# If You Feed a Combination of Kibble and Home Cooked, Check In Here



## Jo_in_TX (Feb 14, 2012)

I would love to know what you feed! 

I'm not sure I could ever do the raw thing with Teddy, but I would love to cook for her. I think I'd like to do a combination of kibble and homecooked, instead of homecooked only, and I want it to be nutritionally sound.

If you have suggestions for recipes, websites, or your own experience (positive or negative) to share, I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks very much!


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO (Oct 4, 2006)

In the winter I make pressure cooker meals for Mikko.
I put in a whole chicken, veggies like sweet potatoes, kale or spinach, carrots, garlic, sometimes a little oatmeal, and some water and cook until the bones in the chicken are soft enough to mash with a spoon.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

Chicken necks are great if you're going to cook the food--the bones are small and soft. I prefer to feed raw, but when my GSDx got very old, I would cook her food just to make it a little easier for her to digest. I used to boil up chicken/turkey necks and vegetables (carrots, kale, or whatever), some fish oil or a can of sardines, a bit of liver, then added enough rice to soak up the broth. I'd make a big pot of this and it would last several days.

If you have a pressure cooker I think you can feed any chicken bones, even the leg and thigh, since pressure cooking makes the bones soft. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. Even boiling them in a regular stock pot makes them pretty soft but I always threw out the leg and thigh bones just to be safe. Everything else mashed up pretty good for my old toothless girl.


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## Laney (Feb 12, 2012)

We originally started adding cooked food for our boy cause he had really loose stools. We added a little white rice, plain boiled chicken, and chopped cooked sweet potatoes. We add the sweet potatoes to every meal still. He gets a little cooked chicken with dinner at nights. Also, on his breakfast and dinner I add a scoop of fat free, sugar free Greek yogurt on top I his food. I sometimes add cooked carrots (he hates raw carrots, but when I chop and cook them he loves them so much I use them as treats). I sometimes add hard boiled eggs. He also likes plain oatmeal and brown rice. And when he is good he gets cut apples dipped in the Greek yogurt for dessert


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## 3ToesTonyismydog (Dec 27, 2009)

I am feeding Orijen 6 fish, Orijen Reg. Red and Acana Chicken and Burbank. I will mix in Pulsar and drop one of the Orijen's in the future. I boil up (small amount of water) Beef heart or chicken heart or a pet food mix from the butcher and add that(cooled before adding). A very small amount (half recommended amount) of powdered vitys, which I don't add every night, I just don't want to over due it. After this he gets some treats made up of fresh or frozen raw meat, thawed and every other night I add a human glucosamine pill which I get from Costco.


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## Jo_in_TX (Feb 14, 2012)

Thanks for all the responses. It's interesting to see what everyone is feeding, so I hope to get more responses to get ideas.


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## Gretchen (Jan 20, 2011)

Kibble is Royal Canin GSD, dehydrated raw - The Honest Kitchen. 

Homecooked is usually boiled chicken or lamb, sometimes adding carrots/celery. My husband makes home made organic bread, so yesterday Molly got a piece of bread soaked in the chicken broth from her chicken. She may also get, cottage cheese and mashed banana, a little home made applesauce, oatmeal pancakes, cornmeal cookies.

Like you I did not want to only feed home made, because I was not sure what supplements the dogs need, and figure the dog food companies are experienced in that. I like the RC GSD as it is high in glucosamine.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom (Apr 24, 2011)

Daisy and Lucky get brown rice,boiled chicken ,breasts ,thighs or pork with plain yougyrt and greeens like spinach or collards.I use the food processor to mchop the chicken/pork up. I also once or twice a week give tuna /sole/ tiplapia w/ rice. I also give sardines packed in water. Have been feeding boiled carrotst hey just started eating sweet potatoes like in the past two days.They also get fed Blue Buffalo Chicken and rice when I dont cook. Daisy's fav vegetable is tomatoes and she loves red sauce. Her fav treat is spaghetti(Whole grain) w. sauce and either beef/pork meatballs or steak.They eat alot of spinach and green beans.I worry that Im missing nutrients so they get 1.5 c. of BB every day if im feeding home cooked. They get another c. of BB kibble at night if I dont cook. In the home cooked due to their age I use veggies to fill them up. Lucky loves cottage cheese,Daisy believes it has meds in it but she will eat it if you put some tomatoes w/ it. She also loves oranges as Lucky does.Daisy will mug you for mangos. Lucky for strawberries and red raspberries. I often give them kibble mixed w/ fish like Tuna. On the weekends they get a scrambled egg each day.


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## Heidigsd (Sep 4, 2004)

Nikki gets a cooked diet, no kibble but you might be interested in this booklet to get you started: 

Enhancing Commercial Diets


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## TCAP1 (Mar 28, 2012)

We have just started fairly recently to feed other options than just kibble. Currently I feed a variety – 
Kibble – Wellness
Raw – primarily Blue Ridge Beef (packaged raw), very economical. 
K9-Kraving – packaged raw / on occasion because it's expensive but supposedly nutrionally balanced. Fed this prior to finding Ble Ridge Beef.
Pressure cook / Crock pot – usually whole Chicken, sweet potatoes, green leaf veggies, carrots, parsley. 
Dehydrator – chicken strips, sweet potatoe chips. 
Raw chicken – occasionally – so far.

Usually mix it up a lot, don't have a set routine as far as what to feed and when. I mix the kibble with the cooked food and feed raw seperate. Only because the raw comes in a 2lb chub and 2 have 2 dogs so each get 1lb at a meal. Looked into feeding Raw and kibble at the same time but found nothing definitve either way. 
Have a list of what Not to feed and eventaully would like to limit if not do away with all together the kibble. 


Many good sources of information, I have a folder full of stuff. Some good ones are below. 
Goes without saying – GSD Forum.
Mary Straus / Dogaware.com
The Whole Dog Journal
Lew Olson
The Dog Food project


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