Pets Need Wholesome Food Also
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Healthy Food — Healthy Pets

How Is Natural Homemade Pet Food Made — With Love

Dogs and cats deserve a wholesome raw meat diet

How To Prepare Meat When Feeding Natural Homemade Pet Food

The next page will explain how to make the food for pets in general (if you have a house with both dogs and cats) and then on the following pages you will find information for making wholesome homemade pet food for just dogs, cats, puppies and kittens.

This page simply provides a quick introduction to preparing the meat that you will feed your dogs and/or cats.

How To Prepare Ground Meat

This section explains how to prepare 1 pound (454 grams) of ground meat. Obviously, if you have a little Chihuahua, then you will want to adjust the amounts accordingly. This is not rocket science, even though I do have a PhD in cosmicnautical advanced space science engineering from the physics department of UDC (University of Dogs and Cats) — actually, I just made that up — but it sounded good!

My point is, however, this not a complicated thing to do. So just relax, go with the flow and have fun!

  • Take 1 pound (454 grams) of ground meat and remove it from the freezer.
  • Place in the refrigerator and let it thaw overnight.
  • Once thawed, pour 1/2 cup of water into a mixing bowl.
  • Now add the ground meat and stir.
  • I find that chicken contains more moisture than other meats and so I lower the water added to about 1/4 cup (maybe a little less) when preparing chicken.
  • Mix the meat in the water as this helps to put moisture back into the food.
  • I find raw meat can last up to 4 or 5 days in the fridge.

Put the water saturated ground meat into a glass container or tupperware container and store in the fridge.

If you are in a rush or forget to soak the meat in the water, then don't worry about it. You can skip this process if you are in a rush or, as mentioned, if you forget to do this.

How To Prepare Meat Chunks

  • Meat chunks usually contain more moisture than ground meat and often the blood and/or moisture will separate from the meat chunks while sitting in the fridge. I find this especially happens with beef.
  • As a result, I don't add water to meat chunks because doing so can further drain the blood from the meat. The blood is a valuable source of nutrition and since meat is already drained of blood when slaughtered, we want to save as much of the blood that remains as possible.
    • The benefit of blood was talked about in Part 1 on the page about the importance of calcium in wholesome homemade pet food.
  • Since we can't add water to meat chunks and since once thawed the blood and/or moisture will begin to separate from the meat chunks, I personally only thaw what I need for each day. Essentially, I try to thaw enough meat to last one meal. This means more moisture and/or blood is retained by the meat before feeding.
  • So get the amount of meat chunks you need for one meal (it's better to have slightly too much rather than too little) and let thaw overnight.

What's The Main Difference In Preparation Between Ground Meat and Meat Chunks?

The main difference in preparing meat chunks versus ground meat is as follows:

With ground meat, you can prepare enough meat to last 3 or 4 days whereas with meat chunks, it is best to prepare enough meat to last 1 day.

Why? Well, it all has to do with moisture. With ground meat we can actually add moisture to the meat and we don't need to worry about blood or moisture separating from the meat. Why you ask again? Because we can easily stir the moisture and/or blood back into the ground meat.

With meat chunks, you simply cannot stir the blood and/or moisture back into the meat. So if we thaw just enough meat chunks to last a day, then we don't loose as much moisture and/or blood from the meat.

With meat chunks, it's better to thaw slightly more than what your pet or pets will eat. As mentioned in Part 1 on the page about how much to feed dogs and cats, we want to feed our pets as much as they want at each meal until they walk away from the bowl with some food left in it. So this is why we want to have a little more than what our pet or pets will eat in a day. Should there be, after feeding, a significant amount left over, then save it for the next day — it's not the end of the world if some moisture and/or blood separates from the meat. At the same time, if most of the food is eaten but not all, then feed the rest during the day as a small snack and then feed a fresh batch of meat at their next big meal.

What If We Forget To Thaw Meat Overnight?

If you forget to thaw meat overnight and need some raw meat quick, then here are some quick tips:

  • It is not advisable to microwave the meat to get it thawed.
  • If you need the meat to thaw faster, place it in a plastic bag and then soak the plastic bag in some warm water. If you are able to divide the meat into smaller pieces, then the meat can thaw within 15 minutes or so. But if the meat is one big block of meat, then it will take it longer for the meat to thaw to the core.

Ground Meat versus Meat Chunks

Many of the pros and cons of feeding ground meat instead of meat chunks and vice versa was discussed at the beginning of Part 2. But I would like to review this topic again.

My preference is to feed meat chunks instead of ground meat. Meat chunks are how our pets naturally eat in the wild after ripping the meat off their prey. Saying that, there are times when ground meat is the better choice. Here is a list to help you decide which type of meat is best for you.

  • I've noticed that some cats, but not all, eat ground meat too slowly. I've also noticed some cats don't eat as much as they should because each bite of ground meat is smaller than what they can swallow if they were eating meat chunks. This in turn can perpetuate a cat's free feeding habit. With dogs, this is not going to be a problem because dogs will just lick, and in many case, just inhale the food regardless of whether the meat is ground or chunks.
  • If you find your cat is not eating enough, eating too slow or having a difficult time eating ground meat, then definitely feed meat chunks as described below.
  • Ground meat can be a better choice when a pet is sick and you want to make sure they are getting all of their supplements. The benefit here is that you can mix the supplements into the ground meat.
  • When a dog or cat has no teeth or is unable to grab meat chunks, then ground meat is better because the dog or cat can just lick up the food.
  • Since ground meat is ground (processed), some older pets or those with digestive difficulties may find it easier to digest the ground meat. Since the meat is ground, it makes digestion a little bit easier as the ground meat essentially replaces one step of digestion which is to break the meat down.
  • In many situations, ground meat is more expensive than meat chunks. Feeding meat chunks can also save you money.
  • Ground meat is easier to mix vegetables in. For cats, I don't worry about this as much because if the cat doesn't like vegetables, then I usually just feed the cat 100% raw meat. But if your dog will not eat vegetables, then feeding your dog ground meat allows you to mix the vegetables into the food. But ideally, it would be nice if your dog would eat the meat chunks and the finely ground vegetables that have been placed in the bowl or on the plate.
  • If you feed meat chunks to your dog and your dog does not eat its vegetables, then you might want to consider feeding ground meats on some days with vegetables mix in. Then on other days, feed meat chunks with no vegetables. Hopefully you can see the flexibility in how one feeds.

When possible, feed meat chunks as meat chunks are definitely the better choice.

Editor's Paw Note

It's a good idea to soak utensils and the mixing bowl in at least hot water after they have come in contact with raw meat, especially chicken. In addition to soaking the utensils and the bowl in hot water, some like to add grapefruit seed extract to the water as mentioned previously to help kill bacteria. Grapefruit seed extract is available at any health food store.

Woof Woof or Meow Meow?

In the past, I've always lumped the information for making wholesome pet food into one page — that is, one page of information for feeding dogs, cat, puppies and kittens. However, I've now separated all of this information into their own pages. This was done to help make things more clear. I've still got a page for making homemade pet food in general, for those with both dogs and cat in the house. This general homemade pet food page was done to help you feed all of your pets more easily as bunch. So it's up to you — if you have a cat, you really only need to read the page about making homemade food for cats, but if you want to read about dog food then you can read that too. So choose your page of choice or read them all.

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Testimonials

What Others Have Said

To submit your testimonial, just send me .

The following are testimonials shown in random order. In addition to reading these testimonials, you may also want to read The Sick Pet Project.

Read more testimonials.

In Just 6 Days

2010-06-10

Here’s our story.

We have 2 rescue Chihuahuas, one is a mix, we believe, with Jack Russell Terrier. His name is Lucky and he is approximately 8 years old. We rescued him 3 years ago. Our other little guy is Chico and he is about 2-3 years old. We rescued him November, 2008 and they said he was 2 but we think he was younger, just looked older and acted older because he was undernourished. We have been feeding NutroMax and Iams dog foods, which we believed were on the better side of commercial grade pet food.

Lucky has lost some teeth and recently developed allergies with wheezing and coughing. The vet gave us 2 medicines for him to give twice a day. On Saturday, May 29, 2010, he came to his breakfast, sniffed the food, shook and shuddered and walked away. I thought that was weird!, but when he gets hungry he will eat. Saturday night he did the same thing and also Sunday morning. By now my husband, Robert, and I are getting a little concerned. Lucky is a little chunky, but not obese, so missing a few meals probably wouldn’t hurt him as long as he was drinking his water, which he was. Well I tried giving him the canned food, which he ate for a couple of meals and then did the same thing as he did with the dry. Sniffed, shuddered and walked away. Well, for a week I tried several things, canned chicken, cut up chicken (sautéed) and then on Friday, June 4, 2010, I started searching the internet for homemade pet food. Praise the Lord! I found your website. I immediately switched both dogs to raw food on Saturday morning. I happened to have thawed a chicken breast, cut it into small pieces and they both chowed down!

Saturday I bought some ground meat, turkey and some beef (lean), and have been feeding them both raw meat mixed with some chopped frozen veggies ever since. The immediate improvement (within 6 days) in both dogs has been just short of miraculous. Lucky is not wheezing and is back to his old bouncy self. He gets the bounce from the Jack Russell side of his family. He hasn’t had his meds since he quit eating because we thought they might have been part of the problem. Chico is more relaxed and not as fearful, which is a strange benefit, but I’m loving it. We believe he was quite abused in his former life and even after being with us for 1-1/2 years still acted fearful. Both their coats are smoother already and their bowel movements are much better, still firm, but not hard. Believe it or not they are even getting along better with each other. I guess just generally feeling better overall.

I am so excited about their new diet, oops, new life style change, and am telling everyone about it and giving them your web site info and a copy of the condensed version of your book.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being there when we needed you.

God bless you and keep up the good work taking care of His creation that give us so much love. And isn’t love the key to everything?

– Hazel

My Australian Shepherd Has A Second Life – Thank You!

2008-12-16

Hello! I would like to first say Thank You for your information! My Australian Shepherd is 14 years young and was having problems walking up stairs and jumping up on the bed/couch. He was on the raw food diet for about 2 – 3 weeks when he started running up the stairs, jumping on the couch/bed. Because of his age and having such a hard time, I was preparing myself for his trip to Rainbow Bridge, feeling that it would be sooner rather than later. Now I feel the later is the best word. He is so happy, you can see it in his eyes when he is lying on the couch!! My dogs teeth have turned white! It is truly amazing! Again, Thank you!

– Jennifer

The Wonders of A Wholesome Meal!

2010-03-10

Hello everyone,

We are two Pomeranian brothers Dolce & Gabbana.

We were born on the 18th of November, 2009 in Malta, Europe (near the southern part of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea).

We have been struggling with allergies since we started eating at 4 weeks of age.

When our mother took us home for the first time she immediately realised that there was something wrong with us, Big possibility it was allergies. Mummy took us to the vet with no delay. Our vet changed our food, yet another garbage dry food perhaps even worse from what we where having. It was full of corn, maize, corn, maize. Mummy thought this food was more appropriate for chicken and not puppies. This food only made us feel worse with watery eyes, itchy skin and it just irritated much. So Mummy thought ok I will feed them what I believe is nutritional and healthy – nothing can beat natural food.

So mummy started cooking for us fresh cooked food – 2 parts meat and 1 part vegetables and some boiled apples, pears and raw bananas instead of vegetables for breakfast. Our skin and itching had improved in the first week but our eye irritations and watering got worse. To the vet again. This time the same brand food but a veterinary diet and still with corn plus some supplements such Omega 3, Omega 6, taurine, minerals and vitamins. Since Mummy did not know much about these sources she did not trust it and believed this was another commercial crap. She bought it and the food also but never gave it to us. Now Mummy came to the conclusion that we were allergic to wheat – so no treats, allergic to corn – so no commercial food. Mummy had to find what was harming us in her fresh food diet that she believed in so much.

Mummy began to believe that we had protein allergy. So our diet had been adjusted to boiled duck breast and sweet potatoes. At this point Mummy was worried sick about us and our health at this very crucial time while we are growing from babies to young boys. She was worried that we are going to be weak for the rest of our lives just because she did not know what was the proper food for us. She was feeling irresponsible that she had brought us to her without knowing how to take care of us properly. The love she gave us was not enough for our needs. She hesitated to go to the vet again as she felt that he was not understanding her when she explained natural food was her choice to feed us.

Meanwhile Mummy kept on searching on the internet for a remedy, day and night of course this was how she learned to detect our allergies to wheat, corn and also protein – from the internet. Mummy was worried sick, Saying to her self, but if I don’t feed them protein from meat what can I feed them to make them grow strong and healthy? Vegetables were not enough! Dogs are not vegetarians! It is against their nature. Mummy’s head was spinning now feeling down and sick of not eating herself. Spending nights not sleeping, staying on the internet searching for a remedy for our proper intake and praying to mighty God to help her find a solution to make us healthy and happy. On Friday night or early Saturday morning on March 5th, 2010, Mummy came across Pets Need Wholesome Food Also. She thought, here I am, this is the answer to my prayers!

Mummy kept reading till morning – her eyes filled with tears of joy. She knew this was it. Same diet as she was giving us, which she believed in so much except uncooked! So Mummy has found the key. At least, that was what she was hoping.

After she read and understood all which was very plain and easy for her to understand, she went to the freezer, got the fresh meat which she had bought and packed in portions the previous day for us. Mummy thought she would start off with chicken breast minced, although, there was a time that she was beginning to think that we where allergic to chicken meat but after she read the story of the The Sick Pet Project, it encouraged her to give it to us. She thought this is for sure more wholesome than the poor meal of 2 parts sweet potatoes and 1 part cooked duck breast which we have been eating for 3 days now.

So Mummy prepared the well blended vegetables which consisted of carrots and peas and defrosted the chicken mince by putting it in a plastic bag and soaking it in warm water: For this time she had learned not to use a microwave for our food. Than she broke some eggs, washed the shell and removed the white lining inside and also removed the parts which where printed with ink for date of consumption, then she crushed them as fine as possible by putting them in a plastic bag and crushed them further with the rolling pen several times. Unfortunately, in Malta we do not have a homeopathic veterinarian, let alone a place where to buy the homeopathic remedies for pets.

By now it was 6 o’clock in the morning. Mummy had realised that we where hearing her all the time so we were not sleeping in our playpen. While Mummy always gave us breakfast at around 7:30 AM or 8:00 AM, she could not wait to start giving us this wholesome meal and start us fresh on this what she called miraculous raw diet. We where so starving that we ate double the portion we normally eat. Mummy started crying and showered us with kisses and cuddles and telling us that now we were on the road to recovery, good health and happiness. We had a very nice sleep afterword and Mummy was very much concerned about our reaction to the new diet so she kept watching us constantly while we where sleeping like two little angels.

When we got up we where rather upset because it was our digestive system. Mummy thinks we needed some FloraZyme LP according to what she understood in her reading but unfortunately Mummy did not have any on hand, neither could she go buy it nor make it her self for us like she did the calcium. So Mummy decided to rub our tummy and stomach with warm hands after some time one of us went to the washroom on the nappy to get relieved, that was me Dolce, and immediately I started playing and running with my toys. Gabbana was still upset looking up at Mummy with mercy. He did urinate quit a few times, not only on the nappy but wherever. His urine was very clear like water. Meanwhile, five hours has passed and Gabbana had no sign of apatite.

This time we were not so keen on the food both of us. Not much of a nice taste like the food we are use to. So Mummy decided to mash some peanut butter in it because that is our favourite treat. We ate it all from Mummy’s hands, given with love.

My brother Gabbana still has not been relieved and he was sleeping again when Gabbana got up went to the nappy pad and got relieved. Seeing us happy playing and full of life was a great relief for Mummy! We have been fed 4 times a day as usual but much bigger amount, almost double of what we normally ate. Although we are very small, we still have managed to take big meals until this morning. I, Dolce, weigh 1.6 Kg and my brother Gabbana weighs 2.1 kg. Today is our fifth day on the wholesome meal raw diet. At our first meal of the day we ate the usual big meal and after some small pieces of pear and bananas. At our second meal we ate a little less and our third meal was less for Gabbana. Gabbana always seemed to be the strongest.

In these 5 days, we had become two complete different puppies – no excessive itching, no eye irritations and the rough hair patch on the lower part of our back and tail begin to get smoother. Mummy had helped it a little by messaging some olive oil on it too. It is unbelievable how much benefit we have had from the wholesome raw diet in just 5 days. We are already feeling and looking healthier – and much more playful, relaxed and obedient. And all this was not possible without the help and amazing educational information to our Mummy of how to feed and make wholesome meals for us (http://www.pet-grub.com/).

We have no words to thank you enough Jesse. You are a God sent gift to us and those like us. May God be with you and bless you always!

– Dolce & Gabanna


Dolce and Gabbana