making dog food

[thystledown]

Sitting here watching the canner.  We now make dog food for our dog and can it.  She got lyme disease and the first round of doxy didn't cure her and she broke out in a rash on the second round, so it was discontinued.  The rash healed and we thought we were fine.  This fall she started scratching.  She also got afraid of playing with the big male, climbing stairs, and jumping into the car or off the deck.  Pretty sure pain was involved.  So we started feeding her homemade dog food.  The scratching stopped.  Now, 2 months or so later, we have a new dog--or at least she acts like a new dog.  She's working stock better again and listening to me.  She got pretty stupid for a while with all this too--would not listen or work well.  But now she's sleek, glossy, not scratching, full of energy.  So I'm doing this icky job today.  We boiled down all the venison bones from a deer this time (we also use the bones from the steer we slaughtered, others we get from the butcher--even used our steers head and feet).  We boil it for a couple days then remove the bones.  I then add rice and boil that.  Mom grinds any big chunks of meat, but I just mix all the pieces together and find it shreds up pretty easy.  So this meat, bone broth, fat and rice gets put in quart canning jars and canned with a pressure canner (or two or three).  Mom uses a commercial vitamin mix on top her the food when she feeds her dog.  I just add raw eggs from our hens or kifer or yogurt to her diet.  I will add raw milk or clabber when the cow freshens soon.  Anyway, don't like the work, but do love the results we've seen in the dog.  Mom's dog too.  Her's gets itchy with all commercial dog food, so she started doing this first by feeding up a road kill deer that she cut up and froze.  But not so much freezer space and a need for more convenience got us doing this.  And I like making something out of essentially nothing too.  dog food is pretty expensive, so I technically am making money by not buying dog food.  I have the time.  I would not be making money doing something else, so I don't count the labor costs.  I think a raw diet might be even better, but I just don't have the freezer space--and besides, I think my raw milk and eggs adds makes up for that.  I know it does for the cat (neutered male on cheap cat food, raw milk and mice--no urinary tract problems).  Sorry for the ramble, but thought this might be useful to someone else.

[mommasquilts]

I grew up in a very rural area of a third world country. We also made our cat and dog food. Back then we knew nothing about bone broth, but we did use meat scrapes (we processed our own) and cooked it with rice for the dog and oatmeal for the cat. They were always happy and healthy. Momma froze portions for the cat in muffin tins. I don’t remember what she did for the dog. Anyhow, in the morning she would put out milk, water, and a frozen chunk for the cat. Cat had to wait for it to thaw.

[trina b]

@thystlesown, you boil it for a couple DAYS? Just a very slow boil & keep adding water?
What kind of rice?
How on earth did you cook he steer’s head??
This is fascinating!

[lew92]

I started making cat food for the stray that we caught up in the barnyard this past summer. Because even though her fecals came back clean, she had constant diarrhea and horrid smelling gas. I had a freezer-burned chicken that I cooked up in the electric pressure cooker for a couple of hours, then cooked rice with the broth. I added 2 cups of home canned carrots, because I know that they are supposed to help with intestinal issues.

It did help a lot and over the following month she eventually healed to normal stools and only occasional gas.

Because of her, I got all the bones back from the lambs we had butchered. I save bones from all the meat we eat except pork because I think it might be too fatty (they are AGH's) and cook them down to make cat food. I'm a rice snob and only truly enjoy eating jasmine rice, so I'm using a bag of something else we had bought years ago to feed to the cats. Yes, all the cats get it now. I use squash instead of carrots now, too, because we got a nice crop of them and I didn't plant carrots this year. Sometimes I throw raw egg in it if I have extra, and the stray cat gets clabbered milk, which seems to help her stomach even more.

Because I don't add vitamins to it, the cats also get dry cat food to make sure they are getting the nutrients they need. I make up a big batch of it about every 6 weeks and freeze it up to use over time. Never even thought of canning it, but likely wouldn't.

[elia]

We make our dog food, too. We make a special dog bread, which they get with leftovers and various additions in the morning, and then they get raw meat with some vegetables in the evening. The puppy also gets meat at noon. We bought a grinder some years ago for grinding up chicken thighs and drumsticks, and use that along with whatever other meats we can find for a reasonable price from slaughter house or other sources. The Pyrenees ate their chicken leg quarters whole for years, but since we have only the ES puppy and the elderly GP at this point, we are grinding it all and adding the pureed veggies.  We make big batches and freeze them. The meat is combined with 20% vegetables by weight. And they get raw bones from time to time.

It is nice to hear about what other folks do! It makes such a difference in their health, and it doesn't seem to be much more expensive than buying a good kibble.

[thystledown]

Nov 29, 2017 21:00:49 GMT -5 trina b said:

@thystlesown, you boil it for a couple DAYS? Just a very slow boil & keep adding water?
What kind of rice?
How on earth did you cook he steer’s head??
This is fascinating!

yep, 48 hours generally to get all the god stuff out of the bones.  I cover the bones with water and add a glug of vinegar.  Then bring it to a boil and reduce to a simmer for a couple of days.   I don't add the rice at that time.  I add the rice after I have removed the bones and am ready to can it--then I let the rice cook in the broth and often I have to add more water at that point.  The broth after cooking that long is like gelatin when it cools.  But that is what bone broth does.  Hubby skinned and chopped the steers head up.  I think he may have used an ax. I just used cheap white rice.  I don't eat white rice, but it is cheap and makes a filler so the dog feels like it got enough to eat.  The broth and meat and fat alone are nutritious, but not satisfying. If she were wild, she'd gorge and then fast til the next kill.  Living with us, she likes to eat often, so I add the filler. Beans also work according to mom.  And veggies. And I was afraid of a horror movie scene of eye balls floating in the pot.  Never happened.  They disintegrated.  23 month old Holstein x Jersey.  600 lb hanging weight for reference.  Used a 5 gallon stock pot that I use as a cheese vat normally. Not sure that was a good idea.  It did come clean, but the last batch with the rice in it I scorched on the bottom.  It didn't burn, but it did get crispy brown.  Not so good for the pot. And the pot cost about $75 when I bought it a few years ago for making cheese, so I really don't want to ruin it.  

[elia]

I have had that scorching happen, too, when cooking dogfood grains with broth in a crock pot or canning kettle. I eventually found that if I let it cool down completely before removing it from the pot, it helped the scorched layer to come loose from the pot and not stick quite so bad. Haven't made it in the cheese pot, so not sure if it would the same there.

[lew92]

Yes, letting it cool down before removing the contents allows some of the moisture soften the crusties on the bottom. I haven't done it when making pet food, but with cooking for humans.

[SebFarm]

We also make our own dog food. One dog has is gluten intolerant and another has pancreatitis. Boil boneless skinless chicken, scoop any fat off the top, shred the chicken. Rice quinoa potatoes carrots and barley, and a raw egg on their dish.

It has been a year, and it's done wonders to the health of the dogs.

[susaq]

How long do you cook it in the pressure cooker thistledown? Do you can quarts or pints. I need to start doing this. Our hybrid wolf has issues with dog food that has grain in it. He can only eat the expensive stuff.

[thystledown]

Dec 3, 2017 23:19:30 GMT -5 susaq said:

How long do you cook it in the pressure cooker thistledown ? Do you can quarts or pints. I need to start doing this. Our hybrid wolf has issues with dog food that has grain in it. He can only eat the expensive stuff.

90 minutes in a pressure canner for quart jars.  Use the directions for canning hot pack ground meat.  Just don't add salt.

[thystledown]

Interesting about the antibiotics in chicken, but she was eating Diamond Natural Beef and rice. Already had switched from lamb and rice. Also the other ES that got the itchies first has never had antibiotics. I wonder if it is the processing chemicals. I know the butcher sells the hides to a rendering plant. What kind of chemicals turns a cow hide into dog food anyway?

[Debbie Lincoln]

I do essentially the same thing with my road kill meat that's too bruised and the 3+ year old meat in the bottom of the freezer. Once a week I make a pot full - I haven't canned it yet. And I add all kinds of veggies - whatever is in season (like sprouting potatos, right now) We have two almost 13 year old dogs and a 6 year old German Shepherd with hip issues. All are thriving. It's thrifty, makes room in my freezer (hoping to get a nice doe this week) and the dogs LOVE it!

[bluebar23]

I know this is an older thread, but I read it when it was first posted and have been waiting until we had our own meat to try this with! I asked the butcher to save me "dog bones" when we had Maggie processed. Yesterday I thawed some out and stuffed all I could cram into my 5gal stock pot with water to fill and a glug of vinegar. It's been going about a day now, it's cooked down a bit so I'm going to add a bit more water and let it go another day.

I have a bag of brown rice I'm planning to cook in the broth after I've removed the bones. I'd like to add some veggies, but I don't have anything fresh on hand (our gardening was a mild disaster this year, planted late and badly neglected). I do have a flat of pressure-canned sweet potatoes from last year that I've been looking to use up, which seems like they'd be perfect. Would it be okay to drain them and add them to the cooked rice and meat mixture and can everything together? (That way I could use the jars they're in, which would be nice.) Or is it bad to double-can something?

Also, after I fish the cooked bones out of the broth, can I give them to the dogs?

We have four dogs, so this will be more of a supplement that a whole diet (or else it will be gone in a week), but I'm really looking forward to being able to do this for them! The pigs get the offal/scraps when we butcher poultry, but the dogs are always at the edge of their pen stealing whatever they can reach through the fence. I'd like to be able to feed them more raw/homemade food, but I'm worried about keeping a sufficient supply with so many mouths to feed. Maybe someday!

[Libelle]

I'm pretty ignorant on this subject so hopefully someone knowledgeable will comment, but it's my understanding that white rice is better than brown for use in dog food...... I think the brown is hard on their digestion. At least that's what my obedience trial "coach" went by, she cooked all her dogs' food.

[mommasquilts]

We always used white rice

[elia]

Don't give the bones to the dogs. Raw bones yes, cooked bones no. Cooked bones are more brittle than raw ones, and they can chip or splinter and cause impaction or intestinal tract injuries.

[mommasquilts]

But if the bones have been cooked on low heat for a couple of days(what I do for bone broth), the bones literally fall apart—no splintering.

[Kelsey]

If the bones have been cooked for a long time, and it was a younger animal, the bones will just crumble when you squeeze them in your hand. I give them to the laying hens for extra calcium.
Normally a dog takes a while to gnaw through a big bone - I think I would be concerned about too much calcium if they can eat a whole bone in a couple minutes. Maybe just save a couple small ones as treats?

[bluebar23]

Phew, glad I mentioned the brown rice! I will get some white for them.

I will take a close look at the condition of the bones as I pull them out. I'd be happy to give them to the chickens--or the pigs--as long as someone makes use of them! We have plenty of other raw bones still for the dogs. Only about half the box fit in my pot at once.

Thanks everyone!! Any thoughts on re-canning the sweet potatoes?