This coming Tuesday we have an appointment for an x-ray.

We will know for sure how many puppies Lusa will have after Tuesday.  I can hardly wait.

Lusa has about two weeks to go and just had her pre-delivery bath and groom.!

It sure looks like more than five to me.

More re food.

My dogs also eat some kibble because it makes it easier to travel.  I usually have a small bowl setting out and they eat a bit now and again  That's all they get when we travel.

Homemade dog food.

About once a week I make enough food for the dogs for the entire week.

Have on hand:

http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/diy-eat-eggshell-powder/28465

Boil bones whenever they are leftover from a meal.  Save the juice from that (freeze or refrigerate) to add to the food.  Save all the broth from chicken or turkey, but remove most of the fat from beef or pork.  Save all eggshells as they are a wonderful source of calcium.  First dry out the shells (I microwave them for a minute or two) and then grind them.  Use a magic bullet or a a coffee grinder would do.  If you have a pressure cooker you can actually cook bones to the point where they can be ground and put in the food as a source of calcium.

When more food is needed, boil hamburger, porkloin, chicken, turkey and boil it until cooked.   Change the meat source regularly.     Left over meat from our meals is not cooked again.  Cook a mixture of vegetables and save the water to cook rice or quinoa if your dog needs the carbs.  Most don't.  Throw in all those left over vegetables and meat.  Vegetables can be included raw if they are finely ground. Sometimes I add sweet potatoes as well.  Boil them whole and then the skin is easy to remove.   Don't add the skins.  Also, scramble enough eggs so that each dog gets about half an egg a day.

http://pets.thenest.com/ratio-meat-vegetables-grain-homemade-dog-food-11458.html

Add salmon oil to each individual meal.  Start slowly with this.

My dogs also get veggies and some meat for treats.

Dog food and dog treats PLEASE read

I have always tried to take a conservative approach to dog food and treats for my puppy people.  I realize that people have busy lives and some may not want to spend the time preparing dog food.  Actually it doesn't take that much time once a pattern has been set, however, with all the news, recalls, and even deaths associated with dog food/treats, I am to the point where I have to take a stronger stand on this.  There is absolutely no reason why everyone can't make their own treats at least.

Have you tried kale?  George, Lusa, and Charo go crazy over kale, broccoli, and cauliflower.  They won't touch a carrot, but many dogs love carrots too.  I use these treats for training and often they spit the meat out and gobble up the veggies. Mojo, however, will not place tongue to food if it has even been in the same bowl as a veggie, so, yes, ever dog is different.

So do I mix up everything and make fancy little cookies?  Absolutely not necessary, and the less time spent the better. The veggies I simply chop up but the meat I boil and then chop into very small pieces and freeze in plastic bags.  I try to put a days training treats into one bag.  If you really want something more complicated you can mix the meat with cooked sweet potato, divide into spoonfuls and bake in the oven.  I never put flour into any food I give my dogs.

My dogs love chicken, but I am now looking for a source of chicken that is guaranteed not to be processed in China.  Even chicken so called "for human consumption" is now going to be processed  elsewhere.  Even the chicken treats made here in North America are  sending dogs into renal failure. I know about this because Mojo is now suffering from this problem but that's another story for another day. So, I buy whatever is on sale, pork loin, chicken, beef, and turkey, boil it, cut it up and freeze it.  Actually, if you place the pieces on paper towels and let them dry out in the freezer before bagging, the pieces last longer once removed from the freezer.

Placing the meat in a pan to boil, cutting it up afterwards, and placing it in the freezer takes about 15 minutes max and there would be more than enough for a week or two.  I do it for four dogs and that's all the time I spend on it.

Next I'll explain how I prepare the food for four dogs and spend less than an hour a week doing it.