I do occasionally. No you are not crazy. :)

Not sure on the onions except people just don't know any better.
for the garlic, some feel it has a lot of benefits and a small amount couldn't possibly hurt anything. In my opinion, it should be left out of all recipes.

Ellie May, you used an abbreviation that I was not familiar with in one of the last posts. What does that stand for?
I homecook for Ellie and use Balance IT K.

How to feed my yorkie
 

I just joined today in hopes of getting some good ideas on how to feed my yorkie. He is 7 - pounds and is 14.5 yrs old. has alwyas been in good heallth until last year. He got pancreatitis and I put him on a low fat diet and took him off of grains. I made him meals of low fat ground turkey or beef with pumpkin for digestion. I also put him on the dry food WELLNESS one (protein focused lowfat diet). Then I slowly got hom back on (what I thought) was hig quailty dog food w/o grains) He now has a problem with some sort of sores onhis skin that when then disapate, leave like balck looking age spots. I thought it was because of a lack of fat and when researching it, it seems like possible food allergies. So .... I am done with store bought food and was wondering if someone has suggestions on how to best feed him? Other than that, he acts like a puppy still ... full of life (oh and he does have a collapsing trachea). Any feedback is welcomed. Thanks : ) AJ

i just sent you a pm :)

Thank you for your recipe, Our yochon has been having ichy ears and a bald spot on his backend the I printed and brought to our vet and he said to try it. It is seeming to work it has only been a week and a half. The only thing that I have noticed is that Henry never drinks water anymore. Is that what you have found? Or should l see the vet?
thanks
Beth

That's very normal.
Dogs need about 1 ounce of water per pound of weight a day.
With kibble they get almost no water from their food, so a 6 pound dog would need to drink about 6 ounces per day. With homecooked it is about 75% moisture. A cup of food would be about 3/4 cup (6 ounces) moisture or water, so they don't need to drink to meet their needs...

Cake recipes
 

Does anyone here have a recipie for a cake, i'd like to make one for jj to celebrate the day we adopted him and there are no places near me that sell doggie cakes. I was thinking of maybe making a carrot cake would that be ok for yorkies?

I Never Had A Clue
 

I had a yorkie she died at the age of 29 , my son bought me a new one. and I had to take her to the vet shes a few years old. but found One she is not being feed correctly. i feed her a can of cat food everyday. such as I did my old yorkie. which may i say was very healthy. Anyways the point. She was getting blisters on her tonque and is not in very good health. The vet mentioned to stop the cat food and feed her what dogs eat. not cats. He seemed very upset when i told him how spoiled she was. And she needs a peanut butter sandwich everyday at lunch. ect. ect. So i went to the store. and bought her the most expensive canned dog food i could find. Again. I found this is not exactly what is good for a yorkie. Please help any ideas are appreciated. I have several pets are are all in very good health. I just don't know what i am doing wrong with this yorkie. thanks.

hi. i also have a 8yr. old female yorkie with a collapsing trachea. i want her to lose a little weight so i started feeding her homemade food, groung turkey/venison/elk, sweet potatoe or pumpkin and veggies and she loves it. she has an enlarged liver and a budah belly. after lots of money spent- she had an ultra-sound of her abdomine and they drew stuff out to check her liver. everything is fine . so i guess she just has this big belly. i'm feeding her 200 calories per day. vet at mi. state animal hospital say to take her down to 165!!!! thats not much food!! i wanted her to lose weight so its easier on her collapsing trachea, but vet says shes really not over weight much just has a big belly. so as for the collasping trachea, it doesn't bother her unless she gets all worked up and starts panting. i just try not to let her get that way. i have never heard of wellnes dog food??? vet old me to give her 100 calories of dry food (teeth) and the rest can be homemade. i use blue buffaloe. also she needs her teeth cleaned and the vet won't put her under to clean them because of her trachea!! her teeth are awful. what happens if one gets painful and it has to be removed? then what? any ideas you have for me would be appreciated. robin and sunni

Mickyskeeper, how did your yorkie live to 29 yr old, I never heard of that before plus I have heard that cat food will eventually kill yr dogs, I feed my Wellness Core grain fee, and in mornings I would add a heaping table spoon of Wellness Core wet food mixed in with the kibbles. Watach the peanut butter sandwiches, that will cause problems in the future. BUT keep spoiling her.

Thanks Deb
 

Will see if i can figure out were to buy it. This one is just so different than my other one. This one is more quiet. and wants constant attention. and seems more inward... My old one was spit and vinigar i beleive the fraze is. And this one wants more love, and coddling. so I do appreciate your help. I was just at my wits end when i posted .. The vet told me to change her diet. And the assistant. Said she never heard of such a thing. a dog is a dog. Again. thank you

Hey there, I found this site a few nights ago after revising my dog's diet. I have a year old yorkie Elle and for some reason, my father had been feeding her ham mixed with dog food. Due to the high sodium content, I thought that I should try something different. I am trying to find different recipes. I have used the meat and veggies. I was wondering if its healthy to use baby food? Thanks!

I would NEVER feed any type of pork to my dogs. My vet recommeded this. I myself have thought of baby food only because I have a 12 yr old yorkie with NO teeth. If you feed your dog soft food so young her teeth may go bad very early in her life, not to mention her digestive system may be comprimised. I normally cook chicken, pull the skin off, dice it in small pieces, take the broth and make rice, cut small pieces of cooked green beans and carrots and mix together. This makes enough for a whole week or you can separate it and freeze some of it. It's healthy and you know exactly what they are eating. Hope this helps.

I use baby food for my puppies when they go down from low blood sugar. I use only the beef and chicken. As soon as they are back to normal, they are on their regular food again. Sylvia

onion/garlic powder?
 

Hi,
i thought onions and garlic were toxic to dogs. Are the powders ok? I notice a lot of dog recipe's have the powders in them.

poshy

shicky163
 

Hi Folks,
Wecook for are two Yorkies and one recipe is :
1 whole chicken baked untill falls apart,debone and chop up all the meat then make two cups of ricecooked or one cup uncooked,then one 16oz can of peas and one 16oz can of carrots and squish them,then we mix together the meat and rice and peas and carrots along with the juice from the cooked chicken.It makes a large batch so freeze some.We give them a cup each a day and they have plenty of energy. Treats on the side of coarse!!

Meg would LOVE this, but is this a complete dog food? I thought you needed to add bone meal and whatever else.

Welcome to YT! :D

You're right. It isn't complete without added supplements.
You don't have to use bone meal though.

It's so hard to know what supplements to add and what is/isn't "enough" for them...that's why I've shied away from homecooking.

You know.... I'm going to the States tomorrow, so if ever there was a time to buy supplements for home-cooking, it would be next week! You can't get stuff like that in Korea (at least I can't trust that it's safe).

Balance IT is very, very easy.
Ellie's recipes (formulated by a veterinary nutritionist) would work for a healthy Yorkie but we use Balance IT K because of her liver instead of Balance IT L (used for healthy dogs). I don't recommend Balance IT L anyway because they added menadione. The K seems to be fine though. If you can get clearance to use the K on a healthy dog (don't see why you couldn't), then it would be very possible for you to homecook. Balanceit.com also sells recipes that call for human vitamins and minerals but I don't like all of the recipes or all of the supplements they call for, so I stick with going through a nutritionist. The only thing is, Balance IT is another product made for animals, so it is hard to say what the quality is. As far as I know though, it is okay.

Thanks, Crystal! I have never even heard of Balance IT. I am checking out their website now. So do you add your own supplements, use their supplement, or both? And does Ellie have a favorite recipe?

I use Balance IT K. There is no need to add anything else.
It smells horrible though because of the amino acids in it.

Ellie isn't picky and loves whatever homecooked food is given to her.
Right now she is eating whitefish, sweet potato and oatmeal.
Her old recipe was one where I could switch out ingredients, so it would be:
Lean, white meat chicken or turkey breast
Rice, sweet potato, pasta, peas or barley and
Mixed vegetables.

Sorry for all the questions, Crystal. When you say "recipe" do you mean one of the recipes on the Balance IT website? If they're just going to tell me to cook the meat and carbs and blend it (in other words, very basic instructions) I won't spend the $20 on the recipe. Do you think the recipe is worth it?

I'm going to have my nutrition-nut mom take a look at the supplement they sell and ask about it the holistic pet food store, but it looks good to me.

Question for everyone else: what kind of supplements do you add to homecooked food? Anyone else use Balance IT K? Anyone mix their own?

PMing you.

I have 2 Yorkies,1 Donte who is 2 and Bella who is 11/2.
Donte has allergies bad.I have never had small dogs before,I lolve these babies and want to start cooking their food and snacks.I would like to cook things that will last in the refrig. and or in the freezer.There is so many recipes,how do I know which one is right as some of you disagree on certain things.
I need HELP.
I have to keep Donte @ a certain weight as he is sickly a lot.
Thankyou for your help
Dianne

Sweet Potato and Lamb sticks:
These are super easy to make and the pups love them, so I thought that I would share.
1) about 1 lb of leg of lamb
2) 1 sweet potato
Just chop the sweet potato into little sticks about 2-3 inches long and about 1/4 inch thick.
Then slice the lamb up about 1/4 of an inch thick and about 3 inches long. Just wrap the raw lamb around the raw sweet potato and place them on a non-stick cookie pan. Cook them in a 180-190 degree oven for about 21/2 to 3 hours. The little ones just love them.
The hardest thing is the cutting up of the potato and meat.
But it is well worth it.

I just made Leo's cookies, and Bandit LOVES them....and he's a very picky eater!! This will be a great incentive to help him with our training:) Thanks so much for the great recipe!!!:D

I have heard that rosemary is toxic to dogs..has anyone else heard this?