I’m proud to share this article with…
- Fight Back Friday @ Food Renegade
- Finer Things Friday @ The Finer Things in Life
- Frugal Friday @ Life as Mom
- Food on Fridays @ Ann Kroeker’s blog
As I sit here typing, you’d think I would have a cat sprawled across my lap. Alas, it is my anxious, alpha dachsie, Gunner. Gunner was born at a backyard breeder then sold to one of my (then) classmates. In November 2006, the classmate couldn’t take care of him anymore – I’ve wanted a little weenie since forever, so of course I said, “I’ll take him!” Little did we know that when I brought him home on that icy night that he would have so many problems.
The little guy (then Buster) had not been keeping his food down. Imagine a 10 pound puppy eating large-breed adult chunks 
We thought we solved the problem by giving him Iams mini chunks. Yes, that worked for a while, but by February he was throwing up again. At that time I worked at a floral shop. It was Valentine’s Day and since I was at work pretty much the entire day, I came home to check on him briefly. When I walked in, the house smelled “wrong”. My break turned into a 45 minute clean up fest. That night on the news, pet food recalls were the highlight. We didn’t want to take the risk of commercial food anymore so we looked for alternatives.
When our second dog Reggie came to us, we started feeding it to him too – they love this stuff! We ran out after the first batch so I got a package of the refrigerated gourmet dog food that seemed most comparable to what we had made. Gunner eats everything (it seems), but he wouldn’t touch it! He went to eat it, froze, turned back around, and I swear he was glaring at me! When he was hungry he finally went back to eat it but not with the same zest as when he eats the homemade stuff.
You can see how it's brimming with nutrition!
There are so many dog food recipes out there and we picked what seemed to have the most variety. Please be careful of what goes into your dog’s mouth! There’s a lot more than just chocolate on the bad food list. What we found is now what the dogs known as “hamburger munch.” It contains meat, veggies, rice, oats, olive oil, and salt. So, I have posted the recipe in the recipes section of the site.
You can get it in a pdf file right here.
I would normally do a price comparison but we try to buy the items when they’re in the ad. The main cost is the hamburger. We use 5 pounds per batch – cost ranges from $7.50 to $10. When it goes on sale, I try to stock up for a couple months. Five pounds of hamburger lasts us about 1-1/2 weeks. The dogs are 16 and 26 pounds.
Even the cats like it
Downside:
- The time it takes to make (15 minutes to mix everything together-the food processor grating attachment helps, 25 minutes for the rice, 50 minutes to cook)
- We had to get Gunner a slow-down dog dish because he eats it so fast
Benefits:
- You know what’s going into the food
- No preservatives
- Whole foods
- No corn
- No beet pulp
- No animal “by-products”
- Naturally balanced – the recipe was approved by my vet
- Far fewer medical problems – the goodness of this food might be called preventative medicine
- Fewer #2s – basically went from 3/day down to 1/day (this definitely helped with potty training)
Both our boys love this stuff
Wow! Thanks for this. I’ve been thinking about our dog food lately. We’ve gotten away from most processed foods and I was feeling bad for feeding them processed dog food. Plus it’s about 50 bucks a bag! For the past year I have made them what I call ‘stew chews’. Basically a meat stew that I freeze in muffin cups and give them to chew on. They get one a day. I’d like to try your recipe. Is this all you feed your dog? Do you feed once or twice a day and how much? Do you ever vary the recipe?
Comment by Tara — August 7, 2009 @ 7:29 AM
What a good idea! I think I’ll have to look into this for our German Shorthair. We’ve been paying a FORTUNE on Nutro and it’s a real budget buster.
Thanks for the good tip
Comment by Sharon — August 7, 2009 @ 8:09 AM
Maybe I’ll give it a whirl. The dog food we are using is great for our little puppy but our more active Jack Russell is in need of something better.
Thanks for sharing this.
Stop by and visit me over at Free 2 Be Frugal!
Comment by niki — August 7, 2009 @ 8:59 AM
We make our dogs food too. No recipe just ground chicken (they’re not fans of ground turkey), rice (or couscous…they LOVE couscous), peas, chicken broth, oil, salt & pepper. I’ll try your recipe to give them a bit of variety.
Happy Foodie Friday!
Comment by Cami @ Creating Myself — August 7, 2009 @ 9:16 AM
wonderful idea I may try this at home I believe our pooch would love it
Comment by angie — August 7, 2009 @ 11:42 AM
I’d give it a shot!
Comment by Mommy-Wise — August 7, 2009 @ 2:51 PM
[...] Prudent & Practical (Homemade dog food) [...]
Pingback by Food on Fridays: Chocolate-Chip Cookie Trick « — August 7, 2009 @ 9:22 PM
So you make your own dog food, eh? Clever! And the back story is interesting, too, covering all of your struggles.
Comment by Ann Kroeker — August 7, 2009 @ 9:24 PM
I can tell that Gunnar is very special to you. Congratulations on making a healthier move to replace commercial processed food with something you’ve prepared lovingly at home. My concern is that you modeled your recipe after a commercial, processed product containing grains, carbohydrate, and cooked meat to feed your carnivorous canine better suited for a raw diet. We have two ten year old shelties who have not eaten kibble for nine years. They are happy, healthy dogs! They have tiny, low odor bowel movements because they properly digest their food. They have never had worms and no fleas for 7 years without any flea control products. This is in the South. Grains in people create arthritis and heart disease. I refuse to eat grain fed beef, pork, or poulty, and limit it for myself. Dogs, biologically wolves, certainly do not do well with it. Nor do cats. You can learn more about our feeding methods in a very early Podcast we produced last summer. I highly recommend that you look into a raw diet for Gunnar. Let me know how he likes it! Less work for you, too, when you just toss a raw meaty bone in the back yard for him to enjoy! We have a video of our pups enjoying their chicken. You can see how they love it.
http://www.ournaturallife.com/blog/?s=raw+feeding
Comment by Cathy Payne — August 8, 2009 @ 7:09 AM
http://www.ournaturallife.com/blog/?p=152
This is the correct link to both our links, Podcast and raw feeding video as referred to in my previous comments. There are lots of resources to check out.
Cathy and Jon
Comment by Cathy Payne — August 8, 2009 @ 7:15 AM
I’ll have to try this. My dog has a sensitive stomach so this might be just the thing. Thanks.
Christi
Comment by Christi at A Southern Life — August 8, 2009 @ 11:19 AM
I’ll have to think long and hard about this one. I hate paying for dog food, but our lab is 100 pounds and goes through quite a bit. Afraid I’d get frustrated trying to keep up with her!
Comment by Amy @ Finer Things — August 8, 2009 @ 9:45 PM
Thank you for this! When our cocker spaniel, Reggie first came to us and needed to gain weight, we fed him fat balls. The recipe has raw meat, raw eggs, peanut butter, wheat germ, and corn syrup in it. We were afraid of feeding him raw meat, but after a lot of reading and talking to our vet, we gave it to him. No problems what so ever. I’m currently listening to your podcast – thanks for the link.
Comment by K — August 10, 2009 @ 12:44 PM
[...] Michelle (Chocolate Jaffa Cake)15. Prudent and Practical (Homemade Dog Food)16. Sarah (voting with your wallet)17. Musings of a Housewife (more than just organic)18. Simple, [...]
Pingback by Fight Back Fridays August 7th | Food Renegade — August 13, 2009 @ 10:18 PM
[...] Homemade dog food with hamburger and vegetables | Prudent and ̷… [...]
Pingback by Homemade Dog Food: What You Need To Know — August 15, 2009 @ 11:54 PM
Certainly with our smaller dogs this is much more affordable. With a big dog, the cost would go up a bunch, making the decision more difficult.
Comment by D — September 15, 2009 @ 10:32 PM
Sorry about the earlier post. I thought I was making my sigature for the blog so i could keep up with you guys and hit the button submit button before I was ready. Very interesting site and I too have a dog. I like to make him homemade doggie treats. I just did a search in google and found so many recipes for free! The one I made him has oatmeal, real grated cheese and other ingredients. I kept them in the frig and just gave him a few a day. He loved them! By making your own dog treats you will know exactly what is going into your dogs tummy. I found a cookie cutter shaped like a bone and used it and I was happy and so was Zebo(my dog).
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Comment by Tom — November 5, 2011 @ 7:19 PM