I'm running these values through mastercook to get protein fiber, fat, calcium, etc. Can you give me an estimate of how many days of food the basic recipe makes? ballpark?

thanks

For now, I assumed this lasted 21 days. Based on this, here's the analysis I get:

* Exported from MasterCook *

Dog Food

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 21 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup split peas
1/2 cup lentils
3 pouns ground veal
1/2 pound veal liver
3 heads broccoli
6 large carrots
3 garlic cloves

21 teaspoons wheat germ
2 2/3 cups cottage cheese
5 1/4 large eggs, hard-boiled
21 teaspoons flax seeds
21 tablespoons lowfat yogurt
1 cup blueberries
5 ounces cheddar cheese
21 tablespoons oats, rolled (cooked)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 278 Calories; 9g Fat (29.1% calories from fat); 24g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 8g Dietary Fiber; 123mg Cholesterol; 251mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1
1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1/2 Fat.


Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Mastercook does not export calcium. This showed calcium at 171 mg per day.
Diamond puppy food kibble for example has (based on 6tb per day--what my dog eats)

Side by side Per day (assuming the recipe for "real" lasts 3 weeks. I'll adjust it if you can give me a better estimate on the amount of time it lasts.)

Diamond puppy (per day) "Real" food (per day)
157 calories 278 calories
14.7 g protein 24 g protein
10 g fat 9 g fat
550 mg calcium 171 mg calcium <---this may be a problem
1 g fiber 8g fiber

Just thought it would be interesting to see the side by side comparison

you rock for taking the time to type out the recipe. I HAVE to try it but somehow it takes me hours to put stuff together for a homecooked meal for Zoe. Do you use frozen split peas etc?

Jennie

The missing link only has omega 3 fatty acids. It doesn't have the omega 6 which is very important. So even if you do give the missing link, your still going to have to suppliment that with something that has omega 6, such as safflower, sunflower, corn, evening primrose, and borage oils. It is also found in poultry fat and prok fat (not much in beef or butter).
dried beans (great northern, kidney, navy, and soybeans) are inexpensive source of both omega6 and omega 3 essential fatty acids.
Certain fish are very high in omega6 and omega3 and the body can usually convert the fatty acids from fish more easily than from other source. Good choices, in addition to those mentioned above, are sardines, herring, lake trout, and albacore tuna.
When feeding yogurt, make sure it says live culture.

There is no way what-so-ever you can compare real food with dog food. Dog food isn't even government regulated, therefore they can and do put whatever they want in it, not to mention any vitamins *they say* are in there, is ruined in the boiling process anyway.

thanks soo much yorkiedaze!!! you have been so helpful and i am so excited to start feeding my baby good food....thanks for everything!!!

So what other oil should I add to Sissy's food along with her missing link?

I am so trying the peanut butter balls! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!1

This is great! I am now starting to mix Siu Pao's kibbles half to half homecook. I plan to move him to 100% homecooked diet. I think it is much more healthier for him. I also buy human grade baked food from www.caninecuisine.com but it is too expensive to feed solely on that so the recipe that you posted help me so much although I have another of my own but not as well covered as yours. Thank you!!!!

I have been cooking like this for my dogs for about 6 months now and my three boys love,love, love it. I took one of them to the vet the other day for routine shots and the vet made a comment on how wonderful Scooters coat is. Cidney, the sole reason I started cooking for them because he was an extemely picky eater is now a PIG. I really have to keep an eye on him while all three are eating because Cidney will try to eat Sam's food if he walks away from his bowl too far.

I'm just using that to see for comparison--mostly for calcium. My biggest concern would be meeting the calcium requirement. 171 mg per day vs 550 mg per day. I'd just want to make sure that she didn't develop bone problems later in life. I have no doubt the real food is much tastier. I have wanted to try cooking my own food, since she is so small, it wouldn't be that much work, and I think it would be fun. I just haven't yet found a recipe that meets calcium requirement. :)

Giving yogurt and cottage cheese don't meet the calcium requirement?

Cottage cheese has low calcium density. Yogurt has more calcium, ounce for ounce, (cottage cheese has more protein) but I included those in the average when I ran it through mastercook. The total, including the basic food recipe plus the added yogurt, here and there, only totals 171 mg per day as compared to commercial dog food providing 550 mg per day. Calcium is a mineral salt, and it's properties are not destroyed in heat processing as, say, something like vitamin A is.

The real question is: how much calcium do dogs really need per day to maintain adequate bone health? I'm no canine nutritionist (just anal about numbers LOL) so I don't know.

OP: does the Pitcairn book talk about how much dogs need? I've looked for that book in my local bookstore but couldn't find it.