Homemade Dog Food Help

[rty778]

Hey, we have a 16 year old Diabetic Dog. We has struggled with her insulin levels recently and in her old age is having trouble digesting and going to the bathroom.

I want to move her to a homemade diet, mainly chicken and rice, in order to have more control of what she is eating, but i do not know where to begin.

What ingredients should i be using?

How many calories should she have a day?

TIA for your help.

 

[redeemed84]

@rty778 I add frozen vegetables, fish oil, eggs with eggshells, parsley along with ground pork/beef, and angel hair pasta or elbow spaghetti.

 

[elitee]

@rty778 It's very admirable you care and are searching for answers to help your puppet's health. Please see a recent post I made to another person with a very similar question.

Depending on the type of diabetes, it may be easily handled with diet avoiding kibble and other heavy carbs (like rice). Carbs turn into sugar, even in our doggos. But, if you do anything, please learn AAFCO minimum nutrition requirements and make adjustments based on your pups breed, age, and activity level.

I used to cook chicken and rice for my puppy. His food was severely lacking in nutrition and he almost choked to death on the caked rice in his throat and the roof of his mouth. Then I found out how empty those calories were.

Good reading and kiss the puppers!

 

[karrose]

@rty778 I had to make food for my dog when she got kidney disease, because she was very allergic to corn and wheat, and all the available commercial kidney diets at the time had both.

This book (available online) was a big help to me strombeck’s home prepared diets for dogs and cats. It is an older book so some of it might be outdated, but there is a LOT of info on pet diets and nutrition for different conditions. I didn’t know that it is very important to have the correct amount of calcium in dog food until I read this.

 

[sevilodorf]

@rty778 You need to visit a board certified veterinary nutritionist or balance.it which is a website run by said experts. Please do not take internet advice for this, or you risk unbalancing the diet

 

[mirrorport]

@rty778 Try looking up Richard Pitcairn, DVM.
Here’s a starting place:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623367557/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_i_VKNKTY7CNTZ5D151FDT2