Almost Free, Nutritious, Homemde Pet Food

My dogs are truly spoilt!
Oh, not in a bad way - I don't allow disobedience, rudeness, whining, etc. I am the Alpha Bitch here and that is that - more in the, "these dogs are living the life", sort of way.

This fact was brought home to me anew this afternoon, as I was working on stuff on the computer, and wondering what the neighbours were cooking that smelled so tasty. Then I realised it was the dog food in its final phase in the rice cooker that was tempting my taste buds.

So, I've posted before about making utterly delicious, natural, packed with nutrients, and basically free bone broth and vegetable broth. You might think then that it's time to toss those scraps and bones once you've given them their "second life". Not so!

Instead, once you've strained off your tasty broth, you can use those bones and/or scraps again to feed your pets or livestock.

With bones, you will need to make sure that all of them are soft enough to crush into a chalk like substance with just your thumb and forefinger.

 

If you've used the pressure cooker, they're probably already there. If not, you need to cook them more (in liquid) until they are. 

For dogs, chickens, pigs, and other omnivores, bones, meat scraps, and veg are all good. Cats are naturally carnivores, so, while they can eat veggies with no issue, it's best to stick with meat products for food and save the veg for treats. I'm not totally clear on most other animals, and what I make is dog food, so that's what we'll mostly be discussing here.

Just take the scraps and bones and add liquid again, along with rice and/or oats, and some extra meat and veggies if you want, cook it until the grains are done, and you've got some tasty doggie meals!

If you're going to be just supplementing your dogs' regular high quality feed with home made once a week or less, there is no need to add anything other than grain unless you want to. If you want to move completely to home made, you'll need to add some additional meat and fruits/veggies, and possibly oils and fats, (depending on the amount of fat in your scraps) to the mix to ensure they're getting a balanced diet. Here is a link to a good article on the right ratios. The bones from your broth will take care of the calcium needs (bones will make dog poop light coloured and kind of chalky. This is normal and not cause for alarm!).