What to feed your dog? There are two main feeding options:
- Ready-made feed
- Natural food
Ready-made food is sold in the store. But you have to prepare the natural one yourself.
How and from what to prepare porridge for a dog? This is the question asked by any person who has decided to get a puppy or an adult dog. And he wants to feed his pet natural food. I also prefer natural food. I cook porridge and soups. In addition, I give fish (without bones), eggs and cottage cheese 1-2 times a week.
Despite the fact that a dog is a predator, the diet should include such foods as:
- Meat
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Cereals
- Fish
- Eggs
- Dairy
Plus, don’t forget about mineral and vitamin supplements.
Stories of observations of my pet:
I live in the private sector in my own house, so my dog has the opportunity to move freely around the garden and yard at any time.
Watching her, I noticed that she is a very big fan of walking around the berries. Raspberries have been guarding almost since spring. He loves plums and apricots very much. Don't mind eating a pear. He doesn’t really like apples, but he makes apple burrows and buries them all over the garden and yard. Loves nuts.
Among vegetables, he loves pumpkin and zucchini, carrots, eats cucumbers with pleasure, and loves cabbage.
Which ones are useful?
Let's figure out which cereal is best for the daily diet of large and small breeds. When purchasing a puppy, be sure to consult a breeder or veterinarian about its proper nutrition. Large breeds can eat almost any cereal without compromising their health (for example, the German Shepherd , which adapts to any diet).
If you have a small dog or one that has digestive problems or some health problems (for example, a decorative one, these breeds have a long history of genetic mutations behind them), then you need to strictly and carefully select porridges . The choice is often limited to buckwheat and then in small quantities. If an allergy begins ( redness of the ears , itching of the skin), then the cereal component is excluded.
Buckwheat
The most useful porridge. It contains many microelements, vegetable proteins, B vitamins, and rutin. The iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium contained in cereals have a beneficial effect on the animal's circulatory system. Normalizes the nervous system, helps strengthen the skeleton. Buckwheat helps fight excess weight. For dogs, buckwheat porridge is prepared without salt and spices; the water ratio should be 2:1.
Owners, let's have some porridge!
How to cook buckwheat porridge correctly?
Pour cold water over the cereal overnight and drain off the settled husks in the morning. For cooking, take 1 part buckwheat to 2 parts water. The porridge is cooked for 15 minutes, after which it is infused in a saucepan. You can add vegetable oil to a warm dish if the porridge is cooked in water or vegetable broth.
Rice
Rice is rich in vitamins E and a whole group of vitamin B. Porridge is rich in microelements such as zinc, iron, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Rice porridge promotes the smooth functioning of the heart, bones, blood vessels, and genitourinary system. The fight against aging also occurs due to the nutritional properties of rice. Brown rice is considered the healthiest because of the shell, which is very beneficial for the dog.
Cook the rice so that it remains crumbly. Only if the dog is poisoned, it is necessary to give rice mucus and use it to treat diarrhea, remove toxins, and for vomiting.
How to cook rice?
Rice should be thoroughly rinsed with cold water, especially if you are cooking polished rice. Then the prepared rice is poured into boiling water and cooked for 30-35 minutes. Then the porridge is covered and infused. Broth, vegetables, meat are added to the finished dish. You can salt the rice porridge a little and add a spoonful of vegetable oil to avoid sticking.
Wheat
An ambiguous product, because... Digested much worse than other cereals. Therefore, wheat porridge is rarely used and only as a “rag” for the dog’s intestines. Wheat porridge can be given only to adult dogs and rarely.
The main thing is to boil it thoroughly for up to 1 hour, so that the grains are boiled until smooth, and then leave it under a closed lid to infuse.
The porridge is rich in vitamins such as PP, C, E, A, B. The dog’s diet will be rich in potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, magnesium and other minerals if wheat porridge is used for food.
Oatmeal
Is oatmeal good for dogs? Oats contain proteins, fats, amino acids and iron salts, and are also cheap. But it is worth noting that the high protein content can cause stomach upset in the dog. It is better to choose flakes that are not too refined, because. they are too high in calories.
The porridge is prepared exclusively in water, even rather steamed, without salt and spices, in order to preserve all the minerals. You can add a small amount of olive oil. Feed oatmeal no more than once a week.
Can dogs eat buckwheat?
Breeders sometimes doubt whether this cereal can be given to dogs.
It is worth knowing that porridge normalizes metabolism, improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system, promotes weight loss, improves immunity, strengthens teeth and bones. It is prescribed during the recovery period after surgery.
This cereal is included in the dog's menu. The pet's daily diet consists of 35% cereals and 65% other products. When the balance is disturbed, the animal develops health and development problems.
Recipes: how to cook?
We figured out what grains to cook porridge from. Let's move on to how to actually prepare tasty and healthy porridge:
With vegetables
- 1.5 cups of any porridge,
- 1 ripe tomato
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 medium potato,
- chicken soup set.
Pour water into the pan and throw in the chicken frames or heads. As soon as the water boils, add chopped carrots, potatoes and maybe a little cabbage. It boils a little - add the cereal.
If the dog likes it, you can add fresh herbs. As you know, greens are a whole bunch of vitamins. Place diced vegetables into the prepared warm wheat porridge. A wonderful summer meal for your pet is ready.
Important! Do not store this dish, but serve it freshly prepared so that the vegetables do not drain and retain all the vitamins.
Soup
Boil vegetables:
- Cauliflower
- Carrot
- Potato
- Parsley
- Spinach leaves
Add a glass of buckwheat to the vegetable broth and cook for 10-15 minutes. Then leave covered for 1 hour. When the soup is warm add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. A hearty, healthy soup is ready.
Dog rice
- 300 grams of any lean meat. You can have turkey, chicken.
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 cup cooked oatmeal
- 1 cup grated fresh carrots
- 1 cup diced vegetables (whatever your pet likes)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
How to cook:
Cut the meat into pieces so that it is convenient for the dog to eat. This nutritious mixture of rice and vegetables will delight your pet either for breakfast or for dinner.
Hercules
Oatmeal is exactly what can serve as both a complete meal and a delicacy.
- 2 cups whole oatmeal
- 2 parts lean meat (chicken, beef),
- 1 grated carrot,
- 1 tbsp. olive oil.
Boil oatmeal, add pre-boiled meat until it becomes mucus. For your pet, this will be a fortified version of dinner or breakfast.
Favorite cottage cheese
Every dog’s diet should contain fermented milk products: cottage cheese, sour cream, kefir, yogurt (without additives or dyes). Such products are an excellent natural source of calcium that helps strengthen bones and joints.
It is also necessary to include eggs in your dog's diet. Eggs can be boiled chicken or raw quail. One or two eggs per week.
Or you can combine everything together and make something like this.
We will need
Not so much:
- 1/3 pack of cottage cheese up to 5% fat.
- 2-3 tablespoons of sour cream.
- A little apple, banana or pumpkin.
- 1 boiled chicken or 2 raw quail eggs.
Preparation
Let's do the following:
- Cut the fruit into pieces.
- Mix them with cottage cheese and put them in a bowl.
- Add sour cream to the same bowl (usually I don’t mix cottage cheese and sour cream, but if you want, you can mix everything).
- I break an egg into the fermented milk yummy.
- That's all! Your favorite cottage cheese can be served to your favorite little dog at the royal table.
What cereals should you avoid?
Porridge is undoubtedly good for dogs, but there are also some that should not be given. These are barley, semolina, milk, corn, pearl barley. Let's look at why these cereals are harmful to pets.
Barley is difficult to digest and can cause constipation in your dog. Also, egg is difficult to digest and is considered heavy on the stomach. The dog may feel a heaviness in its stomach and will be significantly less active. This fact can lead to excess weight and bone disease. How to cook barley - no way for dogs!
Semolina is an absolutely useless porridge. It contains virtually no microelements. For that there is an abundance of vitamin B. Consequently, the pet gains weight very quickly, not having time to absorb vitamins and other beneficial substances coming from other foods. Semolina clogs the stomach very much. This leads to diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Milk porridge often causes bloating in dogs, which is completely unacceptable. Many dogs are lactose intolerant, resulting in severe allergies. An allergic reaction to the protein may also occur, causing vomiting and inability to digest other foods. Veterinarians note that milk was often the cause of volvulus. This does not depend at all on the fat content of the product. So before pampering your pet with a dairy product, you should consult a veterinarian. In addition to milk, your dog can eat cheese and fermented milk products in a certain amount.
Compatibility test: can a dog have milk and fermented milk products?
Corn porridge is not very well digested and causes bloating. To prevent your pet from suffering, you should abstain from this cereal. If for some reason you had to give your pet corn grits, you should dilute it with vegetables 1:1 and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. This way the balance is restored and the dog is not harmed. But, even taking into account our recommendations, it is worth consulting a doctor, since all indications are individual for each pet.
What is suitable for puppies
Until 8–10 months, puppies are fed only buckwheat, rice and oatmeal. Afterwards, it is allowed to gradually introduce wheat and barley porridge.
It is important to monitor your dog's reaction to new foods. If allergic reactions or stomach upsets occur, food is no longer given.
Very young children - up to a month old - can be fed semolina. It is not rich in useful elements, but it is high in calories and contains a large amount of B vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates.
Semolina milk porridge is an excellent option for newborn puppies who are not breastfed.
The crumbs on this cereal grow quickly and gain weight. Afterwards it is recommended to replace it with healthier oatmeal.
Sometimes it is recommended to give semolina porridge in small quantities to dogs with diseases of the digestive system. It is easily digested, coats the walls of the stomach and relieves cramps. But you shouldn’t get carried away, as your pet may develop obesity.
Dry and instant
Quick-ready porridges are gaining great popularity.
Hot Dog
The benefits of cereals are obvious for those who value their time. It will take four dogs 5-7 minutes a day to prepare porridge. Pets always have fresh food that is completely digestible. Hot dog porridge contains only natural ingredients, plus the vitamin composition a dog needs every day. The porridge has no preservatives or artificial additives. The affordable price will please every owner of several dogs.
Hot dog porridge is made from a high-quality grain mixture, which is crushed and thermally treated under high pressure. All treatments are gentle, so all components retain their shell, vitamins, minerals and trace elements.
Gourmet
Instant flakes are made from premium quality grains. Production involves short-term processing at high temperatures. Thanks to this, the entire vitamin composition is preserved. Instant flakes are very easily digestible. The dog is energetic and full of strength after eating.
Vermicelli gourmet
Instant noodles are made from flour with low gluten content. When the product is ready, it is subjected to heat treatment. Flakes and vermicelli are made from environmentally friendly products, without flavorings, dyes and salt. The porridge is packaged in buckets weighing 400 g, 1, 4 and 13 kg, as well as bags of 400 g, 1 and 3 kg and bags of 15 kg.
Do I need salt?
The age-old question of all dog breeders is whether they need to add salt to their pet’s food. Every caring owner is concerned about how to diversify the dog’s food supply and how to please it. If your pet is happy to eat food with added salt and refuses bland food. Then, most likely, this is not spoilage, but a lack of salt in the body. Animals are very smart and know what is best for their body. But there are also pets who do not disdain salty sausage, and the owners will certainly pamper their pet.
Important! Excessive amounts of salt in a dog's food leads to its death!
Salt is important in a dog’s life, as it is responsible for hematopoiesis and promotes the secretion of gastric juice. Salt should be in the diet, but should not be tasted. If one piece does nothing, then four such pieces can lead to poisoning, kidney disease, and urinary tract diseases in the dog. Kidney stones and cystitis are a consequence of salty pet treats. If the dog regularly eats fresh meat, then it already contains as much salt as the body needs. When cooking meat, you should add 1/3 of the dose that you would add to yourself into the broth.
If you can't decide whether you need to add salt, think about how much treat comes from your table. For example, cheese, sausage, meat. If there is quite a lot, then you should not get carried away and add salt to your pet’s main food, because most of it has already been received with the treat.
Mmm, porridge with meat
It is well known that the dog must have fresh water in sufficient quantity . It must be taken into account that if the pet consumes something additional that contains salt, it is necessary to increase the daily dose of salt.
Do not give or withhold salt to your dog thoughtlessly. It is necessary to consult a veterinarian, who will definitely prescribe a biochemical analysis. The results will make it clear whether salt can be added to the diet or whether it is completely contraindicated for the animal.
It is worth noting that when cooking porridge, you should add a little vegetable oil. This is very beneficial for the coat and eyes. You can add a little salt. Unless completely contraindicated by a veterinarian. This usually happens if the dog has kidney disease or urolithiasis.
Chicken with rice
Please read about how to feed your dog chicken!
Ingredients (we use the quantity of products by eye, depending on the size of the dog)
Take:
- Chicken meat.
- Rice.
- Carrot.
Preparation
Here's what to do:
- Cut the chicken, add water and cook until done.
- At the same time, in a separate container, boil rice or buckwheat (also until tender).
- When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the broth and cut it into small pieces or grind it into minced meat.
- Three carrots on a coarse grater.
- Mix everything and add a spoonful of oil.
Supplements
Vegetables . It will be healthy and tasty for your pet to add vegetables to ready-made porridge. If vegetables are subjected to heat treatment, they will lose all their vitamin content. Ready-made porridge with the addition of carrots, beets, pumpkin, cabbage, cucumber and tomatoes will diversify the taste of the porridge and give your pet a portion of vitamins. It is optimal to add 1/3 of the vegetables from the entire serving.
Meat . It should be added to porridge in the same quantity as vegetables. It is better to cut into small pieces or pass through a meat grinder. Meat is added to the porridge during cooking, raw or cooked. Your pet will like the minced meat, both raw and processed.
Important! Give pork only after heat treatment, since pork is a carrier of plague pathogens. Dogs are also prone to this disease. By-products should also be given only boiled .
Meat mix (from boiled offal)
Your dog will love this recipe. The dish prepared using it is very healthy, our pets simply adore it.
Ingredients (beef by-products)
We will need: heart, lung, liver, scar, trachea, and so on (but under no circumstances give kidneys).
Preparation
Do this:
- Take different types of meat.
- Cut it into small pieces, add water and put on fire. Cook for 20-30 minutes.
- Drain the water. The dish is ready.
How much to give?
Now that we have decided on the cereals, let’s calculate how much cereal to give the dog at one feeding? The main dish is porridge with meat products and vegetables, given to pets at the rate of 60-70 grams. feed per 1 kilogram of weight per day . This norm is divided into 2 or 3 doses.
A book about dogs (Roucerol Georges V.)
The proportions of the products are as follows: 50% stringy meat and offal; 30% porridge; 20% vegetables and fruits. Thus, per kilogram of dog weight, you need 30-35 grams of meat, 20-25 grams of porridge, and 5-10 grams of vegetables and herbs per day. A dog that weighs 15 kg should eat 150-190 grams with two meals a day. porridge for one feeding or 300-375 gr. in a day.
Approximate diet
The daily menu for a dog with average physical activity and weighing about 20 kg includes 2 meals:
- for breakfast, raw chicken necks (300 g) combined with vegetable oil (0.5 teaspoon);
- for dinner buckwheat porridge (100 g) with beef (200 g) zucchini (50 g).
Meat can be replaced with sea fish or poultry. In between main meals, you can give your pet a few pieces of vegetables or fruits.
This is interesting: The benefits of vegetables and fruits for dogs
How and why should you cook with water and not with broth?
Every owner wants their dog to have food that is not only healthy, but also tasty. Because of this, the question arises: is it possible to cook porridge not with water, but with broth? The fact is that due to prolonged cooking, undigested fats and much more remain in the water, which will not benefit the dog.
All elements enter the liver directly from the stomach and affect the cells. Dilution of gastric juice has a detrimental effect on digestion. Broth can develop erosive gastritis. If the broth is low-fat or third-cooked, it can sometimes be given with porridge. Just mix and not cook the cereals in broth. The main nutrition should be based on cooking porridge in clean water .
Diarrhea from buckwheat
Diarrhea signals that the stomach has not been able to digest food. In the case of buckwheat porridge, an allergy to milk may occur. If the porridge is prepared without additives, then you should suspect product intolerance. If there are no problems with buckwheat, you need to check the freshness of the dish.
A one-time loosening of stool should not cause alarm, but if the dog suffers from frequent loose diarrhea, then the problem is not the food. Your veterinarian will help determine the cause and prescribe appropriate treatment.
Nutrition rules
- Feeding should not extend throughout the day. It is necessary to put the plate of food in the refrigerator 15-20 minutes from the moment you offer your pet a meal.
- It is enough to feed the dog twice a day and in equal portions.
- You should purchase a plate stand for your pet. With its help, you can adjust the plates and place them opposite the dog’s chest.
- Don't overdo it with salt. It is present in every product in sufficient quantity for the dog. You can add a little if you are sure that the product is completely fresh.
- The dog should always have fresh water and in sufficient quantity.
- If one feeding was missed, no matter what the reasons, then the portion of food for the dog cannot be increased at the next meal. Feed the same amount as you usually give.
- If the dog carefully licks the plate, then most likely it is not full, and you should slightly increase the dose of food at the next feeding. You should not give a double portion, otherwise you will have to lose extra pounds.
- A dog's diet should be varied in order for the pet to be healthy and cheerful.
- You cannot feed your pet two hours before active exercise, and an hour before a regular walk. You should also not feed the animal an hour after physical activity.
- If dogs growl while eating, this is directly related to the wrong diet. It is necessary to set the exact time and amount of food and then the dog will stop growling, because it will intuitively know when it will be fed.
In order for your pet to be cheerful and healthy, feed him a balanced diet, walk him and pamper him with your attention, and he will not remain indifferent to you. Share your experience, how you feed your pet, how often you walk, and what your pet likes most.
Harm
Despite the obvious benefits of oatmeal, a number of breeders speak extremely negatively about this porridge. The common argument “You don’t give a horse meat, so why does a dog need oats?”, despite its wit, is neither scientific nor reasoned. Let's figure out what's going on.
First, oatmeal is high in calories and carbohydrates. Its approximate composition per 100 g:
- carbohydrates – 65.4 g;
- proteins – 11 g;
- fats – 6 g.
Calorie content of 100 g of oatmeal – 359.6 calories. Therefore, if your pet often eats oatmeal and does not lose enough energy, he will quickly begin to gain weight.
This will definitely harm the dog, so you should not feed your inactive pet oatmeal. If the animal walks for 2-3 hours a day, oatmeal will only be beneficial.
Important : oatmeal is contraindicated in castrated and sterilized animals, as well as those suffering from urolithiasis.
Allergy
Secondly, dogs are often allergic to oatmeal (due to vegetable proteins), and some also experience stomach upset. In case of allergies, this porridge is completely excluded from the diet. But if your dog begins to feel weak, you can try mixing oatmeal with other cereals, for example, rice.
There is also an opinion that dogs cannot digest anything from cereals, they are poorly digested and remain in the stomach for a long time. It's just ballast that makes you feel full. But in reality this is not so - cereals are important at least as a valuable source of fiber and carbohydrates.
