Just curious who else is living super frugal

[perchie.girl]

My Aunt Helen used to keep a big cauldron in the back yard. She got scraps from the butcher shop and cook it up with rice and veggies from the garden.

She fed I think three or four big dogs for free.


I like concept of the Raw diet but I believe dogs need to be raised with it for it to be successful.

When I move back up to the house I intend on doing Canning with the idea of making dog food along with my own.

For home canning of dog food I would check to see if there are recipes specifically for a good diet for dogs.
I dont think Aunt Helen was into that.

http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2012/04/canning-homemade-dog-food-recipe-and-instructions.html

This is just the first such recipe I came across....

deb

 

[islafarm]

I do a raw diet for one of my dogs who has lots of allergies: basically it's whatever meat I can get from the butcher plus raw veggies and whey I make. The meat tends to be mixed by nature: organ meat and offal, sausage leftovers, big bones, whole pig heads and the muscle meat that hasn't sold. I buy it for about a dollar a kilo. He loves it and does really well on it. He eats about 6% of his body weight per day. Before we went raw I was cooking rice and mixing it in, but the research I did says that carbs do nothing nutritionally for dogs. Dogs are omnivores, they love veggies and fruits - bananas are a huge hit here

 

[lindalouly]

Here's the ? of the day:  Any readers making their own dog food?  I'm curious if it might be more beneficial for me to make my own.  I'm thinking that, at least in garden season, home made dog food would be more nutritious, better appreciated by my new pooch, perhaps more economical, and healthier for her.  

Kind of depends on the animals you are butchering and where you get your meat.. Plastic and chickens ( yes chickens) are high allergens for dogs. Beef with rice is the best way to go if you can afford it.

 

[lazy gardener]

Recipes I've seen in the past included rice and meat, and veggies. Dogs are omnivores. While they do eat a lot of meat, they will also graze on veggies. I had a neighbor who's dog would go into her garden and munch on her beans and peas, pick blueberries, as well as eating the drops in the orchard. This was a dog who had free choice dog food available all the time, but she definately liked more veggies in her diet. My last dog would go absolutely crazy for an ear of corn. When I was in the corn patch, tossing the ears out so I could gather them up, she'd grab an ear and run off with it.

 

[lindalouly]

Yes a

Recipes I've seen in the past included rice and meat, and veggies.  Dogs are omnivores.  While they do eat a lot of meat, they will also graze on veggies.  I had a neighbor who's dog would go into her garden and munch on her beans and peas, pick blueberries, as well as eating the drops in the orchard.  This was a dog who had free choice dog food available all the time, but she definately liked more veggies in her diet.  My last dog would go absolutely crazy for an ear of corn.  When I was in the corn patch, tossing the ears out so I could gather them up, she'd grab an ear and run off with it.  

A lot of veges are good for dogs.. No potatoes or onions but others work well.

 

[perchie.girl]

Recipes I've seen in the past included rice and meat, and veggies. Dogs are omnivores. While they do eat a lot of meat, they will also graze on veggies. I had a neighbor who's dog would go into her garden and munch on her beans and peas, pick blueberries, as well as eating the drops in the orchard. This was a dog who had free choice dog food available all the time, but she definately liked more veggies in her diet. My last dog would go absolutely crazy for an ear of corn. When I was in the corn patch, tossing the ears out so I could gather them up, she'd grab an ear and run off with it.

an acquaintence of min had a Doberman once.... his name was Tank... because of his ahem.... stature. She took him to the vet for a check up and the vet said Tank needs to go on a diet. Every time she cut back his food he would get bigger...

So she figured shed follow him around just to see where he was getting "extras" assuming some of her horse boarders were feeding him on the sly. She spotted him chewing on something under a pine tree. So she went over after he disappeared around the corner.

Avocado pits were EVERYWHERE under that three. And Yep here he comes back with a fresh avocado ..... She followed the trail he had made around the barn to a TANK sized hole in the chainlink fence.... to an Avocado grove. About thirty acres of em.

And he was getting the goood ones. because they dont ripen till they set a couple of days on the ground in the leaves....

Needless to say Tanks diet consisted of a patch on the hole and back to his old food.

But I have to admit he had a BEYOUTAFUL coat....

deb

 

[islafarm]

an acquaintence of min had a Doberman once.... his name was Tank... because of his ahem.... stature. She took him to the vet for a check up and the vet said Tank needs to go on a diet. Every time she cut back his food he would get bigger...

So she figured shed follow him around just to see where he was getting "extras" assuming some of her horse boarders were feeding him on the sly. She spotted him chewing on something under a pine tree. So she went over after he disappeared around the corner.

Avocado pits were EVERYWHERE under that three. And Yep here he comes back with a fresh avocado ..... She followed the trail he had made around the barn to a TANK sized hole in the chainlink fence.... to an Avocado grove. About thirty acres of em.

And he was getting the goood ones. because they dont ripen till they set a couple of days on the ground in the leaves....

Needless to say Tanks diet consisted of a patch on the hole and back to his old food.

But I have to admit he had a BEYOUTAFUL coat....

deb

Our dogs sit and wait under the avocado tree at harvest time

And my shepherd who's on the completely raw diet used to steal avocados from a local market. Couldn't work out where he was getting them from until I followed him one day. Walked right into the store, helped himself to the avocado bin and snuck out again. Plain as day. Sassy thing

The oil is really good for their coats, and the pits make a pretty good dewormer.

Our dogs love coconut, banana (will take them from the bunch and peel them), sapotes, durian, mango and mandarines too. They also love cacao fruit, lots of fat in the seed. We don't allow them to eat it but we do have a sneaky beagle who will wolf down every cacao bean he can find. They'll pretty much eat any fruit we dry. Our other shepherd turned up on the farm and lived off fallen fruit for a couple of weeks before we started feeding him. Great scavengers dogs, resourceful too.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
LOL.... cacao.... is that cocoa fruit?

deb

 

[islafarm]

LOL.... cacao.... is that cocoa fruit?

deb

Yes, we make chocolate so the dogs are around a lot of cacao. After we roast the beans we winnow them and the beagle will lie under the fan licking up the dust. The other dogs will browse the occasional bean. Actually my chickens love the fresh fruit and beans. I can't find any info on their toxicity for birds, but they seem to suffer no effects from eating them. Squirrels and other rodents eat them routinely, but I haven't seen any other birds show interest. The chickens go crazy for them.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Cool