Homemade Pet Food: Why You Really Want To Cook For Your Pet
In March 2007, most pet owners became very concerned about feeding their dogs and cats with melamine-poisoned foods advertised on the market. Being “mom” to my adorable and, I thought, very well cared for King Charles Spaniel, I looked at the lists every day with concern. I had believed that the food I was feeding him was of high quality and safe, but I checked his website every day to be sure. And every day I read that the food was safe, they did not use products from China, trust them.
My dog started experiencing diarrhea the day we moved into a new home. Being a sensitive soul for whom stress has this effect, I didn’t worry much until day 3 when it not only continued but seemed to get worse. Again, I checked the websites to see if his food was on any of the recall lists. It wasn’t. He had the news in the background that night, sitting upright when the latest list was announced: His food, food that had “never used products from China,” was on the list. they lie.
I had been poisoning my beloved best friend.
Of course, I immediately got rid of the poisoned trash and the next day started cooking for my dog, thinking it would be temporary until the issues were resolved. I started researching what my dog needed nutritionally to make sure he was giving him everything he needed to be healthy and happy.
It was that investigation that shocked me and then angered me beyond description. I found out what was really in the dog food (and cat food and other pet foods), and it’s disgusting, dangerous, poisonous crap even without the melamine. I was disgusted by what I learned, knowing that I had been feeding this to my pets for years, thinking that I was doing the right thing with the “high quality” food that I paid a premium price for. Not anymore. Never more.
Here are some of the “quality” ingredients in your pet’s food:
* “Meat and poultry by-products” is the material that comes from the slaughterhouse and from dead animals, such as roadkill and slaughtered companion animals, classified as confiscated and unfit for human consumption. It includes lungs (even when filled with pneumonia), spleen, brain, liver (including those infested with worms), bones, beaks, feet, heads, cancerous tissue… the list goes on. Rest assured, if it’s remotely fit for human consumption, it’s not in your pet’s food.
* “Meat and Bone Meal” is the ground up restaurant and grocery store garbage, dead, roadkill, euthanized animals, including stomach contents, blood, and hooves, cooked until the fat rises where it is removed and squeezed out humidity. . It can also contain foreign materials such as metal, hair, glass, mold, pesticide contamination, and more.
* Grease is usually listed among the pet food ingredients that give off an enticing odor so our pets eat the litter. They are made from rancid restaurant grease and scrap that is often full of impurities like hair, skin, bone, dirt, or polyethylene.
*Corn Meal, Corn Bran, Corn Gluten Meal are the corn products left over when all nutritive ingredients used in human products are removed.
* Wheat flour, wheat germ flours, are nothing more than what is swept off the mill floors after everything has been processed.
*Artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives, including those believed to be carcinogenic and prohibited in human foods such as BHT, BHA, Ethoxyquin, Propyl Gallate.
If you can read that and then open a can or bag of food for your pet and feed it tonight, you’ve got a stronger stomach than me!
That’s why I cook for my dog now. I know exactly what he is eating and that it is good quality, nutritious and safe (as safe as any of our foods these days). The added benefit is that it’s even less expensive! I listen for specials, especially on meats, and fill the freezer when I find them, which is often. A lot of meat and poultry are greatly reduced in price when their shelf life is nearing the end, and are fine if cooked or frozen immediately.
I only spend a couple hours or so once a month cooking a large amount of food, putting it in small containers with about 3-4 meals in each (he eats twice a day), freezing it until I need it. I add a couple tablespoons of low-fat plain yogurt to one serving, mix it up, and “crumble” it for about a minute so it’s warm and delicious for him. He loves it!
Better, she looks amazing, better than ever before, her coat shiny, her eyes sparkling, endless energy, perfect weight, and a healthy happy glow.
This is not a difficult thing to do! There are many great recipes available and there are now cookbooks dedicated to pet food recipes, including good quality treats and cookies that your pet will love and that you can feel good about giving them. I highly recommend doing some research to make sure you are giving your dog everything he needs.
