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It's yam time of year. Yams are a good addition to homemade dog food.
I just bought two 40 pound boxes of the dark red yams. $26 per box, 65 cents a pound. In the past I've bought the big boxes for 40 cents a pound, so I'll keep an eye open for sales. ( the dark red ones cost more than the pale variety)
Today was yam day. Wash the exterior of the yams. Place them into a roasting pan. Add a small amount of water to the bottom of the pan. Bake 350 degrees until tender, about 1 hour.
Cool, bag in zipper freezer bags, and freeze for later use. The dogs eat the skin so no need to do anything but wash them.
Some of the yams have pointy ends. After they are cooked and soft, push those points down so that they don't puncture the plastic freezer bags.
The water in the pan is to make cleanup easier. Pour the cooking water into the bag with the cooked yams and add it to your dog food.
All year long, I will add those yams to meat for the dogs. It gets alternated with the pumpkin I already have in the freezer. Both are cooked, so I can cook a roasting pan of meat take it out of the oven and set a block of yam or pumpkin on top of it to thaw from the cooking heat.
There will be some other veggie cooked with the meat: green beans, carrots, zuchinni, fruit. Some times brown rice, barley, quinoa, or oats are cooked with the meat. I like to vary the recipe.
I broke down the pumpkin from Halloween for the dogs. Steve "what are you trying to feed me now?" Dante: "I want more!!"
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OP, you are very ambitious and serious about this. Lucky dog/s you have.
My dog loves yams too and eats the skin. I have never done anything on your scale though. I have nuked a yam, scooped the insides out, and mashed it to make dog treats. I'll mix the yam with nut flour and bake "cookies" on a cookie sheet. Those will be his treats.
Yours is a great idea. Roasting the yams and saving them in the freezer. I hope to do this. Nothing like keeping our best friends healthy.
. . . Nothing like keeping our best friends healthy.
Yup. Also, probably cheaper than mid to better quality commercial dog foods. Depends on the price of the meat.
Oregon, I like your technique. Since I've been home-cooking dog food for several years already, I'm right in tune with what you're doing. I've been doing it up stew-style: everything ends in one pot, then ladled to freezer containers.
But my method has given me occasional problems with some sort of fermentation when I don't do it just right. It's a bit odd, as nothing that goes in there would give me any problems cooked individually in the same way, and I follow good kitchen/prep sanitation. So I was thinking about just freezing them separately anyway, and guess what! Here you post what you do - separate cooking!
Love the stories, everybody! Good grins to start my day!
......... I have never done anything on your scale though. I have nuked a yam, scooped the insides out, and mashed it to make dog treats. I'll mix the yam with nut flour and bake "cookies" on a cookie sheet. Those will be his treats..........
The buying in bulk depends a lot upon the size of the dog you are feeding. I've got a big high powered dog with a metabolism that runs like a freight train. She eats a lot in order to keep her ribs covered.
I want my dogs to have the best food so I am always looking for good food at bargain prices so the bottomless pit that is Pensive won't bankrupt my family.
I've got a 6 pound Papillon and if I paid $1.60 a pound for one large yam, it would last her for two months. That yam wouldn't be a drop in the bucket for Pensive. Pensive gets the 40 pound box of yams for 60 cents a pound.
There is also the issue of time to cook. I like to put a day in and end up with enough dog food in the freezer so I don't have to cook dog food again for 6 weeks.
This yam and pumpkin thing I am doing right now, preparing and freezing in bulk is because this is the time of year that yams and pumpkins are available at their lowest price. Yams, I can get all year if I want to pay for them, but this is the only time of year to get fresh pumpkins.
Great idea about buyimg yams and baking & freezing. It's embarrassing that I've never thought of it. Our dogs love canned pumpkin & I buy organic by the case.
. . . but this is the only time of year to get fresh pumpkins.
Oddly, even tho I'm in the middle of an area with lots of farms growing pumpkins - they still are not cheap.
Maybe I should look more carefully - freezing them is an idea.
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