TATERS AND HOT DOGS 6 med. size potatoes, peeled and cut up for fried potatoes 1 lg. onion 1 lb. hot dogs or smoked sausage 6 slices cheddar cheese Fry potatoes and onion over medium heat. When taters are done, cut up hot dogs and place on top of potatoes. Cook until hot dogs are brown. Place cheese on top of hot dogs and potatoes. Cook until cheese is melted. Sue

This is a recipe I posted in another thread. I am still feeding my terriers this diet, along with occasional treats. I also give one of them 100mg of vitamin C per day, and they get a pre-natal vitamin 2 times a week (The prenatal vitamin is from Target. It is a multivitamin tablet that has recommended daily allowances level doses instead of huge doses of vitamins.This way they each get a whole pill instead of having to cut one up). I agree with the other posts that indicate your recipe is of concern. My terriers love this diet and have been very healthy on it. -hald RE: Good Dog and Cat Food * Posted by hald (My Page) on Fri, Mar 21, 08 at 3:45 I wasn't going to post the recipe since the thread seemed to be discussing commercial pet foods. But since DebbieP already is cooking chicken and rice, and someone else also asked, I thought the recipe might be helpful. I cook double batches in 2 big steel enameled pots. The downside is time and cost. The upside is my terriers are very healthy on it. Also, I thought it would be interesting if others respond about the nutritional content if they notice something amiss. 2 1/2 lbs ground beef (or other meat) 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 C rice, dry 1 T garlic paste 1 T wheat germ 1 T cider vinegar 1 T brewer's or nutritional yeast 1 t dried kelp 1 t bone meal 3 large carrots, grated 1/2 can green peas, mashed 1 small crown of broccoli, finely chopped 4 eggs, beaten 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk 1/2 t iodized salt 1 T flaxseed oil (add to mixture after it has cooled) Begin by boiling the ground beef in a large pot. Add garlic. As it cooks grate and add the carrot (A salad shooter is perfect for this job), chop and add the broccoli. Add water as needed to prevent sticking or burning. Stir often throughout the recipe, and add water as needed. Soak and rinse the rice several times. Add the rice and add more water. Continue to boil. Mash and add the peas. Beat and add the eggs. Add the other ingredients. Add dry milk when cooking is nearly finished. Add flaxseed oil when mixture is fairly cool and ready to be refrigerated. For variation use different meat, cottage cheese, well cooked lentils, garbanzos, lima beans. Vary the vegetable, use sweet potato, yam, spinach. Rice can be varied by using oatmeal, other grains, etc. Feed 2 times a day. --------------------------------- The Vet, Dr. Fox, recommends giving a human vitamin at the rate of 1/8th tablet per 30 lbs of body weight. I also supplement one of my dogs 125 tab of vitamin c and find it clears her runny eyes, and seems to have healed wart-like growths on her back that my vet said were common and not something to worry about. I suspect due to her age her liver is not producing enough vitamin c. My 2 other terriers appear very healthy on this diet. As I said in an earlier post, the dogs get lots of dog biscuits to keep their teeth clean. A word about poop - Since I walk my dogs nearly every day and pick up after them (I use paper lunch bags and pages torn from old telephone books), the diet makes their poop somewhat soft but still firm, and moist. It doesn't smell bad, relatively speaking. A word about breath - This diet has given my dogs a really nice breath scent. When I analysed the recipe using Dietpower and compared it with RDA's for dogs and humans, I only found problems with human RDA's. These were easily made up by adding spinach. Alas, my terriers have told me they do not like spinach...

Things I would try . . . Picking up more of the sticks, not allowing the dog in the garden area, spraying the sticks with bitter apple stuff, teaching the dog the "drop it" or "leave it" command. Maybe trying to teach the dog the "leave it" command to some flags and then place the flags around the garden area. I wouldn't let the dog eat sticks as they could splinter and cause issues in the digestive tract although most will usually just pass through as fiber. I only give my dogs frozen raw beef marrow bones to chew as raw hide can be unsafe if swallowed, and cooked or smoked bones are very unsafe and splinter easily. Bully sticks are another option, but I can't stand the smell. If the marrow is too rich for the dog at first you can take some out with a spoon. The raw bones are perfect for cleaning teeth-you do need to be watching them as with anything you give a dog to chew because their still is some risk with raw bones. You can find them at your local grocery store meat counter or butcher shop. Freezing them first makes them last longer, and always discard them after the bones are cleaned.

The funny thing about my vet - he was reluctant at first to even mention a raw diet. He spent a good long time with me & Tucker when I brought him home from a shelter and we were about 20 minutes onto the visit when we started discussing the pet food recalls which had just occurred at the time. That's when he recommended the holistic pet store in my town - nothing on her shelves has ever been recalled. She also sells the Natural Balance Raw Food line, which I did try but that is definitely pricey. Then, when I asked him what he feeds his own pets, he admitted that he was a cat person and said in a very low voice "but if I had a dog I would feed him raw bones and meat". It was as if he didn't want to be overheard! I guess the rest of the folks that work there don't agree with his philosophy. The phosphorus to calcium ration makes sense, as that will affect the contractility of the heart. Tucker is due for a physical in March so I'll have the first blood panel done then. He can be a gulper at times - I've had to reach down his throat to pull out pieces of beef hide dental chews that were too big to swallow - so I'll watch him carefully with the turkey necks. So far he's been doing great with the chicken legs and beef marrow bone. As for the ground meat & veggie patties, they disappear almost as soon as they go in the bowl. He really took to it quite naturally. He's been following me around like crazy since I started doing this and has a new found respect for me I think :) The only thing I don't like, is when I give him a piece of meat, he takes it into the living room to eat it, which means I'm cleaning & disenfecting the carpet daily. The other funny change, is that when he is eating a piece of meat on the bone, he is very protective of it. He will let me or DH take it out of his mouth, but if one of the cats gets too close, he barks and gives them a warning sneer - which is really funny because at baseline he is very submissive, particularly with the cats whe tend to walk all over him - they can even drink right out of his bowl while he's eating kibble!