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I home cook for my dogs, so I am always watching for good bargains. Yesterday I found a 40 pound box of yams (sweet potatoes) at the restaurant supply for 50 cents a pound. Yahoo.
In November, I usually pick up a year's supply of yams. The best I did last year was 69 cents a pound and they were pretty scruffy. These ones I just bought are fat and perfect.
In October, I will be watching the sales and picking up 4-5 huge pumpkins.
The pumpkins and yams get steamed and then divided up into the right size packages and then into the freezer. They will get used all through the year to make dog food.
I'm driving to the valley next month and there is a store that usually has an excellent price for "juicing" carrots. I'll buy a couple of 20 pound bags of those. I'll buy meat and fish for the dogs if there are any bargain deals.
Meat usually comes from the restaurart supply store in 20-25 pound chunks. I used to cook whole and chop, but that is a lot of work, so I bought a grinder and grind the meat. It cooks faster, is easier to prepare, and easier to feed.
The dogs get a lot of pork. It's lean and costs half the price of the beef. But I spend some big money to buy them fish fillets so that they get some fish in their diet. Not only is it expensive, but it cooks down to nothing. There is lot of shrinkage. Still, I want them to have fish, so I pay for it.
Wyatt McRiot is a real foodie and, unfortunately for Wyatt, he is an air fern. So, I am thinking extra pumpkin this year to bulk up the food without adding a lot of calories. Maybe add pumpkin to every batch instead of just every 4th batch.
Thanks for the ideas, I've been thinking about cooking for my GSD who has allergies and itches from many brands of even high quality dog food. I never thought of yams and pumpkin! Or a resturant supply!! Can you say, 'duh!?'
I raw feed prey model, so I always keep an eye on every grocery store for good sales on any meat or organs, I buy up managers special chicken liver because not only is it goo for feeding raw but dehydrated it mkesgreat training treats too!!!
this tie of year im also constantly scouring processors for offcuts the hunters didn't want form their kills.
I've always cooked for the dogs just because I have always been farming to some degree or another and had stuff to feed to the dogs.
However, I had a GSD with a brain tumor that had a bad reaction to commercial food. I think the reaction was to added color. Then I've had 2 different senior citizens who got confused (like Alzheimer's) if they got any wheat. The huge advantage of home cooked is that you have total control over what the dog is getting to eat. That makes it valuable for dogs with any sort of dietary allergies or sensitivities.
Up until 3 years ago, my dogs also got some top quality kibble, but that has been stopped because of too many recalls of contaminated and dangerous dog food. Everything my dogs eat could go onto the human table. We don't happen to like goose livers, but the goose livers are 100% safe to eat. I know because I raised them myself and butchered the geese myself.
Dog food companies don't even have to change the label as soon as they change the ingredients. They don't have to list the country of origin of ingredients. So, sorry, big manufacturers, I no longer trust you to keep my dogs safe.
I know exactly what my dogs are eating and where it came from. That's because I bought or raised all of it and I cooked it myself.
I home cook for my dogs, so I am always watching for good bargains. Yesterday I found a 40 pound box of yams (sweet potatoes) at the restaurant supply for 50 cents a pound. Yahoo.
In November, I usually pick up a year's supply of yams. The best I did last year was 69 cents a pound and they were pretty scruffy. These ones I just bought are fat and perfect.
In October, I will be watching the sales and picking up 4-5 huge pumpkins.
The pumpkins and yams get steamed and then divided up into the right size packages and then into the freezer. They will get used all through the year to make dog food.
I'm driving to the valley next month and there is a store that usually has an excellent price for "juicing" carrots. I'll buy a couple of 20 pound bags of those. I'll buy meat and fish for the dogs if there are any bargain deals.
Meat usually comes from the restaurart supply store in 20-25 pound chunks. I used to cook whole and chop, but that is a lot of work, so I bought a grinder and grind the meat. It cooks faster, is easier to prepare, and easier to feed.
The dogs get a lot of pork. It's lean and costs half the price of the beef. But I spend some big money to buy them fish fillets so that they get some fish in their diet. Not only is it expensive, but it cooks down to nothing. There is lot of shrinkage. Still, I want them to have fish, so I pay for it.
Wyatt McRiot is a real foodie and, unfortunately for Wyatt, he is an air fern. So, I am thinking extra pumpkin this year to bulk up the food without adding a lot of calories. Maybe add pumpkin to every batch instead of just every 4th batch.
This was my life until about a year ago. I will never regret the time, effort and money we put into feeding the dogs a big variety of very good fresh foods. It was just so hard to find variety after the move to KC, though. For a meat packing town, you'd think it wouldn't be a problem, but it was terrible. And everything was so much more costly than I paid in Chicago.
Pork turned out to be the one protein source that did in Jimmy's stomach. It's harder to digest than lamb, chicken or fish, so I had to quit feeding it.
About a year before we lost Jimmy and Hallie, I was spending a crazy amount of time preparing large batches, hunting for sales, and cleaning up the kitchen after preparing their food, and I announced that J & H were the last two dogs I would ever feed raw or cook for. There are so many better dry foods available now than there were when I began raw feeding in 2000, so we feed one of those, and we pay $150 a month for their food, about $50 less per month than before.
There are things I miss: the small poops come to mind first! Small -- and very little stink! Sorry if that's TMI, but those really are benefits of raw feeding! I applaud you for going to such lengths, Oregon!
There are things I miss: the small poops come to mind first! Small -- and very little stink! Sorry if that's TMI, but those really are benefits of raw feeding! I applaud you for going to such lengths, Oregon!
I love this benift also...esp since mine are litterbox trained LOL
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