Do you feed home made food? Recommendations please!

Hi,

I get my Northern Inuit puppy home on Friday 22nd Sept.

Currently she is being fed a home made dog food, I wish to continue to feed her home made food, along with a dry food, Eukanubra Large Breed Puppy Food.

I was wondering how many other people feed thier dog a home made food?

If you do, what does your food contain/ what is your reciepe?

I want to make sure my puppy is getting the correct neutrition she needs and make the food palletable and enjoyable.

She loves the food she is having at the moment, but it contains sausage meat and I have been told on a different forum sausage meat is bad for dogs.

What do you guys reccomend?

I'd be interested in this too. My pup arrives soon, and the breeder's sheet says:

8-12wks:
Breakfast: scrambled egg/pedigree chum puppy complete (PCPC) with small bite mixer
Lunch: tuna or raw lean minced beef or PC tinned puppy food with small bite mixer or PCPC
Tea: as lunch

12wks-6months
Breakfast: mixer or PCPC with scrambled egg
Lunch: meat meal
Tea: meat meal

6-12months
Breakfast: meat meal
Tea: meat meal

Not sure of pedigree chum though?

For natural feeding I'd read Dr. Pitcairns Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.

http://www.drpitcairn.com/books/pitcairn_book.html

It was recommended to me by Christine when I was considering raw feeding and gave me invaluable insite in to what really goes on in the pet food industry.

It also has some great natural food recipes for your dog!

Personally I would steer well clear of PC as it's full of water, not much good at all for a growing pup! Mine has been fed on Arden Grange with raw mince and some different products from Prize Choice's range - white fish, chicken and liver, minced tripe etc. She also enjoys Tuna and canned Pilchards.

Anything is better than PC, if you do decide to feed mince go for the cheapest as it contains more fat and is therefore better for the pup!

Here's Prize Choice's menu. I get mine from Pets At Home. Once she 6 months she'll be on a full raw diet.

http://www.prizechoice.co.uk/

I just thought I would post this, I was emailed this from a lovely lady called Sandra Curry who I met on the Northern Inuit Forum on Yahoo.

Puppys need to be fed frequent small meals and at 8 weeks old
Mine would be on 5 meals a day, getting down to 4 meals by about 12 weeks, 3 by about 16 weeks then 2 meals a day by about 6 months.
All times are very approximate according to each individual puppy.

Variety is always best as not only does it give a wide spectrum of Nutrients, it also gets the pups used to a variety of foods and they are less likely to get intolerances later in life.
I work on the principal that a wolf (fox, coyote etc.) doesn't go out each day with the idea that it must have a balanced diet.
It will make a kill and eat the meat, bones, offal and sometimes even the fur or feathers and also the contents of the stomach which will be mostly vegatables, fruit and herbs etc.
As the prey animals are usually herbivores. If a wolf is lacking in minerals or vitamins it will find salt licks, birds eggs and fruit etc. to boost this. Energy is taken from the fat content of their prey - dogs don't need carbohydrates or sugars for energy. Also, wolf cubs aren't given designer puppy foods - the mum regurgitates her meals for the pups until such time as they are able to deal with a carcass on their own.
With this in mind I give my pups as wide a variety as possible, but to make things a little easier for new owners that might not want to continue with a BARF diet I also feed some complete dog food (usually Autarky or James Welbeloved). For breakfast my pups might have scrambled eggs.

For the other four meals they will have any of the following in any combination:

Raw chicken wings, raw chicken carcasses, raw lamb ribs.
minced chicken, beef, lamb, rabbit or tripe.
Raw carrots to play with and eat (but these cannot be digested so come out the other end as raw carrots.
They also have cooked vegetables, rice and pasta.
The complete puppy food is given in one or two meals a day with raw mince (when I have a litter I feed the mince separately and leave a bowl of puppy Autarky down for the pups to eat ad lib).
They also have large beef knuckle bones as recreational bones.
I also give goats milk to my pups once a day (usually last thing at night) and live bio yogurt (good for tummy upsets).
For extra oil content I give them the oil from our tinned tuna or the fat and juices from the Sunday roast - this is given just once or twice a week.

These meals are increased in size and the number of meals cut down until the pup is being fed twice a day by about 6 months old. At 6 months I wean them off the puppy complete food and switch to the adult version - too much puppy food makes them grow too fast and puts a strain on growing bones.

All my adults are fed twice a day as it is recommended that all large breeds are fed twice daily.

My adults will have either a chicken carcass or a rack of lamb ribs for breakfast - then in the evening they will have about 1/3 to 1/2 mug of Autarky complete (or some rice or pasta) with some cooked veg or raw mince
(only about 1/3 lb per dog unless its a pup which will get 1/2 - 1 lb.)


I also put SA37 on their meals and/or dried seaweed once or twice a week and they are given vetzyme condition tablets.

I use pigs liver cooked in the microwave with a little garlic puree as a training aid - they love it and about a pea sized blob of garlic per dog per day will help keep fleas and worms at bay.

As for amounts - you have to go by the look or your dog/puppy. If you give too much food of any kind it is going to go straight through the dog.
If you can see your dogs backbone, hips etc then it needs feeding a bit more - but you should be able to feel its ribs.

If you have overfed or your dog has a slight tummy upset, then starve for at least half a day (depending on the severity) and give plenty of bio yogurt (obviously if the dog has a temperature, is listless or vomiting that is a different matter and you should consult your vet).

There are some very good books and websites on BARF - but most tend to make it into a very complex and exact science and it needn't be. Just give a wide variety and think what the canines would be doing in the wild.

If you want to know anything else then please just ask. Good luck with your new puppy.
I also put SA37 on their meals and/or dried seaweed once or twice a week and they are given vetzyme condition tablets.

I use pigs liver cooked in the microwave with a little garlic puree as a training aid - they love it and about a pea sized blob of garlic per dog per day will help keep fleas and worms at bay.

As for amounts - you have to go by the look or your dog/puppy. If you give too much food of any kind it is going to go straight through the dog.
If you can see your dogs backbone, hips etc then it needs feeding a bit more - but you should be able to feel its ribs.

If you have overfed or your dog has a slight tummy upset, then starve for at least half a day (depending on the severity) and give plenty of bio yogurt (obviously if the dog has a temperature, is listless or vomiting that is a different matter and you should consult your vet).

There are some very good books and websites on BARF - but most tend to make it into a very complex and exact science and it needn't be.

Just give a wide variety and think what the canines would be doing in the wild.

If you want to know anything else then please just ask. Good luck
with
your new puppy.

Thats very good advice, it was Sandra who helped me with changing over to raw feeding.