How to Make Cheap, Hard & Healthy Dog Food

Dog lovers are becoming more and more aware of the inferior quality of commercially prepared dog foods. The clear solution is to make your own healthy dog food. Not only does this recipe contain no worthless fillers or potentially dangerous artificial sweeteners, it's cheap and easy to prepare. The added bonus is that it yields 20 to 25 cups of hard and healthy dog food, which is also much better for your best friend's teeth than soft foods.

Things You'll Need

• 3 cups of whole wheat flour
• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 2 tsp. of bone meal
• 2 cups of dry milk
• 3 cups of cooked brown or wild rice
• 4 raw eggs
• 1 cup of bacon grease or lard, melted
• 3 cups of water, broth, gravy, milk, meat juices or meat drippings
• 1 cup of cooked chopped carrots
• 1 cup of cooked chopped peas
• 2 to 4 cups of ground or shredded fat, fish or meat (optional)
• Plastic bags
• Plastic containers with lids

Instructions

1. Combine the whole wheat flour, rolled oats, bone meal and dry milk in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the cooked brown or wild rice a little at a time, blending well after each addition.

2. Whisk the eggs in a separate mixing bowl. Pour in the melted bacon grease or lard and blend well. Add the water, broth, gravy, milk, meat juices or meat drippings, and mix the liquid thoroughly.

3. Slowly stir the liquid ingredients into the dry mixture a little at a time, blending well following each addition.

4. Add the ground or shredded fat, meat or fish and mix thoroughly. Gently fold in the cooked carrots and peas.

5. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Fahrenheit and generously grease several large baking pans. Spread the dog food batter into the pans, no deeper than 1/2 inch thick.

6. Bake the dog food dough for 45- to 55 minutes. When it browns lightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pans, it's done.

7. Take the pans out of the oven and cool them to room temperature on racks. Break the dog food into chunks that are the right size for your dog. Store a 4 to 5 day supply in an airtight container with a tight-fitting lid in the refrigerator. Freeze the rest of the batch in airtight plastic bags.

Tips & Warnings

• Fry 2 pounds of bacon, which will render up about a cup of bacon grease. Cool the grease and pour it into a coffee mug. Store it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it, up to a month. Serve BLTs for dinner one night, or crumble the bacon up to use as an optional meat in your hard and healthy dog food.

• Chocolate can kill your dog. Other "people" foods that are dangerous to your best friend include artificial sweeteners, apricot pits, seeds of any kind, hops (used in processing beer), coffee, candy, raisins or grapes, onions or onion powder, moldy foods and mushrooms.