When we lost our pit-bull due to a genetic defect brought on by inbreeding, we decided that we needed to be more careful with the next dog we adopted into our family. My wife and daughter located Winston at an animal shelter. He had been abused in a former life and we knew that he would require a lot of attention to get him back to normal. He didn’t want anyone to touch him at first, and it took a lot of reassurance to get him to accept everyone in the family.
We had read several articles on the Internet about the correct diet for dogs, and we wanted to make sure that he would remain healthy. Then we found some other articles that told us some things about a dog’s diet that were disturbing. Despite the exaggerated claims by almost every dog food company, the reality was somewhat different. Some brands of dog food were actually damaging to a dog’s health, and others were unappetizing. My wife decided that she would fix Winston’s formula by selecting a variety of foods that dogs normally like and were nutritious. Here is my wife’s recipe. It isn’t hard to make and one preparation will last for a full week in the refrigerator for a 40 lb dog.
2 & 1/2 pounds of chicken
1 14oz can of English Peas
6 large carrots cut in thin slices
2 large baking potatoes
6 hard-boiled eggs
To prepare the food, stew the chicken until it is well done, then remove from the bone, making sure that no bone fragments remain. Reserve one half cup of broth. Cut the potatoes into small cubes and put into a cooking pot. Cut the carrots into small coins and add them along with a 14oz can of English Peas. Cook the vegetables together as if you were making stew. Drain off any liquid that remains. Slice the eggs into small pieces and add to the vegetables. Gently stir the chicken into the mixture and add some of the broth from the chicken, but don’t stir it into a paste. You dog probably won’t like it that way. Place the food in a bowl with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate until the follow day to allow the flavors to meld. Your dog probably won’t eat it if you skip this step.
Your dog is going to like this, but carefully label the container because your kids are likely to eat it if they get a chance. I hope this works for your dog. Leave a comment below if it works for you.
Anyway, I fed him the geriatric food and he stayed very trim, lively, and healthy, tearing out of the house and around it to chase birds and cats at lightning speed that straight into the yard back. As a result I never had to clip his toenails because he wore a path in the grass. I never fed him any treats except his daily milk bone for his teeth. I mowed the yard in those days and his little poop was so dry it fertilized the lawn nicely but never got on my shoes or my bare feet. He was very strong and survived a three pit bull attack (two weeks to recover) a big lab mix attack (one week to recover), but died when the big lab mix was running loose and caught him again. I could've saved him with emergency surgery, but he died about eight hours later from blood loss. So strong to have survived the initial attack at about ten years old. Wrote about it here in my story Jazz's Death.
I learned a long time ago when you pour the juice off of cooked vegetables or peel them you are throwing away valuable vitamins and minerals. My mother was really good at doing that. She has diabetes. I do not and will not get it.
Ron