Posted on 09/23/2009 6:19:16 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
Ingredients:
Three 1 lb chubs of ground turkey, I use the 85/15 blend
3/4 cup of short-grain brown rice, uncooked
1/2 can of no-salt sweet peas
~3 lbs of chicken hearts
1/2 bottle of Classico Creamy Alfredo Sauce (either the regular or 4-cheese blend)
4 rounded teaspoons of powdered bone meal (HEB sells big bottles of Now Brand, should be available at most any health food store)
First, I boil the chicken hearts for about an hour, and cook the rice in a pot. Then, using a 12" fry pan, I brown the ground turkey over medium heat. Drain most of the grease; leaving a little bit in the pan is ok, it will be absorbed a bit by the rice which may make it more tasty but will probably make it spoil more quickly. Should still be good for 3-4 days in the refrigerator though.
Once the turkey meat is browned, I add in the rice and sweet peas, then sprinkle on the 4 teaspoons of bone meal. The bone meal is for calcium, which is vital for dogs. I then pour the alfredo sauce over it, trying to cover the bone meal (it's somewhat insoluble, so covering it with the sauce makes it easier to mix in.) Then I stir it all together until it's well mixed.
I use small square Ziploc boxes to measure out the servings. First, I put about 1/2 cup of the chicken hearts in each box, then 1 cup of the turkey-rice blend. And that's one serving, I try to feed her two servings (morning and evening) in a day.
For the beef liver, I use about 1 lb sliced thin (HEB sells it like that, in a small tub) and fry it in olive oil (the cheapest olive oil I can find.) I then chop/cut it into small pieces and add it evenly to a half-weeks servings (I usually split it with the chicken hearts, so 1/4 cup hearts and 1/4 cup liver, instead of 1/2 cup of hearts.)
Sometimes Missy is still picky about eating it, so before putting it down for her I'll take a slice of cheese (American usually, but I've used Swiss, cheddar, and colby/jack too, she's crazy for most any kind of cheese), tear it up into small strips and put it down first, then the food on top of it, spread out enough that she can see/smell the cheese in places. That encourages her to eat the food (or at least push it out of the way) to get at the cheese, and once she starts eating it she usually goes on to finish it. It's the getting her started at it that's the most difficult part.
Not sure what dietary restrictions Gypsy has, but that's the nice thing about home-made recipes, you can change it and substitute ingredients as you need. ;-) Hope the recipe helps!
Yep, saw the promo for that one too. GL had a pretty cool trailer, we saw it on Fringe. That’ll be a good rental. The closed captioning makes the rental movies much more enjoyable. OB
Thanks so much for the recipe! I had some of the ingredients, but got the ground turkey today after Gypsy’s acupuncture appointment. She’ll sleep most of the afternoon now, and I can get it made. I couldn’t find chicken hearts so I’m using chicken gizzards. Dan and I can finish off the Classico Alfredo Sauce, that stuff is wonderful!!
She has lots of western-medicine dietary restrictions, but my eastern-medicine vet says feed her what she’ll eat, which is everything she shouldn’t. She should have lots of veggies and grains, but if I put green peas in that meal, I would find them gently placed on the floor outside the dogdish after Gypsy ate!
I used bone meal in Gypsy’s food, 1 tsp. per pound of meat, until Gypsy’s last blood test, and her kidney values were rising so the vet said to stop with the extra calcium.
I’ll let you know how it turns out. Keep you fingers crossed.
I used to use a mix of gizzards and hearts, but the gizzards seemed too big so I would cut them in half or thirds. I got tired of the extra knife work, so switched to just hearts, which seemed the perfect size as-is, and Missy didn't mind the change.
I've always been worried about the bone meal, since calcium is critical for dogs and I don't think Missy would get enough without it. But, definitely go with your vet's recommendation.
I was wondering, have you tried doing a Google search for dog food recipes? There are a lot of sites out there that have some, although you have to be a bit careful. Many of the sites seem to me to be biased against food that is perceived to be bad for people, like eggs. But, they may give you more ideas on what you can try.
She recommended a book Dr. Khalsa's Natural Dog; A Holistic Guide for Healthier Dogs which has lots of great info and recipes. Unfortunately, Gypsy will only eat 'em rarely, if at all. I finally understand the expression "stiff-necked", 'cause it fits Miss Gyps to a tee!
Yep, that's Missy too. She is the only dog I've known that will walk away from a dish of food, when she is obviously hungry. Although I've found that if I keep her food fresh and occasionally give her a can of plain chicken meat for variety, she'll eat it with a lot less drama involved.
As a yout, Our Gang and some movies (one a pretty good Treasure Island).
As an adult, Superman et al.
Drama! What a perfect term for mealtime with Gyps. The recipe was not the hit I hoped it would be; OB was able to hand-feed her about half a serving before she walked away. Ditto the Hills A/D Critical Care canned food that should have worked (dogs can’t resist it, ha!).
She did eat some ground turkey and fried rice cooked with some Jack Stack Bar-B-Que sauce, so there is that.
Thanks for the recipe, I’ll use it with the next dog,’cause we can’t be without a dog....
It’s Caturday!
I suppose I shouldn’t let teh kittehs out early on weekend mornings. My neighbor said that they came over to his house last weekend and set his dog to barking...at 6 am.
*Sigh*
Woops, silly kittehs! I'm sure they just wanted to play!!
It's going to be a beautiful weekend for playing in the yard. This warm weather feels wonderful.
Yep...if it’s not too wet.
I got two bean teepees planted this week. I’ll at least get over to Westlake tomorrow for plant shopping. I’ve got corn to plant and transplants to get in the ground.
It’s just the disease. She used to be such a good eater and really enjoyed anything and everything we fed her. Now there is just this terrible disconnect. If she would curl up in a corner and not want to eat, well, we’d know what to do. Instead, she lays on the floor staring into the kitchen, willing us to fix her the right thing and that’s the frustrating part. So any and all suggestions are gratefully appreciated.
Well, that was a surprising thunderstorm last night. We got about .3 inch, too wet to do much outside today.
Yep. Too wet. I think I’ll just pot up some tomatoes and do some indoor gardening. Well...the planter box is mostly dry. I guess I could put some cactus out there.
Cacti are always a good choice. Long-spiked cacti for a planter box under a window!
I’ve got five little barrel cacti I can put out there...and lots of aloe. Then there’s that sedum I rooted from last year that can go out there.
That will work! I read a ~tip~ that said to prune your autumn sedum back in the spring when they reached about 6 inches high and when it bloomed in the fall, the flowers wouldn’t be so tall they fell over. I’m trying it, right now the pruned sedum are looking kind of sickly (gulp)
Well Westlake was doing a brisk business this morning. I got some annuals and their last four “Elegance Purple” lavender.
It’s lemon balm vs loosestrife in the front yard and the loosestrife is winning.
That's no joke. I pulled out all my loosestrife at least seven years ago, if not more. Lo and behold, I looked at the side plantings a couple of days ago and the durn stuff is making a comeback.
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