Meats for Your Dog Food

Krista Heinz: Hi! My name is Krista Heinz. I am the owner of Doggy Style Bakery Boutique and Pet Spa in Dupont Circle; and today, we are talking about how to make your own dog food. Right now, we are going to discuss the meats that you can use. Today, we are going to be using turkey in your dog's diet and I like turkey because it's actually one of the super foods that are touted by nutritional experts. Turkey is a really high protein, low fat food. So it's a really great option for your dog. One of the things that I personally like about turkey is that it contains tryptophan, which is something that calms you. As we all know, thanksgiving dinner we get a sleep afterwards. It's something that is going to keep your dog calm. So if your dog's a little bit hyperactive, turkey is a really good option for his food. However, you don't necessarily need to use meat in your dog's diet and there are couple of other options. One is cottage cheese, it's a great option, meat free option for your dog's diet and its really high in protein. So it's a good option; you can add substitute a pound of cottage cheese for a pound of meat in your dog's diet. Another option are eggs and eggs you can substitute about a dozen eggs for a pound of meat into your dog's diet. Eggs are great option for dog's with kidney problems. They are really easy on the kidneys. They run straight through them. They'll help clean them out. They are really high in Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids. You might want to look at the eggs, best eggs or brown eggs or organic eggs. Anytime you are using anything, you are going to want to look at a high quality type of food. If you are going to go through the effort of making your dog's food, I would recommend that you go through the effort finding something that's a good quality source; something that is organic or all-natural or bought at your local farmer's market. Another option for meat substitute are beans. Beans are great substitute in your dog's diet. Dogs can actually be vegetarian. They are omnivorous just like we are. Their protein would tend to rise of about 30% of their diet, 10% to 30% actually and beans are great option. You want to be careful when you are using beans, which you are getting all these amino acids that your dog needs. Meat and meat proteins are animal based proteins are always a complete source of amino acids. Beans are not. So when you use beans, you want to make sure that you use a variety of them, so that you are getting a complete source of the amino acids that your dog needs. I have here some lentils, some green split peas, some black-eyed peas, some yellow split peas. All of these can be cooked down and made into your dog's food. You want to make sure that you cook them really well so that they soften up and your dog is able to digest some. Chickpeas are another good option for you. So that is about it for the meat and grains or meat that you are going to use in your dog's food. Next up, we are going to show you how to put it all together and cook it.