One of my bulldogs, George, got a cold last week and the vet told me to feed him chicken and rice until he got better. I made some chicken in the crock pot and a big batch of rice, and he & his brother Frank LOOOOOVED it. I mean, they’re bulldogs, they’re pretty fond of any kind of food they can get, but they just devoured this like it was the best food in the world. Last night I slow-cooked some more chicken and made oatmeal to go with it, and they liked that just as much.
I’m thinking that I have the time to cook for the dogs, and it’s probably healthier to give them real food rather than the dry stuff, so I might as well. On the other hand, it seems like it could get expensive. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also, I Googled “recipes for dogs” or something along those lines, and a lot of the recipes included a supplement, but didn’t specify what supplement that was.
You might look at some organ meats…heart, in particular, was fairly cheap the last time I looked, but I remember it being tough, and I find the idea of eating heart to be off-putting. However, I’d have no problem slowcooking it for a dog or two. I’d probably look in a Mexican/Hispanic market for things like hearts and such, as they’re more likely to have them.
Make a stew pretty much like you’d make for humans, use cheap ingredients, toss in some potatoes/rice/oatmeal for bulk and calories, and whatever leftovers in your fridge you think you won’t end up using.
When I was younger, I ate hearts (my parents bought a side of beef on occasion). I found them tasty but chewy, and I couldn’t get over the ICK factor. Now that I have no upper teeth, I probably couldn’t chew them.
That situation doesn’t come up as often as you think. And I get through it because I’ve just eaten the dragon’s liver, and I despise liver (both taste and texture), and I’ve been promising myself that if I can just get through the liver, then I can eat the heart. And yeah, you GOTTA eat the liver.
I know I’m supposed to eat the brains, too, but my mindflayer familiar has to eat SOMETHING, you know, and I’m sure he’d whine and sulk if I started eating the brains.
Thanks for the advice so far. I’m willing to cook organ meats, and I live near plenty of Hispanic markets, so I should be able to find them.
Well, the truth is I only recently started cooking for myself (I mean really cooking, from scratch, as opposed to processed foods), so I’ve never made a stew for humans. I’m open to experimenting, but I’d love really basic advice like what some good cheap cuts of meat would be. I keep brown rice and oatmeal in the house, and the dogs seem to like a lot of different vegetables too, but the meat is what’s going to get expensive. So far I’ve only made chicken because the vet suggested it & I was lucky there was some on sale at the grocery store.
I have a slow-cooker (two, actually - one big oval one, and a small round one) and I think most of the kitchen stuff I could possibly need. Some of the recipes I’ve found online seem awfully… involved. I just keep thinking it should be fairly simple (meat plus starch plus maybe some cottage cheese or yogurt for calcium) considering what the dogs would eat if left to their own devices. Apparently bulldogs in the wild survive completely on my dirty socks.
Ill post my favorite heart recipe again =) I will do it with chicken hearts, beef or pork hearts =)
Take the heart/hearts and cut in half lengthwise or cut into 1 inch cubes, and squdge around in cold salted water, getting the blood clots out and removing any large bits of blood vessel. In a fresh batch of salt water soak for at least 1 hour.
Into a very small casserole dish that is coverable [I use a mini bean pot that is just a bit bigger than my doubled fist] put the now cleaned and soaked and rinsed heart/s, a teaspoon of italian herb blend, a few grinds of fresh pepper, a tennis ball sized chopped onion[or about half a cup of diced onion] however much garlic you like [i love garlic so i tend to put in at least a dozen cloves] and cover with red wine Put the lid on and pop into a low oven, about 300 fahrenheit and walk away for at least 4 hours. 6 to 8 hours is good as well. Serve with crusty bread, or over noodles and a salad. 1 pork heart or half a pound of chicken/duck hearts serves 2 people, or 1 with ample leftovers for a second meal. A beef heart makes more =) Adjust the size of your casserole accordingly.
The heart gets tender after long slow braising. Same basis as cooking tough cuts of beef as a pot roast.
When I have dogs that are aging or sick and have a lower appetite, I make the following for them. It’s healthy and they love it. You can add a little salt (not too much!) and a little garlic.
Boil four chicken leg quarters until done. Remove the chicken and measure out 4 cups of stock. Put this back into the pot and stir in two cups of rice. Bring back to a boil. Cover tightly and reduce heat to low. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until the stock is absorbed. Add two cups of mixed vegetables. You can also add Brewer’s yeast if you want.
Ack! I forgot. As the rice is cooking, cool the chicken legs. Debone and dice them and throw them back in when the rice is done. Yep, the checken is pretty essential to the stew.
chronos - Wal-mart often has 10-lb bags of chicken leg quarters for about $6.00. This chicken isn’t as clean (occassional feather tips still in the skin) as I’d like for my personal consupmtion, but it’s fine for dogs. I also add boiled chicken livers in for extra flavour. They’re cheap, too.
When my doberman Grace was dying of congestive heart failure, for her breakfast I was scrambing 3 eggs and added cottage cheese and mince chicken livers. Dinner was chicken stew. It kept her going longer than I thought she would last.
so - this is a dumb question - how much of the doggie stew do you feed the dog? I know how much kibble to feed, since I measure it out. Is it similar with the stew?
I started cooking for my current greyhound a couple months ago, and for awhile I was also doing it for another hound (now gone) who had inflammatory bowel disease. I have found it costs about the same as buying an ultra-premium or prescription prepared food.
I use ground beef and rice as my base, and add a doggie vitamin, potassium salt and some calcium carbonate powder. It’s important to make sure you have the right amounts and balance of calcium and phosphorus, along with enough fat to help process fat-soluble vitamins. I use 80/20 ground beef because it has more of the nutrients in it that dogs need, but I know a lot of people use chicken, both because it is easier to find it cheap and in some cases they have a dog that doesn’t tolerate beef very well.
I have a chest freezer so if there’s a special on 80/20 ground beef I stock up and freeze it.
Unfortunately it’s out of print and for some reason has become insanely expensive, but it is an extremely informative book on canine nutrition (written by a veterinary gastroenterologist) and includes a variety of recipes, all of which are pretty simple to put together.
She’s a canine nutritionist and helped me a great deal with my IBD dog, who was a real challenge. She has a free Yahoo group you can join (see here: http://www.monicasegal.com/aboutus/discussions.php) and she also has a newsletter with some pretty interesting info in it. There are people in the Yahoo group that have been feeding their dogs homemade food for many years and are very good at answering any questions you might have.
