[Rev Terry R]

We have a one-year-old female yellow Lab who is in training to be my support dog. She has had three episodes of bloody stools in the last four months. The vet has ruled out parasites. We are looking at food issues since she seems to pass blood anytime there is even the smallest attempt to change her diet. We’ve been feeding Pedigree dry. It doesn’t cause the stomach irritation, but she doesn’t eat it well either. We’d like to try a homemade food but need something that won’t cost an arm and a leg. Anyone have a suggestion or recipe to share?

[RescueDaneMom]

Here are a few books that I have found very helpful for homemade dog food:

Dr. Becker’s Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats by Beth Taylor and Karen Shaw Becker DVM
Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet: Healthier Dog Food the ABC Way by Steve Brown
Feed Your Best Friend Better: Easy, Nutritious Meals and Treats for Dogs by Rick Woodford
Dr. Khalsa’s Natural Dog: A Holistic Guide for Healthier Dogs by Deva Khalsa

All are available on Amazon and most in Kindle ebook format. The first two are great for explaining the nitty gritty details of food like protein, fat, etc (what they need and why they need it). It’s more than just recipes. I would recommend getting at least one of those. It’s very important to make complete and balanced meals if you’re doing homemade. I make some homemade food for my dog. I don’t have time to do solely homemade. It can definitely be affordable. You’ll probably want to buy meat in bulk at a wholesale club (sam’s, costco, etc) and incorporate foods that are on sale at the time.

Edit: This is also a great online resource for homemade food- http://www.dogaware.com/diet/homemade.html

• This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by RescueDaneMom.

[Susan]

Hi, sounds like Colitis, when I first rescued my boy, he was pooing blood & had the gurgling bowel early hours of the morning, sometimes his poos had what I call jelly poos & blood.. vet said Colitis, lower his fat %.. since Ive put him on the Eukanuba Intestinal vet prescription diet this all stopped as the fat content is only 10% fat, look for a kibble that has low fat %… I boil chicken so the fat goes to the top, I rinse chicken in boiling water & I also boil pumkin, you can boil sweet potatoes, dont use too much pumkin about a big tablespoon of Pumkin, its good for their tummy & bowel but not too much as its a fiber.. I make little meals & freeze then. I boil an egg & add half of the egg as he’s only 17 kilos big dogs can have a full egg, also you can boil rice to fill them more, but chicken meat will be the lowest in fat meat thats cheap, or if you can get Kangaroo dogs love kangaroo meat thats real low in fat….. Pedigree isnt a good kibble, its full of grains & by-products.. try to find a better kibble. alot of ladys say they get good cheap kibble from I think they said Costo something like that, I’m in Australia its called K-Mart here..but Im sure if you put up a post someone will tell the name of places that have real good dog kibble that is cheap & better then Pedigree…if she isnt eating it she’s telling you that its yuk also when you do introduce a new food or kibble do it so slow I take 2 weeks when I change my boys foods..also when I introduced the home cooked it took him about 1 week for his poos to firm up to normal..also no treats that are high in fat they will irritate her tummy..I found liver treats set my boy off & gave him bloody poos…keep a dairy of the foods that may have given blood in her stools..

[Susan]

I just read & found the premium & cheaper kibbles they are sold at Wal-Mart, one was called Pure Balance, which is on special at the moment & works out cheaper then pedigree kibble & is more healthy, Pure Balance got 4 stars on the reviews, where pedigree dry only got 1 star rating, I hope this helps you & helps ur girls bowel problems, just make sure you buy a low fat % & see if the bleeding stops..

[Nancy A]

You may want to consider a product called BalanceIT. BalanceIT was designed by a vet (formerly on the UC Davis faculty). Products include supplements for making homemade food as well as a product that you simply add to meat if you want to make homemade food. I understand from our vets, as well as a recent peer-reviewed study, that it is extremely risky to make food for your dog without the proper supplementation:
http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10666
The BalanceIT website includes recipes:
https://secure.balanceit.com/
Our little guy is allergic to chicken and has a tender tummy. Most of the beef-based dog foods are high in fat and also include chicken. We’re happy we found this product.

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