From Kibble To Home Made Meals Is Easy

If you have decided that you are ready to start cooking for your dog there are a few things to consider. First off, would you like to cook meals every day so that they are served fresh and warm? Or would you like to cook in mass bulk so that you can freeze the dogs food for later use?

Cooking every day for yourself and your family can be time consuming, let alone adding another loved one to cook for. So if you find it easier, you can always cook in mass bulk and freeze your dogs meals in zip lock bags. It can also get expensive to cook for your dogs every day. So another alternative is to cook for your dogs on occasion or rotate between kibble one day and home made cooked meals on opposite days. We cook for our dogs 4 days a week and the other 3 days they eat their kibble. Its a nice treat for them to get something different every day and by alternating every other day with kibble you don't have to cook as often. Another thing to consider is that every dog is different when it comes to eating home made cooked meals. Some dogs may prefer a puree texture type of meal others may prefer a more chunky meal. You may have to experiment with different ways of preparing and combining ingredients to find out what works best for your dogs. My dogs prefer their meat in little chunks, yet I always puree most fruit and finely dice or grate the vegetables for them to add a little bit of crunchy texture. Its also important to start off very simple with preparing a home made cooked meal for your dog.

Transitioning from kibble to home made cooked meals can upset a dogs stomach if you use too many new ingredients especially when a new diet is introduced, so its important to start off with a few simple ingredients. There are six categories of essential nutrients for your pets when preparing their meals. Water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Most premium kibble brands include all six, it is very important to make sure you feed your pets a diet that include all six nutrients. Home made fresh meals can also be added to kibble and many of the recipes I use are suitable for dogs on a raw diet. Transitioning recipes are highly palatable and I use ingredients that are easily digested by most dogs. They are easy to prepare because they only use a few ingredients. So if your ready to start cooking for your dog, I have listed a few transitioning recipes that you can introduce to your dog. Most of the transition recipes I have included use the exact same ingredients you will find in most premium kibble dog foods. These recipes are not meant for long term diet, they are simple recipes to use if you would like to transition from kibble to home made meals, or if you would just like to combine these transition recipes with their existing diet of kibble or raw. If you decide to cook for your dogs 100% of the time it is important to ensure you are always preparing them a complete and balanced diet which you will find in many of my other recipes. These recipes I have included below are for Transition only or as fresh mixed meals with kibble or to add to a raw diet. These recipes are meant to help transition your dogs diet from Kibble to home made meals.

When you take a look at the content of ingredients in commercial dogs foods the starch usually comes from cereal ingredients such as corn, rice or wheat, or gluten. When I cook for my dogs I try to use all organic ingredients and gluten free only because our dogs are sensitive to corn, soy wheat and gluten. Its also important to never over cook any meat for your dogs as it will destroy all the natural nutrients in the meat.

Most kibble brands generally use Chicken as the primary source of protein along with poultry fat and vegetable oils which supply the essential fatty acids in kibble. Its fairly easy to mimic commercial dry diets by using similar ingredients and targeting similar nutrient content. Yet the nice thing about cooking for your dogs is that you know exactly what is going into your dogs diet and the ingredients are all fresh. Transition Recipe 540 Grams of Chicken Breast Poached 1 Tsp of Cod Liver Oil 3 1/2 Cups of Brown Cooked Rice (Gluten Free) 3 Tsp of Safflower Oil Poach chicken until tender, never over cook meat. Cook rice as per packaging, do not over cook rice. Dice up chicken and add to rice, stir in cod liver oil and safflower oil and serve.

Transition Recipe 650 Grams of Ground Beef Cooked 1 Tsp Cod Liver Oil 3 Cups of White Rice (Gluten Free) 1 Tsp Safflower Oil Cook beef until its brown on the outside but still pink on the inside. Cook rice as per packaging. Mix in bowl rice and ground beef and add in cod liver oil and safflower oil and serve!

Transition Recipe 1 Tsp Cod Liver Oil 5 Large Eggs Hard Boiled 3 1/2 Cups of Oatmeal Cooked No sugar added Hard boil eggs, discard shell and mash eggs up coarsely. Prepare the oatmeal as per packaging. Stir the cod liver oil into the oatmeal, add eggs and serve.

Transition Recipe 530 Grams Cod Atlantic Poached 1 Tsp Cod Liver Oil 3 Cups Brown Rice Cooked 4 Tsp Safflower Oil Poach cod and cook rice as per packaging. Mix together the cod rice and add cod liver oil and safflower oil and serve. I hope your dogs enjoy these meals as much as mine do!