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Marty and Carlo’s Canine Special

From the Jim Dixon collection

Yield

4 qt.

Introduction

Most dogs’ daily need for food is about one cup for every 20 pounds of weight. This recipe is adequate for my two pugs for about a week.

Ingredients

	2	one-pound chubs of frozen ground turkey (or any other ground meat)
	2	lb. carrots
	2½	cups uncooked rice

Steps

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy skillet, then add the thawed turkey and cook until completely browned.
Bring 4 to 6 cups of water to a rolling boil, add the rice, stir, cover, and remove from heat. Check after 15 minutes, and if the rice is tender, drain in a colander.
Grate the carrots in a food processor. (You could grate these by hand, but if you don’t have a food processor, it may be easier to boil or stem the carrots in large pieces, then coarsely chop them.)
Combine everything in a large bowl, adding a healthy pinch of salt. Transfer to covered containers and store in the refrigerator.

Notes

Chubs are packages in soft cylindrical tubes; ground meat and premade polenta are often sold this way. As for carrots, nearly every supermarket offers 2-pound bags of them. And I buy 10-pound bags of Calrose rice for less than $7; an Asian market would probably offer even better deals.

Be sure to read Jim Dixon’s musings on the benefits of homemade dog food.

This content is from the Jim Dixon collection.

Dana Bate

Chicken Curry

Laura Grace Weldon

Doggie Squares

The Culinate 8

How to eat less meat

Emphasize taste, not tonnage

The River Cottage Fish Book

Chinese Fish Parcels

Tags

carrots,
pet food,
rice,
turkey,
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There are 6 comments on this item

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1. by Tami on Mar 4, 2011 at 12:40 PM PST

What about calcium and other supplements?

2. by anonymous on Jun 16, 2011 at 4:51 PM PDT

Is it okay to use the minute rice? We have 2 pugs and feed them dry dog food. But, in the morning we have been giving them a couple of tablespoons of wet canned food because they have to take some liquid joint medication and some fish oils. They won’t eat the dry food with the meds. So, we have to give them the wet food. But, I hate to think of what is in the canned food. Yuck. I am going to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing.

3. by christy on Oct 13, 2011 at 2:54 PM PDT

how much do you feed them?? I have a Weimie/Mastiff mix of 130 lbs and 2 mini dachshunds...only about 10 lbs a piece...

4. by anonymous on Oct 14, 2011 at 8:22 PM PDT

My big 100lb. dog would gulp this all down in one sitting and still be hungry... :) With the cost of this recipe, it would be great for small dogs but with larger dogs would be a huge daily expense. One lb. chub is about $4 at Wal-Mart, $3 for carrots, $2 for a lb. bag of rice.

5. by anonymous on Oct 27, 2011 at 9:04 AM PDT

I like the basic idea, but would really want to run it past a canine nutritionist. Seems to me that dogs need much more calcium as well as omega-3 fatty acids and other vitamins and trace minerals. Simply substituting brown rice for white would help, though the fiber may cause problems in sensitive dogs.

The quickest, cheapest addition would be to save your egg shells, let them dry, grind them into powder and mix into the finished food. Egg shells are a rich source of calcium -- and they are free. Brewer’s yeast, fish oil and egg yolks could also bring needed nutrients.

For a treat, try giving each dog a (room temperature) hard boiled egg. It is amazing to watch them open it and lick out the yolk before crunching up and eating the shells.

6. by anonymous on Nov 15, 2012 at 8:36 AM PST

Recipe in Andi Brown’s book (Whole Pet Diet) is better. I use ground chicken necks vs whole chicken.

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