Laura Chapman Writes

My family is animal crazy.

No, seriously.

It’s really not healthy.

On top of that, I’m not kidding when I tell you strays just seem to find us.  It’s like a cloud, or an aura, or something else I don’t really believe but can’t explain any other way. In fact, I’m positive there is an invisible “vacancy” sign outside our house only animals can read.

And when they do, I have to be the strong one. The one who says, “We really don’t NEED another pet!” The one who has to try and find another place for them that meets the critical eyes (oh those eyes…) of the rest of our household. The one who usually gives in despite knowing I will be the person who walks/cleans/feeds and otherwise cares for these rescues.

I get stronger every time.  Honestly.  

Sort of…

It doesn’t help at all when the best pets we’ve ever had simply walked into our lives like they were meant to be there.

So it probably won’t come as a surprise to find out I make my own dog food. But lest you think this is completely due to my compassion let me assure you I am all about whatever is easiest, cheapest and cleanest where the pets are concerned.

And on that front, NOBODY challenges me.

When one of our rescue dogs started chewing off her skin, I consulted the vet for a solution. After months of trying everything, including daily steroids (too many side effects for a long term solution), antibiotics, expensive prescription shampoos and regular baths; she still had bald, bleeding patches and I was torn between spending MORE money on prescription hypo-allergenic dog food or giving up.

So I researched the benefits of homemade dog food and decided to give it a try.  The results were amazing.  The itching was gone and as a side benefit–suddenly so was the “doggie odor” that nothing seemed to help.

Makes one wonder about commercial dog foods.

Ingredients:

Large package of chicken thighs (about 12 pieces)

Or Ground Beef (or both)

Brown Rice (about 3 cups)

Frozen Vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans)–large sized bag for preparing in a pot or small sized for crock pot only.

Butternut squash

Or Sweet potato

Can also use fresh carrots.

Any chopped meat scraps saved and frozen

How to make it:

Cook chicken in crockpot until bones slide out easily and discard them. I use thighs because there aren’t any tiny bones that have to be fished out.

Then transfer to a large pot and add water.  Bring to boil.  Chop sweet potato or butternut squash into cubes.

Add package of frozen veggies (I use carrots, green beans, peas combo.)  Add two cups brown rice. 

Simmer on low heat until everything is soft and mushy (low heat is important so as not to burn the bottom–which I did once but the dogs ate it anyway). Add additional water as necessary or extra rice if too much water. Consistency should not be too soupy.

I use an ice cream scoop and freeze individual portions (three scoops per medium sized dog–mine are 15 and 18 lbs — but the little one is really too fat so I usually give her three quarters of a bag and the other dog gets the rest). Put in baggies and thaw in microwave before feeding.

You can cook everything in a crock pot and skip the additional pot but reduce meat to 2 lbs, rice to 1 1/2 cups and add fewer veggies. This method is less labor intensive but also creates less dog food so I usually prefer to do the large batch less often. One batch usually lasts me about two weeks for two dogs. 

Here’s the best part–total cost is about $12-15 per batch or about  40 – 50 cents per meal depending on how much left over meat I have on hand to stretch everything further. (The dogs love it when left over steak or prime rib gets saved for them!)

Sure beats the cost of regular canned dog food not to mention the prescription stuff the vet recommended.

Best of all, no more vet visits for itching issues!

And it never fails — on dog food making days someone will walk in the house and say “Wow that smells great, what’s for dinner?” 

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  Or if you are animal nuts and do this too!