Top Chef: Canine Version
By Karen Cohen
Everyone appreciates homemade meals served with love -- even our furry friends. In fact, home cooking for pets has exploded since 2007's tainted pet-food scare. Yet good canine cuisine is more than throwing a fish head in a pot of rice.
Pets have specific dietary needs, says Dr. Susan Wynn, a veterinary nutritionist with Georgia Veterinary Specialists near Atlanta. She emphasizes that animals, like people, are individuals with particular tastes and requirements. Wynn formulates diets for canine and feline clients usually working with a person's regular vet. She says accomplished pet chefs should know proportions of proper ingredients, such as proteins, vegetables, grains and supplements. Animals with medical conditions may have other needs. Keeping nutrition optimal, which includes adding variety, can be a challenge.
For a free sample recipe go to www.susanwynn.com
Meanwhile, the careful kibble-and-canned food shopper is better than a careless cook. The Whole Dog Journal (www.whole-dog-journal.com) compiles an annual list of dry and wet dog foods that best meet health and nutrition criteria. Journal Editor Nancy Kerns emphasizes that no one food is best for every dog. Label reading is crucial.
Look for the first ingredient (listed by weight) to be recognizable, such as beef or chicken. "If it's not a named animal species there is no telling what the source of protein actually is," Kerns says. Keep a doggy food journal to record progress.
As cooking for pets gains more enthusiasts, just one question remains: Can Top Chef: Canine Version, the reality show, be far behind?
Paleolithic Diet for Adult Dogs and Cats
This diet is for healthy adult dogs and cats only. If your pet has or has a predisposition towards developing any medical condition (including obesity),you need a custom diet, which can be formulated here (http://www.susanwynn.com/Home_Page.php).
You should expect to have to adjust amounts according to changes in your pets weight, because caloric requirements can vary widely.
The supplements in this recipe are NOT OPTIONAL. Dropping any of them will result in an unbalanced diet. Substituting ingredients for the chicken and rice will also unbalance the diet.
This single diet should not be used long term, as I believe that more variety in ingredients is much healthier (much as I believe that you should not limit your pet to one food by one food company). This recipe is a starting point, and if you are interested in cooking for your pet long term, you should invest in other balanced recipes.
This diet is complete and balanced for both cats and dogs. For dogs, it is a high protein, low carb, paleolithic diet. For cats, it is a more moderate diet but still is lower in carbs and higher in protein than Evo kitten/cat and Science Diet kitten food. It is NOT complete and balanced for growth in either species.
Ingredient Amount
Chicken, ground, pan browned 16 oz by weight (1 lb)
Rice, brown, long grain, cooked 1/3 Cup
Mixed vegetables 1/3 Cup
Salmon oil 1 ½ Teaspoon
Centrum adult multivitamin/mineral 2 tablets
Calcium carbonate (lime or oystershell) containing
1100 - 1200 mg calcium carbonate/teaspoon 1 Teaspoon
Salt, lite, mixture ½ Teaspoon
Choline bitartrate, Nature's Way (250mg choline/tablet) 1 tablet
Taurine 1 gram
Vegetables can be provided in variety depending on what your pet likes best. Try green beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, winter squash and possibly a few fruits - especially apples and blue and red berries. Remember - grapes and onions are toxic to pets - do not use!
Calories in this batch:1005 (enough to feed an approximately 40 lb dog or 4 cats)
Weight of batch: 576 grams
Approximate as-fed nutrient contents:
Protein 19% (this is about 60% protein by dry matter)
Carbohydrates (net) 3.8% (about 10% by DM)
Fat 9.9% (about 30% DM)
Moisture approximately 70%
Source of total calories: 42% from protein, 7.4% from carbohydrates and 50.2% from fat. Compare to Hill's N/D, with 27% of calories from protein, 15% from carbohydrates and 58% from fat. (The premium over the counter diets such as Nature's Variety do not report their calorie distributions in this way).
Directions: Pan fry ground chicken, draining the fat. Cook rice and steam or finely pulp the veggies. Add all ingredients except the Centrum (because the B vitamins will be destroyed if the food is cooked or reheated). The Centrum should be given as a separate supplement daily, about 1/2 tablet for pets under 20 lbs and 1-2 tablets daily for pets over 20 lbs.