OwnedByTheCow
Well-known member
We are going to be getting my dad a dog for christmas and looking at options for homemade dog food.
sim.-ang.king":2nu3c657 said:Road kill, deer carcasses, muskrats, beaver, and let them pick out of feed trough.
I'm one of those abusive dog owner that gives them what they want.
branguscowgirl":ovj42i9j said:Some of the really good commercial brands of dog food are every bit as good, and probably better than "homemade." The reason being is that they are balanced with the proper proportions of all the ingredients. The better companies have spent millions of dollars on research.
So if you are going the direction of "making your own," you will need to stock your shelves and do a lot of research on the subject. Not as easy as it sounds to come up with a "complete and balanced" diet.
I personally would not attempt it. Good luck.
With that said, my nephew that works the canine unit for the Sheriffs department feeds his working dogs 100% raw diet. Chicken is the main thing, but he gives other supplements to make up for what the chicken does not provide. What? I do not know. It's a pain in the butt handling raw chicken all the time, and not any cheaper.
But that's what I get to eat!M5farm":3v9c27cl said:sim.-ang.king":3v9c27cl said:Road kill, deer carcasses, muskrats, beaver, and let them pick out of feed trough.
I'm one of those abusive dog owner that gives them what they want.
shame on you! you know they prefer table scraps
Nope, not kidding. I HAVE done extensive "research" on dog foods. I wouldn't buy anything with "Chinese protein" in it. You buy American made products that are made with (tested) minimal, quality, ingredients.AllForage":12ax4ink said:branguscowgirl":12ax4ink said:Some of the really good commercial brands of dog food are every bit as good, and probably better than "homemade." The reason being is that they are balanced with the proper proportions of all the ingredients. The better companies have spent millions of dollars on research.
So if you are going the direction of "making your own," you will need to stock your shelves and do a lot of research on the subject. Not as easy as it sounds to come up with a "complete and balanced" diet.
I personally would not attempt it. Good luck.
With that said, my nephew that works the canine unit for the Sheriffs department feeds his working dogs 100% raw diet. Chicken is the main thing, but he gives other supplements to make up for what the chicken does not provide. What? I do not know. It's a pain in the butt handling raw chicken all the time, and not any cheaper.
Come on Brangus you gotta be kidding here. How much research went into killing pets with Chinese protein supplement? It ain't brain surgery.
Dogs lived a long without scientific kibble. If you want to go through the effort cook meats and toss in some veggies. Personally doing it 365 a year to much hassle for me. Find a good grain free kibble and add some goodies to it. Nothing worse than having to eat dry a$$ kibble only for life.
Does anyone use google anymore geeeesh. All you ever need to know is just a click away....
Well, I seem to have had very good results giving Selenium injections to Selenium deficient cattle. The worst cow no longer has tremors and is staggering around! The cow with the weak back legs is grazing the entire field with the rest of the herd. So yes, it has "cured my problems"! With in 48 hrs. of Muse injections they were back to normal.The mineral thing is given too much credit a lot. Once again all cattle were developed in areas that had done deficiency below optimum. I would wait to see if it cures your problems first before hailing it is the solution. I hope it does.
:nod: :nod: :nod:TexasBred":2cyr2482 said:The first five items on a dog food ingredient list are the most important. Dog food manufactures are required by federal law to list all of a product's ingredients in descending order of their pre-cooking weights. That automatically… and mathematically… makes the first few the most abundant items anywhere in a product. Anything beyond these five items with the exception of the necessary vitamins and minerals are little more than "window dressing" along with a fancy package.
Since companies rarely divulge the actual amount of each ingredient in a dog food, the consumer is left to try to figure out the proportional break-down for herself.Trying to make heads or tails of a dog food's proportional content is nothing less than a game… a game of odds and probabilities. Look for meat products as the first items. No meat "by-products" or "meat meal". These can be anything. Avoid the grains with the exception of rice (a billion chinese can't be wrong).
Contrary to what some may believe there are numerous dog foods which are much more complete diets than straight red meat....higher in protein, more digestible, higher in energy and much more cost effective than even low cuts of meat. BTW...dogs don't like chicken every meal either. ;-)
OwnedByTheCow":3mllifpk said:We if my dad brings the dog hunting with him he can hunt for his own food!!
Since it will be a bird dog does that mean he can eat wild bird?