Home Cooked Diet for Canines

Background

• Before the advent of commercial dog meal, the food of choice for generations of pet owners was table scraps, meat or offal. This changed around 1860 when an American lightning-rod manufacturer named James Spratt traveled to England by boat, and noticed local dockyard dogs scavenging for discarded ship's biscuits. An idea was born, and soon afterward he produced the first commercially produced dog meal.

Home Cooking vs. BARF

• Home cooking is a different feeding regime to that advocated by Dr.Ian Billinghurst; he advocated the biologically appropriate raw food (BARF) diet. The philosophy behind BARF is that the diet a dog evolved to eat over many millions of years, and comprising raw food, is the best way to feed today. BARF feeders would not consider cooking their dog's food.

  By comparison home cooking enthusiasts prefer to cook meals that more resemble those that they would eat themselves.

Foods to Include

• Ron Hines DVM PhD advises that an acceptable home cooked dog food contains around 20 to 45 percent protein, five to 10 percent fat and 20 to 35 percent carbohydrate, with the addition of bone minerals. Suitable protein can be found in meat and offal, fish and eggs. Vegetables include the normal roots, leaves and legumes that are available locally. Rice is the first choice for cereal but oats, millet and barley are also acceptable.

Foods to Avoid

• There are some human foods which should be avoided in home cooking for a dog. Some may cause digestive upset or worse. Among foods to avoid are chocolate, baby food, milk and dairy products, grapes and raisins, caffeinated drinks, cooked fish or poultry bones, onions, mushrooms, salt, sugar and yeast dough.

Caution

• Dr. Andrea Fascetti cautions pet owners to remember that their dogs and cats are not humans and therefore have different nutritional requirements. Feeding them a human diet might lead to health problems such as pancreatitis if fat levels are too high. She advises consulting a veterinarian, and getting recipes that have been evaluated and formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.

  The Pet Food Report advises that too much calcium can result in growth problems, particularly for puppies. It also points out that formulating diets for different ages, breeds, size and levels of activity can also complicate matters. The American College of Veterinary Nutritionists warn that many recipes found on the web or elsewhere may not be complete and balanced, leading to the possibility of health problems in the longer-term.