LOW FAT AUSTRALIAN DIET FOR DOGS
You all know that little Lolly has been battling to overcome her dry snake bites and is still having steroids to assist the auto immune arthritis she has developed. Her little muscles have just about given out so she was looking decidedly a balloon with legs although she is only back to the same weight she was before the incident. Her little back legs have no strength and are very weak so we needed to reduce her fat in take.
I looked at the scientific diets on the vet shelves but almost fell over when I saw that the medium bag for Lolly was $64. What?? I needed to investigate.
A dear friend makes his own vet directed dog food using kangaroo mince and it has helped his dog recover from her illness. I decided to give it a go but ran it passed Lolly’s physio at The Animal Rehabilitation Centre and her vet before embarking on the program. All specialists thought it was a good diet and our Lol just loves it. It only 0.8gm of Fat per 100g. It isn’t smelly to make and it’s so quick and easy. As we have gone along I believe Lolly is showing great improvement and has lost 300 gm. Now that may no sound like much of an achievement but for her tiny frame it’s a lot.
THE BENEFITS OF HOMEMADE DOG FOOD
There are several benefits to making your own food. The best being you can add or subtract ingredients from time to time if your pup isn’t well or they need something extra in their diet. You can also tell the vet exactly what they are eating. Oh I know many might think they just don’t have time or couldn’t be bothered but I decided that I wanted to stop paying endless vet bills and I constantly driving back and forth to the vet, physio and the doggy hospital. It takes 15 minutes to make. Why not?
THE DOG FOOD RECIPE
This 1 Kg of mince makes 22 large tablespoons of food, which feeds my little one for 11 days. You can work out how many meals that would be for your hound. Inexpensive? It works out to be about $1.20 per day and it’s good for her too.
INGREDIENTS
I Kg kangaroo mince, which is very low in saturated fats. I get mine at Woolies (Safeways).
500gm pumpkin, steamed in the microwave and roughly mashed (sweet potato is also great but made Lolly fart shockingly. Silent but deadly!)
½ cup frozen peas
1 small cube of frozen spinach
1 small carrot, grated
2-3 Tbs raw oats
1 egg
2 tsp eggshell powder, (the physio suggested it) great source of calcium I save, wash and dry the eggs shells and grind them to a powder in the pestle. Just keep them in a jar.
2 Tbs LSA powder (optional) LSA is (ground linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds). LSA was recommended by the vet. She tells me it’s effective at cleansing and detoxifying the liver, is a source of protein, fibre, omega 3, 6 and 9 essential fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin D, Vitamin B1,vitamin B2, vitamin B5, magnesium, manganese, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. That’s quite a bit for a few teaspoons of powder.
METHOD
-
Cook the meat in a large pot. (5 minutes)
-
Steam the pumpkin in the microwave, mash it and add to the pot with everything else.
-
Stir to combine and cook for about 5 minutes. Spoon into your freezable containers. Now I use 2 x small 12 muffin tray so this is about a weeks worth of food for Lolly but I guess bigger dogs maybe 2-3 meals. I freeze the tray then decant them into a container which we keep in the freezer.
-
Once a day I add 1 tsp Vets All Natural Health Booster and Blackmores Osteocare Joint Health Chews for glucasomine and chondroitin which I buy from our local stock and feed merchants. Tully’s Stock and feed.
-
You can choose to add 2 tsp LSA when you serve the meal instead of adding it when cooking the meat.
-
-
VARIATIONS
Crocodile can be substituted for kangaroo and is also excellent LOLLY’S physio tells me. Not as easily bought.