements of a 10 pound dog multiplied by ten. So, these recipes =
would need tweaking to suit the weight of dogs weighing more or less =
than noted, but they're a start. Feed as required to maintain healthy =
weight - until you can change the diets to a more suitable profile for =
an individual dog.
Monica Segal - AHCW
http://www.monicasegal.com
Author of: "K9Kitchen" and "Optimal Nutrition"
Seminars by Invitation: Email [email protected]
Consultations ~ Diet Analyses ~ Quality-Tested Supplements