Organic Dog Food

I switched my dogs over to home cooked organic dog food, prepared by myself, according to the requirements I got from my vet. Dogs nutritional needs are very specific and must be adhered to, if you want optimal health. My vet has even commented on the changes in the past year. Their coats are shinier, their eyes are brighter, and he was amazed at how nice their breath was. Not the usual stinky doggy breath.

I get comments from strangers expressing how bright eyed and busy tailed my girls look. Lady (the black lab) is 12 years old, and Lola (yellow lab) is just 3 years old.

I know this probably sounds extreme to non animal lovers, but anyone who considers their pet a family member knows about the unconditional love.
I have specific recipes that my dogs prefer, and make on a regular basis.
And contrary to what we have been told by the big companies, dogs do enjoy a varied diet. Once you know what the favorite foods are, and what they can tolerate, (and believe me, dogs will let you know by their actions) it is simple to prepare batches of meals and freeze them in proper meal size portions.

I buy the meat that is marked same day sale - at my grocers that is 50% off the ticketed price. This meat is still being sold for human consumption, just on the last buy before date. Last week I got enough quick fry steaks at half off for under $20.00. Following my recipe for delicious doggy stew I have a weeks worth of meals frozen and ready.

Once I got into a routine it was easy, and I feel so much better knowing I'm adding years to my dog's life and giving them a healtier happier life.

This is for my benefit also, because they will be around longer for me to enjoy.

Here are my everyday homemade recipes that I have been preparing for Lady and Lola, along with a homemade dog food feeding chart by weight and some homemade dog treats.

Once the tainted dog food scare was in the news I started looking up information about commercial dog food, which at times was very upsetting. Once I learned the unhealthy practices of some companies I just couldn't, in good conscience give my dogs this food any more.

Of course there are several excellent choices of organic, human grade dog foods available with more and more companies joining this bandwagon regularly.

WHAT IS ORGANIC and WHY SHOULD I FEED IT TO MY DOG?

The worst commercial dog foods are listed here, with a full explanation of why you should not feed these foods, or similar low quality foods to your dog. Use this as a general scale.

I slowly weaned them off their old food, although this wasn't all that much of a problem for me or them. Dogs do have a more sensitive stomach than us, and sudden changes in diet can cause upset, so no sudden changes.

I remember growing up with a fussy little toy poodle, and my mom made Coco's meal. This was usually poaching a chicken breast, adding some rice or pasta and mashing up carrots. Coco was only 8 pounds and obviously didn't need a huge meal every day and mom would freeze little baggies of portions size dinners. We all (my brother, sister and I) would always make fun of mom, and say Coco had better food than us.
This was in the 1970's, way before it was trendy to have pampered pooches. We were all told not to tell anyone outside the home, as this was considered eccentric and odd. Coco lived to the age of 18 years. I still to this day believe this was due to the fresh cooked human grade diet. Coco never had a preservative filled, chemically tasting meal in her life.

Now, here I am advocating to all you dog lovers, and animal lovers in general to do just what I considered silly and ridiculous 30 years ago.
Now I willingly share this information with any animal lover who believes that all natural organic food or homemade dog food for their pet is important and necessary.

All dog lovers want the best for the companion, and starting with proper nutrition will give your pet the basis for a long healthy life. There is no one "best" food on the market today, but many extremely ultra premium or high quality organic dog foods that are excellent choices. Also beware that there are more really bad, low quality, low nutrition, and chemical filled commercial dog foods. The cheaper brands are generally available in the grocery store. The better organic dog foods are usually ordered directly through the company, or offered at high end pet stores.

Increasing your dog's life span is easily achieved by feeding a properly balanced healthy organic dog food or high premium diet from puppy hood. An all natural healthy diet is as beneficial for your dog as it is for yourself. Improper or poor nutrition can cause diseases, allergies, obesity, and shortened life spans in your dogs.

There are many commercial grade dog food products available at the grocery store, and care must be taken when choosing one. After the recent pet food contamination scares and recalls because of toxicity and disgusting additives being found in the manufacturing process, many pet owners are becoming much more aware of what they feed their pet.

Here are a few general guidelines to follow when looking at the ingredients on a dog food bag:

Choose a food with high meat content. The first ingredient must be a specified meat. Another one or two meats or meat meal listed in the top 5 ingredients is a bonus, but not necessary. (Meat meal is meat with the moisture removed).

If the same grain ingredient is used two or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", brewer's rice", "rice flour", are all the same grain), this is not a well balanced, nutritious product. It is loaded with "filler" and made to look like it is healthy by separating the one ingredient into sub categories, but rice is rice so it should be listed once.

Using high quality grains has become the standard for the premium quality manufacturers, such as barley, brown rice and oatmeal. If the grains are organic, then all the better. Wheat and corn are inferior and useless as a nutritional element in dog food, and used as filler only.

There should be absolutely no by-products listed.

There should not be any fillers.

Carcinogenic preservatives do not need to be used, and if they are don't buy the product. (They will be listed as BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin) .

Artificial colorings are also cancer causing, and completely unnecessary. You'll be surprised to see how many products still contain this dangerous ingredient. The dyes will be marked as such - e.g. Red, Blue and Yellow dyes.

No added sugars or corn syrup should be in the ingredient list.

The more organic ingredients listed, the better.

Added glucosamine, chondroitin, pro and prebiotics, flax seed oil, barley, oats or oatmeal, and sunflower oil, are a good thing.

Slowly baked, not extruded, retains the minerals, vitamins and essential goodness of the food.

Hormone free, antibiotic free, pesticide and herbicide free, chemical and preservative free would indicate a high quality premium organic dog food.

And finally, no mystery meats should be in the list. Mystery meat will be listed as simply meat or poultry, rather than chicken or venison. The mystery meat will probably be some horrible rotten road kill, old euthanized animals, and parts of animals that are not edible.

Although the higher quality food might seem more expensive initially, it will work itself out and become cheaper in the long run. The savings in vet bills alone over the life of your pet will pay for the food.
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I realize that most vets are completely sincere in recommending what they believe is the best for your dog. The company Hills, which makes the Science Diet brand dog food that vets usually recommend, actually promotes and helps the veterinary schools financially. See Here.

Because of the support, the vets just carry on the message of this being an extremely high quality food. I'm sure they are sincere in the belief that this is an exceptionally nutritious dog food. Go ahead and click here and see what the first 5 ingredients are in Science Diet. Compare it to any of my top best 7 dog foods here.

Which would you want your dog to eat?

Always be aware, educate yourself and know that the big business of dog food manufacturing is in it for the profit, not the health and welfare of our pets. That is up to us. Just do the absolute best you can for your pet and it will be returned with more doggie love, which is never a bad thing.

See Dangerous Dog Food Ingredients to Avoid listed here.