I made the food and they gobbled it up!!!

[Sweetums]

Did anyone ever notice that there is less doggy smell on natural food? The more dog food my puppy eats the more doggy smell she has.

[LunasMomma]

Originally Posted by mistyinca

It sounds really yummy, but when I run the numbers, it comes out really low in fat and calcium. I get 4g fat per cup and only 61 mg calcium per cup (that doesn't count whatever calcium/nutrients are in the vitamin or the missing link).

I use Mastercook, which has an entire nutrition database in it, and it is really great for analyzing the nutrition in recipes. At the bottom of the recipe, it shows some of the nutrition. It doesn't export the entire panel, but the calcium came out at 61mg per cup.

I did some searching and found that adult dogs need 54mg of calcium per pound of body weight daily, and puppies need 145mg calcium per pound of body weight daily. So my Chloe is a 4lb puppy, she would need almost 600mg of calcium per day.

The fat would be really easy to add, with one of those good oils that is good for coat, but the calcium seems harder to get.

Anyway, here's what I get with mastercook.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Dog food 2

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 16 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup brown rice
1 cup split peas
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary sprigs
1 large sweet potato
1 cup baby carrots
1 cup chopped broccoli
2 cups spinach
12 asparagus spears
16 ounces cottage cheese
4 large eggs, hard-boiled


Yield:
"16 cups"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 247 Calories; 4g Fat (13.4% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 22g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 105mg Cholesterol; 602mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 3 1/2 Lean Meat;
1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fat.

I hope you don't mind my looking this up. The last time I ran the numbers, I think it made some people mad . I have always wanted to try feeding my super picky dog homemade food, but I'm so afraid that it won't be nutritionally complete.

Misty

Oh goodness no I am NOT mad at all, I'm GRATEFUL Thank you!!!!! I wonder if I could crush part of a Tums up for the calcium and if that's safe for them. I think that the Missing Link provides a bit more of fat, but I think I should probably drizzle some olive oil on there. They are still eating kibbles, I'm just using my recipe as a substitute for the smelly canned food that they get mixed with the kibble twice a day.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it We all love our pups so much and it's nice to know that you are helping me to look out for my girls I'm sorry if someone else got mad at you for trying to help

[LunasMomma]

Originally Posted by Sweetums

Did anyone ever notice that there is less doggy smell on natural food? The more dog food my puppy eats the more doggy smell she has.

That's the main reason I decided to do this. It's not convenient or cheap, but OMG does it smell a lot better Luna gets her food all over her beard and she smelled like a dirty hamster cage, it was RANK I'm hoping that this will help, and it already has! The smell is going away, YAY!

[LunasMomma]

Originally Posted by CJCinTX

I know what a fantabulous Mommy you are Tracy...if I let Muffin spend 5 minutes at your house she wouldn't come home!! How long did the whole cooking process take you?? Don't tell my husband, but I'm pretty sure I don't spend that much time cooking his food.

CJ

It took me about 3 hours I don't spend that amount of time on our food either But this will last for well over a month, so it's not bad at all. I'm making a beef version next, tell Muffin to get in the car and start driving And of course she would want to come home, silly!!! You're such a great Mom to her You girls have been through so much lately with her surgeries you know your bond is stronger than ever

[LunasMomma]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Wow,that's a gourmet meal. Here I thought Rocco and Sissy were getting spoiled with adding boneless chicken breast in with there kibble. I sure hope they don't hear of this.

Heehee, I won't tell My girls are super picky and won't eat much without the canned food, so I wanted to do something that would be better for them, or at least less stinky

[LunasMomma]

I just have to report that I just sniffed miss smelly face, and she smells like



COWBOY MAGIC

No more dirty hamster cage smell, YAY That was quick!

[RRC]

This may be a stupid question, but how come you left the shells on the eggs?

[LunasMomma]

For the calcium

Speaking of calcium, I put 3 tablespoons of yogurt on their food at night, and the pet tabs do have calcium in them. I wonder if that's enough?

[LunasMomma]

Hey Misty

I wonder if that thing counts the SHELLS of the hard boiled eggs They have lots of calcium! I just thought of that!

[mistyinca]

OK, 3 tablespoons of yogurt comes out at 78mg calcium, so it is a good dense source.

Here's some numbers to "chew" on

Calcium per cup (16 tb in a cup):
lowfat yogurt 415mg (26mg per tb)
cottage cheese 155mg (10mg per tb)

Calcium per ounce (1 oz is 1/4 cup shredded or a 1" cube solid):
cheddar cheese 204 mg

I wonder if instead of a tums, if you could get one of those solid, swallowable calcium tablets (like oscal) and dissolve it into the broth you cook the rice in...

[mistyinca]

Originally Posted by LunasMomma

Hey Misty

I wonder if that thing counts the SHELLS of the hard boiled eggs They have lots of calcium! I just thought of that!

It doesn't count the shells, I could look that up online, but divided by 16 cups, I figured it couldn't be that much. Lemme dig around and see what I find...

[mistyinca]

Ok, here's what I found. The good news is that egg shells are a good source of calcium. 1 tsp of finely ground egg shells has 1900mg. This would be a tsp of pure powdered egg shell, The only thing is I cannot find a per shell amount. This website I found has some interesting information on using egg shells in dog food. http://www.pet-grub.com/part1/scene9.pets.

I'm thinking it would take more than 4 eggshells, but that is something you could save from all your cooking to throw in there.

[LunasMomma]

Oh thank you You are a GEM!!!!!! I will start saving my eggshells and put them in a ziploc in the freezer until I'm ready to make the powder What a great informative site, that petgrub is Thanks a million!!!!

[CJCinTX]

Originally Posted by LunasMomma

Oh thank you You are a GEM!!!!!! I will start saving my eggshells and put them in a ziploc in the freezer until I'm ready to make the powder What a great informative site, that petgrub is Thanks a million!!!!

That is such a great idea Tracy!! How many eggshells have I put down the garbage disposal?? This thread has taught me so much about Doggy Nutrition! I know quite a bit about feeding two-legged people with medical needs (Mom & Dad both have high blood pressure & heart conditions amongst other things, hubby is hypoglycemic...so when I cooked all my parents food & ours I had to be pretty careful!) but people nutrition definitely does not translate. Thanks to everyone for all the helpful info...gotta love YT!

CJ & Muffin (Who's waiting for Mommy to put her new knowledge to use!)

[yorkieusa]

I'm glad they liked it. You did good!