Gourmet + Healthy Dogfood

    While I was away at college this last time, my dog Bolto died. We knew it was coming so it wasn't a big shock. Bolto spent the last few years (especially the winters) grouchy from the pains of growing old. Mom decided that we could do more to help our dogs stay healthy.

    To tell the truth, the dog food that you can buy at the store these days is mostly filler with just enough nutrition for the advertizes to put bold letters o the bag. We decided to experiment with making our own dog food and see if our animal's health picked up at all.

    The recipe we use comes straight off of homemadedogfood.com. The ingredients we use are meat, rice, hard boiled eggs, and vitamins (minerals and oils) -- pretty simple. We used beef in our first few batches, but my brother hopes to get us a deer this year so we will use ground venison in the future.

    The hard boiled eggs are crushed whole into the rice and then mixed with the beef. My sister prefers to wear gloves while she mixes it and often makes faces as the raw meat squirts between her fingers. I've never actually mixed it myself, but I have lots of healthy mirror neurons so I can empathize.

Eggs & Rice -- next mix in the ground meat.

    My mother ordered these vitamins off of Amazon. They weren't the fanciest out there, but I don't think our dog's mind too much. I think they're just in luxury with their new diet. We like what we're seeing as far as the rise in the dog's energy. Their hunting has picked up as well as their attentiveness. Who knows -- maybe it's the change in season or some other factor, but I do think thier new diet has played a role.

Mix in those Minerals!

    After it's all mixed make 1/4 cup patties and place them in a dog-food-designated baking dish. We're use our old 12 X 14 Granola Pan. The Teflon is flaking off so we don't like to use it for people-food. But I think the dogs can handle a few Teflon flakes.

    The patties are frozen in the pan for a day, then removed and transferred to plastic bags before returning to the freezer. Every morning, my sister pulls out the number of patties we need and thaws them in the laundry room sink. Each dog eats four and each cat eats one. We're still experimenting with ingredients, and proportions. I's fun to always be trying new things.

Ingredients:
   10 lbs ground beef (or venison)
   18 hard boiled eggs (including their shells)
   15 cups cooked rice
   8oz Fatty Acid Supplements for Dogs
   1 cup Mineral & Vitamin Dog Blend

Directions:
    In a large bowl or bucket mix together your beef and rice. Crush in your hard boiled eggs along with their shells until the pieces are small and mixed in. Add your Fatty Acid Supplements and Mineral & Vitamin Dog Blend. Mix well. Use a 1/4 cup to make patties in an old cookie sheet. freeze the patties for one day before transferring them to plastic bags for easier access.

    Again, we got this recipe and these directions straight from homemadedogfood.com so if you have further questions make sure and check out their site.