Homemade RX Dog Food, Is It A Good Thing?

Ziggy, after a grooming from Hannah at Animal Trax today!

Our adorable little canine baby, Ziggy!  Isn't he cute?  He is very camera shy, this is the best I could do, he's really much cuter than this!  He just got home from visiting one of his favorite people, Hannah, owner and groomer at Animal Trax.  He loves to look handsome!  He is almost nine years old with some health problems.  You'd never know it tho', he is such a happy and lovable dog, I still think of him as a puppy.  He has bladder stones, calcium oxalate type, and a higher than normal squamous cell count in his urine.  Because of that, I decided to look into the health benefits of making his food and treats as opposed to buying commercial prescription food.  My reasons for going down this road are three-fold:

1. He's been on the commercial RX diet from our Vet for close to two years now, and while he has not gotten worse, he hasn't improved either. 
2. I thought it might be less costly to make his food myself. 
3. I truly believe homemade food is healthier than commercially prepared food.

The first thing I decided to do was to make a treat thinking that it would help make the transition from commercial RX food to homemade food a bit easier for him.  I found a recipe which included pumpkin and peanut butter and decided to give it a try.

Pumpkin Almond Butter Doggy Cookies!

This is the result, I modified the recipe to what I thought would be healthier for him.  The recipe I modified can be found here.  I replaced half the whole wheat flour with garbanzo bean flour, and used almond butter instead of peanut butter.  He loves the cookies, and I highly recommend this recipe if your furry buddy doesn't have any medical issues.  It was very easy working with this recipe.  But, I discovered that it is going to take some time for his little digestive system to adapt!  We'll have to do this gradually, slow but steady will be our mantra.

After making these cookies, as I was continuing my research on the proper diet for his medical issues, I found this site which is very helpful with a comprehensive list of the foods that are actually good for his problems.  It included a sample meal/diet to get me started.  Here's what mine looks like:

Homemade RX Dog Food

And this is the recipe I used:

1 lb. raw 90% lean ground beef

1 lb. raw ground turkey, with 7% fat 

3 oz. canned Mackerel (bones removed)
1 elephant garlic clove, finely diced

3 lg. eggs

2 oz. beef liver

4 oz. plain yogurt

4 oz. cottage cheese

15 oz. low-oxalate veg., 

(5 oz. broccoli, 5 oz. carrots, 5 oz. peas)  

This recipe made four 2.75 cup containers.  It should provide about ten days food for him at about 1/2 cup twice a day.  The approximate cost of the full recipe is around $12.00.  First I slowly cooked the beef liver, then processed it into a paste with the mackerel in the food processor.  Then I cooked the beef and turkey with garlic, and then added the liver and canned fish and mixed it well.  I put the eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese and vegetables in the food processor and processed them into, well, basically mush, then added the mixture to the cooled meat mixture.  I left out the 3 cups of cooked rice because of Ziggy's high squamous cell count.  Carbohydrates feed tumors, so of course, I wanted to avoid them.  A good rule of thumb to go by for dogs with cancer is 75% protein to 25% vegetables, and in this case I chose low oxalate vegetables because of his bladder stones.  In certain circles it is believed that dogs do not need grains to maintain good health as the natural diet of their ancestors generally consists of herbivores, which are vegetable feeding animals.  The vegetables and dairy in this recipe are low in oxalates, so they should be good for helping to clear up his bladder stones.

I then discovered that the cookies I made for him will have to be given sparingly, possibly fed to the big livestock guard dogs outside.  Ha, those little cookies may just fill one eye tooth for them!  Some of the ingredients I used are not that good for his bladder stones, the whole wheat flour and the almond butter, to be precise.  Of course, any treat should be given sparingly, in this instance, the carbohydrates of the rice flour should be limited.  This is the new recipe for his treats:

1 cup canned pumpkin (or mashed bananas) 

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1 large egg (or 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)

1 cup each of white rice flour and garbanzo bean flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/3 cup oats (old fashioned)

2-3 strips bacon, chopped
(or 1/4 cup of cranberries, apples, or shredded cheese)
Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees

I made two different versions of this recipe, and here they are:  

Pumpkin, Bacon, Cheddar Doggy Cookies!

Banana, Applesauce, Cranberry, Cheddar Biscuits!

This dough/batter is very sticky, and difficult to work with.  When I got to the second batch, the fruity one, I decided to just use a small scoop.  It worked well, but they are not crunchy, they're more like a chewy biscuit.  However, they're both a very big hit with the dogs!

I found, in addition to the homemade food information, a site that highly recommends a product claiming that it will shrink any tumor in your dog.  I had to order it because the testimonials were very convincing.  I will update this post in a couple months to report our progress.  While I'm very new at this homemade dog food concept, I'm encouraged by the amount of information I've found out there to point me in the right direction in order to keep my little furry buddy healthy and happy for as long as possible!

Carpe Diem! Lil and Bill