What we feed that dog...

Chuki is HUGE, almost 50 lbs! If he were a small child, people would ask 'what are you feeding him?' But because he's a dog, people don't ask that. I'm not sure why.

There are a lot of ways you can go about Home Cooking. You can cook everyday, once a week, once a month, once a year (if you have a REALLY big freezer). Or you can cook when said dog happens to run out of food. We tend to fall in the later category. We cook, he eats, when food runs out, we cook again. You have to decide what works best for you.



Now you also have options on what to cook. What I'm sharing with you now, is our Basic Meal. Chuki eats this meal probably 85% of the time. We have a different meal that we cook him when he's having stomach issues (read: when he's eaten something he shouldn't have). I also, once every couple of months, will make him something completely different, like meatloaf or spaghetti.

So what does his Basic Meal include? It includes rice, ground beef and vegetables. It's that simple. Here's what we do...

1) Make a BIG ARSE pot of plain rice (either white, wheat or the mystery rice: typo flor)

2) Buy the cheapest ground beef you can find. Bring home. Sauté in a pan with sunflower oil (or any oil) until cooked through.*

3) Chop up whatever vegetables you have chosen (make sure to remember these rules).**

4) Serve to dog.

What is important is to vary your vegetables. You don't have to vary them everyday but you should try to vary them throughout the month. We learned in Barkers Grub that you should try to feed something from every color of the rainbow throughout the month.

Some possibilities are:
Red: Tomatoes, strawberries or beets
Orange: Carrots, pumpkin or sweet potato
Yellow: Bananas or spaghetti squash
Green: Spinach, green beans, peas, avocado, asparagus, artichoke or broccoli
Blue: blueberries or plums
Violet: Purple cauliflower
(If you have any other ideas/suggestions, we're always looking for them)

For puppies you should serve about 60% protein, 20% carbs and 20% vegetables. (Dogs are considered puppies until age 2.) For adult dogs, you should serve 50% protein, 25% carbs and 25% vegetables. You're dog will not die if the percentages aren't right. So make it easy on yourself and just eyeball it. For puppies think, he needs more meat then rice and veggies combined. For adults think, he needs the meat and the rice/veggie mix to be equal.

Now before you just dive into feeding your dog delicious home cooked food, you need to transition. Read about a Transitional Plan here. 

*Here in Ecuador meat doesn't really go on sale, so we're at a bit of a disadvantage. We buy about 1 kilo of ground beef for under $2. If I were in the USA I would buy whatever was on sale. Ground beef, turkey, chicken, it really doesn't matter. I'd also buy a lot of it and freeze it. But that's just me. 

**You have lots of choices with vegetables. Usually Chuki gets chopped, raw tomatoes, grated carrot, or leafy greens that are on the verge of non-edible. He'll eat the tomatoes and carrot raw but he won't eat the leafy greens. If you're having trouble with the pupster eating vegetables here's a great trick. Put them in the food processor and cook them with the meat. He'll love it! 

Hope you enjoy! Stay tuned for more Home Cooking recipes! 

MULUB, 

Taylor