a dog’s life

Recently, a friend phoned me because she was concerned about diarrhea in her dog. We discussed when it had started, what the dog had been eating, and whether the dog seemed sick, or had any other symptoms. It turned out she had decided to try homemade dog food and had made the change rather suddenly.

Homemade dog food in itself should not give your dog diarrhea as long as you follow a few simple rules.
 

Make changes gradually: a sudden change in diet may upset a dog with a sensitive stomach, so introduce new foods only one at a time: that way, you can easily identify anything that is going to cause a problem. Start by feeding about one part of the new food to about three parts of the old food, increasing slightly over a few days. When you are sure that the first new food is not causing any upset, start to introduce a second new food in the same way.
If your dog has only ever been fed with kibble, it may take a while for his stomach to adjust. I would start with a small portion of cooked lamb or chicken, mixed with the kibble. When the dog is comfortably tolerating about half in half of that, I would add a little well cooked rice (so now your dog’s meal is ½ cooked meat, ¼ rice, ¼ kibble). If no upsets occur, your dog will be having cooked meat and rice with no kibble after a few days. Now, keeping the meat portion of the meal at about half, you can gradually introduce cooked vegetables (still keeping to only one new food at a time), by replacing a small portion of the rice.
If you want to introduce a different source of animal protein, such as beef or egg, follow the same steps, but replace a part of the cooked meat with the new food.
If your dog has an upset with a new food, stop feeding that food for now. You can try introducing it again later, when the dog has settled into the new eating plan.
Once you have the dog comfortably adapted to eating your homemade dog food all cooked, you can try giving some or all of the meat raw. As before, the trick is to introduce any change gradually.
 

Practice good hygiene in your kitchen: there is a view sometimes promoted that raw food can carry infectious organisms. Pathogens are all around us: appropriate hygiene is necessary in everything we do, be it minding the neighbour’s children, riding an escalotor or preparing homemade dog food (or people food for that matter!). The key to preventing illness by contamination of food is handwashing. Wash your hands before and after handling raw meat, dry them well using a clean hand towel or paper towel; keep kitchen utensils clean. You should have a separate chopping board that is used only for meat and that you wash thoroughly straight after use. All meat should be stored covered or wrapped in the refrigerator, with raw meat on a lower shelf (so that it cannot accidentally drip onto other food).
 

Raw versus cooked: My personal preference is to feed meat and bones raw (never feed cooked bones) and to feed vegetables cooked. I have observed that raw veggies, even grated, seem to pass through unchanged! Eggs and fish should be fed cooked, cereals (grains) must be fed cooked, small tidbits of fruit can be offered raw.

No eating plan will suit all dogs or all owners. There’s a lot of conflicting advice around, often promoted by someone who has something to sell. It’s your dog and your lifestyle: read as much as you can, visit dog forums and blogs, educate yourself; with some patient experimenting you will be able to work out what suits both you and your dog best.