In addition to their kibble, I cook for my "critters". We raise English Bulldogs, take in strays and rescues, cats born to a feral cat under the porch.... you get the picture!!
We buy meat which is marked down because it is the last sell by date, turkeys on sale at Thanksgiving, etc.
Today we bought 2 BIG turkeys for $.59 per pound at Kroger, one goes in the freezer and the other will be cooked in a Reynolds Browning Bag until the meat will easily come off the bone. I'll use the broth for turkey gravy, toss in some meat and veggies for good measure and spoon it over their water soaked kibble. With a turkey there is a lot of meat and minimum bone, so I pull the meat off the bone, put it in freezer in ziploc bags and give it to them as treats or crumble in on top of their food.
I feed Purina Puppy Chow to young and old, because to my knowledge they have never had a recall of their dry puppy or dog food, while many, many others have, also their source of vitamins and minerals is easily digestible. I know the other brands have vitamins and minerals, but if they are not easily digestible what good does it do .... none. I know for a fact that my critters are getting what they need from Purina and when from time to time I switched to what people think of as a "higher grade" of dog foods, there was been evidence of this not being the case. I've taken in rescue animals for 55 years, pulled my first rescue kitten from a trash can in back of a store when I was 5 years old. Everything has been fed Purina Puppy Chow, although I did get an email from Purina advising me that cats need an ingredient found in meat which was included in their Cat Chow. Good thing the cats had been feed a lot of meat also, which supplied this.
I do not feed raw ... a vet in Corinth, MS told me he knew of food poison from meat before the health department did because it sickened the animals who were fed raw first. Told me not to feed raw for this reason. I do give them bones but they are big beef bones and are slow cooked in the oven several hours to insure no bacteria develops.
So get out there and get your critters a turkey or two while they are on sale!!!
