Anyone feed their dog homemade dog food?

[Why and Dotte]

I have a friend that has fed her mastiff chicken, fruits and veggies since she was a pup, the dog has a beautiful coat and looks extremely healthy.
I would be SO tempted to raise my own food for my dogs, rabbit, chicken and purchase beef parts from a butcher. Some people don't bother with fruits and veggies, I think they probably need a little here and there. The dog food I buy is around $40 for a 50lb bag, I'm satisfied with it, I just think a dog should eat like a dog is made to eat.

 

[Akane]

Dogs are carnivores. Fruits and veggies do little for them and while they can be offered they won't add many digestible nutrients. You'd be better off using your extra chickens and any other meat you can get. Mine get raw whole chicken, quail breasts, rabbit, and satin balls. http://www.heartlandgdr.org/satin_balls.htm Satin balls are not for dogs that get overweight easily. So long as bones aren't cooked they should all be safe for your dogs but watch them to make sure you don't have gulpers that will try to swallow things whole.

 

[Crazyland]

When I few a non-kibble diet My dogs had fruits and veggies. Heck! They ATE half my garden and when we went for walks they would pick their own berries and cherries.

That says a lot about how an animal chooses what they can eat in their diet. They never had an issue stool or health wise with the extras.
It is a completely debatable subject on adding anything other than meat and bones. Yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, salmon oil, Vitamins, kelp, alfalfa... there will be someone who will tell you it is bad but plenty of others who already use them and have for years with dogs that are fabulously healthy.

I would never feed satin balls unless I had a dog seriously underweight and needed extra calories. But thinking on that I probably wouldn't feed it as I could use milk replacer and get 900 calories.
The calories in the diet come from the muscle meat, bones and organs in the diet. Plus it has several ingredients that I think are not needed in a dogs diet, Total whole grain cereal, oats, raw wheat germ, oil, molasses. Dogs do not need grains, vegetable oil or sugar. If dogs are carnivores then you shouldn't be feeding this anyways.

 

[Tiramisu]

Since its expensive we only did it on saturday. Breakfast is eggs, oatmeal, cottage cheese..think that was it, and sometimes added wheat germ.
The remaining 3 meals were mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, sometimes a little bit of carrot in there, peas. And they were also given either canned salmon or hamburger with the 3 meals too. It was all measured according to weight. We have a great dane, dane mix(she just looks like a black lab) and a chow mix.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I have a Great Pyrenees that gets three eggs, one egg shell, two cups of rolled oats and a shake of salt all cooked together with a bit of water every day. That's breakfast. He also has a pan of Diamond Lamb & Rice large breed dog food free choice but he takes three to four days to empty it as he strongly prefers his eggs & oats. They're grass raised eggs.

 

[tink]

We have been feeding our dogs homemade for about 10 months now. We started when we thought our dog had allergies and then just kept doing it because it seemed right. No cans in the trash and alot more healthier. We give them brown rice, whatever meat is on sale, a can of veggies and scrambles eggs. They are happy and healthy.
Tink

 

[Thundrr-Chicken]

i have 4 dogs... 2 chocolate labs... 1 westie and 1 miniature schnauzer ... all of them are on a raw diet... if you want your dog to eat like a dog was made to eat... thats what it is... a raw diet... they are carnivores... yes they'll eat fruits and vegetables.. and eggs.. but their main diet was originally meat, organs and bones... not corn, rice, wheat and meat byproducts ... their poop doesnt smell... and after a day in the sun you can step on it and it smashes to ashes.... raw chicken quarters for the big dogs... chicken wings for the little ones.. gizzards... necks... turkey necks for the big dogs too... liver... eggs.. i tend to give them lots of tomatoes too... green beans are a good filler ... we used to feed them raw salmon... talk about smooth coats.. moderation is key for that lol... it tends to change the stool if you let them have too much...

but rule number one.. feed what you can afford to feed... they'll live on ole roy