I've fed only home cooked food to my cat and dogs made with whole real ingredients, since 2007 when 40,000 pets died from melamine in commercial petfood. I will never buy commercial cat or dog food again. My picky 19 going-on 20 year old cat will eat only chicken, pulled from the bone and minced with calcium and other additives. Occasionally I can get her to eat a few bites of tuna, beef, or ham, but not for long. Cats surely have the most finicky appetites of all domestic pets, but arguing with them gets you nowhere! Especially with the older cats, it's more important that they eat, rather than what they eat. Commercial pet food, while not nutritionally ideal, used to be safe, and I raised many generations of cats and dogs on it into old age (all my cats, but one, have lived into their 20s). I never fed a single brand or variety, because the more variety in an animal's diet, the more likely one food will supply nutrients that another lacks. I fed a variety of brands and flavors. Now that companies can add obscure ingredients like corn gluten or wheat gluten from China, the chance has increased of a toxic substance being added deliberately to increase the alleged protein content while lowering costs. Cos don't need to declare exactly what is mixed into these gluten products or that they originate in China. Right now dogs are becoming sick and dying from some dogfood brands, but because the toxin in the foods is unidentified, there has been no recall. BTW I am talking about pet food still being manufactured in this country. They add ingredients from China, but aren't required to state the country of origin of their ingredients. I can't say enough bad things about the commercial pet food industry. I am only thankful that I stopped doing business with them before I lost a family member.

Lukkiirish, the problems with your cats was not due to wet feeding. Dry food is made to shatter IF the cat bites down on it. Of course, when it does, it's nothing but mealy grit that easily lodges in the gingiva. This leads to periodontitis, resorption, and other painful conditions. The only way to care for cat teeth at home is to brush them. Your claim that dry food is good for feline oral health is no different to claiming that eating saltines will clean your own teeth. If you know the anatomy of a cat's mouth, you can see that there are no chewing surfaces, ie., the molars are high on the outside and low on the inside near the tongue. This facilitates shearing action, which, rather than chewing, is what a cat's mouth is evolved to do. Chewing animals have flatter molar surfaces, so that food can be kept in place for chewing. Imagine the action of a mortar and pestle. The tool is designed to hold stuff in place for grinding. That's what your teeth are made for. Cat teeth are shaped to provide a scissor-like action. So, on that alone, you can understand why dry food is useless for feline oral health. Next, dry food is by nature very high in carbohydrates. It must be, since the plant matter is needed to glue the meat meal grit into kibbles. If you're reading labels, good-but if you're not translating them, then you have no idea what you're feeding your cats. Any claims on dry food labels of "50% protein" are utter hogwash. Firstly, any plant matter that is useful protein in any other animal feeds is also considered useful protein in cat food, despite the fact that cats cannot utilise plant protein. You need to know how much animal protein is in the mix, and manufacturers are not always going to tell you that if you call them. Secondly, you need to calculate dry weight to get a grasp of how much of ANY protein is in the mix. If you're lucky enough to get facts from the manufacturer, then you still do the maths. The best dry food on the market is probably less than 20% animal protein, which is grossly insufficient for obligate carnivores. Then you need to consider that cats are not particularly interested in drinking water. Everyone claims that "my cat drinks plenty of water!" But no one can tell you how much water "plenty" is! A cat's natural diet is prey, which is about 70%-80% water. So is wet food! Dry food? Under 10% water. Cats will drink, but are not thirst-driven, so are unable to know if they're getting enough water to function. The dry-fed cat will walk away from the water dish long before it has consumed sufficient water. As a result, dry-fed cats have undue strain on kidney function, digestion, urinary function, and who knows what else because they are always dehydrated. Dry-fed cats are also far more likely to be obese and to develop diabetes and hypertension. Oh, and let's not forget how many dry-fed cats end up with an excess of urinary crystals or even blockages! This is almost always due to dry feeding, which leads to concentrated, alkaline urine. Cats need the sufficiency of wet food fluid intake in order to reduce urine's concentration and to flush out crystals. The higher animal protein in wet food helps to maintain appropriate urine acidity. Another interesting thing is that so many people are completely hoodwinked by the"grain-free" movement! It doesn't matter! Grain-free does NOT equate carbohydrate-free! Grains are often primary suspects in food allergies. The grain-free bandwagon needs to be halted for the sake of our cats. Grain-free dry foods contain as much carbohydrate as do grained foods. You'll frequently see claims that cats in the wild will eat the stomach contents of their prey, but this is not fact. Cats are not keen on stomach acids needed for plant breakdown and carefully avoid eating any part of prey digestive tracts. I suppose that laboratory cats who are only fed digestive tracts will consume them in hope of avoiding starvation, but not cats in more normal surroundings. Lastly, I'm always hearing from people who claim to have cats who were dry-fed only, and lived to be 32 and never had a problem. Well, genetics can make some cats lucky enough to slip past troubles, but these are very much the minority. I also suspect that some of the owners were lying about the cats' longevity, or the cats had outdoors access so supplemented their dry food with nice juicy prey. It is also likely that the cats were never taken to the vet so any problems they may have had were never diagnosed. It's like the centenarian who, when asked the secret to his long life, answers " booze, cigars, and unrestrained sex!". Does that mean that EVERYONE should live like that in order to become a centenarian? Of course not. I see no problem with using dry food in place of cat treats. It's less expensive. Ten to twenty pieces of dry food in a day are amazing as training rewards. But there is no real benefit to dry feeding.

A good quality (yes even grocery brand)dry kibble formulated for your dogs' age ,weight, size and activity level is the best thing you can do for your dog. In order to meet the nutritional requirements for a healthy dog you would have to buy bottles and bottles of vitamins, minerals and supplements to add to the home cooked food. It is true that there seem to be more animals developing tumors and other stuff that we didn't see so much of before. That could be because we are just "seeing" it more because more animals get vet care today instead of dying of unknown causes but research is leaning towards over-vaccinating our pets. Dogs should get all their puppy shots and also be fully vaccinated the first year after. Then you should talk to your vet on what vaccines are really necessary for your individual dog and on what schedule. My dogs are on the 3-4 year plan. The only vaccine they get exactly on schedule is for Rabies. We are fortunate that our county requires the rabies vaccine every three years. Little known dirty secret is that there is no one year vaccine or three year vaccine. The only time one year comes into play is for puppies who get it and then need another dose after the first year. Another culprit may be heart worm meds.If you live in an area where exposure is likely you MUST continue your heart worm meds but if the problem is seasonal or non-existent in your area you don't need it year round or at all unless you travel with your pet. People worry about the food but don't have a qualm about using weed killers and pesticides in the ares their dogs run around in. Your dog doesn't need to be dosed with heavy-duty flea killers on a monthly basis either unless environmental issues come into play. I'll get off my soapbox now.

I'm a believer in a good commercial kibble for dogs. I don't have picky dogs because I don't overfeed them. They both hover around 87 pounds of lean muscle. They each get about two cups of kibble and I split a can of no salt green beans or carrots between them. Other times it's a 1/2 small can of wet added be tween them. Can lasts two nights. Tonight I gave them a couple of spoons of cottage cheese in their meal. Onions and to a much lesser extent garlic contain a compound called thiosulphate that can cause severe anemia and liver damage. Never give dogs onions as the concentration is quite high. Garlic has just trace amounts but should be used with care if at all. Ground turkey is not a good choice unless you are absolutely sure the skin isn't being ground into it also. That skin and it's fat is a good way to give a dog pancreatitis down the road. When I have had ill dogs on a rice chicken or the bland diet I prefer (cream of wheat,hard cooked egg, cottage cheese and sugar) if I had them on it for more than a week I had to buy supplements to add to it. Yeast powder and some B vitamins I think. It's been a while. There was a lady (vet? food scientist? UC Davis?) on a tv show once who showed all the many supplements one would have to add to home cooked dog food to even come near the nutritional requirements met by a good quality kibble. There were like a dozen or more bottles or jars on the table. If dogs won't eat it's cuz they aren't hungry and they can hold out for quite a while before giving in. Remember back in the wild they had to fast for long periods of time sometimes. Most people overfeed their dogs. If a dog has a skin condition and you suspect allergies take it to the vet. It's not common for a dog to have a true allergy to dog food. It is more common for it to be allergic to the bowl it eats or drinks from if it's made of plastic. Most skin problems are not food related although poor nutrition can of course aggravate them.