# Starting homemade food--help?



## Charmander52 (Oct 21, 2011)

I'm (finally) switching my 4-year-old GSD to a homemade cooked diet and I was hoping someone here with more experience would be willing to check my numbers just in case. Me=bad at any sort of math.

He's about 85 pounds, or should be, so according to what I've read, he should get around 2 pounds of food a day, half for breakfast, half for dinner. So what I have is:

5% liver or kidney (usually liver; it's easier to get here)
5-10% heart (when possible)
75% muscle meat
5-10% rice/barley, beans, potatoes, etc.
Steamed vegetables and some fruits

He'll get raw bones occasionally. Otherwise I have ground eggshells for a calcium supplement (1 tsp. per day) and raw honey, ginger, plain yogurt, cottage cheese, and garlic for occasional use, and we always have eggs. How does this sound so far?

I also read you ought to give salmon or EPA oil. Is that right? Does anyone have a good brand they could recommend? And are there other supplements I should be giving him?

Thanks much! I'm a little nervous I'm going to mess him up.


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## Joey-and-chandler (Jan 16, 2016)

I would work with a nutritionist on the homemade diet. For starters- eggshell powder should be added 3/4 teaspoon per cup of meal (i read). Or 1/2 teaspoon for each pound of boneless meat. Plus i dont know if youre thinking long term that is the right choice for the calcium supplement. Great thing though for not feeding dry food or highly processed anything! Way to go


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

You can check yourself by trying to recreate what you're doing on the Balance It website -- you'll likely find there are trace minerals missing, which they sell. https://secure.balanceit.com/ Otherwise, you might consider buying a base mix until you're comfortable with a spreadsheet inputting your ingredients and comparing them to the nutrient requirements (The Honest Kitchen, Sojo's, Dr. Harveys, Volhard Nutrition....lots of options).


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## Charmander52 (Oct 21, 2011)

Joey-and-chandler said:


> I would work with a nutritionist on the homemade diet. For starters- eggshell powder should be added 3/4 teaspoon per cup of meal (i read). Or 1/2 teaspoon for each pound of boneless meat. Plus i dont know if youre thinking long term that is the right choice for the calcium supplement. Great thing though for not feeding dry food or highly processed anything! Way to go


I don't know if we have any nutritionists here, but I'll find out. Thanks for the suggestion.  If I can use eggshells long-term, I'd like to because we go through a LOT of eggs. Better they get used for something than thrown away.


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## Charmander52 (Oct 21, 2011)

Magwart said:


> You can check yourself by trying to recreate what you're doing on the Balance It website -- you'll likely find there are trace minerals missing, which they sell. https://secure.balanceit.com/ Otherwise, you might consider buying a base mix until you're comfortable with a spreadsheet inputting your ingredients and comparing them to the nutrient requirements (The Honest Kitchen, Sojo's, Dr. Harveys, Volhard Nutrition....lots of options).


Thanks for that link! That's a very useful tool. And thanks for the base mix suggestions.


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## Momto2GSDs (Mar 22, 2012)

Charmander52 said:


> I don't know if we have any nutritionists here, but I'll find out. Thanks for the suggestion.  If I can use eggshells long-term, I'd like to because we go through a LOT of eggs. Better they get used for something than thrown away.



You need "Bone Meal" that has the correct Cal/Phos Ratio, not Eggshells if you are feeding a homemade diet that does NOT include bone in it.


This is the one I use: NOW Bone Meal: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

"NOW" Dosage for a PUPPY up to 10 months old is: 1 & 1/2 teaspoons per pound of food, that does NOT contain bone. 


Other brands of Bone Meal differ in dosage's as does the dosage for an adult dog.


Moms


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## Slamdunc (Dec 6, 2007)

I would add chicken quarters to your mix. Heart is muscle meat, not organ. I would look into tripe and get a source for green raw tripe. You are missing some key ingredients by not feeding raw chicken with bone and tripe. Rice and barley are fillers and not needed, IMHO. The diet the way you have it will be lacking, it definitely needs some fine tuning. Raw bones are an integral part of the raw diet.

Raw feeding is an excellent way to go, good luck with it.


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## voodoolamb (Jun 21, 2015)

Just eye balling it - you look like you might be a little low on vitamin E.


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## Galathiel (Nov 30, 2012)

You need more organ meat ... you need to feed BOTH liver and kidney if those are the only 2 organs you are going to feed (heart counts toward muscle meat).


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## TiaMarie (Aug 7, 2016)

Right now I have mine on a commercial raw and hoping to switch up to a homemade raw in the future. I've been looking at amazon for bone meal and they also have some other supplements for raw fed dogs. I need to do more research before I can commit. Good Luck


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## Charmander52 (Oct 21, 2011)

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind if I ever do go raw, but right now I'm cooking for my dog. The people whose house I live in aren't comfortable with raw feeding and there's someone who has immune system problems (if anyone were to catch salmonella, it'd be her), so beyond the occasional raw beef bone, no raw.  

I wondered about Vitamin E. Thanks for confirming that.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Another resource that you might look into is getting a copy of Monica Segal's K9 Kitchen book:
K9Kitchen: The Truth Behind The Hype


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

there may be extenuating circumstances where home-cooking for your dog is the best option outside of feeding raw.

don't cook your proteins to crisp smithereens (minimal processing ) 
---- beef and organ are safely cooked to 145 degrees, poultry leans towards the 160 to 165 degree mark -- the lower end of the temperature allows for easier digestion 

since enzymes will have been "cooked" you may want to add digestive enzymes.

NOW does put out a good bone meal product . Make sure that the bone meal you are using is pharmaceutical grade so that you have assurance that there is no lead or mercury contamination.
Much of the bone meal used in commercial kibble is sourced from off shore countries , China , India etc where these contaminants may be present or even exceed safe levels

Know where your ingredients come from. I would insist on a US plant . Make sure the bone meal is human edible.

Speaking of bones -- get yourself a large stock pot. Bring in those various bones -- chicken , pork , beef . Lots of cartilage on them Immerse in water -- bring to rolling boil -- maintain for ten minutes or so , then reduce to an all day slow simmer .

Strain to RETAIN the broth . Don't do what a friend did absent mindedly --- put the collander in the sink , poured the liquid down the drain and was left with a strainer full of boiled bone !

Put the broth in mason jars and spoon out the mineral and amino acid rich beautiful bone broth. 
If done properly you should have a jello like gelatinous super nutritious result.

When cooled you can put into containers and frozen till needed. 

Pick off all the meaty bits and any condoyles or keel or knobby rubbery bits as these are an excellent source of glucosamine and chondroitin.

bone broth is not a source of calcium 

best sources of calcium --- quote Dr Karen Becker "I recommend healthfully sourced bone meal or microcrystalline hydroxyapatite (MCHA). Bone meal is cooked bone that has been ground down to a powdery substance. It provides the same minerals as whole, raw bone, minus the fat and protein. " and later "MCHA is freeze-dried bone, usually from New Zealand. It's the highest quality bone replacement because it is uncooked (the bone is freeze dried raw) and livestock feeding standards in NZ are superior to those in the U.S."

I am a big fan of New Zealand grass fed bovine/dairy products - will select them any time they are available at the
Nature's Emporium 

Free-Range Pasture-Fed Whole Bone Calcium, 8oz 

https://www.waitakibio.com/products/brands/mch-cal/ 

so far you have covered the macro nutrients but are missing on important minerals , enzymes, probiotics, essential fatty acids , greens, tonic herbs , and health / immune supportive - disease preventive - greens and fruits.


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