# We are all on home-cooked food.



## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

It took me a while to get the courage to post this. This probably qualifies me as a complete and total CDL. I'm in company of good friends. After trying to figure this out on my own and the more confused I got, I did seek a consultation for individualized home cooked diets for all 3. My concern would be they would be cookie-cutter recipes. I was very wrong. Each diet (including supplements) really is designed for each dog; likes, dislikes, their age, their weight and body conditions. I started off with one to see I could handle the commitment. The food ingredients are similar but each dog gets different measurements and 1 or 2 different ingredients. Sunday is my dog cooking day. It takes me about 2 to 3 hours between cooking, processing and measuring. I fretted over this and exposed my neurosis to many (thank you...you know who you are). I'm happy with my decision and my dogs LOVE their meals.

I make a "batch" of supplements each week that gets sprinkled on their food each meal.

A few pics of our Sunday cooking routine.

All cooked and measured out:









Papa bear, Mama bear and Baby bear (all through the food processor)










All divided into individual servings:










Tucked in the freezer nice and neatly. I have a pull out tray and doesn't require a whole lot of freezer space.


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Looks DELICIOUS! 

Where did you get the consultation? It sounds interesting to explore.


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## Pattie (Jun 25, 2008)

Sharlene,

I think this is great! I would be very interested to know what your recipes are for the dogs. I cook some for my dogs, too, and could really get into this. If you wouln't mind sharing your knowledge, you could email me privately.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Pattie said:


> Sharlene,
> 
> I think this is great! I would be very interested to know what your recipes are for the dogs. I cook some for my dogs, too, and could really get into this. If you wouln't mind sharing your knowledge, you could email me privately.


That's the problem. I didn't feel I had the knowledge to figure this out on my own. I did read up on it and didn't feel I had good comprehension...and so much controversy grain versus grain/free. I absolutely wanted grain free. The supplements confused me versus how much each dog needed of exactly what. I got my consultation(s) through Sabine at Better Dog Care. It does include a 4-week follow up to tweak anything that doesn't seem to be working.

I will be happy to share recipes and/or supplements bearing in mind Evye's is for a 10.6 lb dog slightly overweight dog and Bentley's is for a 12.2 pound dog who is slightly underweight. Taylor's is for a 7 lb puppy who will need reformulation once he reaches 15 months or 8 lbs, which ever comes first. Evye has lost 4 ounces :rockon: with a weight goal of 10 lbs.

Cost wise it doesn't cost any more for their food items than it did for their canned food. We went through a case + a week and I had to drive across town to get it. The supplements up front can get pricey but they last forever.

Various fruits are offered as treats during the week. Two love fruit and Bentley hates them. He gets 1 banana added to his recipe each week to mask the fact he is eating fruit. It really varies per dog.


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## Pattie (Jun 25, 2008)

The recipes for the 10.6 and the supplements would be greatly appreciated. MY guys love veggies, especially asparagus,lettuce, green beans, carrots. They do eat melon, but poohpoohed strawberries this morning. Haven't tried bananas. I use grain free kibble. I don't feed them chicken anymore, but they eat venison and lamb. They also love eggs and cottage cheese.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Glad you're happy with Sabine's consultation. I knew you would be. If Gwen and I cooked properly for ourselves on a regular basis , I would be on Sabine's home cooked too. Good for you , I'm sure your dogs will love you for it.


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## j.j.'s mom (Aug 16, 2009)

please share recipes!!
actually, would love a thread for just recipes.. i have a good one for meatloaf thanks to tracy and chaucer... i will usually go for the one month supply on doggie cooking day.
also have recipe (from tracy) for treats that are pretty friendly for dogs with allergies. their is a gluten free alternative also.
i also think it is cheaper than the high quality canned food.
and it gave me a good excuse to buy that cuisinart food processor i really wanted.


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## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

Sharlene, First let me say, I love LOVE your copper tile backsplash!!! And Let me applaud you for your commitment to your furkids. My friend who turned me onto Sabine got the full home cooked recipe plan for her 3 Aussie's. And she too, said it Sabine made it easy for her to make a base for all and just add/remove a few ingredients based on the dogs condition and history. For me, I just wanted to supplement Commercial raw (well we started with kibble and canned and that didn't work.) And she worked with me until we got it right! And to this day, I really feel I can write her with any questions. Her nutritional and supplement knowledge has really filled in a gap in my wonderful vets knowledge and in fact my Vet has called her. 

The one thing I would suggest, is you ask Sabine for a fallback feeding plan in case you miss a Sunday prep day and you need to fall back on commercial. I know my friend sometimes feeds commercial raw or supplements with commercial raw if her schedule gets crazy.

But tell the truth now... you cook for them and then you and yours go out for Pizza right? LOL. I know my boys eat better than we do.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

davetgabby said:


> Glad you're happy with Sabine's consultation. I knew you would be. If Gwen and I cooked properly for ourselves on a regular basis , I would be on Sabine's home cooked too. Good for you , I'm sure your dogs will love you for it.


Dave, just cook a little extra and you and Gwen can have a few healthy meals during the week. I jokingly said I can feed this to my FIL and I do. I cook a few extra thighs, an extra potato, extra green beans and carrots. I don't put it through the food processor though. (That day may come). He loves it too and he hasn't growled at me since.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

I agree with you Missy , Sabine is not only very knowledgable but goes the exrra mile if you need help down the road. I email her regularily , and she always tells me not to apologize for bugging her. I was also quite happy with my vaccination consultation with her. She's super.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Evye's Mom said:


> Dave, just cook a little extra and you and Gwen can have a few healthy meals during the week. I jokingly said I can feed this to my FIL and I do. I cook a few extra thighs, an extra potato, extra green beans and carrots. I don't put it through the food processor though. (That day may come). He loves it too and he hasn't growled at me since.


Sharlene I wish we had more time but it wouldn't work well here. My wife is disabled.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Missy said:


> Sharlene, First let me say, I love LOVE your copper tile backsplash!!! And Let me applaud you for your commitment to your furkids. My friend who turned me onto Sabine got the full home cooked recipe plan for her 3 Aussie's. And she too, said it Sabine made it easy for her to make a base for all and just add/remove a few ingredients based on the dogs condition and history. For me, I just wanted to supplement Commercial raw (well we started with kibble and canned and that didn't work.) And she worked with me until we got it right! And to this day, I really feel I can write her with any questions. Her nutritional and supplement knowledge has really filled in a gap in my wonderful vets knowledge and in fact my Vet has called her.
> 
> The one thing I would suggest, is you ask Sabine for a fallback feeding plan in case you miss a Sunday prep day and you need to fall back on commercial. I know my friend sometimes feeds commercial raw or supplements with commercial raw if her schedule gets crazy.
> 
> But tell the truth now... you cook for them and then you and yours go out for Pizza right? LOL. I know my boys eat better than we do.


Missy.....LOL. I'm am sure Sabine has a loaded gun just for me. She really does go above and beyond. Our first full week on Bentley's diet was the same week he should have not had a Greenie. I emailed her frantic that Bentley was having green mucousy stools. She took the time to sort through this with me. And then a scolding for feeding my dogs Greenies. I told her I thought this diet was screwing up Evye's coat...the list goes on and she was right there to reassure me and willing to work with any changes that needed to be made.

Actually, my DH and I do eat healthy. It took a heart attack to smack us in the face. A low-fat, low-cholesterol diet and haven't had pizza in ???? how long. I am at that age where high blood pressure popped into the picture so now low-sodium. That is killing me....I love my salt. I have a can of cashews hidden in the pantry and I justify if no one sees me eat them...what harm can it do. And my wine !!! and oh I love beer.:Cry: When DH is out of town, I cheat like crazy.


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## mellowbo (Aug 12, 2007)

Sharlene, that is so cool. I am going to anxiously follow how it goes. I'm curious, how's their poop? I love their poop on the commercial raw. (Well, as much as you can love poop, hehe)
I'm kinda in a place of "if it's not broken, don't fix it".


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Carole, I love nice firm poops too. :redface: We were on canned food and it makes the transition a lot easier. Evye and Taylor I did rather quickly, in 2 days. Stools were fine. Bentley is my challenging one with stool issues and I took his a lot slower. Imagine my fear when after 2 meals he started passing nothing by mucousy stools and then passed a green blob. It was the Greenie he had a few days prior causing the diarrhea. His stools are firming up now. We went into this knowing we may have to reformulate his diet with the largest percentage of protein being chicken thighs but so far so good. It is grain free and I think he has more issues with grains than anything.

I wouldn't "fix" what is working either. There is a major trust issue that they are getting all the necessary supplements, not too much or too little. I'm past that now. I know I couldn't have done this on my own.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

You gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Girl!


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## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

Wonderful and I will be bringing Sir Winston over this next week! He will just love it!
Seriously, I have wanted to do this for a long time, but the supplements had me stumped, where to get them, be sure they were fresh/good, etc. I am sure you will never look back!


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## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

I'm envious of you guys who do this. I cook for my family a lot but haven't worked up the courage to do it for the dogs because I can always decide we're running out for Mexican but probably can't give the dogs a burrito! Well, I could but then we'd really be talking about poo!

I'm happy right now with the Merrick BG they're all eating, I do add veggies in the mornings and they occasionally get fruit. 

Someday I'd love to do this too! I applaud you for your devotion to your doggies!


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Scooter's Family said:


> I can always decide we're running out for Mexican but probably can't give the dogs a burrito! Well, I could but then we'd really be talking about poo!!


WHAT ????? I'm not supposed to feed the dogs burritos ?????

It is a committment and if I had 3 kids to prepare meals for 2-3 x a day x 7 days a week no way would I have the time nor motivation to dedicate to this.

It does have perks. This week I cooked extra potatoes and salmon and made a salmon pie for us humans. Delicious.


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Good for you, Sharlene :clap2:

I'm w/Carole on the commercial raw. Tori likes it, will always eat it (almost ), has nice firm little poops, and has had no tummy issues (however, I think she has an "iron gut". Not much of anything has ever upset her tummy)

If the time comes and there's a problem with either her or the food I'm giving her, I'll probably switch over to home cooked, then I'll be looking to you for your expert advice :biggrin1:


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## marjrc (Jan 13, 2007)

Sharlene, you are not a CDL - well, not much anyway - and we love that about you!  I also homecook for my two, but not for every meal. I make a batch from time to time with a mix of U-Stew from www.knowbetterdogfood.com and it's very easy. I supplement their kibble with it, or simply use it as a whole meal. I used to give it raw, but have been cooking it for a while now.

I started doing this for Ricky since his hepatic attack 2.5 yrs. ago because I want him to have protein, but not necessarily lots of it and dairy protein seems to be best for those with liver issues. I use fish, cottage cheese, rice and tofu in my homemade food and I just measure and pour the mix I buy.

I tried the homemade from scratch route and it was VERY challenging and VERY pricey at first. I was crushing supplements, opening capsules of primrose oil, vit. E, grinding egg shells and measuring that.... it was very intimidating and time-consuming. I followed a liver diet from Monica Segal, gave that to Ricky for 3 weeks until he got sick for 2 days straight, throwing up. I could have been off by 1/2 tsp. of something or 3 grains of something else. Crazy!

When customers at the store ask what the best diet for dogs is, I almost always say "raw, then home cooked, then high quality canned, then high quality kibble", so home cooked is very good for cats and dogs. Good for you for doing that!


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