Home made pet food

The recent pet food scare got worse this last week with more pet products being added to the list of possibility contaminated products. In response, the pet food manufacturers not affected by the Menu Foods recall have created a Pet Food List to assist in identifying which products are are not affected by the recall.

An alternative seeing a recent growth in popularity, is home made pet food. A number of sites have begun posting simple but healthful recipes. Dogs can be healthy and happy with something as simple as chicken and rice. In addition dogs need additional carbohydrate which can be supplied by adding oats to the food. Certain ingredients such as onions, garlic, grapes, and chocolate should be avoided as they can be dangerous to dogs. The simplest recipe I've found for a dog is

Home Made Simple Dog Food Recipe #1
Basic Chicken, Rice, and Oats
- One whole boiled cooked chicken (don't feed the dog the entire chicken. Just the meat.)
- Half Bag wild brown rice cooked in with the chicken
- One Cup of Oats

Which was found here. This link also includes a cat food recipe and recipes for pet treats. Here is another.

Dog Food Recipe #2 - Slightly More Complicated but Still Simple
What You Need: One Pound Lean Ground Beef, Four large eggs, Eight cups brown rice, Twelve slices of decrusted, crumbled bread (white or wheat)
How to Make It:
- Fully Cook the ground beef
- Drain the Grease from the pan
- Boil the eggs, discard the yellows, and crumble the whites into the beef mix
- Boil rice in unsalted water until tender. Let cool.
- Add rice to beef and egg mixture. Add crumbled white bread to mixture.
- Serve when cool

A number of recipe books are also available such as The Good Food Cookbook for Dogs by Donna Twichell Roberts, reviewed here.