No Time to Bake Kibble? My recipe for Supplementing Commercial Vegan Dog Food

You care deeply about your precious pupster’s health, but this next week is going to be too busy. If I am running out and absolutely cannot bake Valentina’s kibble, I do the following.  Keep in stock a bag of highest possible commercial vegan kibble and make a mixture of the following ingredients to be mixed into the kibble when you dish it up. Keep the mixture in a light-free, air-tight container.

Put in food processor or blender in dry container and turn into meal:

½ c almond flour meal

½ c hemp seed

½ c raw pumpkin seed

½ c chia seed

½ cup flaxseed meal

1 c dried cranberries (preferably unsweetened or apple juice sweetened)

½ c dried blueberries (preferably unsweetened or apple juice sweetened)

 Mix into above mixture in a large bowl:

½ c Vegedog

¼ cup nutritional yeast

¼ c Vegeyeast

½ c oat bran

½ c coconut flour

½ c pea protein or ½ c hemp protein, or both

¾ tsp kelp powder

 Add to the mixture 7 days’ worth of the following:

Immune dog

Nzymes

Back Pack Plus

Barley Grass Powder

Wheat Grass Powder

Alfalfa Grass Powder

L-Lysine

L-Arginine

Taurine

L-Carnitine

Acetyl – L—Carnitine

L-Methionine

Sodium Ascorbate, or Ester-C (I don’t use Ascorbic Acid – see Canine Nutrition, William D. Cusick)

R-Lipoic Acid

 At this point mix, and then measure what you have in the bowl. You should have around 12+ cups. Keep in a cool, dark, dry place.

 When I dish out a days’ worth of kibble,

In a small bowl I mix the following, then add to kibble along with about ¾ c of the above dry mix:

1 heaping TBSP peanut butter, pure, organic (I buy it from Costco.)

1 heaping TBSP almond butter, pure, organic (I buy it from Costco.)

3 NOW-brand Aloe Vera Veg Gels (Cut off the very top with scissors and squeeze into bowl.)

1 gel Ubiquinol (NOW- brand) (CoQ10) (Cut off the very top with scissors and squeeze into bowl.)

1-2 NOW Brand 400 mg. Gamma E Complex gels (Cut off the very top with scissors and squeeze into bowl.)

8 drops Vitamin D3 , NOW brand, liquid (Equal to 800 IU)

2TBSP flaxseed oil (Barlean’s – does not have ascorbic acid)

2 TBSP hemp seed oil (Nutiva)

For Valentina, (adult Great Dane) I mix in about ¾ - 1 cup of the dry mixture, about 4 heaping cups of  kibble, and the oily mixture.

Note: Valentina rarely finishes the 4 cup kibble mix in one day.  I am aware that some vets advise against free-feeding, however Valentina has been free-fed since I got her (as were all my dogs in the past.) Sometimes she’ll eat 1 cup in a day, and sometimes 2 or 3 cups, and rarely 4 cups. Other than 1 hour before and after her daily exercise, her food is always out and available. She does not binge, and usually eats only twice a day, once in the morning and then in the evening after she sees if she’s going to get any handouts from our dinner.

In my opinion, I use this practice only as a “temporary fix” to add nutrients to commercial food, which I consider inferior to my recipe.  If she stays on this for a little while, she will begin to gain weight. (And who knows what is going on in her body because of the “mystery ingredients” in the commercial food. Just because the ingredients listed are vegan, does not mean that they were not past expiration date for full nutrient value (as is legally allowed for other than human consumption regulations).  Just like the animal flesh mixtures, the vegan mixtures can have bacteria that are heated in preparation of the kibble. When you heat food to a certain temperature, you destroy the bacteria, but what is not destroyed is the toxins the bacteria release upon death.  The toxins remain.) If you feed commercial vegan to your pupster, you may want to watch the weight and reduce the quantity a bit from what you normally measure out.  Weight gain never happens when she eats my recipe.  

Note: I’m coming up with  measurements/ a recipe for a mixture that can supplement my own recipe. ( I'll pull out ingredients from the baked mixture, that would be better in the raw supplement mixture. I got to thinking about my ingredients, and although I use the moistened flaxseed meal to substitute for the texture of eggs, if baked, the flaxseed will lose all of its Omegas – other nutrients like the proteins will survive the heat, but the precious Omegas and some of the other nutrients, such as enzymes are destroyed after 108 degrees F.  So, there’s really no reason I can’t leave some of those vulnerable ingredients raw and added to my recipe later in a non-baked supplement mix. I’ve also decided to work on a recipe that is made (“baked”) totally in the dehydrator oven under 108 degrees F, so almost nothing is lost due to a higher heating process. Stay tuned for that.

 

Regardless, in my opinion commercial dog food (which started only a hundred years ago) is fast food, . . . fast, processed food. The goal of most businesses is to increase profits, which usually involves cheapening the investment .  Whether for animals or for people, most food businesses have become “smarter”, but not wiser in their attempts to mask degraded nutrients with flavor enhancers. What happens is in the body’s attempt to obtain more nutrients, it will crave and eat way beyond the necessary number of calories to maintain weight and health -- simply because the body is hungry for nutrients. I was surprised about most vets’ concerns about overweight dogs nowadays. Years ago, that was not such a concern – there weren’t that many overweight dogs to worry about.  Human obesity and poor health statistics parallel the canine’s story, and I am convinced it is due to the same problem.  A long time ago, Aristotle said, “Make food your medicine, and medicine your food.” That still bears constant consideration when making food choices for human animals and for their companion animals.  

 

 A number of health gurus tell us that if you can stay on a healthy food path ninety percent of the time, and only slip into unhealthy choices ten percent of the time, or less, you will probably stay healthy.  I like to think that’s true for dogs, too, so I aim for 100% healthy. Last August when we were returning to the US and needed a health certificate to cross, our wonderful vet in Mexico, Dr. Borrego, asked me if Valentina was still a vegan and if I still made her food. After I replied, “Yes,” he said, “She’s very healthy. What’s in your recipe?” I usually carry a copy of my recipe in my purse, but couldn’t find it, so I promised I would bring him a copy next time when we returned.  My point is, to use an old adage, "the proof is in the pudding." Valentina is proof enough to me that a healthy, balanced homemade vegan diet IS GOOD for dogs.

 

I love the old Chinese instruction that says, everything in life, except health, has attached to it a zero. Health, which must precede everything, coming first,  is given the number"1". With the number 1 preceding all the zeros, you are very fortunate. Having health, you can enjoy all the other aspects in a good life.  But, without health, the rest cannot be enjoyed, and is worth little.   

 

I wish you and your canine companions: love, happiness, prosperity, but, first and foremost. . .  vibrant health!

Check It Out -- New Wheat-Free Kibble Recipe!

Valentina has a new wheat-free kibble recipe.

Valentina’s New Wheat-Free Kibble Recipe

Revised, Sept 16, 2013

2 cups sweet potatoes, baked at 350 degrees until soft (30-45 min.?) and then cooled a bit.

3 ripe bananas, mashed

4TBSP flaxseed meal + 3/4 cup boiling water

1-3/4 cups water

3 TBSP coconut oil (or olive oil)

1 cup dried cranberries, minced (preferably no sugar or sweetened with apple juice)

1 1/2 cups  frozen blueberries or ½ cup dried blueberries (or 1 cup froz. Blueberries + ½ cup froz. pineapple chunks)

1/2 cup hulled hemp seed (hemp hearts)

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seed (whole if put in food processor  as part of wet mix)

1/2 cup raw sunflower seed (whole if put in food processor  as part of wet mix)

1 1/2 cup whole whole spelt flour

1 TBSP VEGEDOG (Vitamin Supplement for Vegan Dogs)

1 1/2 cup rye flour

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup millet flour

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup oat flour

2 TBSP VEGEYEAST or nutritional yeast + 2 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 cup garbanzo bean flour

1/2 cup raw oat bran

2 cups buckwheat flour

1/4 cup kelp powder

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 cup barley flour

1.       Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).

2.        In food processor, create wet mix: mix sweet potatoes,  bananas, hemp seed, pumpkin seed and sunflower seed, and process a minute or two until the seeds are broken up. Then add hydrated flaxseed meal, oil, cranberries, blueberries. Add the 1 ¾ cup water after you have blended the other ingredients or the water will leak out!. (It will mix in with the thick mixture without escaping from the processor.)  Your 11 cup food processor will barely hold this mix. [If you wish, you can put the sunflower seeds and the pumpkin seeds in the dry container of your high speed blender, but it's more work getting the seed meal out of the blender. If you do put it in the blender, use a chopstick or end of a wooden spoon in place of a metal spoon to remove the seed meal -- this preserves the sharpness of the blades.]

3.       In Kitchenaid  6-quart mixing bowl, add liquids (above) then dry ingredients; mix with dough blade until well mixed.

4.       Refrigerate dough until cold (In bowls or Zip Loc bags).

5.       Flour hands (buckwheat)and counter to keep dough from sticking. For normal-size  jelly roll pan/ cookie sheet, (about 11” x 17”) measure out 3 cups of dough, form the three cups of dough into a flattened rectangle about 4” by 6” . It will be around an inch or more high. Sprinkle some flour on the rectangle.

6.        For kibble, place on oiled (coconut oil) jelly roll pan/cookie sheet.

7.       Roll dough to about 3/8 inch. I use a Kitchenaid  Teflon-coated rolling pin. (They cost about 30 dollars, but you will not regret buying one. Bed,  Bath and Beyond sells another similar brand.  If you use a wooden rolling pin, keep flouring the rolling pin to avoid sticking.) Rotate the side of the pan 1/4  turn each timeand keep rolling until the dough is evenly distributed.  Sprinkle flour over dough if rolling pin sticks.

8.       Cut dough in the pan with K-9 kibble cutter or pizza cutter, or if you’re making treats, a cookie cutter. If you dust the rolled-out dough in the pan with flour, then tap pan over cutting board to remove excess flour , the kibble cutter will not stick in the dough.  It goes very quickly this way. I use a small sieve, to sprinkle the flour.

9.       Bake for 20 minutes.

·         To make crunchy,  (good for healthy teeth!) place in warm oven (at lowest temperature) for 2 to 8 hours, or leave out in the air for 2-3 days to dry, or dry in a dehydrator oven until crunchy.

·         This recipe can be rolled out on a cutting board and cut into cookies for treats, or rolled out in the pan and cut into kibble size pieces to feed as dry dog food.

·         Each recipe makes about 15 cups of dough,  5 sheets of kibble. (3 cups of dough per pan.) I always make 2 batches at a time.

·         Because this process can take some time, I break it into three parts over three days.  I put together two batches of the dry mix one day, and place it in 2 ZipLoc bags the first day.  The second day, I make the wet mix and put wet and dry mix together,  place the dough in the same bags and place the bags in the refrigerator. The dough is impossible to handle without refrigerating it.  The third day, I roll out the refrigerated dough, cut it, and bake it and dry it out. If I’m running out of kibble, I do the dry mix and wet mix, combine them  and refrigerate the first day, and roll out and bake the second day.

 

Check out the Improved Recipe for Kibble

Check out the newest version of Valentina's Krunchy Kibble posted on the Krunchy Kibble Recipe Page.

Almost Eight Months Old!

Valentina will turn 8 months old in about a week.  We are so grateful that she is such a smart, sweet puppy dog. I make all her food (vegan), both kibble and soft food, and both veterinarians who have examined her have pronounced her VERY healthy. It's interesting that we have been told that a dog MUST have meat, and yet Valentina remains extremely healthy, full of energy, and exhibiting all the the signs of an extremely healthy dog. She loves every kind of vegetable, raw and cooked, and her favorite chews are the "Broccoli bone" and the Sweet Potato "Leather" The Broccoli Bone (a long stem from broccoli)  is raw, but after experimenting with baked and dehydrated sweet potato slices, I came to the conclusion that baking the the sweet potato slices (about 3/8 in. thick) at around 250 or 300 F, for about 3 hours, (or 325 or 350 degrees F for less time) then dehydrating them for several hours (6, maybe 8 or 10 hours at 105 degrees in the dehydrator, depending on the dryness and chewiness desired) gives the best result.  (I have an Excelsior dehydrator.) When I just baked them, they were too soft and  not "leathery" enough, and when I only dehydrated them, they lacked the caramelizing of the natural sugars. (If you don't have a dehydrator, you can put your oven on the lowest temperature setting, and if you want to lower the temperature a bit more, you can leave the oven door slightly ajar to let a little heat escape and lower the temperature a bit. It's best to purchase a little in-oven thermometer to know exactly what the resulting temperature is.)  Valentina will eat sweet potatoes any way I make them, but it seems that the "bake and dehydrate method" makes the slices she likes the best. I "paint" a coating of warmed coconut oil on all surfaces of the slices, so they don't dry out too much or stick to the cookie sheet. I bought a bag of commercial sweet potato slices for $8.98 at a local pet shop the other day.  The bag did not even have 9 slices.  That means they cost more than a dollar a slice! Valentina actually prefers mine anyway. The first time I gave her a sweet potato slice, she did an intricate dance around and near the slice before she ate it.  Now, even when she is given a broccoli bone or other treat, she will do what we now call "The Sweet Potato Dance.". Stay tuned for  more pictures.

A PETA Recipe for Vegan Dog Food

PETA has a great recipe for vegan dog food.
The only thing I change in this recipe is I use one, 14 oz. jar of natural peanut butter instead of the full 24 ounces in the recipe, because I don't want to overdo the protein with a growing Great Dane puppy, I add minced dried cranberries (no sugar) in place of cranberry extract (because I haven't found any cranberry extract here at Lake Chapala, and didn't bring any down with us from the US), and I add BacPac probiotic from  www.nzymes.com in place of PB8. I put it in a rice cooker, and it turns out beautifully.  Lately her soft food consists of a steamed veggie, like green beans, ., a  mixture of cooked grains (millet, brown rice, quinoa, barley, oats,  etc. -- usually 3 or more) , some raw food cut up in a blender,  and a cup of this mixture.  I now try to put it out at least mid-morning (warmed up to at least room temperature or a little warmer) so she can eat what she wants of it all day.  She always leaves some by the end of the day, so I know that she is probably getting what she wants and needs. And  I always keep out a bowl of some of my homemade kibble recipe.  Here's the recipe, which can also be found at:
http://www.peta.org/living/companion-animals/say-no-to-kibble-vegan-dog-food-recipe.aspx

Homemade Sweet-Potato Peanut-Butter Vegan-Dog Delight
6 cups (filtered) water
1 cup mixed rice and quinoa (I mix black, brown, and long grain rice with black and/or
white quinoa.)
1 cup mixed lentils (I mix green, red, and French lentils.)
3 medium sweet potatoes sliced into 1-inch cubes
3 cups or 24 oz. natural peanut butter
1½ cups or 8 to 12-oz. apple cider vinegar, optional (My dog is a flat-nosed breed, which means she tends to get gassy. The vinegar gets rid of virtually all of her gas, but if your dog does not have a problem with this, you can omit the vinegar.)
8 g hemp protein
1 Tbsp. flaxseed oil with DHA (Store in the fridge or freezer.)
200-250 mg cranberry extract (Since a vegan diet is alkalizing, your dog may need this acidifier to maintain a healthy urinary pH.)
VegeDog multivitamin powder
Prozyme Plus (This helps with digestion so that your dog can absorb as many nutrients as possible.)
125 mg PB8 brand probiotic (1/4 pill)

• Boil the water.
• Add the rice, lentils, and sweet potatoes.
• Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes to 1 hour, or until all ingredients are soft. Stir occasionally and add more water as needed. Too much water is better than not enough water. (Remember, you want the ingredients to be extra moist because they will be easier to digest.)
• Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork and mix thoroughly. Let cool.
• Add the peanut butter and vinegar. Stir well.
• Place 3 to 5 servings in your refrigerator and store the rest in the freezer.
• Measure 2/3 cup of food per meal.*
• At mealtime: Add hemp protein, flaxseed oil, cranberry extract, Vegedog, Prozyme Plus, and PB8 into the 2/3 cup of food. Mix well and serve twice daily.

* Serving size is based on the diet of a 20-lb. dog. Please adjust the portion size to suit your dog's weight.

Note:Please remember, as with the introduction of any new food, to introduce this new diet gradually. This means replacing a small portion of your dog's current food with the new food and gradually increasing the amount of new food while decreasing the amount of old food over a period of approximately 10 days.

 

 

 

Valentina's Recipe for Kibble and Treats

We did it!  Valentina was eating 6 cups of homemade kibble to 1 cup of commercial vegan kibble.  Now she eats only homemade kibble, cooked grains and other soft food, and raw food.  I noticed when I went to get the one cup of commercial vegan kibble from a tub on the floor and had the 6 cups homemade kibble in the dish to the side, Valentina would always walk up to me and try to  eat only on the homemade kibble side.  We did a taste test, putting 4 kibbles of commercial on the right and 4 homemade kibbles on the left, and she ate the homemade kibble, and walked away, not interested at all in the commercial kibble.

I put down a bowl of cooked food midday or late afternoon, and I put out kibble a cup at a time throughout the day.  Valentina is not a binger, so I don't think I have to worry about that, but I think  it's just safer to put out her food in 5 or 6 smaller portions.
Here's Valentina's recipe for Kibble and Treats:
  

Valentina’s Tantalizing Treats

or

Valentina's Krunchy Kibble

2 cups sweet potatoes, baked at 350 degrees until soft (30-45 min.?)

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 TBSP flaxseed meal + 6 TBSP boiling water (soak 3 minutes) or 3 TBSP flaxseed meal + 9 TBSP boiling water

1-3/4 cups water

3 TBSP coconut oil (or olive oil)

1 cup dried cranberries, minced (or dried blueberries or dried cherries) (preferably no sugar or sweetened with apple juice)

2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour OR whole wheat pastry flour

1 TBSP VEGEDOG (Vitamin Supplement for Vegan Dogs)

1 cup rye flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

½ tsp. salt

1/2 cup oat flour

2 TBSP VEGEYEAST or nutritional yeast

1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour

1/4 to 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten flour

1/4 cup to 1/2 cup hulled hemp seed (hemp hearts)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).

2. In food processor, mix sweet potatoes, bananas, hydrated flaxseed meal, water, oil, cranberries, and hemp seed.

3. In mixing bowl, add liquids (above) then dry ingredients; mix first with mixing blade, then switch to dough blade until well mixed.

4. Flour hands and counter to keep dough from sticking. Knead dough by folding it on itself until elastic, as if making a pie crust.

5. Roll dough to about 3/8 inch.

6. After placing dough on cookie sheets, poke with a fork to prevent voids, unless using cookie cutters,(before baking)

7. Bake for 20 minutes.

8. To make crunchy, (good for healthy teeth!) place in warm oven (at lowest temperature) for 2 to 4 hours, or leave out in the air for 2-3 days to dry.

Makes ….A LOT!!!

Be prepared to flour hands, board and rolling pin, because this dough is sticky!

This recipe can be cut into cookies for treats, or cut into kibble size pieces and fed as kibble.

The recipe is very versatile, so you can substitute one kind of flour for another if you don't have it.

For a K-9 Little Treats Maker go to:

http://www.fantes.com/cookie-cutters.htm

If you don't have a kibble cutter, you can cut with a pizza cutter to speed up the process. Trust me, you want to get this kibble cutter!

_______________________________________________________________________________

I add the following to about 6 to 7 cups of kibble, and then serve in 1 to 1-1/2 cup portions:

1 TBSP to 1-1/2 TBSP Flaxseed oil (the kind without added Vit. C)

2 Gamma - E capsules (I use NOW brand) pierce gel capsule and squeeze out vit. E oil. (This E vitamin supplement has all 4 vit E's, not just alpha tocopherol.)

Mix the two oils into the kibble, then add:

VEGEDOG (vitamin supplement)

VEGEYEAST (OR IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT, ADD NUTRITIONAL YEAST)

Amino Acids removed from capsules: L-Carnitine, L-Taurine, L-Methionine, L-Lysine

Prozyme, or NZyme -- enzyme supplement

BakPak -- probiotic supplement (or PB8 Probiotic)

Mix.

   

In Search of Dog Food Recipes

Today I made "Homemade Sweet-Potato Peanut-Butter Vegan Dog Delight" for Valentina. (PETA recipe --See Dog Food Links) I knew it was going to be good, because it smelled scrumptious. Valentina gobbled it up.
Later today, I was continuing my search for Homemade Dog Food Recipes, and I happened upon a Great Blog -- Vegan Heartland. (See Dog Food Links)  I found a post (June 7, 2012) entitled "Making Your Own Vegan Dog Food" This one is a real keeper.  Matthew has broken down all the possible foods into categories, as well as described the various nutrients in each food.  He even has a formula for determining how much to feed your dog, as well as correct proportions for protein, starches, fats, etc.  Even though the percentage of protein  for a full grown dog should be 50%, a Great Dane puppy's protein should be limited to 18-23%  (instead of the normal puppy protein level of about 35%) in order to slow down the rapid bone growth of Great Danes.  Matthew has done a great job on this Vegan Blog.  It's well worth  reading. Every time I find a vegan blog like Vegan Heartland, it reminds me that the world IS changing for the better.