You're a good egg

The humble egg is one of the easiest and cheapest proteins you can feed to your dog. They are the original whole food as they contain all the nutrients that are needed for the growth of a new chicken.  The egg itself is a perfect protein, the most digestible of all the animal proteins and of course completely unprocessed. Even the shell is good to feed as it contains calcium - they can be ground up in a coffee grinder and sprinkled onto food.

You can feed them whole to include the shell or broken raw over some crushed vegetables or meat or you can feed them lightly cooked. 

Eggs are especially good for growing pups and nursing mums and if your dog suffers from skin problems, then egg yolks can be particularly beneficial.

Good old eggs.

A sense of proportion

Getting the basic proportions right is key to a homemade diet. With dogs it's all about the protein - think Atkins!

It should really break down like this:

60 - 70% protein including:
Red meat
Poultry
Oily fish like mackerel, salmon and sardines
Dairy including cottage cheese and yogurt
Eggs

(Plant based proteins such as corn,oats and beans are much less digestible - in fact only about half as digestible as animal proteins)

The protein can be fed raw or cooked - there is much debate that raw is better but I think even cooked it's still going to be much better than commercial dog food.

15 - 25% vegetables and fruit including:
Courgettes
Cauliflower
Spinach
Sweet Potato
Squash
Carrots
Cabbage 
Kale
Broccoli
Pears
Apples
And just about any other regular vegetable or fruit you can think of - no onions or grapes though as they can be toxic.

The fruit and veg needs to be made digestible by either cooking or crushing it raw in a juicer.

5 - 10% organ meat including:
Lambs liver and kidneys
Beef liver and kidneys
Chicken liver and kidneys
Heart
Tripe

Again they can be raw or cooked.

If you are itching to add carbohydrates like rice and pasta keep it to an absolute minimum - no more than about 10% of the overall meal. Dogs really don't need these carbohydrates and no canine ancestor has ever been known to eat them.


Add Calcium

The easiest way of doing that is to feed raw bones. Otherwise use ground up egg shells sprinkled onto the food.

Ultimately variety is the key to a homemade diet - keep mixing it up with different proteins and vegetables but stay with the same basic proportions.

By the way, commercial dry dog food is normally around 45 - 75% carbohydrate. On the next blog I'll explain why.

Ruben the little porcupine

I think cottage cheese is a great occasional meal for dogs especially if they are recovering from an illness. Cottage cheese contains amino acids which are excellent for healing wounds and building muscle and it's also high in protein and easily digested. For all those reasons it's really good to feed to doggies that are pregnant or feeding their puppies and for dogs that work or exercise really hard (not Ruben obviously).

I feed the full fat version as the low fat one can sometimes have a higher sodium level which isn't good. Don't buy one with chives or other bits in - that's just plain silly.

Unfortunately Ruben has always suffered with his back so he regularly has acupuncture and yesterday Alistair Greenway, his acupuncture vet, paid us a visit. Ruben is extremely relaxed when he has the treatment, in fact we always laugh that he seems to go into some kind of meditative trance even before a needle goes in. Ruben also rather sweetly gives Alistair a kiss at the end of the treatment to thank him, bless him!

You can find out more about all the amazing work Alistair does at:
www.acupuncture-vet.co.uk

Give the dog a bone

Not the prettiest picture I know but the truth is they are one of the most nutritional things you can ever give your dog.

A generation ago it was perfectly normal to go the butcher and get bones for your dogs.  Now we give our dogs bone shaped biscuits, bone shaped toys and bone shaped treats but draw the line at giving them the real thing. Once you've seen your dog gnawing on a bone you know it's what they're supposed to eat. There are so many health giving benefits to feeding bones in terms of nutrition (including protein, fatty acids, anti-oxidants and enzymes) but they are also nature's toothbrush.

Main rule never to be broken - only ever feed them raw.

Cooked bones can be brittle and splinter and can be dangerous.

So go and make friends with a butcher today, they normally give bones away for free or certainly for very little. Beef bones are a great introduction if you're new to the whole raw feeding frenzy. Ask nicely and they will chop them up for you with their special big cleaver if your dog is only small.

All that goodness for just a few pennies. Think of all the money you'll save on those processed dental sticks in the supermarket. It's funny you know, I've never seen a wolf eat a detastix.........