So, Emma is also part of a pet forum where they often discuss food for the other animals. When we first got Piper we wanted to raw feed, got a freezer (from free cycle!) especially for dog food etc, but she was having none of it! In the end, Emma ended up cooking some food so we have progressed from there. As some people have asked what she does exactly, last time she cooked up a batch she took pictures to explain.
I would like to quickly comment this has been done over time, speaking with vets etc, and works for our dog. Anyone making a home made diet must observe their pet to ensure they are getting the right nutrients etc!
Anyway, down to the food! As its been a tough month financially (Emma suddenly decided we needed new carpets upstairs plus buying the last few big baby items) we only bought enough meat to do a months worth of food. As Piper doesn't seem to eat the chicken meals we once made, we just do lamb and beef. We get this from the supermarket, trying to buy British where possible.
So, we have a leg of lamb, a packet of 3 lamb hearts, some stewing beef, some beef liver, two bags of frozen mixed veg (if fresh is on offer we buy that), some brown rice, some corn oil (although Emma is getting fish oil to use) and some calcium powder. The oil, calcium powder and rice tend to last a while, so once you buy these you don't have to replace every time you do the meals. I think a tub of the calcium powder lasts us a year?? Oil probably the same (if Emma isn't using it for cooking etc, which if its fish oil she isn't!).
Anyway, back to the food!
We start off by cooking the lamb leg in the oven for the recommended time. Piper refuses pinky lamb, so it has to be cooked through. Towards the end we add the hearts so they are nice and cooked, and then left out to cool (I forgot to take a picture of the cooked lamb).
In the meantime, we add a low salt stock cube (usually beef) to some water and boil. We add the stewing beef and liver to the boiled water and let it cook through. Usually takes 10 minutes. Meat is removed and put to one side to cool. Don't throw the water away!
Bring to the boil again (now has beef stock plus beef and liver juices in the water). Add 1.5 cups of brown rice and leave to cook. Halfway through, we add one packet of mixed frozen veg. This obviously cools the water down so needs to reheat, but we like to think the veg is soaking up some of the beef flavour by doing it this way. Once the rice is cooked, strain rice/veg mix and put to one side. Repeat again with another 1.5 cups rice and veg (if you have a bigger pot do it all together and then halve the mixture when done).
When the rice/veg mix is cooling, we add a small amount of the oil (maybe a table spoon) and two table spoons of calcium powder and mix through. In this instance Emma found some Oat bran in the cupboard and mixed some of that in, but usually if we have it we will add a cup of wheat bran - which is much better than oat bran!
Now comes the time consuming bit! Strip the meat from the lamb leg and cut the hearts up. These then go in the food processor and are blitzed! The shredded meat is added to one bowl of rice / veg mix and mixed up. Repeat the same for the beef and liver.
Once mixed, we then portion. We used to do 100g bags, but lately Piper seems to be eating more (I think its because Emma cut down on her treats!) so we have increased the portion size to 150g.
We just use the small food bags from Tescos. The food is portioned and using labels (cut and with either an L or B on them) we roll the bags and seal them. They are then put in the freezer and take a few out at a time to defrost in the fridge.
From the start of the cooking of the lamb (which takes the most time) you are probably looking at 4 hours here, but whilst the lamb is cooking I am usually doing things, so in all really this maybe took 2 hours max? Obviously if you have more freezer room (and cash) you can do bigger bulks and it will work out as less time as you could do 2-3 months worth of food in one go.
We ended up making 19 lamb dinners (plus naughty here - gave the lamb bone to Piper to strip the remaining meat - once you hear bone cracking it gets taken off her) and 18 beef dinners. Costs are as follows -
Lamb Meals -
Leg of Lamb - £15.02
Lamb Hearts - £2.24
1 x Bag Frozen veg - £0.75
Food bags (bag 60=£1.50, therefore 0.025p each) - £0.48
Total Cost £18.49 = 97p a meal
Beef Meals -
Beef - £8.19
Beef Liver - £0.83
1 x Bag Frozen veg - £0.75
Food bags (bag 60=£1.50, therefore 0.025p each) - £0.45
Total Cost £10.22 = 57p a meal
There are obviously the more ad hoc costs, such as the rice (£1.60 a bag, but lasts at least 6 months), Corn Oil (£1.98 lasts at least a year) and Calcium powder (£3.99 again lasts a good year). And gas, which I have no idea how to calculate, and time. But on the whole, for me, its a cheaper option as we know everything that is going into her meals so know the quality of the food she is having - and its cheaper than a lot of pet foods on the market.
We also give her raw bones from the farm shop as part of her diet. This helps ensure adequate calcium intake and also keeps her teeth clean. They can't sell them, so we give a donation to the local charity pot for them. We usually have some good bones for a donation of a couple of pounds - and they keep her happy and occupied for a while!
Obviously this works for us. We have discussed with our vets and they agree that Piper is healthy and not lacking anything. We have these meals through trial and error. I would like to do this for the cats, but its harder due to the more specific requirements for the taurine levels, so we are sticking with cat food for them!
Hope this give people some ideas!
