Food we make for our Chows and their puppies.
In 2007, almost all of the big brands began outsourcing to China for the "protein" portion of the ingredients of both dry and canned pet foods. In 2007 and 2008, many families were having to deal with their pets getting sick and some were even dying from eating the commercial pet foods they were buying for them.
Once the FDA found out what was going on, the brands were recalled but by then, the damage was done. We were so disgusted we said, why can't we make the bulk of their food ourselves, so that's been the routine here since that happened.
At that time, our Chows were not affected because of the brand we used: One of the makers who didn't outsource was "Pedigree" so we stuck with that brand to use as fill just to add with the food we were cooking for them. We still use Pedigree but as little as possible because it says "Made in U.S.A.", but it doesn't say where the ingredients are from.
We buy human grade food from the store (Foster Farms chicken thighs, hamburger, frozen peas and carrots, yogurt, cottage, cheese, eggs, macaroni, etc.) We cook up a large pot of it and keep it in the fridge until mealtimes, then we get the ingredients out and warm up their portions in a skillet and tailor it to their individual tastes.
When we have puppies, we scramble eggs and add water to soften to a mushy consistency. by 6 weeks we add some canned chicken (no beef) so they get used to eating what their new families might give them. We do not feed puppies kibbles (dry food). We feed puppies every 4 hours (6, 10, 2, and 6, with a little snack at bedtime), while they are babies until they leave here at 9 weeks old.
With our own Chows, this has been our routine every single morning - to make their foods for the day. We feed our Chows 3 times a day - a combination of (small amount of dry kibbles) mixed with our own ingredients. It is not expensive at all and at least we know what they are really eating, and no salmonella, or foods that spend too much time in the pet food aisle before being stocked in the proper refrigerated section.
