Dog Biscuit Recipes

Lori Matthews asked:


If you are purchasing dog food from your local grocery store, you may be in for a big surprise. The one who ultimately pays for this is your canine. You may save some money upfront but the cost might be to your dog’s health. It is important that we are aware what we are feeding our animals. Their wellbeing definitely depends on it.

Popular and well known dog food manufacturers cover up brains, beaks, eyes and other things with the all too familiar nick name of bi-products. Do you know what your pet is really eating?

Artificial ingredients are also used by well known dog food brands. This may be harmful to their health. Kibble shouldn’t be “colored” with artificial dyes like yellow # or red # or any of the dye “numbers”.
Chemical preservatives are often used in popular kibble for dogs. BHT, Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), also known as Butylhydroxytoluene and BHA, Butylated hydroxyanisole and Ethoxoquin are used as a preservative to keep the foods from going rancid. These are chemical compounds that may wreak havoc on your canine’s immune system A natural alternative like tocopherols is what you should be looking for.

Unfortunately wheat and corn are used as cheap fillers in dog food. Some manufactures actually use these as protein sources. They are often very hard for the animal to digest and can cause such allergies leaving your canine suffering with itching their ears, licking paws, hot spots, skin and coat issues and just plain old misery. These ingredients can be found in treats as well.

Large manufactures also make food in such large batched that you may never really know when the food was made or worse how fresh the food is you just purchased.

Like humans dogs are what they eat. Artificial ingredients, poor protein sources, lack of fruits and vegetables all play a part in the immune system of you canine to fight off free radicals. When food is made of poor ingredients a whole list of things can affect your dog from allergies to disease.

At first when you feed your dog inferior foods there may or may not be visible reasons to think there are issues. As time goes on scratching may appear or constant ear infections or something of that nature. Luckily you will have the choice to search for a better nutritional food in order to alleviate these issues. If left untreated your pet’s immune system could be compromised and a host of issues like kidney problems, urinary tract issues, and joint issues, lack of energy and behavior changes could start to manifest.

It is wise to start your dog as young as possible with a natural premium food to build a strong immune system and foundation for solid health. If that isn’t the case then it is never too late to get on the right track of great nutrition.

Healthy food along with pure water, plenty of exercise and lots of love all play a vital role in the health and longevity of your dog’s life.



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Ben Anton asked:


Just as we have to follow a healthy lifestyle if we want to be physically fit, so to do our pets. Dogs require a combination of good food, exercise, and love and attention from their owners in order to live healthy lives. It doesn’t take a lot of money to give your puppy everything it needs to maintain a healthy mind and body. It just takes some care and attention by a loving owner.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle for your dog requires following some basic principles.

When It Comes To Food, Quality Not Quantity

To make sure your dog is healthy, take care in feeding him or her a high-quality, nutritious diet. Just as you need a nutritious diet that includes balance and natural ingredients, so does your pooch. Veterinarians recommend a dog’s diet be roughly 40% meat or protein, 50% vegetables and 10% carbohydrates. Look at the ingredients listed in your dog’s food and make sure that protein sources, such as lamb, chicken, or venison, are listed in the top five ingredients. Dogs also benefit from whole grain, low fat dog food. In this one area, spending a little more on a more nutritious brand of dog food really will provide long-term health benefits for your pet.
Regular Exercise

Making time for regular exercise is also a key component to a dog’s healthy lifestyle. Dogs do not have the ability to understand the positive benefits of exercise so it is up to you, the owner, to make sure your pet is in proper physical shape. If you are unsure about how much exercise is right for the age and breed of your dog, ask your veterinarian for their recommendation.

Walking your dog is the easiest way to keep it healthy. A 10 - 15 minute walk around a nearby park or your neighborhood can help a dog calm down before bedtime or be a great start to a day. Swimming is also a fun, easy way to get your dog out and active during the summer months. If your dog is social, consider taking them to a dog park for a game of fetch.

During exercise time, make sure you monitor your dog closely for any abnormal changes in breathing or gait. Make sure not too push your dog too hard too fast, and keep his or her exercise pattern as regular as possible. As you start or change your dog’s exercise routine, make sure to take note of any eating habit or sleeping pattern changes and notify your veterinarian.

Owner Care

Providing loving, regular attention to your pet is the easiest element to forget but often times is the most crucial to keeping your pet happy and healthy. Loneliness and aggression are common in dogs that have not received proper care and socialization. Dog experts have even found that a dog that has not been socialized in a caring, trustworthy environment by the time they reach sexual maturity may never have close, trusting relationships with people or other animals. As you walk your dog, throw a ball around together or simply curl up together on the couch, be assured that the time together is well-spent and necessary to your dog’s health.

The best way to make sure your dog is happy and healthy is to care for it as you do yourself. A nutritious diet, regular exercise and time and attention, coupled with regular veterinary visits, will keep your dog happy throughout its life.

~Ben Anton, 2008



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Andrew Johnson asked:


After starting a business focused on healthy dog products Distinctive Dog (www.distinctivedog.com), a new world opened up regarding the state of dog nutrition and what manufacturers do not tell consumers.

There is much debate when it comes to dog food, treats and pet nutrition. In the wild, dogs inherently hunted and consumed animals and plants. Their digestive systems were designed to break down raw meat while the enzymes present in the meat aided the digestion process.

Today, most domesticated dogs eat processed kibble containing primarily grains and refined protein sources. Once the meat source is removed, the remaining ingredients are mostly unnatural for the pet. Wheat, barley, rice, corn and oats are all man-raised crops that a dog would never eat in the wild. So how have dogs adapted to a diet consisting mostly of grains and processed protein sources?

To begin with, dogs are highly allergy prone animals. Wheat, corn, soy and barley are common culprits of allergies in dogs. The most interesting factor here is that most of these substances are not contained in the dog’s natural food chain.

Corn is an inferior protein source and some experts contend that the dog’s liver must work overtime to extract useable protein, which in the process produces excess nitrates. These nitrates place extra strain on the liver and as some veterinarians will say, is one cause of premature aging.

Wheat, soy, barley and white rice have very little nutritional value and are used by manufacturers to squeeze more profit out of their products. As a fun experiment, place your dog’s dry food in water for about 10 minutes.  If it swells dramatically, it probably contains high amounts of these grains.

There are a variety of theories on the affects of processed dog food and dog treats on our pets. Veterinarian John B. Symes writes and speaks on the affects of gluten, casin from cow’s milk, corn and soy on otherwise healthy dogs. He is a “recovered” celiac and believes these substances are blocking nutrient absorption during the dog’s digestion process.

Many of these ingredients are used as filler in commercial dog food and when mixed with water, create a sticky substance. Symes points out that the dog’s digestive tract is not designed to break down these materials and the resulting partially-digested sticky material coats the intestines, blocking absorption of essential nutrients.
“Imagine that a German shepherd puppy begins eating a wheat, barley, corn, or soy-based diet from the moment it is weaned. If inadequate levels of calcium and vitamin C are absorbed, what are the chances that its hips, elbows, spine, and other cartilaginous structures are going to form properly? I would say "Not good". Most people familiar with dogs know that this breed has a reputation for horrible hip dysplasia. But, they also have serious allergies and other immune-related disorders. This, of course, is no coincidence. Once it is understood that the allergies form in the area of the gut that is being damaged or coated by the ‘glue’, it is easy to see why the trouble breeds like the German Shepherd, Cocker Spaniel, Shih Tzu, and others have their ‘genetic’ tendencies such as allergic skin and ear problems, orthopedic abnormalities, intervertebral disc ruptures, and cancers,” contends Symes.

Another way dog food and treat manufacturers cut costs is through the protein sources. Most dog foods contain protein sources labeled as “meal”, “digest” or “by-product”. These ingredients contain meat sources that are deemed unsuitable for human consumption. Rendering plants process dead animal and other matter for animal feed, and yes pet food. With virtually no government regulation, these often contaminated protein sources pass as our dog’s dinner.

One regulation on the books was written in the National Research Council’s 1974 publication, The Nutrient Requirement of Dogs. It states that all mammals (except humans) are legally allowable “meat” for rendering as long as they are not decayed. Some states have passed an additional standard excluding dying, dead, disabled, or diseased tissues.

Deborah Lynn Dadd in her book The Nontoxic Home and Office: Protecting Yourself and Your Family form Everyday Toxins and Hazards states, “Each year about 116,000 mammals and nearly 15 million birds are condemned before slaughter. After killing, another 325,000 carcasses are discarded and more than 5.5 million major parts are cut away because they are determined to be diseased. Shockingly, 140,000 tons of poultry is condemned annually, mainly from cancer. The diseased animals that cannot be sold are processed into animal feed.

Now, there is no way to substantiate the claims but I do know that there is no real way to truly know what these ingredients actually contain. In addition, the food is processed at extremely high temperatures during the rendering process which kills much of the nutritional value that may have been present.

When we begin to examine our dog’s diet, one only wonders why dogs are prone to allergies and health issues. William D. Cusick, author of Canine Nutrition & Choosing the Best Food for Your Dog states that nations with generations of dogs raised on commercial pet food have experienced canine longevity decreases up to 50 percent. In addition they have recorded increases in cancers, reproductive complications and other health issues. Hypothesized reasons include environmental pollution, pesticides, vaccinations, urbanization, fluoridated water and commercial pet food.

Cusick furthers his point by stating that in identical environments, humans have increased life expectancy while dogs have decreased. Moreover, in countries where commercial dog food is unavailable these decreases have not been documented. This point cannot be overstated. It points to the dire need for structured research to substantiate the empirical evidence and governmental regulation within the pet food industry.

Today there is no way to concretely determine the health consequences of commercial dog food and grain based diets. As a result of these concerns, many people choose to feed their dogs a Bones and Raw Food diet (BARF). These holistic diets provide a diet closest to what dogs eat in the wild. Our pet’s stomachs are designed to process raw meat and they receive live enzymes not present in cooked food.

Another option is home cooked meals. This can be a tricky option because some human food can be toxic for our pets. A good book on the subject is Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: the Healthful Alternative by Dr. Donald Strombeck. Dog nutrition is different than human nutrition, so I recommend you check with your veterinarian before considering either a BARF or home-prepared diet.

At the very minimum, read and understand pet food labels and ingredients. Ingredient labels are listed in order of quantity. Locate products with minimal levels of wheat or wheat by-products, corn, soy or barley. These are fillers that can adversely affect your dog’s digestive system and if your dog is allergic, they can cause itchy and flakey skin, dull coat and hair loss. These grains should never be listed as the primary ingredient in your dog’s food. Also, understand protein sources and ensure that the protein sources you are providing your pet are high quality and not from rendered sources.

As a general rule of thumb, do not look for quality pet food at your local grocery store or pet store chain.  Specialty pet stores often have greater expertise and can help you find the right food for your pet. If you are looking for healthy dog treats, many companies including Distinctive Dog Bakery (www.distinctivedog.com), offer home baked dog treats free from wheat gluten, soy, corn and other harmful ingredients.

Lastly, consider supplementing your dog’s diet with enzymes and probiotics. Probiotics are friendly bacteria that help in digestion and the absorption of nutrients. They prevent harmful bacteria from growing and causing problems including gas, diarrhea and vomiting. Enzymes help complement probiotics during the digestion process. Adding an enzyme-probiotic mix to your dog’s diet can improve digestion, create better hair coats and increase immune function.



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Lynn Halladay asked:


What you don’t know could turn out to be bad for your dog!

While most of us don’t pay a lot of attention to what we’re feeding out pets, we really shouldn’t be trusting manufacturers to label things accurately and follow regulations. There aren’t many rules about what can be used in dog food, and what you don’t know could make your dog VERY sick.

Not Fit To Eat

Did you know that many different brands of dog food could contain unpleasant substances like hair, ligaments, organs, skin, nervous tissue, and meat from diseased animals? Or that spoiled meat and the bodies of euthanized zoo animals and pets could be used?

Even the good meat that ends up in cat and dog food has undergone heavy processing, losing most of the value it once had. Ingredients like “poultry broth” and “animal meal” are far removed from the meat we imagine.

Animal meal, for instance, is what’s left after fat and meat have been processed out of a carcass. What’s left is dried and ground, resulting in a meal similar in texture to cornmeal. Broths are made up of processed carcasses from many different animal types, in just about any condition.

It’s Not Illegal!

You might think this sort of thing would be against the law. After all, there are strict rules about what can be used in human food and those laws are fairly well enforced. Unfortunately, pet food regulations are a lot looser and are rarely well enforced.

Just about anything could end up in your pet’s food, and the labels mean almost noting, even if they claim the food is balanced and healthy. Those words just indicate that the food has a particular percentage of protein, fat, and artificial minerals and vitamins.

Toxic Additives

All of us have probably heard of the recent pet food recalls created by contaminated wheat gluten from China. However, melamine isn’t the only dangerous additive that can be found in pet food. There are a lot of preservatives that aren’t allowed in human food, and which cause illnesses like cancer, kidney failure, liver failure and more.

Expensive Brands, Too

Unfortunately, it’s not just the cheap brands that are causing the problem. High end and organic foods are also poorly regulated. They might be higher quality, but there’s no good way to tell what ingredients they’re using. That can make it extremely hard to find foods that are appropriate for your dog, since even those recommended by the vet could be dangerous.

Solutions

There are a number of things you can do to protect your dog. First, learn to read the label - ingredients higher on the label are in larger percentages. That means you should look for named meats instead of generic terms, broths or meals.

You can also learn about the additives and preservatives that can hurt your pets, and look for the foods with the lowest percentage of grains. There are also a number of excellent recipes out there that can help dedicated pet owners make their own foods. Just be sure to do something, since most foods are actually dangerous.



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Angie asked:


Everyone says not to buy Pedigree or Purina or ANY Grocery Store product because they are awful, no good, and FULL of garbage. However, where the heck are you supposed to find these healthy dog foods at? I’m a busy person, I can’t be worrying about ordering my dog’s food online. I love my dog to death and all and want what’s best for him, but what the heck? Why don’t they sell these healthy dog foods somewhere convienent, like Pathmark or even just a pet store?

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Joshua Drew asked:


There is a growing number of type 2 diabetes among dogs. It is a disease that is caused by lifestyle problems just like the disease in humans. It is important that the dog be given an appropriate diet to control their illness through the medications that the vet will prescribe and the diet. Diabetic dog food is just one of the possible solutions.

The first rule of thumb to go by when you are looking for a diabetic dog food is that the closer to the natural food source the food is, the better it is for your dog. Most dry dog foods are too high in carbohydrates to be healthy for a diabetic dog. You will need to read the labels very carefully to determine that they are high enough in protein and low in carbohydrate and sodium to be healthy for your dog. You should not rely on dry dog food alone as the only source of nutrition even if it is diabetic dog food.

Raw food diets are actually quite healthy for your dog. Dogs in the past were very healthy when they were eating raw meats and vegetable scraps. They will also get the added benefit of shiny coats. Diabetic dog food does not have to be prepackaged specifically for this illness; you can give your dog a healthy diet on your own. Homemade diabetic dog food is the best for your dog.

Of course you can buy diabetic dog food for your dog. It can typically be found in organic and natural pet stores. This type of dog food is very healthy for dogs that do not have diabetes, but is more important for dogs that do have the illness. Diabetic dog food is designed to keep your dogs nutritional needs in balance and give them the nutrients that they need and eliminate the ingredients that have caused the problem.

Ask your vet the type of food that you should be feeding your dog if they have gotten a diagnosis of diabetes. They should be able to recommend a diabetic dog food that will be healthy for your dog and give him all of the nutrition that he needs. The vet will be able to tell you what types of foods to avoid as well. It is important that you keep the foods to a minimum that will affect your dog’s condition.

Dog food manufacturers are becoming just as aware of the need for nutritionally balanced food for pets as manufacturers of foods that people eat. They understand that an animal needs a special balance of nutrients to keep the animal healthy and strong. Diabetic dog foods are just one of the ways that animals can continue to live a long and healthy life.



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Jane Dinunzio asked:


what to feed your pet isn’t easy these days, especially after the unprecedented pet food recalls in 2007 that pulled more than 100 brands off store shelves. The culprit of the contaminated food was wheat gluten, poisoned with melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers. The tainted food caused kidney failure and other illnesses, and may have killed thousands of pets.

Recalls and poisonings aside, there are plenty of other reasons to be aware of what’s in your animal’s food. Obviously a healthy diet makes for a healthy pet, keeping his coat, teeth and digestive system running smoothly. Also, you pay for what you get. Foods with a lot of fillers are cheaper but less nutritious. Just as with human food, good ingredients will go a long way toward giving your pet a long, healthy life.

Learn to decipher labels on commercial pet foods. The most important parts of the label are the nutritional adequacy statement and ingredients list. The former tells you whether a food is suitable as the sole nourishment for a healthy pet. The label will specify that the product “provides a complete and balanced nutrition.”

A well formulated cat or dog food will list chicken, beef, lamb, poultry, or fish meal first.

Cats are carnivores and dogs are omnivores, so both need their meat. Bone meal and other meat by-products are poorer sources of protein. Fillers do provide some protein, but aren’t as digestible. Examples of fillers are: soy, rice, oats, yeast, wheat, corn. These ingredients should be listed lower on the list.

Manufacturers sometimes try to mask the amount of fillers in pet foods by breaking them into components. For example, corn may be listed as cornmeal, corn gluten and ground corn. If all three were grouped together, corn would appear much higher in the ingredients. At the end of the list you’ll find preservative. Ethoxyquin is one of the most controversial, because it may affect a dog’s liver. Look for foods preserved with Vitamin C (also called ascorbic acid) or Vitamin E (listed as tocopherol) instead.

A better alternative is to buy organic pet food. An organic pet food marked 95% organic meets the same guidelines as organic food produced for humans. The food won’t contain pesticides or antibiotics, and it’s preserved with natural substances like Vitamins C and E. As with any food, the organic option will be more expensive, but it’s healthier for your pet, and the way it is produced is definitely better for the environment.

The best choice by far is making your own pet food so you know exactly what you’re feeding your animal. Ensure you’re preparing nutritionally balanced food, or your pet may suffer from malnutrition. You must consult your veterinarian or a specialist in pet nutrition before you start making your own food at home.

If expense isn’t an issue, then home made pet food is worth making, especially for the peace of mind in knowing exactly what your beloved pet is ingesting. While some pet owners feed their animals raw meat, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a vet who thinks it’s a good idea. There is always a chance that you or your pet could be exposed to E.coli or salmonella.



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Lexie asked:


my 1 year old sheltie is gaining a little more weight than he should, i have been doing the requirements, less treats 2 hour walks…..but i want to make him a homemade meal everyday too…..i need advice and ingredients!!! PLEASE HELP!!!

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EmJayy♥ asked:


From Rachael Ray
sorry i didn’t think i posted other question

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asked:


I’ve researched everywhere on-line that I can think of and have avoided foods that are heavily disputed. Here goes:
1lb. ground sirloin, 90% lean;
4 eggs scrambled with the sirloin;
1 cup cooked brown rice;
1 cup plain fat-free yogurt;
1 cup fat-free cottage cheese;
1 can unsalted green beans, smashed;
2 carrots, grated;
1/2 cup extra virgin, first press olive oil.
This lasts 6 days for my 8-10 pound yorkie/poodle mix, at one to one and a half cups a day. I also give him one holistic dog biscuit a day specifically designed to clean his teeth and gums. Thanks for the input, I want to be sure I’m feeding him healthy and there is just so many contradictory advice.
I’ve been preparing this, ONCE A WEEK, since the food recall. It’s not hard, or expensive, and takes maybe 25 minutes.
Yes Deb I do cook the meat. I know a lot of people advise against it but just as many people say that you should, and I worry about the parasites in raw meat.

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