The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

who formulated your recipe, what supplements do you use and how many calories a day do you feed? Do you find it's been cheaper than commercial foods in the long run?

We're seriously kicking around the idea of making Max's food but need to make sure he's getting his nutrients and his diet will stand up to vet scrutiny. It just seems like it would be more efficient and cheaper. Right now we pay about $6 a lb including tax for his NV Raw beef. Max is on a beef protein exclusive diet and I can get 60 lbs of ground beef from the butcher for about $150. That doesn't include organ meats, bone meal, supplements or fresh foods. He's getting about 520 calories a day from his food plus any treats or fresh additions. I need to scrutinize his food for on a dry matter basis for protein/fat content so I know what % grind he gets. I guess I'm wondering if I should just keep with the NV or is it really cheaper to make it?

I make homemade food but I put it over dry kibble so the nutrients are in that and I don't worry. At one point when I had to feed just homemade, I got a cookbook that listed exactly what to add in. I ran that list past my vet to make sure it contained what was needed. There are several good cookbooks out there for making food that tells you what has to be added to make it complete. My suggestion is to get at least one of those so you have specifics. You can also discuss it with your vet but, if he or she doesn't do this, they may not know either.

There is a vet, local to the DC Metro area, who often refers to his homemade dog food in his newspaper columns. His name is Dr. Fox. If you're interested, a search would probably lead you to his recipes.

I make a homemade diet for my girls. Here is a website you can go to for supplements and recipes. They will also make a custom recipe for you for a fee if your dog has allergy issues.

https://secure.balanceit.com/

You can also contact UC Davis in California, they also make custom balanced recipes, but their fee is considerably higher.

As far as the cost I think I spend considerably more money on the homemade diet, in part because of the added fresh vegetables, but the overall cost is more than the high priced kibble I was feeding the girls.

A part time person that shows the American Cocker one of her dogs got a bad pancreas that vet put her on a cooked chicken breast. I never ask any other question about why cooked. That's what she did every night. Don't know what supplements she gave that dog. At that time period she had seven cockers.

Yesterday at the show looking at the ASCOB's all of them had the red tear stains as Ollie had that at one time but with his diet change I'm guessing body PH factor and his fur repels that fluid.

I became friends with people that have Irish water spaniels, a male and a female show dogs. She was the first that I had ever talked to about a raw food diet she was a part time shower. She would give them a half of a chicken each but her male wouldn't touch it. This not every day diet I'm guessing teeth cleaning but she would use in cleaning teeth treat.

After Vallejo's Woof Stock show yesterday I looked around the net and saw someone that gives their dogs chicken necks or even turkey neck. They would not recommend legs or thighs.

I could email the person that feeds her water spaniels a half a raw chicken each and ask about leg and thigh bones. What I understand the bones are ok as they were not cooked. That's what I understand. Needs to be confirmed.

Now ground hamburger would not be a meal for Oliver maybe if we had got one going out. The hamburger we eat is in home made spaghetti or chilli. That chilli is very healthy as there black beans red beans, bell peppers, red, yellow, for color and celery, onions. When I give Ollie a bone or even 1/4 pound chunk of bison it knocks him out for several hours. Ground bison so thick, when cutting it with scissors it even hard to make smaller chunks. I think he would choke on it if I didn't cut it up.

Now look what is the difference between beef, buffalo, the bison, for healthy oils in fact I'll share some tuna fish with my dog, but it the olive oil packed. What I think is strange is ground turkey at Safeway you have a choice of ground turkey a leaner turkey mostly breast meat or as I callit waste parts. At Costco you don't have a choice I can tell you It's not the lean. To make a great hamburger it should have lots of fat in it, to make it moist if it's to lean it becomes dry and hard to eat hard to shallow.

Now if you eat really healthy as a person you can share your food. Last night at great grandpa's house Ollie had stir fried veggies that were boiled, cooked chicken breast, and mash potatoes all mixed up. That's not a everyday meal for him. He even ate the broccoli that night as he hadn't had a meal in 24 hours. Now why a 24 hour hold on any food he got a shower and blow dry in the AM as I dropped him off on my way to the dog show. We didn't walk the three miles that day. He did get the waggin treats after the beauty treatment.

My dogs eat Nature's Variety Instinct raw and do not have stains, goopy eyes, or dry skin. They are shiny and soft, and both are 10yo. Even my granddog the Boston shows positive signs such as no more gas and she is very shiny and healthy looking.

Aren't onions toxic for dogs?

I forgot the main fiber item it's barley, shelled. There's not that much onion, one hole, two cans of black beans two cans red kidney beans, four can of tomato chunks even with pepper if you like the warmth. My wife needs the beef I could care less.


Posted by Chris Bern, DVM at 10:53 PM
If this was for a cat, I wouldn't take the chance even if it's just small onion particles. However, for a dog, something cooked in onions should be just fine.

Gas too, don't know why.

Thanks for the replies and input. We're looking to formulate his complete diet and go off commercial foods which is why I asked. We're not unhappy with NV Raw, it just seems we can do it for less than half of what we're paying. We have a list of foods he likes and is approved for with his allergies and restrictions so that's why we were looking to have a diet specifically formulated in conjunction with our holistic vet.
I've check out the nutrition services at the university hospitals but they typically want to add grains so I was wondering if anyone used anyone else.

Susan,

Can you PM me his info?

For the past weeks Oliver won't chew on and beef vertebra or lamb, so in looking around started on raw chicken feet, working up to turkey neck parts. Need to try to keep his teeth clean.

On a different post in here you can rate you dog food most are four stars in what they think is good. There a lot of five stars but one either need to do it by shipping or Concord Feed & Pet Supply in East Bay Ca.

Now has anyone ever been there?

http://www.wdcusick.com/AmericanCockerSpaniel.html


will be the best 30 dollars you ever spent.
Read the testimonials, I have had great results using this diet.

Yes onions are toxic to dogs...I thought of the same thing when I read that, but I'm not sure if Joe was saying that he fed the chili to Oliver.....Were you Joe???

There's not that much onion if I had to guess more barely and tomatoes, beans and ground beef. One cut up onion cooked down in 8 quarts of chilli and water isn't very much. It's not every day not every two weeks. Not a main diet. He gets more Bison and a cooked egg with cod liver oil pill with milled flax seed as a day after day diet with his dry food. Now we have added that turkey neck, and chicken feet, baked chicken thigh meat, no skin, no bone. Hope this helps.

I don't think so.


At first, pets affected by onion poisoning show gastroenteritis with vomiting and diarrhoea. They will show no interest in food and will be dull and weak. The red pigment from the burst blood cells appears in an affected animal’s urine and it becomes breathless. The breathlessness occurs because the red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body are reduced in number.

The poisoning occurs a few days after the pet has eaten the onion. All forms of onion can be a problem including dehydrated onions, raw onions, cooked onions and table scraps containing cooked onions and/or garlic. Left over pizza, Chinese dishes and commercial baby food containing onion, sometimes fed as a supplement to young pets, can cause illness.

Onion poisoning can occur with a single ingestion of large quantities or with repeated meals containing small amounts of onion. A single meal of 600 to 800 grams of raw onion can be dangerous whereas a ten-kilogram dog, fed 150 grams of onion for several days, is also likely to develop anaemia. The condition improves once the dog is prevented from eating any further onion

While garlic also contains the toxic ingredient thiosulphate, it seems that garlic is less toxic and large amounts would need to be eaten to cause illness.

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Hope this helps nothing to worry about thanks! 600 to 800 grams just under two pounds. I wouldn't even eat one pound of onions.