Homemade Dog Foods

For those who make their own food, how do you keep the cost manageable?

I have 4 large dogs and I want to make their food but it is SO expensive. I don’t dare feed raw because I worry about the meat sources.

I currently feed the crappy kibble choices available here and sometimes cook up ground beef, frozen carrots and peas, pumpkin and white rice. (There seems to be a debate about white vs brown rice. Totally confused on that too.) I’d like to make their food all the time but need to find some other meat sources that aren’t so expensive and simple recipes. I’m not a great cook, so I don’t really know how to cook food with bones. For example, chicken. I’m guessing you would boil it and take it off the bone?

Also, for those who give their dogs fish oil, do you just buy fish oil pills from the grocery store or pharmacy? Anything else they need in their diet?

What are some common carcinogenic ingrediants to look out for in dog food? I know that many brands such as Pedigree and Alpo have BHA, BHT and Ethoxyquin which our vet said to avoid at all costs. Does anybody know of any other harmful carcinogenic ingrediants in dog food/treats to avoid?

It’s really kind of infuriating when you start researching exactly what goes into dog food. You realize that dogs would live substantially longer if they didn’t get pumped with so much crap. I have an aunt who Alaskan malamute live to be 18 years old on a raw meat and veggie diet with minimal kibble and a cousin who has a 12 year old pure healthy Great Dane on a raw diet.

FYI, we have our dog (boxer/dane mix) on Diamond (sometimes Kirkland) dry dog food mixed with homemade vegetable, brown rice, and chicken/beef mix which he has been thriving on for 9 years. We’ve also recently started making homemade apple (seedless) and bannana treats ever since we found out many of the treats we’ve been feeding him have BHA/BHT and Ethoxyquin in them.
Sorry for all the typos, trying to type this on a Zune HD. lol.
Jayse, well mainly because I’m a college student and a hybrid kibble and homemade diet is what I can afford right now, at least until I graduate next year

I have an American Pit Bull Terrier with really bad food allergies and a Morkipoo(Maltese, Yorkie, Poodle mix) who can eat anything. The problem is I’m going back to school in the fall and I won’t be able to afford to feed them the higher end foods that are filler free(I usually feed them either Wellness, Blue Buffalo, or Evo) so I’m considering feeding them a homemade cooked diet(I can’t give them raw food because it gives them diarrhea). I was planning on starting with a chicken and beef vegetable soup with brown rice. The plan is to mix it into the diet that I currently have them on which is Wellness core dry and wet and then gradually increase the amount given until they’re totally eating the homemade food. Is there anything in particular that I should know before I make the switch from commercially made to homemade foods?

If it helps: the APBT is 59lbs and the Morkipoo is about 25lbs
I can’t feed the Pit any kind of food because he has really really bad food allergies. The little one can eat whatever you give him. With the Pit he’s allergic to things like barley. So certain wheats/grains have to be avoided at all costs. I tried searching for the normal foods at a cheaper price but its next to impossible to get wellness, blue buffalo, or evo at a cheap price. I’d rather they stay on commercial foods but with the college expenses I won’t be able to afford forking up 100 dollars a month.
I got the dogs way before I decided to go BACK to college. BACK is the keyword in this whole thing. Again kirkland brand foods cannot be fed to the APBT because of his food allergies. No the soup isn’t premade. Its homemade meaning I’m going to the butcher to purchase the meats and to Stew Leonards to purchased the fresh veges, so no its not loaded with sodium.
Besides if I needed the lecture on why I got my dogs i’d ask for it. All I simply asked for were some tips.

OK so ive been researching because im going to start homemade dog food for my chihuahua and i was browsing recipes and on the halo dog food website they have a recipe called spots stew chicken and one ingredient is fresh garlic?! I first looked up all harmful ingredients before i started looking for anything and garlic was on every list i found! what the heck halo! this garlic thing is true right? and if anyone has a recipe let me know. I am looking for something like chicken, brown rice, sweet potato, beans, egg

We used to buy Nutro for our dogs because it was recommended to us as being healthy for them. Then we heard that there are some pending lawsuits regarding the safety of this brand of dog food. So we started making their food homemade. On Sunday nights I would steam some brown rice and veggies (that are safe for dogs, of course), and then make some lean meat to add to the mixture the night before (for example, chicken, turkey, lamb, etc.) But my doggies started gaining too much weight when I began to do it this way (though they LOVED it, of course!)…Does anyone know of a dog food brand that is actually good for dogs?

I feed my dog a special homemade diet of either beef or chicken, and sometimes fish or lamb, vegetables and brown rice, but I’d like to add some calcium to her diet naturally. I know that yogurt is a good source, as well as ground up bones (but I usually just plain don’t have the time/energy to do that). Cheese is also good for calcium, but kind of high in fat. What are some other ways to add calcium to a dog’s diet? She’s a pretty picky eater, and literally will not eat food with a supplement in it. I have to force feed it to her by turning it into a paste, and I hate having to do that everyday.
We have different vets, and they all suck. The reason we have multiple ones is because we used to live in different cities. Anywho… they give stupid advice, literally. Like, "just feed cooked chicken, and that’s good enough." Riiiight.. She does eat bones sometimes, but like I said, she’s extremely picky and won’t even eat her tasty daily food. Sometimes she eats lamb shank bones, cooked, but rarely.

My dog has ALWAYS been a picky eater.. however, for the last week or so, she’s been progressively eating less. For the last 3 or so days, she hasn’t really wanted to eat almost anything. She eats a bit of her food, and then leaves it alone. I feed her homemade food, chicken or beef with brown rice or potato. For the last 3 days, it’s been the beef. She also gets a pet vitamin and a small spoonful of yogurt with it, and sometimes some carrots, but not lately. Anywho, she doesn’t eat the beef at all, very little. BUT she does eat her favorite treats, and also these other treats that are not her favorite, but she will only eat if she’s hungry. So.. it kind of seems like she doesn’t want to eat the beef. he gobbles down the 2 other treats.. although I haven’t given her any today, as I want her to eat her food instead. Anyway, I’ll be taking her to the vet this week, but just wanting your feedback.. she generally eats one or 2 times a day, and has often not eaten for a whole day..
Oh, and she’s a 2.5 year old poodle mix, female, spayed.
Ever since the whole nutro thing.. the recall.. so for a few months now. It’s not "vet approved" no, but our vet told us to just give her boiled chicken so.. ya. Lol. Like I said, I give her a vitamin (pet tab) in addition to the carbs, meat and veggies.. so I don’t see how that would mean she’s suffering from malnutrition? I suppose its still possible. But anyway, yes, I’m going to take her to the vet for sure.. thanks..
She refuses to eat kibble. Like I said, she generally doesn’t eat much anyway. Once a day is good for her, if that. Sometimes 2 days and nothing, but that was with the Nutro food. We’ve tried the "let’s switch her over to kibble" thing, and that just plain didn’t work. We didn’t give her treats or anything else, just kibble.. and she didn’t eat for about 3 days. One time she ate kibble, and thats it. She’s a small dog, so it really affects her.. she throws bile up all over the place when she doesn’t eat for more than 1.5 days so.. no kibble, nope.
She’s not constipated, no.. she poops just fine. Has everyday for the last 3 days on our walks.
Well, like I said, she never really eats. I mean she has the worst appetite of any dog I’ve ever seen. No matter what we’ve fed her, whether it’s been kibble, homemade or wet, she just has consistently not eaten it. Treats are also used sparingly in her diet. She also doesn’t like greenies, rawhide, etc. Food just plain doesn’t interest her often. But lately it’s just a bit WORSE so that’s why I’m concerned.

Currently I boil chicken, hamburger, ground turkey, gizzards and chicken liver mixed with baby vegtable beef food and brown rice. Is this diet good for a dog regularly

i would like to feed my dog a homemade diet. he is 35-40 pound american eskimo. i was thinking of using cooked ground beef, brown rice, and veggies in his diet. other meats would include chicken and turkey. but i would like more advice on this please.
thank you=]
p.s. he is currently on high quality organic dog food.

Hi all. I cook my dog a homemade diet, special for her. She ate food from the companies of 2 different pet food recalls, and got sick from the Nutro foods. Anyway, enough was enough, and I stopped giving her commercial dog food. Her teeth are much cleaner, and she actually eats her food now. Anywho, here’s what I give her… I’m wondering if anyone has any other ideas to add to it:

Skinless chicken, plain (or sometimes plain lean ground beef or fish, rarely)
Brown rice
Nonfat yogurt (she’s about 1 lb. overweight, so I don’t give her the full fat kind anymore)
Boiled/steamed carrot

She refuses any type of pet vitamin (plain doesn’t eat her food when I mix it in). Any other ideas? I’ve thought of cottage cheese, but we rarely ever have it lying around, unlike yogurt which we have all the time. By the way, I give her very small amounts of the yogurt.. about 1 large tablespoon a day. She’s a 16 lb. poodle mix. Also, I give her about 1/3 of a large carrot a day.
I try to give her Halo’s Daily Greens vitamin. If I manage to give it to her pretty much daily, think that would fill many of the gaps? It has calcium as well as other vitamins.