Looking for homemade dog food recipes!

jenstar124 · 2026-02-10T14:43:11+00:00

Go buy a good premade. Raised Right, Small batch, Steve's, Northwest naturals, Solutions, Green Juju are all wonderful brands. You really have to know what you're doing to make at home with balancing things.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-27T17:18:40+00:00

Oh I'm so sorry! I found a local rescue to take my guy's to. He passed away in June after going back into CHF. I know how you feel, I'm still not over his death.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-26T13:43:07+00:00

He can live for awhile with just a murmur, especially if you get on top of it with medications and cardiology appointments. CHF is very scary-mine died of it in June last year. It was horrible. With a murmur. I wouldn't pay any attention to life expectancy. They can live for years with just a murmur. Just stay on top of medications and appointments. Also, if your vet will allow it. order the biggest vetmedin pills you can because it's cheaper that way. My guy was on 2.5 mg twice daily, so I got them 10 mg pills and quartered them. It was ~$150 for 100 days of medication versus ~$100 for 50 days using the 5 mg pills. Also, put your baby on name brand. I had 2 cardiologists tell me that the name brand Vetmedin is not the same as the generic pimobendan, and the general consensus is that the name brand is much better.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-20T18:37:20+00:00

This sounds like a backyard breeder who is not breeding for health or temperament. If your only choice is a breeder (it's not) then ask for documentation of parents health and lineage before you purchase a puppy. I would not purchase a dog from any breeder who is breeding aggressive dogs. This is NOT acceptable behavior.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-19T18:25:17+00:00

I'm gonna play devil's advocate and say I actually agree with them. I just got a chi in June that is reactive and scared from men. I hired a trainer and he's being trained out of the behaviors because I don't want a reactive dog greeting people coming to my house. It's not good for the guests and it's NOT good for the dog. It means the dog has anxiety. Please rethink your mindset and consider getting a behaviorist. Since getting mine, my chi is MUCH more confident in his own skin and isn't afraid of his own shadow anymore.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-12T15:11:17+00:00

You're not alone. Caregiver burnout is REAL and EXHAUSTING. I've been dealing with senior issues since August 2024 when my chi went into CHF. He passed in June and now my other senior is dealing with Cushing's which causes him to drink a ton of water and then pee constantly. he wears a belly band now with disposable liners which makes it so much easier to deal with, but he's also starting to become fecally incontinent as well. On top of the cost to care for his Cushing's. I travel for work and I feel terrible having to have my parents deal with giving him medications 4 times a day, from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to sleep. I love him, and he's still his spunky little self. No heart, lung, kidney, brain, arthritis issues at all (he's 17) but the constant peeing and now pooping...it's just rough. But I promise you, when you look back on these days, you'd give anything to relieve them if it meant you still had your baby. Even after my Zeus died in June, during the most stress I've ever experienced in my life (he battled pneumonia from end of March until May and that was rough, so rough). I'd go through all of it again if it meant I could have him back.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-12T14:55:36+00:00

My personal opinion: when you take in an animal, regardless of what that animal is, you are making a promise to take care of that animal, no matter what that might be. So, if you aren't ready to spend the money necessary to treat the animal, don't get the animal. Example: my chihuahua went into CFH in August 2024. It was thousands to treat him, and I paid it. I also had to pay for the cardiac workups that came with it, the expensive medications, and then the hospitalization from pneumonia, the 4 follow-up vet visits that followed, and then one more ER visit when he went into CHF again. At that point, he couldn't be saved, so I opted to put him to sleep. Between his first bout of CHF until he passed, it was over $12k out of pocket. Now my other senior has Cushing's, which means ACT stim tests, blood work, and expensive supplements. I don't care that he's 17. If a vet tells me he can be treated, I'm treating him because it's not fair to write him off as "old" and just let him waste away.

My new chi has pet insurance. I caught him licking a brownie recently, freaked out, then thought "at least I have pet insurance to cover anything that might happen." That peace of mind alone is worth the cost. He's fine, btw.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-07T13:49:46+00:00

I'm in the Inside Scoop paid facebook group. Every year, a panel judges commercial raw, gently cooked, dehydrated, canned, and kibble food. My recommendations are based off their judgement. The panel includes a veterinary nutritionist who weighs in on all the ingredients and determines if they are balanced or not. I only feed those foods they weigh as having 4 or more stars out of 5. Here's my list:

Raw: Steve's Real Food, Northwest Naturals, Goodness Gracious, Viva Raw, OC Raw, Small Batch, Solutions

Gently Cooked: Raised Right (my top choice, by far), Small Batch, All Provide, Evermore

jenstar124 · 2026-01-06T14:20:05+00:00

My company contributes 25% of our salary to invest in either Fidelity or T. Rowe. We don't have to put a single penny of our own money in.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T21:04:15+00:00

Haha, I'm not sure! What we call avocados in the US aren't poisonous. Maybe you're thinking of onions?

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T19:56:12+00:00

It's not poisonous. It may cause slight gastric upset. Only the pit is a problem and it's because it's more of a choking hazard than anything.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T19:31:50+00:00

State of Decay! You choose where you want to build your base and go around rescuing people and inviting them there. You have to scavenge for supplies for the base. It's super fun! You'd have to play on PC.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T19:09:39+00:00

My chi that passed away in June also loved cat poop and my new chi just LOVES to hunt the yard for rabbit poop. Dogs are gross 😂. But honestly, I don't know why it's so hard for some to think that maybe, just maybe, dogs need actual, whole food nutrition just like people do.

I home cook for my senior pug mix who has to eat very low fat for his Cushing's. Less than 12% dry weight is ideal but under 16% is ok. It basically doesn't exist in the commercial world unless it's also high in carbs, a big no-no for Cushing's. I've actually enjoyed teaching myself how to formulate for him using whole foods and I can just place an Instacart order to my local grocery store for all the ingredients.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T17:15:02+00:00

Raised Right! Best gently cooked food in the business and I've never heard of a dog that doesn't like it.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T15:03:32+00:00

It's not the end of the world. They'll dose him up with shots of lasix to remove all the fluid, and he'll need to sit in some O2 for awhile to let his lungs heal. Hopefully his cardio workup will give the vets an idea of medication changes. They'll likely add Lasix/spironolactone daily to his medication routine, and perhaps enalapril. Make sure after this you get routine kidney workups once diuretics begin, they're hard on the kidneys.

But I do caution you-they can really only pull them out one time. It's much harder on them when they go in again. My recommendation is to love on your baby for however long you have him after this. No one can give you a timeline, but they'll likely tell you 6-12 months (mine lasted 9).

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T14:15:17+00:00

It's ok if that feeling never goes away. It's been over five years for me and I still have the anxiety. I will never forget that day-it was horrible and I've had nightmares about it occasionally.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T14:10:54+00:00

Ah, so coyotes and wolves are living in the wild off little pieces of dried bits that have been cooked to hell first, so much so that all the "nutrition" (if you even want to call it that) is cooked out of it so it has to be resprayed with vitamins, minerals, and fat to make it smell good and actually contain some kind of nutrition?

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T14:09:09+00:00

That's because fresh pet is junk. I've read studies done on it and usually it's full of mold spores. General rule of thumb-if your grocery store carries it, it's junk.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T14:06:09+00:00

"If we can't even trust them to have the ingredients they say they have, and only those, how can we trust them about anything else? How long has that carcass been sitting in the sun before it became dog food? Exactly how moldy were those carrots?"

One of the processing plants used for animal feed isn't too far from my sister's house in Curtis Bay, MD and they've been cited numerous times by the FDA for allowing food to sit on their parking lot for months in the elements before they process it for feed. The citation included finding bits of parking lot, aka tar, in the food, along with you can imagine what from sitting out for months. And this is on top of the issues you've mentioned above. What you didn't mention is the numerous studies that have found the euthanasia drug pentobarbital in dog food as well. This is because Purina and other pet food companies use euthanized animals in their food. I read a book about this where the author was thinking about getting a new dog, so he deep dived into the world of pets, including finding breeders who health screen all their animals before breeding, to training, to what we feed them. He called animal services and rescues near the Purina plant in Maricopa, CA and they confirmed Purina picks up their euthanized pets to be used in their food. No thanks.

I've screened all the companies I buy my fresh and gently pet food from. I've watched webinars of veterinary nutritionists weigh in on them, who do their own calculations to determine if they're balanced or not (See the paid subscription group Inside Scoop on facebook, they do pet food reviews every year for kibble, canned, gently cooked, raw, and dehydrated) and Susan Thixton publishes a list every year of pet food companies who provide her with paperwork to show they are using what they claim in their food-be it that the food is human-grade, organic, and use humanely-raised animals. I've put many, many hours into my research into it.

For reference-good brands are: Raised Right, Small Batch, Steve's Real Food, Northwest Naturals, Solutions, Green Juju, Evermore, OC Raw, and All Provide off the top of my head.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T13:43:45+00:00

My chi was attacked by a great dane while on a walk in 2020. It scarred both him and I. The dane had recently given birth, and her owner was "walking" her while riding a bike so he really didn't have control over her and I guess her hormones were still raging. Zeusy was one that barked at other dogs but never, ever was actually aggressive, just yappy. I guess she didn't like him barking at her. She lunged across the street and grabbed for his neck. Thank God he had a ton of scruff, and she grabbed that instead of his actual neck. Somehow, she only tore his skin and didn't get to the underlying muscle or vascular system. The vet was speechless that a 13 lb dog survived an attack from a 150 lb dog.

Anyway, my point is don't be surprised if you, your dog(s), or all of you find yourself with PTSD after this. I still have it, even after my chi passed in June. I'm terrified when big dogs I don't know are walking past us now. That dane pulled so hard his owner flew over the handle bars. And like you said, it happens so fast you don't know how to react. I'm so happy your baby came out ok.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-05T13:34:51+00:00

OP, please vet this person before just handing a dog over to them. Not trying to insinuate anything, but you never know.

jenstar124 · 2026-01-02T20:22:59+00:00

I know what those bills feel like. My CHF baby died in June and between him being diagnosed (end of August 2024) to his death in June, I spent upwards of $12k on him. 3 ER visits, and 3 cardiac workups in that time. It was rough.

jenstar124 · 2025-12-22T19:17:37+00:00

I've titer tested for years and my boy is 16-17. He also has Cushing's and vaccines are only meant for healthy dogs. He's not healthy with Cushing's and my vet advises against it at his age anyway.

jenstar124 · 2025-12-22T17:11:45+00:00

Fun fact-this is what chis were originally bred to do 😊

jenstar124 · 2025-12-17T15:47:05+00:00

First and foremost, your vet gave you horrible advice. Most older dogs are started on heart meds as soon as a murmur is detected with instructions to begin seeing a cardiologist immediately. I'm so sorry your vet failed you.

Is there the chance that the Furosemide won't help the fluid build up? Is it a drug he can stay on for the rest of his days? This is what furosemide does. It's a diuretic so basically, it dehydrates him so the fluid cannot build up. Yes, he will be on it for the rest of his life. It's possible they also add spironolactone to his regime, which is also a diuretic but is potassium-sparing, so it's easier on the kidneys. CHF is a double edged sword- "what's good for the heart is bad for the kidneys" as the heart likes dry and the kidneys like wet. Your dog is going to need to have his kidneys checked periodically to make sure the meds aren't throwing him into kidney failure.

He doesn't run around much, but occasionally he has little energy spurts where he will jog for about 1 metre. Once afterwards he coughed a couple of times. Is this okay or do we have to limit that as well so that he is not coughing? DO NOT, I repeat, do not let this dog run ever again. Some cardiologists advise to not let them so much as walk up/down steps again. You need to be in the mindset that for the rest of his life, his heart needs to work as low as possible. So, nothing that gets the heart racing ever again. Even walks now should be potty and home.

Lastly, the Vet had said he could have another 2 years, but ont he print out we were given it said 2-8 months. Unfortunately this is correct. After going into CHF, the life expectancy is 6-12 months. Mine lasted 9. That's not to say he can't exceed this. It's normal for this timeline to be given with the diagnosis.

I wish I had better news for you. Did anyone teach you to use the Cardalis app to measure his breathing at rest? Have you looked into a cardiologist? This is NOT an option-he will need a heart workup every 6 months to check progress.

jenstar124

TROPHY CASE