Third week of making home made Sophie food!

[Zookeepermom247]

This is our third week of making human food for Sophie to eat due to her weight issues. After talking to a LAB breeder from Canada whose Labs never eat kibble, she gave me basic recipes.

I take plain oats, and make it without salt. I use this or brown or regular rice as a base. Oats are carbs but have more protein and lowers cholesterol. To either base, I add chicken, or turkey, or ground meat, or pork, or salmon as the meat. I add eggs, green beans, kidney beans, coconut oil, peeled cooked sweet potato, pumpkin, and sometimes a few blue berries. I stopped milk bones and give her bits of apple. She is not a fan of carrots. She likes strawberries.. fresh. WE give her a cup in the am and a cup in pm. The food is good, caught my husband taking a few bites. She gets a daily vitamin from NU VET. I also plan to add gizzards... and livers on occasion. Either it is wishful thinking but she looks slimmer. Her harness is looser. I want to make sure she does not loose too fast. I do believe kibble can keep them fat and this was reaffirmed by the breeder I spoke to. I also will look into adding some bran as she is still scooting her butt and had her glands expressed two weeks ago and she never stopped scooting.. any ideas why?

If you all have a ideas for a recipe... let me know..

Thanks,
Sophie's mom

[Labradorks]

Nice! Be careful with the sweet potatoes, they are awfully high in calories and in some foods, contribute to weight gain. Would not worry about peeling them. The skin is healthy. Just don't feed with the growths.

The pumpkin and other veggies and fruits you are feeding, as well as the oats, should be providing a lot of fiber, so not sure you'd need the bran. How are her poops?

She may have some seasonal allergies or food allergies hence the intchy butt. Any ear issues or other itching?

[Laura]

I bet she loves that! What are you using for calcium?

[Zookeepermom247]

We do not give too much dairy... some plain greek yogurt.. but broccoli, kale, spinach... all the accepted greens have calcium.. and so does her vitamin. This batch has green beans.. next batch we will do turnip greens.. spinach.

Thanks,
Sophie's mom

Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!!

[Maxx&Emma]

That does sound good! I can't wait to hear how it works for weight loss. How much do you have to feed daily and what does Sophie weigh?

[Zookeepermom247]

Sophie is 18 mos old and gets one cup in am and one cup in pm.. she weighed in at 95 lbs... she was 90 when the vet put her on that IAMS prescription weight loss food. We stopped milk bones.. and give her apple bites... for snacks. She still gets a bully and she still gets a good beef bone to chew.

Thanks,
Sophie's mom

[Zookeepermom247]

She was having two cups a day of that diet kibble.. anyway.. she LOVES this food...


Sophie's mom

[Zookeepermom247]

Her poop is soft... then harder.. then soft... could be food, or the vitamins which I started two weeks ago. She has had issues with ear infections since last year. Thanks for the advice... the sweet potato is distributed through the mix which is for four days... she had that itchy butt before the switch to human food.

[Labradorks]

Her poop is soft... then harder.. then soft... could be food, or the vitamins which I started two weeks ago. She has had issues with ear infections since last year. Thanks for the advice... the sweet potato is distributed through the mix which is for four days... she had that itchy butt before the switch to human food.

Since you're making her food anyway, you might as well go on a limited ingredient diet and see if you can figure out what the deal is. Might be able to pinpoint the butt/ear situation that way. Just a thought!

[Zookeepermom247]

Good idea... with making your own food, it is exciting to know exactly what is in that food!! Not like with store kibble which is a mystery even with ingredients listed. I check her ears daily and smell them and she gets those dry out drops weekly and after swimming.
Thanks,
Sophie's mom