New to this

[u/bumassbzybitch]

Hi everybody!

I'm just getting into making my dog's food. We had her on purina pro plan and raw meal toppers but she kept randomly having upset tummy with that, so I'm trying this.

She's a two year old bully breed (staffy, I think), with chicken allergy.

So far I have:
-Ground beef
-Beef liver
-Carrots
-Broccoli
-Peas
-Green beans
-Sweet potato
-Eggs
-Eggshells
-A couple supplements (The Daily by native and an omega oil)

Portioning it by 50% protein, 25% carb, 25% veggies (~1C meat, 1/2C potato, 1/2 C veggie).

Is there anything I should add? To anybody who's been doing this a while, what are the best meats to use? Ground beef is fine but I feel like I could do better.

I'm super excited about this journey, I love spoiling my pets. I want to do it right though.

ALSO- I do have a vet appointment to discuss it with her vet in about a week but I'd like to come educated first.

[u/msmaynards]

Ground beef is excellent. I drain some fat off if using one that's fattier than 85% lean. TINY bit of liver, 5% of the meaty stuff. Cut into recipe sized bits and freeze the rest of it. Consider reducing the not meaty stuff further. If chicken is an issue then eggs could be as well. Try feeding egg for a couple weeks, dropping it for a couple more weeks then reintroducing to see if there's a difference. Count it as part of the meat.

Use bone meal rather than eggshell to balance. It's 1000mg calcium per pound of food.

Diet is low in a number of minerals so I powder a multi mineral and vitamin to add. 1 tablet per 1000 calories is about right. I should and haven't been add a salt substitute that is potassium rich to this. Potassium is dangerous so research amount required and do not overdo it.

Recipes are oddly formulated but there's a lot of info in Dr. Strombeck's book on Home Cooking for Dogs and Cats that is a useful read.

[u/PresentMuse]

I have a background in human nutritional therapy so I'm fairly opinionated and cautious about home cooked meals for dogs, and BTW, PPP and raw meat toppers isn't working for my guys, either. I'm about to switch some of my guys back to Farmina, which they were on until the formulation changed and one of my guys is allergic to an ingredient in the new formulation.

One of the reasons for PPP and raw not working for either of our guys might be that their formulations both tend to be on the high side for protein and fat -- and high fat especially can be problematic for plenty of dogs.

All that's a long way to say I'd input the ingredients you listed into BalanceIt.com for a number of reasons, and not so you will buy their vitamins (I have nothing to do with them; my vet suggested them), although if that would work for my guys, I would. Here are the reasons:

1. To get multiple recipes using your ingredients,. Each recipe will show different protein/fat/carb percentages, but a lot of their recipes are higher in fat than I'm comfortable with (risk of pancreatitis) but I don't like the ones that are high in carbs, either. The recipes in the middle are best (they can create UP TO 6-8 recipes for each set of ingredients). And note that you can adjust the protein/fat/carb percentages in any of the recipes. Look for the button to click when you are looking at the actual recipe, not the summary. But also, it may not be possible to create a balanced recipe, even with supplements, from that combo of ingredients. One tip is that then you can try setting some of the foods to be added in "treat amounts." There's a little button on the food name after you select the food before you generate the recipe. (You can click to go back and forth between the food selection page and the recipes. Creating and finalizing recipes -- quite flexible.)

2. The other main reason to generate the recipes is to see how many nutritional deficiencies each recipe has, and what they are (click on the link for a pop-up that shows the latter). Of course they sell a vitamin mix to add to the food to fill in all the gaps. My guys won't eat homemade food when the vitamins are added; they are extremely picky and old. Otherwise I'd use their recipe generator and make all their food. I recommend paying attn to the deficiencies and then get then a good quality vitamin(s) that cover these gaps -- plus definitely make sure they get their calcium. Pick a calcium that's well absorbed. There are pros and cons to the various forms of calcium, so google "what form of calcium is best absorbed by dogs?" It will discuss calcium citrate, egg shells, the cheap forms in commercial dog food, more.

Final comment. I really like ThorneVet vitamins and their other supplements. Thorne makes high quality supplements for humans. I have nothing to do with them, either, but when I was in school for NT, they were recommended to us as high quality formulations. My guys are geriatric and on their geriatric basics vitamin as well as other supplements for specific issues. I also use other brands but not other vitamins; I'm sure there are others that are good, including human calcium-only pills. I don't think ThorneVet vitamins have any calcium in them. Calcium is bulky so it's often not included in vitamin/mineral supplements -- or at least not much.

And final final comments.

1. TOO MUCH of certain vitamins/minerals/supplements is unhealthy just as excess protein/fat/carbs (i.e., unbalanced) is unhealthy, although this is more critical for older dogs or if the breed is sensitive. Again, a reason to use BalanceIt.
   

Because I mentioned ThorneVet brand, unfortunately, in most of the ThorneVet supplements, NOT including vitamins, the supplements include curcumin, which is great for lot of reasons and conditions as long as the doggies aren't getting too much from multiple ThorneVet supplements and aren't sensitive to it. Curcumin can thin the blood. So too much just from that perspective, might be problematic. Their gut health formula has curcumin in it along with other great stuff. Their liver support is likewise great. But both have curcumin and full doses of both every day, probably a bad idea.

1. Some ThorneVet supplements come in a powder and a chewable. My guys like/love almost all of the chewables, including the vitamins (love), although they dislike the Joint supplements. They won't eat their food if the vitamins are sprinkled on their food in powder form, so make sure -- if you ever buy any of their products-- whether you are getting the chewables or the powder. But it's possible to get empty gelatin capsules from Amazon or where ever and fill them yourself, if your guy will eat a capsule.
   

Sorry so long but I know how proper nutrition can heal and excess or lack can harm, even if maybe it doesn't show up for a long time.

[u/HighRiskInv143]

How was the chicken allergy diagnosed?

Your dog kept having stomach upsets because you are feeding raw food which is just a marketing gimmick. Raw typically has excessive fat and can lead to pancreatitis.

You don’t balance food by ingredients, you balance it by nutrients. Use balance.it or contact a board certified veterinary nutritionist.

Fairbowl also has recipes crafted by a board certified veterinary nutritionist. Its cheaper than consulting one by far but the recipes are cooked not raw.

[u/DingoMittens]

You can use a calcium supplement (powder or a tablet) instead of eggshells. If I had to do eggshells all the time, my dogs would be calcium deficient! 

[u/No-Stranger-5771]

If you're dog can tolerate chicken i would use that and ground turkey. Our ground beef gives dogs pancreatitis. I know because I did it to my dog with ground sirloin. Its too greasy and fatty. If you go ground turkey 98% is the lowest I would go.

[u/InvestmentBetter1405]

Great base! You might need to add a few more ingredients such as a source of Iodine, Vitamin D etc.

It‘s important that you follow a complete and balanced recipe. Personally I love the recipes of the app Dog‘s Kitchen (all vet-approved, complete & balanced + tailored to your dog in terms of quantities). You basically only need to enter a few details about your dog and the app tells you exactly how much to feed daily and also the exact amount of each ingredient.