I'm curious as to whether anyone feeds their Golden a home cooked diet. My (senior) boy Mason has had a sensitive stomach -- and pretty serious allergies -- his entire life. Most recently, he has started vomiting (I think, pretty consistently) with his current food of 4 yrs (Solid Gold Hund 'n Flocken -- lamb and rice, no wheat, corn, or soy). For the past 8 days, I've given him the bland diet of boiled chicken, cottage cheese, and rice. He LOVES it ... and he hasn't gotten sick on it. I wonder if it's safe to feed all the time -- and what kind of supplements I'd need to give him in addition. Any experience? (I don't think I'm interested in the raw diet at this point.) Thanks for any help you can give me.

Bumping up for originating OP

I'm sorry, I don't feed a cooked diet. To be honest, it's more work than I'd want to commit to! I would suggest that since a cooked diet is going to need more supplementation to be balanced than a raw diet that you ask your vet for a recommendation to a local vet versed in home cooked diets (most areas will have a holistic vet that you can utilize to come up with a balanced diet). There won't be one supplement (or even one group of supplements) that can be recommended to balance every home cooked diet since they will vary so widely. Good luck!

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Sarah

Ruby: Topbrass Ravishing Ruby CDX, RAE, JH, AX, OAJ, XF, WCX, CCA, VC, CGC, TT (8/1/04)
Piper: Topbrass Pipe Dream CD, JH, RA, OAP, NJP, WC, CCA (7/19/09)
Sage: Prime Time Sage RN, CGC (10/27/97-12/2/12)

Thank you, Iowa Gold. I did find a food on "The Honest Kitchen" that I've ordered. I may have to call a holistic vet for help. I appreciate the FB. Just trying to take care of my senior boy (smile).

Katie and Paddy's Mom does homecooked for her gal. She hasn't been on in awhile but when she's back from her vacation and I'll ask to take a look at this thread and post!

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Member of the "Crazy 4 Collars Clique"

Want to see the menu of a raw fed dog? Check out my blog!

For about half a year, I home-cooked my dogs' dinner and fed kibble in the morning. I spent quite a bit of time researching the subject.

At the beginning it was especially a lot of work, but once I got a system down it went faster. Feeding kibble for one meal gave me a good nutritional backup, but it's still important to get a balance of different proteins, minerals, etc. in home-cooking.

Recipes in books and on the internet vary widely in their recommended percentage of protein compared to the percentage of carbs, fats, etc.

I rotated using ground chicken, turkey, beef, salmon, egg; added either cooked oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice or sweet potato; and small portions of cooked and pureed green beans, peas, carrots, etc. I'd mix in a spoonful of oil (flax, coconut, salmon or olive) and a small bit of dried ground egg shell for calcium. That's kind of a loose description of what I did.

My dogs loved it, but it was a challenge to commit to it full time; so I'm not doing it right now. But if I had a dog with a special medical issue, I'd start it in a heartbeat again.

I think The Honest Kitchen is a good alternative. I used the Thrive formula which worked very well for Bentley who has a number of ingredient intolerances.

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I feed my dog preference by honest kitchen and home made food with recipes from a dog nutritionist due to pancreatitis and irritable bowel disease. It's a lot of work but I feel pretty good because I control the ingredients.

before I started on raw, i fed homecooked. I'll rotate the different kinds of meat around, usually chicken and beef, sometimes will be pork, mutton or fish. I totally skipped carbos unless I happen to have some plain boiled rice or potatoes or pasta from human dinners that I cooked in excess for human dinners.

Sometimes I'll throw in some veges as well. My older dog ate everything, but the younger one avoided the veges until i boiled them until it's really soft. Every other day I'll add in a clove of garlic for tick prevention.

The food is usually boiled or steamed or stir-fryed with very little olive oil, depending on my mood.

But if your dog has a sensitive stomach, I'd suggest limiting it to one kind of meat for a period of time, to make sure his stomach is ok before changing to another kind of meat for another week. So if he's allergic to certain meat, at least it's easier for you to pinpoint.

When my older dog got on in age, I started giving him glucosamine for his joints, and calcium pill daily since there's no bones in a cooked diet. I used to feed omega 3 & 6 for skin and coat, but now I wonder if they really work. He did have nice coat, but my younger boy who is now on raw and not on any supplements has very nice and shiny coat too. So maybe a good diet is enough for good coat?

I fed him human grade supplements I buy from the pharmacy, but given in a lower dosage because I felt that human grade supplements are of a better grade than pet grade supplements. Eg: If the recommended dose for adult humans is 3 pills a day, I'll just give him one pill.

hope this helps.

Hi I am starting to do some homecooked meal and have been doing research on it. Going to supplement it with paririe dry dog food. Just to ensure all the required nutrients are covered. Golden mom in Denver

I will just share .. for those future parents who may be in the same situation and view this thread ... My senior boy .. at 11 years old ... literally could no longer eat ANY (dry) commercial food (I wasn't willing to pay the price for the expensive canned and wasn't willing to feed him the cheaper canned). So, I was forced to start cooking for him. It took me ... literally ... 5 months to figure out what I was doing -- what to feed, how much, and what supplements he also needed. The biggest help to me was a lady named Mary Kraus, and you can find her articles at DOGAWARE.COM. She even offered me some 1/1 guidance. Honestly, I don't know what I would have done without her and often in the WHOLE DOG JOURNAL. (I have NO stake in either of these brands; I'm just a common dog owner who loved my boy and wanted him to thrive as best he could.) I will be forever grateful to her. BTW, I did try The Honest Kitchen. I have no doubt it's a good product; I just couldn't bear the smell of it, and it gave my boy some major intestinal disturbance -- if you know what I mean -- smile. (I lost my boy --Mason -- just a few days ago, but I can tell you that he enjoyed his food more in the last year of his life than he did in the entire previous 11, and I fed him good quality commercial food.)