homemade chicken/rice for puppies

[CSutherland]

A few weeks ago Bentley had diahrrea for a few days and I took him to the vet. He had no parasites or fever and the vet prescribed generic Flagyl for 5 days and a diet of boiled chicken/rice. He did not specify proportions so I just guessed at it and Bentley recovered for about 10 days then had another bout after I re-introduced his regular diet. Vet then said to go through the process again, returning to the kibble diet more slowly. He, of course, absolutely inhales the chicken & rice, will eat his kibble if it's mixed with chicken & rice, and isn't too crazy about kibble alone.

My question is this: If I decided to do homemade puppy food permanently what proportions am I supposed to use? I looked online and there are too many variables and I know nothing about the safety of any of them. He seems to be thriving on the way I fix it, but according to the online recipes I have it backwards. I'm giving at least twice as much rice as chicken and, as I said, I'm now mixing it all with kibble. His kibble is lamb/rice.

[Mindysmom]

If you are going to feed a homemade diet long term it is important to have it balanced with the right amounts of vitamins/minerals. Chicken and rice alone is probably very deficient in calcium just to name one. I would suggest researching dietary requirements - there are books out there written by animal nutritionists - some go so far as to give recipes that will give a balanced diet. I would just caution you to be very careful about your sources (where do they get their knowledge?) and do some research yourself so that you are comfortable that you will be feeding a balanced diet as deficiencies will not show up right away.

[Soushiruiuma]

I am not a nutrition expert.

But: chicken + rice is not a complete diet. It's fine short term, but your dog would need a lot of vitamin/mineral supplements to stay healthy on this diet long term.

Personally, I feel that balancing all of the nutrients in a diet is too difficult (and I've had training on how to do this). If you are interested in trying raw you can order frozen prepared diets online, or try a dehydrated diet (I've fed addiction, and the honest kitchen). The honest kitchen makes a version that is not a complete diet, you add your chosen meat at home. I fed this for about 3 months, but the soft food was really making plaque build up quickly, so I switched back to kibble.

If I haven't managed to deter you yet, Monica Segal sells recipes through her online site, and even has cavalier specific options. If you are going to do raw/homecooked do it properly (by using either prepared diets, or recipes from an expert).

[CSutherland]

Sounds like this would be too complicated for my taste. I think I'll fool him back to the all-kibble diet by adding just a touch of chicken/rice for a few days. He was perfectly happy with kibble until he got the taste of people food. Thanks! This is what I needed.