[animalfarm]

What are the pro's and con's of feeding your dog home prepared food compared to purchasing food at the store. Are there any limitations I need to know about if I am cooking for my dogs as well?

[Lara's mom]

When you cook for your dog you know exactly what goes into their food. The stuff that ends up in most commercial dog food would make you sick!!!

It is however, time consuming.

For me, it is worth the time it takes to prepare my dogs food.

[Wolfsnaps]

Homecooked is more time consuming. I would recommend having a freezer to keep food that you cook and cook in large batches. The problem with cooking for your dog, is that you have to make sure that you are balancing nutrients (whether each meal itself is balanced or your dog is getting balance over time). I think this is the biggest issue with home cooking. You really need to do your homework on what ingredients to use and how much.
On the plus side, you control everything. SO there wont be preservatives or unnatural things in the food. And you can rest assured that there wont be any recalls in your kitchen

Commercial dog foods vary a lot. Too many of them are junk and the ones that are really good are pricey. If you know what you are looking for, you can avoid the bad ingredients and save yourself from having to cook for your dog the rest of its life.

I dont cook for my dogs, they get premium kibbles. But they also get healthy leftovers and raw meaty bones.

The choice is yours. Just make sure that the dog is getting the best you can give it.

[Lara's mom]

In my opinion, the best you can do for your dog is to look up some websites on home cooking for dogs or ask those of us who do our own cooking. However, it is also important for them to have some dry food so, again, do your homework. You want to get the very best dry food that you possibly can. The extra money you spend on quality food is well worth it. Again, you could ask for suggestions from the members.

[TotalTag]

Research shows that feeding dogs a natural diet of raw meats helps control fleas and ticks. Something you may want to consider.

[Lara's mom]

I asked my vet about feeding a raw diet and she is dead set against it.

[MrAndrew]

A dog can get by on home-prepared food, if done correctly. You really need to know exactly what you are doing in order to ensure that your dog gets the proper vitamins, nutrients and proteins.

In my experience a combination of both raw / home prepared food and store-bought kibble is the perfect combination. Commercial pet food is all different and there are really great foods on the market as well as really crappy ones.

You need to take a look at the ingredients and remember that the first ingredient listed is the one ingredient that the food contains the most of, and it should be a single high protein source. A few really decent foods include Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance, Taste of the Wild, Wellness.

[lulusmom]

My vet wasn't keen on me feeding my dogs commercially prepared Primal raw chicken either but I didn't care because, 1) like most general practitioners, she is not a certified nutritionist and 2) also like most general practioners, she has received very little training in nutrition and 3) she is a huge supporter of Hills which makes some of the worst food you could possibily give your dog.

I have two dogs with endocrine disorders and both treat with internal medicine specialists. Their specialists are extremely happy with their improved bloodwork, resolution of allergies, weight loss and increase in activity levels since switching them from grain ladened kibble to a commercially prepared raw food. They, along with my other two dogs have been on raw food for two years and are thriving on it.

Aside from the myth that dogs needs kibble to keep their teeth clean, why would dogs need kibble in their diet??

[MrAndrew]

This is the first I'm hearing of the 'kibble teeth cleaning' myth, but as for why feeding kibble, the answer is quite simple: you know exactly what is going into your dog. Every commercial kibble product has the nutritional analysis, how much protein, minerals, etc. as well as ingredient listings, etc. With kibble you are guaranteeing that your dog gets the exact amount of suggested protein/nutrients/etc. Raw food is great, don't get me wrong, but you need to supplement that raw food to make up for whatever minerals, vitamins, etc. you don't include.

[Corky/Max]

There are many things I could print here about commercial dog food and what crap it is, But I have said it all before in this forum in many places and I just am 'sick' of repeating it all!! I am only giving you this for thought (and it is only a tip off the iceberg!)---This crap is cooked at such high temperature that very little remains (If there was any to start with!) of any nutritional value including vitamins which are destroyed by heat, period!! And yes, you need to supplement home-cooked too as heat destroys most of the nutrients. Raw feeding needs a lot of studying but if you do it right--the dog is getting much more nutrition because there is no heat to destroy! I believe you should supplement no matter what/how you feed---and that takes some studying too!! You want to know about commercial crap---Put appropriate words in your browser on the order of: commercial dog food/cons---etc.