oops, ignore the supplements bit, just noticed the posts on supplements, raw bones and egg-shells

I don't feed purely home cooked but I do feed a percentage of home cooked materials. In particular when doing mashed potato, baked potato or plain pasta some is saved back for the dog.

She also gets an occasional hard boiled or "hard scrambled" egg especially I feel she has lost some condition.

With vegetables I never cook but give a little raw veg most days. Especially broccoli stalks and carrot.

I'm not against home cooking for dogs at all but I'm interested to know why people feed that way?

Personally, I just don't see the point when I can just hand him a chicken instead of cooking it etc etc everyday.

Only at one point where health was the reason did I cook instead of raw but apart from that...I dont get it

I wouldnt mind giving Loui a bit of cooked now if its suitable leftovers but other than that I don't really understand tbh.

The reason I prefer to cook for my dogs rather than feeding raw, I have to admit, is largely subjective. Firstly it's the way my family have always fed our dogs and I know what I'm doing.

Secondly not being a great lover of meat myself I can't imagine anything more stomach churning than to watch my Pei eating a lump of raw liver .... and afterwards having to wipe her bloodied, slobbery chops

I cook veggies because my Tibbie won't touch them raw and even cooked I have to puree them and mix them well with her meat before she'll eat them.

I can't give you any meaningful idea of cost because I don't live in the UK and over here they don't cater for dogs so any meat, poultry etc I buy is the same quality as I'd buy for myself.

thanks
Thanks, Loui isnt keen on veggies and I'm not convinced that he needs them either but I know a lot of people feed veg even when raw feeding.

Think yourself lucky you have a Doberman and not a Shar-Pei!

Shar-Pei are horrors for shaking their heads violently IMMEDIATELY after eating or drinking and if I don't catch M'boi quickly she splatters water and goo everywhere ... too bad if you're in the way ... you're just as likely to get a face full!!!!

I used to feed a home cooked diet. Sometimes I made a massive saucepan of stew containing mincemeat, lots of different veg, liver, kidney,potato. Then I would freeze tubs of it for other days. I added dried egg shells for calcium pulverised, brewers yeast, fish oil and a multivitamin. Their favourite meal though was roast chicken, veg and brown rice. I also fed them steamed fish, tinned fish, again with sweet or ordinary potato. Feed them raw now as feel they get more nutrients out of this and not loose so many vitamins and it's so much easier.

just read a chapter on this in ian billinghurst's book "give your dog a bone"

dont want to start arguements but thought i may aswell suggest it for those who feed home cooked food. it baiscally says that feeding home cooked and cooking the food can be as bad as feeding a comercial food, because by cooking the food you destroy nutrients and anti-toxidants and lacking in fatty acids. also the fact that alot of homecooked diets try and feed the "stew type" which is when you try and get all the nutrients the dog needs into one meal, rather than balanced over time.

dont know how much truth there is to it, but thought its a useful point for anyone feeding homecooked that wants to read it.

My lot occasionally have home cooked instead of raw.

They will get left over pasta and rice, all their treats are made by myself. They also get left over cooked veggies added to their food.

I did buy a load of ecomony mix which is heart and lungs but Cooper wouldn't touch it, so he had it made into a meat loaf for him, which he loved

very interesting thread!