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Post by Summer Magic on Jan 27, 2006 10:53:08 GMT -5
Good morning. I just finished making Magic her weeks supply of dog food. I'm getting very proficient at figuring out just how to do it. Her vegetables are usually fresh but I do use frozen bags too, so I weigh them and put them in a collandar and set them in a bowl of warm water to thaw but don't cook them. Her meat is usually chicken, thighs, legs gizzards, heart and liver, so I steam cook that. Now comes the fun part. I add two cups of water to the blender and add about a cup of vegetables to the blender and grind them to a fine consistency. Ok now what, the water and the vegetables are all mixed up..... Easy I strain the water out of the vegetables into a bowl and reuse the same water for each blend cycle till all her vegetables are ground up. Then I do the same for the apples, using the same water. Now I have a sloppy mess, I strain the whole mess and use the same water for grinding up the meat in the blender, so there is no more than two cups of water in the whole batch and she isn't losing any nutrients from the water because it's being put back into the food. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for figuring this out!
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Post by Nicole on Jan 28, 2006 9:28:55 GMT -5
That's great! I make a home made food to use as an addition to kibble and I use the water as well. It ends up getting absorbed by everything.
Do you cook the veggies at all? I cook my veggies. I was thinking of adding some heart or liver. I think I will next batch.
My dog has always had an issue with soft stool and he has been doing so well since I have started adding this.
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Post by Summer Magic on Jan 28, 2006 13:36:18 GMT -5
Hi Nicole
I never have cooked her vegetables because it does reduce their vitamin content and as you probably know, dogs can't digest celulos so I can't leave them whole and if they are only chopped she still doesn't get all of the benefit I want her to have from them. That's why I grind them down so her stomach can digest them. I always make sure that 10% of her total meat supply for a week is an organ meat of some kind for her blood and bones.
When I started home cooking I used to add brown rice to her diet, but she started gaining weight so I stopped feeding it. Now she has just meat, vegetables and fruit along with a dietary supplelment three times a week to insure she is getting all she needs. (I still don't trust myself to calculate exactly what she needs nutritionally and this is just an insurance for me) I also have started adding Acidophilus to her daily ration for good probiotic enzyme levels. She has never had loose bowels due to the home cooking. The only time that happens is when she eats a raw bone, or when she eats something outside that I didn't know she has gotten in to.
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