That is a good link, thanks Natal! Sooo, my dog's food is only a 3.5 (Wellness Super 5 Chicken Adult Dogs), hmmm, I don't plan on changing at all as my dogs have been on it (one of them) for 11 years and they are both very healthy and active. But I also give them a considerable portion of pure meat each day which they love. I think this is funny too, once years ago, I gave one of the dogs a very rare piece of steak, she didn't know what to do with it and licked it awhile but never ate it. And she is my "food motivated" dog. So no raw food for her! However, I hate even typing this, but with my next dogs I will go with something completely different. Probably homemade cooked food.

In answer to your post, Deb, and to others, I don't exactly use recipes to cook dogfood, but more of a formula. My first ingredient is always meat. I do add some filler to save money, but the amount of filler I use is less than what is in commercial petfood. Also I add calcium to substitute for the bones that a dog would naturally consume along with meat from prey in the wild. Additionally I add digestive enzymes and vitamin/mineral supplement. For instance the food my dogs are eating this week is chicken and rice. I cooked 4 lbs of ground chicken and 4 lbs of ground turkey in a big pot. To this I added about 3 cups of cooked white rice and meat pulled from the bones of a baked chicken and the juice from the chicken. Then I stirred in 3 heaping teaspoons of powdered calcium carbonate (I buy NOW brand at Amazon.com). I also added the powder from about 5 capsules of digestive enzymes and from two vitamin/mineral capsules. These are human grade supplements. It is important when using human vitamin/mineral pills for pets to buy iron-free supplements. Last week my dogs' menu was ground pork and boneless pork chops cut into tiny bites with some cooked macaroni and the same supplements added. Basically this food was made using the same proportions as the poultry mix they are eating this week. I use ground beef sometimes, also liver, and sometimes I whip up an omelet with cheese and meat scraps from about 4 to six eggs and about 1/2 a teasp of calcium. In place of store-bought powdered calcium, you can use ground eggshell. I use it when I have it on hand. I save eggshells in a dish in my freezer and when I have enough, I bake them at 350 degrees for an hour, then grind them into a powder for one minute in a small electric coffee grinder that I bought for this purpose, and store the powdered eggshell in the fridge. Powdered eggshell is mostly calcium carbonate, 90-something percent. For my cat, I feed only chicken, because that is all Miss Picky will eat. I pull the meat into tiny bites and add all the above named supplements (in smaller proportion) as well as a small amount of taurine. Kitty can sometimes be persuaded to eat some tuna or a few bites of other meats, but she tires of it quickly. I hope this is somewhat helpful to those of you wondering about home cooked petfood. I figured out the proportions of calcium to meat sometime ago based on pet nutrition studies somewhere on the web. I fed my two old dogs home cooked for the last 4 years of their lives and they were in good health up until the end when I lost one to cancer and the other to respiratory disease at ages 12 1/2 (the collie) and 14 (my sheltie). My new dogs are doing well on this food, and my 19 yr old cat has been eating home cooked for the past 5 years and is in good health for an old timer. I also thought about a raw diet, because it is definitely the natural food of a dog or cat. Like some others I am sort of squeamish and got cold feet about the idea of feeding bones. I know that if bones are uncooked they are supposed to be safe, but it's so ingrained in me not to feed them that I just wimped out and went the home cooking way instead. I will say that all my cats have been indoor/outdoor cats most of their lives and they certainly have eaten rodents and birds, bones and all, with no ill effects. In fact, I suspect that this partial natural prey diet may have been responsible for their longevity, as they lived to be 23, 21, 20, and 10 (the last having died from an injury) and my current cat is 19 and I expect she will live into her 20s too. So I'd have to say there is a lot to be said in favor of a raw diet, it's just not the way I chose to go.

Sorry. I don't know why it doesn't work. Here's the data...cc'ed & pasted: Recall -- Firm Press Release FDA posts press releases and other notices of recalls and market withdrawals from the firms involved as a service to consumers, the media, and other interested parties. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company. Cargill Animal Nutrition Recalls River Run and Marksman Dry Dog Food Contact: Consumer: 855-460-1532 Media: Tim Loesch 952-742-6910 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 6, 2011 - Cargill Animal Nutrition today announced a voluntary recall of two regional brands of its dry dog food1 � River Run and Marksman2 � due to aflatoxin3 levels that were detected above the acceptable limit. The affected products were manufactured at Cargill�s Lecompte, Louisiana, facility between Dec. 1, 2010, and Dec. 1, 2011. No illnesses have been reported in association with these products to date, and no other Cargill Animal Nutrition pet food products are involved in this recall. Affected products are: PROFESSIONAL FORMULA RIVER RUN HI-NRG 24-20 Dog Food, 50 pound bags RIVER RUN PROFESSIONAL FORMULA 27-18 Dog Food, 50 pound bags RIVER RUN 21% Protein Dog Food, 40 and 50 pound bags RIVER RUN Hi-Pro No-Soy Dog Food, 40 and 50 pound bags MARKSMAN DOG FOOD 24% Protein 20% Fat, 40 pound bags MARKSMAN DOG FOOD 20% Protein 10% Fat, 40 and 50 pound bags MARKSMAN DOG FOOD 28% Protein 18% Fat, 40 pound bags The recall only applies to the above products with the following Packaging Date Codes (lot numbers): 4K0335 through 4K0365, LL0335 through LL0365, 4K1001 through 4K1335 and LL1001 through LL1335. The affected dry dog food products were distributed in the following 15 states/territories � Kansas, Missouri, Northeast Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Southeast Indiana, Southern Illinois, Hawaii, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and limited areas of Florida and California. Retailers have already been instructed to remove the affected brands and products from store shelves. While no adverse health effects related to these products have been reported, Cargill is implementing this recall as a precautionary measure. Consumers are urged to return affected products � whether in opened or unopened packages � to their place of purchase for a full refund. For more information, including photos of products involved, consumers can go to www.cargill.com/feed/dog-food-recall4 or call toll free 855-460-1532. Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring mold by-product. Pets that have consumed any of the above recalled products and exhibit symptoms of illness including sluggishness or lethargy combined with a reluctance to eat, vomiting, yellowish tint to the eyes or gums, or diarrhea should be seen by a veterinarian. About Cargill Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. Founded in 1865, the privately held company employs 138,000 people in 63 countries. Cargill helps customers succeed through collaboration and innovation, and is committed to applying its global knowledge and experience to help meet economic, environmental and social challenges wherever it does business. For more information, visit Cargill.com5 and its news center6.

Well like I said it really depends on what type of meat you get and how it's prepared. If you get the fine ground ones like myself and get proteins like chicken and turkey maybe $45-$60 a month? You will also either need to brush their teeth or make sure they get bones to chew on for dental health. And if you start them on raw it either needs to be all raw or none. Feeding them raw and commercial pet food will mess with their tummies. I like to tell people about raw but I also tell them that doing some research is important. Take your time and look up the info. Their are a lot of groups online with plenty of information and a lot of websites that have people that will answer your question or point you in the right direction.