This sounds miserly, maybe. I buy and haul 50 lb. bags of dog food, and two different types of cat food (the old mouser needs low ash) and must panic and drive a half hour to replenish. I was thinking today, since I ran out of dog food and was cooking them a oatmeal, cornmeal, butter, milk, leftover bread and old egg hotdish, that NO WAY do other remote homesteaders sweat this. So, what DO you feed your dogs?

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), February 17, 2000

Answers

other than the nocturnal animals that they can catch!

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), February 17, 2000.

Good question, and a good reason to keep a limit on the number of dogs that you have. We have a border collie that eats amazingly little food even when it is always available. I can hardly believe that she can live on the puny amount of food she eats. In addition to dog food we feed her leftovers and excess milk, usually old milk or milk that the goats stuck their foot in during milking. I do know thhat at $2.00 a lb, there is no way that she is ever going to get butter unless it is rotten or moldy!! When we butcher we save all the butchering scraps such as the organ meats that we don't eat and such, and cook those up and feed that out. If there are roadkills where you live you can pick those up and cook them up in a big pot or 55 gallon drum outside and feed it out.If it is illegal to pick up roadkills where you live you can either do it anyway or talk to your fish and game warden and ask him if you can have roadkills to feed your dogs. Sometimes they will give you very fresh kills that are still warm and you can eat them yourself. If you are willing to take the time, there is no reason you couldn't dry the meat for use when roadkills are more scarce.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), February 17, 2000.

Frugal Families by Jonni McCoy had some dog and cat food recipes (mostly rice and egg based). It's about the only interesting thing in the whole book!

-- Becky M. (beckymom@kjsl.com), February 17, 2000.

The only home made food I have ever fed is chicken and rice or hamburgar and rice .This was due to illness of one sort or another.Eggs are a good source of protein .I would not stop feeding dog food all together , maybe just shoot for cutting down .Supplement with extra eggs and food scraps . If local to you check out walmarts lamb and rice foods.The price is reasonable and fairly good quality .Try not to feed corn its a filler .Ingredients are listed in order "lamb , rice , corn ect which means for example of a 20 pound bag there may be 10 lbs of lamb 7 lbs of rice and 3 lbs of corn .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), February 17, 2000.

There is a great book on natural health care for dogs and cats its called dr pitcairns complete guid to natural health for dogs and cats which has a lot of good recipes in it for both kinds, maybe your library has a copy?

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), February 17, 2000.

Or 20 pds = 7 pds lamb + 6> pds rice + 6< pds corn

-- d (darmst@yahoo.com.au), February 18, 2000.

With cat and dog food being as expensive as it is and not always that nutritious, I feed my carnivores fresh meat. "Fresh meat!" you say. Yes. It is less expensive than a good dog or cat food. I go to the butchers and I find what is on sale for less than $1.00 a pound. Good dog or cat food usually costs more than $1.00 a pound. What I find at the butchers is usually chicken livers and gizzards, beef liver, hamburger, fats, other internal organs and whatever else I can find. A good butcher house will have just about anything available. For the other internal organs I usually have to ask. People around here don't eat them so they are usually thrown away. Also if you butcher your own animals, save every scrap, every organ, every thing. What you don't eat, the animals will. I feed all of this meat raw. Sometimes I have to grind it or cut it into pieces so that it is in a form the cats and dog can handle, but raw meat is best for them. Cooked meat loses a lot of its nutrition. Also the internal organs are very necessary for them to get the vitamins and minerals that they need. Muscle meat does not have the same or necessary nutrition. I do recommend the book by Dr. Pitcairn "Natural Health for Dogs and Cats" as mentioned above. Although I do find that some of his recipes are a little too much trouble. Another good book is "The New Natural Cat" by Anitra Frazier and another one for nutrition in general is "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon. The last book is one of the best books on food and nutrition I have ever read. If you find books of that sort boring, this one is completely different. It was recommended by a Countryside reader in one of the issues last years, and I happened to pick the last copy up in a bookstore. I usually don't read those types of books, but I am glad I read this one.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), February 18, 2000.

Years ago when I shot a deer, everything I did not eat went into a big canner on a wood stove outside and I cooked it down, boned it out, then I mixed it with rolled oats and/or cornmeal, salt, red pepper & garlic powder and canned it. I had a friend who cut deer during the season and I could get more that I wanted. I was feeding 4 dogs at the time, and they got all the bones too. But now, I go to the store and get the 50# bags for $12.00 ea. and they, (still four dogs) have that and scraps.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), February 18, 2000.

I do buy quality(turkey/rice) dog food for our family pet. I buy it in 40 lb. bags and for our 60 lb. collie mix it lasts at least 2 months. It costs $3.00 or less per week, and I do feed him scraps , scrambled eggs, & bacon grease several times a week. I know people that feed their dogs cheap food, yet won't give them scraps because they think it's not good for them. Their dogs have lot's of health problems. Ours doesn't so far. I get the dog food at the feed store. Probably a lot of ways to feed cheaper or healthier, like some of the above posts, but this is what we can do now.

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), February 18, 2000.

I have to agree with the Dr. Pitcairn's folks above. It's the best book around and goes into the very good reasons to feed your pets homemade food. If you can get your hands on an older version (try bibliofind.com), do so. I have both versions and prefer the older one. It has more helpful information on replacing ingredients, and it has simpler, more realistic recipes, many in bulk amounts. I have had a lot of experience with this type of feeding and you can email me with any questions.

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), February 23, 2000.

I met an interesting Dr. at a Whole Life expo who also raised Irish setters.He told me that his dogs were living in to there 20's because of the all vegetarian diet he fed them. It consisted of rice, pinto beans veggies[carrots,broccoli etc.]plus liquid vitamins.he also said that this diet however would not work for cats because they require certain amino acids only present in meat.Hope this info. helps you.

-- chris perry (ezhook@yahoo.com), September 10, 2000.

We found that by keeping dry dog food out for the dogs 24/7 that they ate considerably less. We supplement the dry feed with milk, eggs, oil and table scraps. I also can any unused parts of butcher animals. The cats get to try to steal any dog food they can, and they receive eggs daily. Our dogs are healthy and robust, and have always earned their keep. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 10, 2000.

For my cats, I cook up ground turkey or ground chicken, maybe some gizzards or livers, maybe a can of jack mackerel, some oatmeal or rice or bulgar wheat or whatever grain I have around, toss in a package of frozen cheapo vegetables, some dehydrated garlic, maybe mince up a bunch of parsley. Eggs? lentils? all fine... Cook it up and freeze it in plastic containers or bags, and thaw as needed. About half their diet is homemade, half better quality canned & dried catfood. Sometimes I'll do up a jar of brewers yeast, kelp, dolomite and bran, to sprinkle on for extra vitamins. When the cat was getting fat, i just doubled the parsley & bran -- he ate just as much, but it was a lot of roughage, and he slimmed down without trauma. The above general recipe I got from the Natural Cat Book.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), September 10, 2000.

We have 6 Border Collies, and we get their food at Tractor Supply. It's high protein, only about 10.00 per 50lbs, and they love it. The blue bag is good for pups too, so we only have to buy one kind. We only spend 20.00 a month, and our dogs more than pay for themselves. They get about 1 gallon of goats milk cut with some water once a day, and I make them cornbread, (5lb bag only 1.00). They get the eggs cooked in the cornbread, and the oil is good for their skin too. If I have too many eggs I drop the egg (no shell) in boiling water and cook them like hard boiled but you don't have to peel them. They get no scraps of any kind, they only eat out of their own bowls. In fact I have to be careful they don't gain too much, Borders, or any dogs, should never be overweight, they should be fit and trim to stay healthy. Ours are shiney and very healthy. I worm once a month too.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 11, 2000.