Crockpot dog food?

[YadaYadaYada]

Hi folks,

This video popped up on my FB today about making dog food in the crockpot. I have to admit, I like this idea because we have four dogs so we go through food fast.

Any opinions about this? I guess I'm a bit apprehensive since our dogs have always eaten commercial dry dog food.

http://damndelicious.net/2015/05/13/easy-crockpot-dog-food/?m

 

[Arcadian]

Yep, I do it sometimes. I make what amounts to a gruel (bones, stock, sometimes meat and veggies) Lucky eats mostly a raw diet, so sometimes I supplement her diet with this stuff especially since she's a very active dog. Should NOT hurt your dog if cooked so long the bones desintergrate on contact. Just be careful not to give too much at a time.

Lots of people add green beans. You can cook green beans or other dog safe vegetables for 4-5 hours in chicken or beef stock (reduced sodium)

helps to keep them feeling full longer when used as an add in.

Rice and ground beef (super over cooked always add twice as much water for rice as it calls for) is great for dogs who might have stomach issues. When she's had issues (be it from her getting ahold of something outside usually...lol) and has a bit of diarrhea, I give her this to give her tummy a break.

She also eats oatmeal (she likes mommy's oatmeal) a bit of banana, cranberries, cinnamon...lol yeah she loves it. I give her a tablespoon every morning with 1/3 cup milk. She also eats kefir and yogurt.

You have to decide and see what your dog can or can't handle. I say give it a shot, it certainly can't hurt.

I make food rolls for her since she goes to daycare. those are a pain in the rear but they do help me not have to think about how they're feeding her when she's not home.

 

[Rockinruby]

Our vet just pulled my dog off of a cooked food diet. (Doggy is doing better now, but was on it for most of last year) I enjoyed cooking for the dog(s) and do plan to continue keeping it in their diet as a bonus meal occaisionally. I think the most important thing I learned about these diets is that you almost always need a calcium supplement. We did a baseline blood work test and monitored our dog to be sure there were no dangerous deficiencies. Our holistic vet had us add calcium citrate to each batch of food. (We also used yin/yang or warm/cool foods for specific issues so while one dog might get orange zest added, another might get turmeric). I read up about it a lot and think it was a good alternative for our dog(s). (I don't feed raw foods currently because our therapy organization doesn't allow it.) The other thing that was important for my breed is to avoid feeding too many gassy veggies. Beans in particular. Our breed is prone to bloat so the vet didn't feel it was safe so we had to adjust the recipes. I think I paid the vet $95 to design some cooked recipes specific to our dog's issues. It was well worth the cost. Plus I won't chance doing something drastic without veterinary supervision. I would never forgive myself if I inadvertently harmed one of our animals.

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/is...Dog-Food-Nutritional-Information_20568-1.html

 

[momhappy]

At first glance, it sounded sort of gross for some reason, but when I thought about it for a minute, it's actually not a bad idea because it allows you to make larger amounts of food pretty easily. I'd say it's worth a try if you are wanting to get away from standard dry dog foods.