A Guide to Homemade dog & cat food | Veterinarian Dr. Lisa discusses (2019)

Hi there, are you curious about making your own dog or cat’s food?Well, then watch this video because I’m gonna share with you 3 thingsYou should know before you go on the adventure of making your own pets food. Coming right up! I’m Dr. Lisa Littlejohn, and I’m a veterinarian that is passionate about helping YOU become the best pet parent possible. On this channel,I’ll talk about common diseases that dogs and cats can get. I also will teach you my best tips and tricks for how tomaintain your dog or cat’s general care,so if you’re new here, consider subscribing to this channel. As a veterinarian, I am commonly asked by pet parents,Especially around the new yearHow do I make my own dog’s or cat’s food?I’m not sure if it’s the New Year’s resolution that gets people excited and more interested in homemade diets. They’re doing it for themselves. They want to be a healthier version of themselves and our pets are FAMILY, so they a lot of timestransfer that onto their pets. My goal today is to share with you 3 thingsYou should know when it comes to homemade pet food. I like to remember the acronym E-A-T. The E stands for Expense as well as Exposure. A lot of pet parents don’t realize that homemade diets can actually be relatively expensive!Especially if it’s for a medium or large size or even giant sized dog. When it comes to homemade diets, you have to have everything in there from meats, eggs,vegetables, fruit,potatoes, rice,even supplements like fish oil or flaxseed oil as well as a pet vitamin. So it really takes a lot of ingredients toMake sure that your your dog or cat is getting everything that they need. The other E is for Exposure. When you do a home cook diet, you are actuallyexposing your dog or cat to potential foodborne illnesses. If you remember at the end of last year, theCDC put out a warning aboutRomaine lettuce being contaminated with e-coli. Now. . . Imagine if the recipe you made for your dogYou have romaine lettuce as one of the vegetables in there. Your dog is now going to be exposed to E. coli. . . which is NOT a good thing!It causes GI upset, vomiting, and ultimately, that’s going to be a serious issue for you as well as your dog. Something thatSomething that could warrant a trip to the vet or being in a hospital if it’s bad enough. Just keep that in mind: when you are doing a home-cooked diet, it can be rather expensive,Not only for the ingredientsbut if your loved one is exposed to some sort of foodborne illness, you have to account for the expense that isassociated with getting them back to their normal health. The A stands forAlmost Always Unbalanced. There are certain nutrient requirements depending on your pet’s life stage,Whether they’re a dog or a cat,What their underlying medical ailment is. There’s a lot of things to take into consideration when it comes toThe proper nutrients and vitamins and and everything that they need to be as healthy as possible. This means that nutrients could be either too much which is not a good thing or not enoughWhich is not a good thing. Either way, it sets your pet up for potential health issues. Foods that we get from a commercial standpoint, the hard works done for us!They have the proper ingredients in there. They’reMost of the time, the good diets in my opinion, should be tested. Balancing a diet. . . I’ll be honest with you, when I was going through vet school, even in the early years of being in private practice,I was very passionate about nutrition when it comes to our pets andI went through a seminar to learn more about nutrition because I’ll be honest with you, in vet school,they really didn’t teach us that much about it andI had to do SO MUCH mathit was UNREAL! So. . . Take it from me. I don’t want your brain to hurtI don’t want your eyes to cross when you are doing this math to try and balance your dog or cat’s foodTake it for what it’s worth:Much easier to just get the commercial diet. The T stands for Time Consuming. A homemade diet is extremely time consuming. You have to account for the time it takes you to go to the grocery store to gather all the ingredients that you need. Prior to that is researching and trying to get a recipe that is going to be the best for your loved one. So time researching to find a recipe or contacting somebody that can help you with the recipe. The time that it takes to go to the grocery store to gather all theingredients as well as the time it takes once you get home to cook everything. That batch of food is generallyOnly fresh for about 2-3 days. So keep in mindThere’s a lot of legwork and a lot of time on your part that is going to be involved with cooking your dog or cat’s food. So just to recap when it comes to homemade diets, remember the acronym EAT. Expense & your Exposure to potential foodborne illnesses. It’s Almost alwaysUnbalanced and it’s rather Time-consuming. In my professional opinion, it’s much easier for you to find a qualitycommercial diet. If you insist on doing a home-cooked diet,There are a few resources that I want you to be aware of. BalanceIt. comThis is actually put on by the Veterinary College at the University of California – DavisUC Davis. They will essentially make a recipe that is specific for your dog or cat,you just go on their website, you enter in a few details and you’ll haveSeveral recipes to choose from depending on your petsLikes and dislikes. Do they like chicken? Do they prefer fish? They’ll guide you with that. So that’s my first tip: if you insist on doing a homecooked diet,Please consult withBalanceIt. com
They’ll get you the information that you need. If you arestill interested in a home-cooked dietBut you don’t want to go through BalanceIt because that still involves gathering all the ingredients, cooking everything,There is actually a newer service out there called Nom Nom Now. This wasDeveloped and is run by actually a veterinarian that was one of my professors at the University of Florida. So what this company does is you answer again just a few short questionsAbout your pet and their ailment their likes their dislikesAnd they will make the food for you. So it’s like those home delivery systemsWhat is it? What are the human ones? Blue Apron?Gosh, I can’t think of the other ones but essentially they make the food for you. It comes delivered to your home and then you just basically feed it to your pet. You open it up and feed it them now. I’m not sure the costs associated with BalanceIt. com or even Nom Nom Now. I’m not affiliated with them. I’m just genuinely and honestly sharing with you the resourcesI would if you were one of my patients in general practice,I would want to make these recommendationsAnd and these resources available to you. If you’re like me and don’t have the extra time or the extrafinances to do a home-cooked diet, then make sure you tune in to the next video becauseWe are actually going to take a trip to the local store. I’m going to teach you an easy way to determine the quality of that food and it’s not what you thinkIt’s NOT the ingredient list. So make sure you tune in, I will share that video momentarily and thanks again for tuning in today!Keep those tails waggin’ and I look forward to seeing you in the next video!