Real Food for Your Dog

I have checked the prices of dog food at every store around.  The long and short of it is that dog food is expensive.  Even the "cheap" dog food is expensive.  I have done quite a bit of research on dog food and ingredients and it seems that most, if not all of it, has inferior ingredients in it.  Which only makes sense - ingredients that can be sold as human food bring more money so dog food gets the left overs - and you don't want to know what the commercial food industry considers left overs.  My dogs current diet consists of kibble and raw eggs.  They devour the egg and the kibbles that are covered in egg.  Then they leave the remainder of the kibble and will push it around with their noses.  They will only eat the kibble when they are sure that is the only option.  I thought that perhaps it was the Brand X dog food so I switched to Brand Y.  Same story.

What pushed me over the edge with commercial dog food?  Sadie, my two year old Border Collie - Australian Shepherd mix has been having ear problems.  She scratches and scratches and then whimpers.  It is so sad.  The first time this happened was in December.  I took her to the vet and he ran tests.  She had a yeast infection in her ears.  He gave us medicine and an ear wash to treat Sadie with for 10 days.  He also gave us a warning that if the yeast infection reared it's ugly head again we were most likely looking at a food allergy, probably to wheat.  $127 later we walked out of the vets.  We diligently followed the vet's 10 day schedule for medicine and ear wash.  Sadie started feeling better.  But then in February - the same thing.  We had enough of the medicine and ear wash left to treat this round of yeast infection.  I got to thinking about an earlier visit to the vet when he said that  Sadie had "hot spots".  After additional research, yeast infections on the skin are fairly common in dogs and could be the cause of the "hot spots".

My Beautiful Miss Sadie

So, why would I keep treating Sadie's problem rather than looking for a solution to the problem?  The simple answer is I am not going to treat the problem anymore.  I came to a solution after discussing the issue with my mom.  She had also noticed the rising cost of dog food and had decided to make her own.  Now why hadn't I thought of that?  I make all kinds of things instead of buying the commercial products - I really try to use real food as much as possible - but it had never occurred to me to make dog food.  I will be making dog food for Sadie and Stella.  This will allow me to know the ingredients in their food and thus I can manipulate the recipes to help with Sadie's yeast problems. 

My mom has been cooking a batch of dog food each weekend.  To gather the ingredients she places a container in the freezer and during the week any vegetable cuttings, meat scraps, left overs that are not consumed are added to the container (Please note:  These leftovers are not highly processed foods - they are made from scratch meals).  Then over the weekend she adds all of these ingredients to a dutch oven with the drippings from a roast she just cooked left in it.  She also adds frozen zucchini, eggs and rice or another starch and cooks.  Once the mixture cools it is placed in a large container in the fridge.  Each day the dogs get a scoop of this food along with their kibble (she is using up the kibble that she has on hand) and some cut up cow liver.  My dad reports that the dogs love it!  I am going to prepare my dog food very similarly except in my crock pot.  (I love my crock pot!)  I will use extra frozen vegetables from my garden last summer, extra fresh vegetables, extra eggs from hens, yogurt and beef.  Jerry is butchering right now and I asked that he save all the bones so I can boil the meat off of them for the dog food not to mention the fabulous beef broth.  I am going to use rolled oats as my grain ingredient.  My goal will be to stick within the general diet of 40% meat, 30% vegetables and 30% grains. I am so excited to start! 

If you are interested in learning more about making your own dog food, I would highly recommend the following posts on The Collie Farm Blog.  I felt that they really provided useful information for me in making my decision to make dog food.

Dog Food
More Thoughts on Homemade Dog Food

So, do you make your own dog food?  If so, I would love to hear your recipe/process.

I am sharing this post at:
 Homestead Barn Hop
The Country Homemaker Hop 
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways 

Making Instead of Buying

One of my goals for 2012 is to buy less and make more when it comes to gifts.  Since this is an "in between time" on the farm I took the opportunity to start making.  I have a friend who is going to have a baby in September, so I am guessing the baby shower will be sometime in the summer when I am so busy that I don't have a minute for an extra breath.  I decided to make a baby quilt.  Nothing like jumping in head first right?  My sewing experience consists of a homec (is that spelled right?) class in the 8th grade and some botched attempts at mending holes in Jerry's jeans.  And let me tell you, watching him trying to get in the jeans that I sewed a leg closed on was really quite entertaining.... for me!

I decided to go with "Americana" colors for the baby quilt since it is too early to know blue or pink.  Plus, I am really into the Americana colors right now and I had fabric that my wonderful mother had given me that fit the theme.  Rather than doing small squares, my mom recommended going with longer strips to cut down on sewing time.  (I am really glad I listened to her because I thought there was a lot of sew time with the strips - can't imagine sewing little squares together.)  I used the side panel of a Cheerios box as a template for my strips.  Here they are cut out and laying on the bar.

The Strips

Here are the strips sewed together in rows.

First Round of Sewing

 Next the rows of strips are sewn together and now the top of the quilt is complete.

Second Round of Sewing

I chose to use fleece as the batting for the quilt.  I cut a piece out of a blanket I had on hand to match the size of the top of the quilt.  Then I placed the piece of fabric I was using for the backing, the fleece and the top piece together.  The top piece and the backing were placed with the "front" side towards the fleece and then I pinned them all together (this was probably the most challenging part in my opinion).  Here is the quilt laid out with the layers in preparation for the final sewing.

Almost Ready for Final Sewing

Then I finally sewed around the edges and left a space about 8 inches un-sewn along one side which is used to reach in and pull the front side of the quilt out.  Then the 8 inch gap is sewn closed using a needle and thread rather than the sewing machine.  This is how the lovely quilt turned out.

Third and Final Round of Sewing

And that is it - well almost.  I still have to tie the quilt.  But really this only took me about 6 hours from start to finish.  It was a wonderful experience and has made me realize that sewing is really not that difficult.  I know it isn't the pretties quilt in the world but I will be very happy to present it to my friend for her baby.  For those of you who are intimidated by sewing, give it a shot!  If I can do it anyone can.

This post is linked up with the Homestead Barn Hop and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.