Raw vs Cooked?

[Cliffdog]

I was just wondering what sort of nutrients are lost in the cooking process? How do people who homecook, make up for the loss of these nutrients? Do homecookers need to feed veggies to make up for the things lost by cooking? Just a few questions, I am leaning more toward raw (and I am supplementing kibble with raw) at the moment, but I want to learn about homecooked, so I can know my options. Any good resources are nice, but I refuse to read anything that says dogs should eat the same thing humans eat (meats fruits veggies and grains) because dogs are hypercarnivores.

[stajbs]

I would consider looking at a site called dogaware.com which you may know about. I got several cooked recipe ideas there to get through some issues with our dogs recently and in the past. I find it to be a pretty in depth well thought out website with a lot of information. Diets for dogs with kidney issues, diabetes, cancer, liver issues and healthy dogs etc. We're just coming off a 3 month stint of total home cooking for our one sibe. He has done well, and we started adding BG canned food to the homecooked this weekend and so far so good. We've got good stools and no rapid transit.

I will say except for the sweet potatoes and split peas which we cooked like mad we never overcooked the meat. Plus all the water and juices remaining after the cooking process we included in his diet. Plus we added his Nupro for some vitamins/minerals and the glucosamine, chondroitin etc. It's not a diet I would want to continue long term because of lack of variety and concerns about some deficiencies.

The primary thing with home cooked is variety, and quite a few of the recipes I found were very limited on veggies and we bagged grains totally. Our boy had trouble with brown and white rice. Decided then not to add any grains.

Stools on a homecooked diets are also pretty darned small, I assume because the dog utilizes most of the nutrients unless you would add grain and a lot of other fiber sources the stools should remain small. After the first week on the turkey and sweet potato diet we had him up to close to 75% ground turkey, 20% cooked yams, and 5% cooked split peas.

If you can do it raw is probably the way to go, I just have a hang up with raw, and the vet knew we weren't feeding Science Diet so we opted for home cooked. WDJ also did a whole series on home cooked about 2 years if you can get your hands on those articles to research also.

[sassymaxmom]

The WDJ articles are on dogaware, Ms. Straus wrote them!

If I was forced, kicking and screaming, to feed cooked I would be using this sort of diet. The actual recipes are at the bottom of the page.
Low-Glycemic | B-Naturals.Com Newsletter

[thegoddessjen]

I like the low-glycemic recipes! I think I may go to those and see how they work out for us.

[lily]

personaly i wouldnt dream of cooking for my dog ,i barely cook for the family !!,she gets raw and thats it lol,karen

[MollyWoppy]

It's funny. I absolutey HATE cooking. Blimin screaming, hate, hate, hate it. But, if my dog or cat required home cooked, I would do it with bells on. La de dah, no problem at all. Anything at all for my little twinklebums.

[doggiedad]

do you feed your dog beef, chicken, fish,
lamb, pork, sweet potato, rice, any oils?? there's fruit in some dog food.
my dog likes apples and Asian pears. what do you feed your dog that
humans don't eat??

Any good resources are nice, but I refuse to read anything that says dogs should eat thesame thing humans eat (meats fruits veggies and grains) because dogs are hypercarnivores.

[doggiedad]

that's funny. what our animals make us do.

It's funny. I absolutey HATE cooking. Blimin screaming, hate, hate, hate it. But, if my dog or cat required home cooked, I would do it with bells on. La de dah, no problem at all. Anything at all for my little twinklebums.

[stajbs]

Twinklebums...I am lovin it MollyWoppy!!! That is just too cute!!

[Jessvin]

I give to my puppy raw food and cooked food both because he likes to eat everything.Which is better for a dog's health Raw food or cooked food? Reply me soon.thanks.