Easy raw dog food recipe
Here’s an easy raw dog food recipe. It’s what my dog had for breakfast the other day – boneless steak, turkey gizzards and frozen peas.
This is a pretty typical meal for him. He eats a lot of chicken with bone, turkey and pork but this is one of his boneless meals. Most agree that red meat is more species appropriate, although chicken and pork are much cheaper.
Raw dog food recipe
I also added a fish oil tablet and a spoonful of the supplement Missing Link to this meal. Missing Link was recommended to me by a few other raw feeders, and I decided to buy a bag for Ace. He loves the flavor. It contains a bunch of good stuff – glucosamine, kelp, beef liver, carrots – all healthy, pronounceable ingredients that he doesn’t always get from his food.
I use a bowl to hold Ace’s meals, although there is really no need. I just use it as a transporting vessel from the counter to the towel where he eats 🙂 I set his bowl on his towel, and he takes the food out one item at a time. Then he eats whatever veggies are still left. He loves his raw meals!
Won’t my dog get sick?
Whenever I share raw dog food pictures, I get a few reactions from people who are concerned about bacteria, choking hazards and such. While there is always some risk, I have to smile when people are concerned about dogs eating raw meat and bones. Do we forget that dogs are, you know, animals? They’re meat eaters, designed to tear, gulp and gnaw on raw meat and bones. Yum!
For more information, here are some raw dog food resources:
- My ebook – A raw dog food feeding guide with 10 raw dog food recipes
- My post which includes dozens of raw diet recipes for dogs
- Most popular negative reactions I hear against raw food for dogs and how I respond
- The book Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs – a great resource on living with dogs
Have a great day, and let me know if you are currently feeding your dog raw meals!
lisa
Thursday 11th of July 2013
Sorry for causing a stir. My initial post was really a question. :)
Renchan Li
Friday 12th of July 2013
Lisa,
Thanks for your bringing up this concern. I always try to know what I am doing the best I can. I heard people mentioning about that their dogs having kidney issues (including kidney stones?), cancers, arthritis; but they don't know why. Because of your mentioning about saline (sodium) pumped into chicken and I find that there did exist reports about pumping sodium saline into chicken, sold at the grocery stores. I am concerned about the dog health issues, but I try not to be over concerned, and I will continue monitoring what I am feeding my dog.
I also appreciate Lindsay's advice on adding variety of raw foods into my dog's diet.
Lindsay Stordahl
Thursday 11th of July 2013
We're all just having a discussion about our dogs because we all care. Thanks for bringing up the topic :)
Renchan Li
Thursday 11th of July 2013
Lisa,
Thanks for the additional information. The bag of chicken quarters that I bought has a 4% (90 gm) sodium per 4-oz serving label; I gather that the average quarter in the bag is probably 12 oz, thus it has 270 gm of sodium. The daily 270 gm of sodium for my 75 lbs healthy 2-year dog might be too high. I am concerned about the long term effect of feeding chicken quarters.
Lindsay Stordahl
Thursday 11th of July 2013
This is a personal opinion, but I think anything under 100 mg per serving would be OK. A serving is 3 to 4 ounces so your dog should be OK with what you're feeding her. It's always good to add a little variety when you can. I feed lots of chicken as well, but it's good to mix it up with some red meat when you can.
lisa
Thursday 11th of July 2013
apparently so. one source I read said the increase in sodium from "plumping" can be anywhere from 15-30%. Also that chicken labelled "natural" could be plumped as long as the injection fluid is "natural".
One source cited some companies switching to potassium phosphate. I recently read about health problems related to that when I was trying to find why our softened water made my son break out.
My butcher shop sells ground chicken parts (necks etc) that they say have not been injected with sodium. Maybe that's an option.
Lindsay Stordahl
Thursday 11th of July 2013
As long as the meat has 80mg of sodium or less per serving and no additional "solutions," I feed it to my dog. I'm not saying this is perfect, but it's what I go by. For example, I don't feed turkey breasts that have additional flavorings added.
lisa
Thursday 11th of July 2013
I don't know if it was the actual sodium that is the problem. I'll look around and see what I can find...
lisa
Thursday 11th of July 2013
I used to feed my dog raw (I unfortunately no longer have my dog.) For awhile I got lazy and was feeding her just chicken. I added veggies and what not, but did not give her a good variety. He health was not that great. Then someone told me something--dogs should not eat human grade raw chicken because of the saline. Our chickens are packed with saline to keep the color or something. When we cook the chicken, the saline cooks out.
Now, I suppose maybe this is only a problem--if at all--if you get lazy like I did.
Do you have any info on this?
ps--I got here by googling How to start a dog walking business. I could not comment on that, but wanted to let you know it led to an epiphany! (I don't have a job to quit. But I realized I also Dont have to get one that I Will want to quit!Thanks!)
lisa
Renchan Li
Thursday 11th of July 2013
Hi Lisa,
The raw chicken quarter that I bought from the grocery store is 90mg of sodium per 4 oz serving. I feed my 75-lbs dog one raw chicken quarter (the average chicken quarter size) per day; is this sodium amount too high? Thanks.
Renchan Li
Thursday 11th of July 2013
Hi Lisa,
I appreciate your mentioning about the issue of saline in human grade chicken, that we bought from the grocery. I wish to gather more information on this issue, if it exists in the chicken supplies in San Diego. I will be watching for this issue since 1/2 of the raw meat I feed to my dog daily is chicken quarter. Thanks again.