Making Dog Food

Hey y’all!

I’m making dog food again. I really like the convenience of the dry kibble, but I have a “high-maintenance” dog. I put high-maintenance in quotes because he’s some kind of pitt-boxer mix that we found on the streets. He totally isn’t the type of dog to go to the groomers or sit in a purse or anything (not that he would fit anyway). However, he has food problems. When he was young, we discovered that eating corn made him sneeze constantly. Corn is a major staple in dry dog food, so trying to find any without corn was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

His sneezing died down after that, but he began to get very dry skin. Pitts tend to have skin issues anyway, and he’s no different. The dry food we’ve been buying for him is expensive for one, but since diet is also a good way to treat dog skin, I’ve begun making most of his food again. (It’s only been 2 days, but his fur is shinier, and he’s scratching less, so it must be helping.) I made his food almost exclusively when we first found out he didn’t need to eat corn. Corn-free dog food is so expensive, and it was much cheaper to make, but then my husband got a raise at work, and we got another dog. With more funds and 2 70+ pound dogs to feed, it was much easier to feed the dogs dry food.

I still supplement with the dry food. It’s got complete nutrition (because I’m not a dog nutritionist), and I would have to cook 3-4 large pots of dog food everyday if I were going to feed them completely with home-cooked food. I already make 80-85% of my family’s food from scratch, so I can’t stand the thought of adding several more dirty dishes to my sink every single day.

Cooking dog food is actually pretty easy after you get the lay of the land. Sometimes I make extra food when I’m cooking for myself, but much of the time, I just make a big pot of rice and throw in some meat chunks and beans. Then I add about 1/2-1 cup of oil. Dog bodies need much more oil than human bodies do. Tada! Homemade dog food! If I ever have leftovers that I don’t particularly want to eat, I always cook those up for the dogs. Right now they’re eating up holiday leftovers.