Ep 1 - Make Your Own Dog Food ~ Here's Why

Make your dog drool by making your own homemade dog food.

Susan shows you how to make Chicken Chow and Bow Wow Beefy Chow and which vitamins to add for good health, a shiny coat, and bright eyes.

Make your dog a happy dog!

Visit Easy Food Dehydrating for much more on food dehydrating and 'looking after your dog' articles!

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Transcript

00:07
 Hello and welcome to Easy Food Dehydrating, the show that teaches you how to safely dehydrate and store fresh (or frozen) fruits and vegetables, along with cooked meats. I’m your host, Susan Gast.

00:23
In today’s episode, I’ll discuss what you need to make your own nutritious, delicious dog food. Perfect for finicky eaters. Make it today for your best friend. Your doggie will dazzle you with his or her shiny coat and bright eyes!

00:40
Hi there. Susan here from Easy Food Dehydrating, and today my job is to make your dog drool because I want you to make your own dog food. And here's why.

00:54
I remember probably a decade or so ago there was some news about a major manufacturer of dog food that they had a lot of product recalls because the dogs were dying and getting sick. And that obviously stuck in my mind, even though we didn't have any dogs at the time. We had cats, we were cat people back then.

01:14
But anyway, one day it was my dad's 80th birthday party and there was this little dog that kept hanging around. Turns out the little dog had just been dumped at the end of the road and she was ill. As we were on our way over to my brother's house for my dad's 80th birthday party, we noticed the little dog was just sitting in the middle of the path and upon closer inspection, she had two huge... I mean - huge - ticks... the size of quarters... dangling on an ear. I said to my hubby, "Stay with the doggie here, don't let her go. I'll nip home and go grab a towel."

01:57
So I came rushing back with a towel so I could wrap up the little dog. We didn't get any resistance from her at all. We took the little dog to our patio whereupon I popped on a pair of gloves, the latex gloves that I use for dehydrating food, not the same ones, but out of the box, you know what I mean, new ones. And I pulled off the ticks. It was successful. I got the feet and all. They were absolutely full of the dog's blood. And the relief in that little dog's eyes just about really broke my heart.

02:34
So after the party, we thought we'd better take the dog around to the neighbors to see if anyone has lost a dog. No one had. Overnight, we kept the little dog in our shed because we didn't have anything else. We did have a cat bed out there and some cat biscuits because we just lost our cat, Toby. And so we put the little doggy overnight there because the day after we decided we would take the little dog to the vet to see if there was any ID tag implanted in her.

03:07
Long story short, no tag. We were now the proud owners of our little miniature pinscher. And then I thought, well, seeing as I've no dog food, I better start making dog food, right? And so this is how you make Chicken Chow dog food.

03:26
Okay, here's the ingredients. A quarter cup of millet and a quarter cup of quinoa, a big handful of plain egg noodles. Those are those wide noodles in a great crinkly plastic bag. I love the bag they come in. Susan, keep to the program, here.

03:45
Use six boneless, skinless chicken thighs or two large chicken breasts. And if you want to make the Bow Wow Beefy Chow, or pork, you would use the same amount of beef or pork as you are with the chicken. Sounds fair enough, right?

04:02
Next, you need a cup of chopped fresh carrots, half a cup of sliced celery, three cups of sweet potato diced, because they love sweet potato. You need two cups of chicken stock for the millet and quinoa and the egg noodle mixture. Tell you more about that in a minute. And then you also need two cups of chicken stock for the chicken and vegetables that will go in your pressure cooker. Alright?

04:29
I also use the chicken stock from Better Than Bouillon because there is no onion in it. Onion is not safe for dogs. Okay? Don't add any salt or pepper either. Your dog won't appreciate it, and it's not good.

04:46
When the mix is made, I add four vitamins in powder form. That is half a cup of alfalfa, one cup of bone meal, a cup of brewers yeast, and half a cup of kelp. Again, all this is in powder form. Some of them may come in capsules. I don't recommend the capsules. If you can get your vitamins in powder form, do so, because unscrewing or taking apart those little capsules, oh, my goodness me... it's a finger-aching job to twist open each capsule, and I remember muttering under my breath all the time doing it. But in the end, I know it's well worth the time and effort because my dog loves me so much. And your dog will love you even more when he or she eats this Chicken Chow dog food.

05:38
A note of warning here. When you're mixing up your powders - your vitamin powders, please be very careful. I made a huge cloud of vitamins in the kitchen because I didn't realize it was so lightweight and "puff" all in the air. So store this vitamin mix, though, in an airtight container, and I've used an old Cool Whip tub for ages. But make sure, like I said, that it is airtight.

06:09
Alrighty then. Let's get to making it now. First of all, wash your millet and quinoa in a sieve, in the sink. Please, please please! make sure you definitely - definitely! rinse the quinoa, because it tends to have a powdery coating on it, and it smells not so good, and it tastes bitter. So make sure you wash the quinoa... at the very least.

06:32
Oh, I need to tell you that you can get your millet and quinoa in bulk from nuts.com. Alright?

06:40
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07:27
Step one: After you've gathered your ingredients and your prep work's done, put the celery, the carrots, and the sweet potato in your pressure cooker. On the top of that, drape over the chicken breasts, or your thighs. The chicken thighs, not your thighs. Sorry. Add two cups of chicken stock. Set the cooking time for six minutes if they are the thighs, or eight minutes if you've used the larger chicken breasts.

07:57
Step two: In a large saucepan, add two cups of chicken stock, bring it to a boil and add the millet and quinoa. You might wonder why this wasn't added to the pressure cooker? Well, apparently millet and quinoa are one of the few items that will block up, or may block up a pressure cooker's valve. And we certainly don't want that to happen. So that's why the millet and quinoa and then the egg noodles are cooked in a pan. Alright? After about ten minutes of the millet and quinoa cooking, add the egg noodles and make sure that the mixture is still simmering. And please add water if you need to do... you can run out of water very quickly if you're not careful, so please keep an eye on it when you're doing that. So by this time in...

08:45
Step three: the pressure cooker has done its job and you've let the steam off and it's now safe to take off the lid. This is the time when you chop up the chicken breasts. Cut them up into small pieces. Look, my dog is a little miniature pinscher, so she only eats little pieces. If your dog is a German shepherd, of course he or she will be able to eat bigger pieces. Just makes common sense.

09:10
Step four: When your millet and quinoa and the noodles are fully cooked, add four tablespoons of the vitamin mix powder to it and stir well. And it will turn a little gray looking, but that's nothing to worry about. I'll tell you now that it is easier to mix the powder in well with a small amount of food than it is to add the powder at the end with a massive amount of food. Okay...

09:35
Step five: It's now time to scoop out the vegetables from the pressure cooker and add it to the same saucepan that's got your millet, the quinoa and the egg noodles in and the vitamin powder. If it looks a little dry at this time, add some excess stock if you have any, from the pressure cooker to the mix. Now it's time to add the diced chicken and stir well. And there you go.

09:54
Step six: Is to put it in storage containers. And I use those biggish food containers that you get when you buy ham from Target or something, you know, and you get them in a plastic dish - not a plastic dish -   a plastic tub and that works great and you can store it in your freezer. Now then, a word here about storing stuff in your freezer. If you've not got much freezer room, you can dehydrate this food.

10:24
My Nesco: I've got a solid sheet - and the solid sheet I use for when I make fruit leathers so that the liquid doesn't drip down into the bottom, because you want to avoid that at all costs. So I use the solid sheet and put on blobs of the chicken chow mix and I dehydrate it. This makes little biscuits, and I swear to goodness that they look just like chicken nuggets from the big M, and they are good enough to eat.

10:51
So, let's say you want to save on your freezer space, dehydrate these little blobs and you can bag them up, you can put them in the food vacuum sealer in the bag, add your oxygen absorber, draw the air out, and then stick three or four pouches in the Mylar bag. That is there, then, for emergency food for your doggy. When your doggy wants to eat the food, you'll simply take out a bag, add some water to it... a little bit at a time... to make sure it gets fully absorbed, and bingo. You're back to having chicken chow like it never even happened. Okay? Trust me, it is brilliant.

11:33
Before we sign off, don't forget you can make your Bow Wow Beefy Chow by substituting the chicken for the beef. I never came up with a name for the pork. [laughs] Pork Pork - Porky Doggy Food (that sounds silly!)… Before I go though, I need to mention this.

11:52
Don't ever feed your dog these items, okay? Onions, garlic, chives, chocolate, macadamia nuts, corn on the cob, avocado, alcohol, cooked bones, xylitol, grapes, raisins, coffee, tea, or anything caffeinated, milk and dairy products.

12:20
Again, I'm going to remind you that the stock I use is from Better than Bouillon by Superior Touch. And it's the chicken one because it has no onion on it, er, in it, rather. And I get mine from Amazon. Mind you... what do I not get from Amazon, to be honest? 

12:35
Your dog will look forward to this dinner every night. And don't forget, it's good enough for us to eat. If you didn't get all this from the podcast and you want to buy the book, it's for sale on our website, 'Easy Food Dehydrating,' and it's aptly titled 'Make Your Own Dog Food' by me, Susan Gast. 

12:55
I hope you enjoyed this episode and feel free to share it with someone who you think might enjoy it, too. I'd appreciate that. So until next time, see you and have a super day. Go and make your dog drool.

13:09
Closing:
Thanks for listening to the Easy Food Dehydrating podcast. Visit EasyFoodDehydrating.com for much more information on how to dehydrate food and the best way to safely store it.