In this article, I will describe making your own food and treats for your dogs. Many of these include long-term storage items.
Recently, Zero Hedge posted an article that described animal shelters throughout the country as at full capacity because pet owners have brought in their pets at record rates. The sad reason repeated is inflationary prices for human and pet products. Fido and Fluffy had to go. I heard the same thing when we recently adopted a dog from the Anchorage, AK pound.
Fortunately, there are many pet products that one can made from scratch, often with long storage items, and at much lower cost than commercial brands.
An Internet search finds many useful recipes on websites, including www.housethatbarks.com, www.dogtreatkitchen.com and www.everycreaturecounts.org.
Consider the following items that I make for our dog at our remote, Alaskan home:
DOG BISCUITS
(A recipe that I adapted from the All About Dog Treats site.)
Commercial dog biscuits vary in price from 28 cts/oz to over $1/oz. Try this inexpensive and easy recipe. Does your dog like it just as much? The website above has dozens of recipes with other ingredients, too, like bacon, turkey, and dates.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix well:
2 cups flour (any kind)
1 cup raw oatmeal (rolled oats)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup HOT water
Knead a bit.
Cut into the shape and size you want. For me, this yields 28 thumb size bars about the thickness of commercial dog biscuits.
At this thickness, cook for 45 minutes to get a hard biscuit, or less time to bake a brownie textured bar. The hard ones are shelf stable for the month in which you would likely use these up. Otherwise, freeze or refrigerate.
We use these as training treats to teach our new dog basic commands and to climb in and out o our little plane.
DOG SHAMPOO
This dog shampoo is similar to what I make for human shampoo.
1/3 cup castile soap
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
a few drops of essential oil if desired.
Shake well.
If your dog does not like baths, consider dipping a washcloth into the solution to rub him/her and then rinse with another washcloth. An important area to wash is the insides of the back legs, which may get spattered with urine.
CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT
Do you eat eggs? Save the shells! When you accumulate a number of them, boil them for several minutes (websites vary from 3 to 10 minutes), cool, dry, and pulverize (in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle) the shells into a powder. For our 50 lb one-year-old dog, I add a teaspoon to his food. Puppies need more calcium than older dogs, and the recommended amount depends on dog size, too. This is easy to research.
BLOOD PUDDING
People in the UK eat black pudding, which is blood pudding. I make this for my dog occasionally by boiling the bloody water in a package of meat until it forms a frothy, pudding-like texture. Refrigerate and use within a few days.
DOG FOOD
There are many Internet-accessible recipes for homemade dog food. Most of these use ingredients similar to a human palatable stew, with meat, vegetables, grains, and fish oil. I do not make these because I do not want our dog to beg for human food. Instead, I purchase dry dog food and fish oil in bulk quantities. However, if I run out of dog food during our winter five months without resupply, I know what I can cook for him.