Dr. Becker's Cookbook is the most Scientific and an in depth book I have seen in the 3 months of research into dog cookbooks, to date. This is not so much a recipe book, it is more of a clinical analysis of how much and of what to give and how important which vitamins and minerals are and in what proportions and where to find them. This book is very important because it stresses the fact that your dog will not survive on meat and rice, and that the dog's body, is a complex mechanism that needs specific nutrition to support optimal functioning and vitality. This is the book I go to when I am adding vitamins and bone-meal and DHA, and so on to my dogs food, and what are the sources of some of those nutrients. Sadly, I have not come across a book, yet, which tells me specifically what to feed the dog and which vitamins and minerals to add and how much, and what supplements to work with and when. I will keep everyone updated once that miracle book shows up. |
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Biggest issue is that Elk is so lean that it was so hard to stir and mix. Next issue, its a new type of meat Athos has never had, he was very finicky towards it for about a week, but after I started giving them as treats he happily eats up to 10 pieces from my hand.
Recipe: 2 lbs Elk 2 Eggs 1/2 cup shredded cheese 1/2 bag frozen peas 1/3 bag frozen blue berries 1/3 bag brown rice 1 tbsp flex seed 1/4 tsp egg shell powder 2 tbsp organic apple sauce 1/4 cup low-no sodium stock Add stock to skillet and use two spatulas or two forks to try to break the Elk apart and stir. Steam the peas, blue berries, rice, do not blend. In a large bowl add mostly cooked or cooked Elk, add eggs, egg shell powder, apple sauce, flex seed and cheese and stir well. Transfer all to large baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes to remove as much moisture as possible. depending on your oven you may have to take the sheets out and with a knife, cut the meat vertical and horizontal to form squares and move the squares apart a little to help dry out the moisture more. You may need to put the food back in the oven to continue removing the moisture. In the end, I kept mine in the oven for so long they look like treats and Athos would only eat these as treats, and he refused them when placed in his bowl and left out all day. **Afterthought, I started looking into vitamins and minerals in Vet written cook books, because this food was good but for long term cooking, the dog requires a sensitive plan that balances the proportions of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrition which becomes very dangerous for your dog if not provided and included in your dogs diet and may cause serious harm, such as degeneration of bones, ligaments, muscle tissue. Rule of thumb is that not every meal needs to be nutritionally sufficient and perfectly balanced but overall your dog should receive all that his little body requires to function well and for a long - long - super-long time. The best book that made me aware of how scientific you have to get with nutrition is, Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats by Beth Taylor and that's why we scheduled our first appointment with a Vet specializing in dog nutrition to make sure we are not harming our boy. The first emergency meal made the day we decided to pitch the prescription food, which Athos was on for his allergies (inflammation and redness of the eye and around the eye and cheek area).
Recipe: 2lb Ground Beef 2lb Ground Pork 3 Eggs 1/3 small bag Steamed Peas 1/4 small bag Steamed Carrots 1/4 small bag Steamed Broccoli 1/4 small bag Steamed Cauliflower 1/4 small bag Steamed Green Beans 1/3 small bag Frozen Blue Berries 1/3 small steamed bag of brown rice Two-Three Tblp of Organic Apple Sauce 1/2 Ground Egg Shell for Calcium (ground fine in a clean coffee grinder or hand ground to powder in a mortar) Chicken Stock - low to No sodium 1/2 Microwaved Sweet potato 1 tsp Flex Seed (for fiber and for firm stool) First and foremost, Salt is poison for dogs. So the first batch I threw away because I didn't know that. Unless you have doggy Cod oil or Salmon oil, do not use butter (which I'm guilty of using in the first batch) instead i use stock with low sodium or no sodium. Start out with a large splash of chicken stock in the skillet with which to cook the ground beef and pork. While the meats are being sauteed, steam all the veggies and fruit (I bought steamer bags in the frozen isle) and add all the remaining ingredients (save the eggs and egg shells for the end) into a blender, food processor or into a pot using a handheld food puree tool or masher and blend/mash all the veggies and fruit (I do this because I have to trick my Angel to eat his fruits and veggies). Now you have cooked ground beef and pork and a puree/mash, add the puree/mash to the ground beef and pork with 3 eggs and sprinkle the powdered egg shell (1/4 tsp) and Flex Seed about 1 tbl spoon. Mix Well and place in an oven safe glass dish, 1/2 inch to 1 inch, a baking dish, or baking sheet, at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or so to remove moisture for all those pups who don't eat mushy food and prefer dryer and or harder food. Store in a glass container if available. I fed my 17 lbs dog 1/2 -1 cup per day, since this recipe is mostly protein the doggys get full with less protein than they would on the mostly carb diet, which commercial dog food contains. This recipe lasted almost 2 weeks, until I found out that dogs need variety and I started keeping a few different types of meals in the fridge. ***Afterthought, dog specific bone-meal is the best option for calcium because it provides a more balanced calcium to phosphorous proportions your dogs diet requires to obtain a perfectly functioning organism and egg shells are deficient in that they do not contain phosphorous. |
HOME COOKING FOR OUR DOG, THE SHIH TZU, ATHOSCategories
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Tatyana, Alexander and AthosWe are proud parents of a baby boy, named Athos, who is our one-and-only fur baby, born June 3, 2009. For one terrible year we suffered with our fur baby's allergy inflammation around the eye and the cheek area. The vets ran tests, and prescribed steroids and benadryl which managed the allergy and inflammation but after a month the issue always returned and we were back at the vets for more pills. Finally, after 8 months of suffering and vet visits the vet prescribed prescription food and for 6 months we saw no allergies. Around August 2015 the inflammation came back and we were devastated. We decided to not pump our pup of pills and to not have him be poked and prodded at the vets, so instead we found a website (Healthypets.mercola.com by Dr. Becker) that convinced us that cooking meals for our baby at home is ideal and comes with many advantages such as increased vitality and stamina, decrease of allergies and other negative health issues, and most important helps prolong life. Good News, within 2 days of feeding home-cooked meals to our shih tzu, all allergy signs are gone and our love bug has more energy and vigor, and we couldn't be happier and will continue to create Home Cooked meals for our baby boy for ever and ever. Archives |