Sunday, June 3, 2012

Sunday Cook: Homemade Raw Dog Food

Ok ok ok - I know - RAW dog food isn't really what you thought you'd find for a Sunday COOK feature - right?!

Well, what can I say it has just been THAT kind of week. Thinking that my week was clear - a least for a few days - after Cassia's BD and the selling of the trailer - turned out to be VERY optimistic on my part. All the things I THOUGHT I could get done this week came to an abrupt end when come early in the week I came down with an awful head cold.

Actually, all three of us have been down with it and still recovering - so motivation has not been a huge thing around here.

We did manage to pull ourselves together for a trip into Merritt on Friday for a grocery run. The fact that it had been 18 days since our last, and the lack of food in the house, certainly gave us the extra strength needed to make such a trip and long day of it.

So - imagine with all the food in the house all the Sunday Cook items I COULD be making! But alas, the only thing I was able to complete today was a batch of Energy Bites - figuring we could obviously use them!

While in Merritt we also stopped in at our now favourite Meat Market for a our next 2 week supply of beef, pork and chicken. We really stocked up! It inspired my dinner menu for tonight - slow cooker beef roast, yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes - yummm. Oh - and frozen peas for Cassia - shhh - she likes them and Derek and I of course won't be the ones to enlighten her - not our favourite!

What we also picked up at the Meat Market inspired this post.

Raw dog food! Organ meat! yup - yummmm! (That from Roofous!)


During our second trip to the market we realized they sell these! Frozen blocks of organ meat. I haven't checked the price per weight but we get 14 of these good sized blocks for $19.98 - so for about 70¢ each.

At first we were just giving these to Roofous to gnaw on. We then started talking around the campfire at night (after all we ARE in a campground - Derek and I have our own campfire pit here beside the cabin and have many many fires) and thought that we should get to making our own dogfood. Because really - who doesn't serve up those round hard crunchy bits of processed food - mostly corn - to their dogs without a bit of guilt!? Hands up! Every time we went to purchase Roofous's food we would read the ingredients - compare high to low prices - shake our heads and place the bag in the cart.

Well no more!

I quickly got on line to seek some inspiration for our first kick at the raw food - not surprisingly there is more then enough information and recipes. In the end we read through a few and came up with our own. They all seemed to have in common - raw beef, eggs (including shells), rice (white not brown), and items such as yogurt, garlic, oatmeal and parsley.


Just so you know - I did hesitate about adding this picture - NOT very appetizing. I'm so so so so glad I'm not the one to have to make it or serve it up. Trust me the smell is much worse.

The main point of contention seems to be regarding vegetables. Not surprising, I first went to this site - called oddly enough Homemade Dog Food. Now, in the little time I have spent on this new site I do think it looks like a good one with LOTS of good info. The one thing that surprised me was the advice of NOT to put vegetables in the raw dog food - dog digestive tracks are to short to process. 

As I continued my search on other sites and read other recipes, such as this one from Dog Training Central, I found that many DO include veggies. 

What to do? Who to believe?

For now we left out the veggies - obviously more research is needed. 


In addition to the organ meat we scored at the Extra Foods in Merritt with this bag of beef. In Canada you don't see the ground beef packed in tubes like this as much. Very very common in the USA.


Ahhh - happy Roofous with an empty bowl. Yes - I know - it looks like he is scowling at me - just the sun - I think!

I have a feeling that this raw food diet may just be a tad bit higher then the crunchy food we have been feeding Roofous. But that is because we have been buying the bottom of the barrel type dog food. We are spending a little more $$ but boy do we feel much better about WHAT he is actually eating and he is much more interested in eating as well. 

A win win!

Thanks for visiting!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: I do have a GREAT recipe for you though. Probably a bit basic to do for a Sunday Cook but I am so happy to pass it on to you. It has become one of our new favourites and will probably we one of yours too - they are THAT good. Crispy oven baked garlic parmesan fries from Babble. It has replaced a former favourite way of doing potatoes by cutting into chunks - dipping in milk and then tossing in 1 part parmesan to 1 part flour. Lay on oiled baking sheet - drizzle with oil and bake. 

1 comment:

  1. What a beautiful thing. Great recipe for raw dog food. Would you consider sharing this recipe on our site at http://rawpetfood.com for customer not interesting purchasing?

    ReplyDelete

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