Cooking for Your Pet?

We do not have pets at the moment, when we did have dogs we feed them what we ate mostly along with their dog food we neer had left overs. The cat liked ice cream and would get upset with us when we would not give her any when we had some in the house.
 
We feed our dogs dog food most of the time but sometimes we cook for them. Just a simple meal with chicken breast strips and some rice. It's not the most flavorful meal out there but we got a tip from our vet that feeding them this would be really good for them and it isn't always a good idea to feed your dogs with flavorful meals.
 
I make them treats, their favourite is fruit "leather". 4 cups of fruit (ours love strawberry), 1/2 cup of water and 1 or 2 tablespoons of honey.

  1. Chop your fruit! Or stick it in a food processor, sometimes better as it pupls it all up.
  2. Put all your ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil before turning the heat back down to simmer. Simmer the fruit for five to ten minutes, allowing everything to soften up.
  3. Take your pan off the heat, then in the saucepan, use a potato masher (or some other blunt object) to start mashing your fruit up. Then transfer the whole mix into a blender and puree. The mashing step really just allows your mix to cool down so you don’t explode the blender (hey, it happens), but in any case be sure to use caution when pureeing.
  4. Pour your mix out onto parchment paper, and spread it out to where it’s approximately 1/8″ thick. If you can see the paper under it, it’s too thin. Remember, it’s going to lose a bunch of its moisture through dehydrating and get much thinner.
  5. Turn your oven to its lowest setting and wait. It should take 3-5 hours to dehydrate, and you’ll know it’s done when it’s tacky to the touch, but doesn't stick or separate when you press lightly on it.
  6. Cut your parchment into strips and roll up - or cut into shapes for smaller treats.
My dogs adore this, I've found it makes a great training treat if cut into little pieces, and is a bit nicer than liver cake!
 
vickie1982 said:
I make them treats, their favourite is fruit "leather". 4 cups of fruit (ours love strawberry), 1/2 cup of water and 1 or 2 tablespoons of honey.
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Sounds delicious, like something I'd like to eat myself rather than give to dogs! We are thinking of getting a dog soon, but somehow, much as I love cooking, I can't imagine cooking specially for a pet. I remember when I was a kid, my grandmother used to cook special fruit cakes for the birds and I thought that was a bit barmy.
 
morning glory said:
Sounds delicious, like something I'd like to eat myself rather than give to dogs! We are thinking of getting a dog soon, but somehow, much as I love cooking, I can't imagine cooking specially for a pet. I remember when I was a kid, my grandmother used to cook special fruit cakes for the birds and I thought that was a bit barmy.
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We always feed our dog [only one now] on dried food but we 'bulk it up' [just to give her more to chew on really] with a little plain pasta. As for the birds - in winter we melt lard and birdseed in a pan and create our own half coco nut shell 'fat balls'. Quarter of the price of the shop bought ones and the birds love it just the same.
 
sidevalve said:
We always feed our dog [only one now] on dried food but we 'bulk it up' [just to give her more to chew on really] with a little plain pasta. As for the birds - in winter we melt lard and birdseed in a pan and create our own half coco nut shell 'fat balls'. Quarter of the price of the shop bought ones and the birds love it just the same.
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Oh, I can imagine doing that, especially if its a cheaper option. Its just the idea of spending a lot of time cooking for an animal that I can't get. After all, animals naturally eat raw food. Perhaps we should learn from that and eat more raw foods ourselves.:unsure:
 
Our pet dogs are fed with what you call table food. Normally it would be boiled or broiled or fried fish. Sometimes boiled or fried chicken wings. We also fry sweet potato for their snacks. Only at breakfast do we give them dog food. My husband is the cookm, anyway, so I don't bother with that. But on special occasions, the dogs are given chicken liver and gizzard. And tonight, they ate with us by giving them the roasted pork belly sans the fats and the cruchy skin... that's mine, hahahaaa.
 
I like to cook them some chicken noodle soup. They'll each get a bowl of soup, and 2 peanut butter sandwiches.
 
Nope. Our dog apparently cannot tolerate anything except kibble. She will have issues even with chicken and rice, which we are told to feed dogs that cannot digest well. She just cannot handle the change.
 
I also do like cooking for my pets. I never give them left overs. I also like to warm their foods before they can take it. They do not like cold foods.
 
We have a cat who is greedy and prone to gaining weight so we only give her cat biscuits that way we can control her food/calorie intake. She is active but given the chance she would just stuff her face with anything put down in front of her so we have to be strict.
 
Lullabelle said:
We have a cat who is greedy and prone to gaining weight so we only give her cat biscuits that way we can control her food/calorie intake. She is active but given the chance she would just stuff her face with anything put down in front of her so we have to be strict.
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I've seen a cat that had to lay down to eat, and then fall asleep with her head in the bowl lol
 
This cat lives in a house full of cats, so personal attention like the giving the biscuits you were talking about, I guess they just can't do that... especially since the other cats aren't gluttons and have their food laid out for them all the time. But this cat weighs 18 lbs! A few months ago it was normal lol
 
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