chicken/rice diet??
 

I have also wondered about this. Right now maggie is on a chicken and rice diet because of being sick. I was just about to post on here asking how much I should be feeding her. she LOVES it.

Hello. well frist he needs a suppliement if you are going to home cook. If you have a quality locally owned pet store around they usually carry suppliements. If you can get the Solid Gold Seameal.. it's great.
You should probably give him more of a varitey of meat.. i just went to the grocery store yesterday and bought Layla some ground lamb, ground veal and ground extra lean beef. And veggies are VERY important... but they need to be raw and kinda ground up... carrots are very important and you can add other veggies like broccoli, cauliflour, celery.... and if you are going to give him a grain (not needed but you can) try to not give him white rice.. it has very little nutritional value but brown rice is great or potaote, or sweet potatoe :) and if you decdied to homecook for a while.. i suggest that after 6 months you go to the vet to get a blood panel just to make sure he is not lacing in a certain nutrient! good luck! homecooking is great

You can continue to feed that it is quite nutritious. I would contnue to mix veggies in it and you have to suppliment cacium. Some people bake egg shells and feed them for the calcium or you could buy a suppliment. Mine love baked salmon and rice and veggies also

Only From Experience Of This Past Week I Was Told Directly By My Surgeon That Chicken Does Not Process In The Liver Like It Should Due To The High Protein.... I Had Bleu Boy On Gerber Graduate Baby Food Chicken And We Have Ceased All Chicken

Im Sorry I Can Not Be Of Better Help ... I Would Personally Only Based Up On Our Situation Stick To A Very Bland Diet And I Cant Tell You What Ours Is Cause I Dont Know Yet I Will Know When He Is Released But They Thought At First Bleu Had Liver Shunt And It Could Have Been From Too Much Chicken But Thank The Lord It Was Not .....

I Hate To Tell You But My Vet Is The One Who Put Him Strictly On Baby Food Chicken For 6 Weeks And I Only Had Him On It 5 Days And We Had Bad Signs Needless To Say Not Seeing That Vet Anymore

IM EXTREMELY NEW TO ALL OF THIS SO LISTEN TO OTHERS THIS IS JUST OUR EPERIENCE.


Hugs
Vicki

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh And I Might Addddd

Bleu Boy Gobbled It Up And Loved It!!!!!!


But No More Chicken For Him

It sounds like you're doing well with the beginning of home cooking! I would recommend you look around and also post in the "Yorkie Health/Diet" section-there's tons more information there.

While the chicken and white rice is probably healthier than some commercial dog foods on the market, there are a few things you can do to make this diet even healthier for your dog:
-Make sure you supplement-dogs need vitamins and minerals like calcium, Vitamin E, Omega 3's, and others to be at their optimum of health. I use a book, called "Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats" as a guide for supplements and home preparing dog food. Other members use this guide as well. You may want to check with your vet to see if s/he has specific guidelines to follow for your individual dog.
-Change up the ingredients every so often-you're already doing great by adding carrots and applesauce, and you're doing it correctly by adding only one new thing at a time. This way, you can see if anything doesn't agree with your dog, and adjust the food accordingly. Try ground beef instead of chicken, grated zucchini instead of carrots, sweet potato or potato instead of rice, etc. Also, brown rice is a healthier option to white rice.
-You might want to try adding some dairy to your dog's diet, such as cottage cheese, grated cheddar, or some yogurt. The dairy will add protein to the diet, and yogurt is excellent because it promotes good digestive health. Make sure you get the best yogurt possible-an all-natural or organic plain or vanilla flavor is best. If that's not available, just make sure there is no artificial sugar, or artificial fat in the yogurt, and stick to natural fruit flavors like peach or strawberry.
-Give healthy treats-my dogs like frozen green peas, pieces of baby carrots, plain cheerios, pieces of fruit like apples, peaches, and watermelon. Just make sure not to feed them any seeds, onion, garlic, chocolate, or raisins.

Best of luck to you in your next homecooking adventure! Please feel free to PM me if you need any help or have questions.

Thank you. I was thinking of other meats as well. I'm on a limited budget, so lamb or veal would be a rarity. But that would get me to eat some too which I love both. And rice is a good inexpensive grain, white or brown. I know flour is not so great for them. Why do the veggies need to be raw? Is it bad for them to eat them cooked? Mostly I buy frozen veggies and I know they are somewhat pre-cooked. I like the idea of cooking for him, I am a cook without someone else to appreciate my efforts! :D And he certainly does appreciate it.

I could be wrong...but I am thinking that the reason it is better to give them raw might have to do with the fact that you lose a lot of the nutritional value when you cook the veggies. again...I could be wrong :rolleyes: that's just my take on it. there may be other reasons for feeding raw vs. cooking them

Yes, that's right! :thumbup:

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: yup that's the reason. cooking them takes a lot of nutrients out

Lamb or veal can be hard to come by...if you can find it, you can also try ground buffalo or venison, cuts of beef (cut very small or ground), or fish like salmon, tilapia, perch, etc. You can also add legumes to their diet for a protein boost-my dogs like kidney beans, split peas, blackeyed peas, and others-and those are really inexpensive too!

I feed each of mine a quick breakfast of 1/2 a hard boiled egg, about 1" of mashed banana, and 1 tablespoon cottage cheese or yogurt. Sometimes I switch it up and give 1 tablespoon oatmeal, with a little applesauce mixed in too.

Thanks everyone for your input and great ideas. I really appreciate it! ;)
I can definitely do this! All of these great fruits and veggies are things I love too. This will get me to eat healthier too. :D One question though: I have seen not to feed garlic, but in some dog cookie recipes I have seen garlic powder. Can they have it in powder form or are these people just not educated as to it's toxicity to dogs? I decided yesterday to make him some cookies as he doesn't especially like commercial ones. He is pretty picky about that kind of thing. Oh and peanut butter, my dogs before all loved peanut butter, is it ok too? Sorry I have so many questions...:embarasse

Garlic is included in some recipes...even in the book by Dr. Pitcairn too...I think it's ok in very small quantities, but with as small as yorkies are, I would rather not worry about it, so I just omit it from the recipe. My two don't know the difference :) They eat everything anyway!

If he likes the cookies, check out the Homecooked recipe thread in the health/diet section, and make "Leo's Cookies" for him-these have been a HIT around here, and with many of our canine friends too!

Peanut butter is great-but make sure you're giving him an all-natural one-usually the refrigerated kind is best, but Skippy and Jif have both come out with all-natural non-refrigerated versions, and they both taste great to me, and my dogs like it too!

Smuckers has a good all natural peanut butter too

Right when they get sick, withold food for a few hours or overnight depending on how things are going :rolleyes: After that, start with 1-2 tablespoons of chicken/rice. If that stays down, and diarrhea doesn't get worse, I give the normal amount of food, only in chicken and rice...so for example if Milli eats 1/4 cup of her normal food, she got 1/4 cup of chicken and rice. Adjust for Maggie's weight/intake. Make sure to give her a little yogurt too to get things back to normal :)

will do...thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

William just had kefir (a drinkable yogurt) and a slice of peach mixed with rice. He loved it! I am beginning to think he will eat anything...:rolleyes: I wanted to get some yogurt in him, he had diarrhea this am.
I looked up Dr Pitcairn's book and I will be ordering it as soon as I can. Thank you again for all your wonderful advice. I also went to the forum on health and diet. Lots of good recipes...I am excited to be starting on this new venture with William. I think he is a happier dog than when he was eating kibble. :p
~Melody

I hate to be preachy but the veal industry is an unbelievably sick and cruel industry. It's really awful- http://www.noveal.org/photos.htm I know we're all animal lovers here.:)

A diet of only chicken and rice will cause your dog to have nutritional deficiencies. It's important to remember that dogs are CARNIVORES - they were meant to eat other animals. They were NOT designed to eat grains, fruites, and veggies. Unfortunately, the commercial pet food industry has made most pet owners believe it's okay to feed dogs these things because they are cheap sources of energy. Dogs do not digest carbs well at all. Dogs were meant to eat meat, bones & organs. I feed a raw diet, but homecooking would be the second best option. But if you are going to homecook, you need to talk to a nutritionist or with someone who is experienced with homecooking. You'll need to use supplements as well.

:thumbup: :thumbup:

I agree.

Chicken and rice is fine to feed for a few days if your dog is sick. It isn't necessary to supplement during this time but you can if you want. You HAVE TO supplement if you are going to do homecooking for longer.

Chicken is not the best for liver compromised dogs but fine for others.

I really don't like the food animal industry period...I don't really like the way any food animals are treated. I can understand why some choose to be vegetarians because of it. I like meat too much to do that but I still don't like the way food animals are treated

Hi Melody,

If anything, the rice should be deleted. Your dog is not equipped to digest grains.

Wow am I learning some things on this thread. Ive been feeding mine chicken rice and vegetables a couple days a week. I didnt realize they cant digest the rice. I think I am going to order Dr. Pitcairns book

I know, I don't either.:( I know dogs have to have meat so at least there are options that are a little less cruel. Veal just really bothers me. To the OP, I'm sorry to go off topic. You've gotten wonderful advise and I wish you the best of luck!:)

Hey Melody,
Bella was on chicken and rice for a few months as a puppy because she had a lot of health problems it was the only thing she could eat and keep down. We gave her supplements as well. The vet down at Michigan State said it would be fine for awhile but to make sure we got her back on dog food for all the other vitamins/minerals. We hope you feel better William! Bella cant wait to play with you when it gets warm!

I get so confused. Some say rice, chicken, others say no to rice,chicken.

Aren't we all.:)

Some people think that dogs aren't supposed to have grains and that the kidneys can handle all this extra protein. Others aren't sure if hte kidneys can handle it so they have to feed grains because what else is there to feed?

Chicken itself is fine for dogs (without certain heath issues). It is the amount that people can't agree on. It is really your call.