Get the Offline ArchiveFree lifetime updates

Feeding a Working Dog Without Commercial Food

7 min read

Parent
🦴
Care in Survival Context
Current
🍖
Feeding Without Commercial Dog Food

Feed a working dog by working out its energy need from its weight, then building a cooked ration of grain, meat or eggs and a calcium source that meets the protein, fat and calcium minimums at that energy. A 30 kg dog needs about 900 kcal a day at rest and 1,800 or more at work, rice alone supplies under half its protein, and a ration of meat, rice and egg is dangerously short of calcium unless ground eggshell or bone meal is added.

Part of Guard Dog Training

Feeding a working dog without commercial food is the calculation and preparation of a home-cooked ration from grain, animal foods and minerals that meets the dog’s energy and nutrient needs.

Energy First, Then Protein, Fat And Calcium

The parent article says commercial food will not be available indefinitely and that dogs, being omnivores, can eat a wide variety. It lists safe foods (cooked meat scraps and organ meats, cooked eggs with ground shell for calcium, cooked rice, oats, barley, potatoes, vegetables, cooked fish) and dangerous ones (chocolate, coffee and caffeine, onions, garlic, grapes and raisins, xylitol, cooked bones, alcohol, macadamia nuts). It gives the energy need of a 30 kg working dog as about 1,500-2,000 calories (kilocalories) a day, rising to 2,500 or more in cold weather or heavy work.

The figures below that go beyond the parent article come from standard veterinary nutrition references that I am recalling and have not read in this session: the resting energy formula and work multipliers from the National Research Council’s Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats (2006) and veterinary nutrition texts, and the adult-maintenance nutrient minimums from the AAFCO dog food nutrient profiles. Check them if a veterinary reference is available. The food values are recalled from USDA composition tables, except where a corpus figure is named.

What You Need

  • A scale, for the dog and for the food
  • Cooked grain — rice, oats, barley or potato
  • Cooked animal protein — lean meat, eggs, fish with bones removed and, in limited amounts, organ meat
  • A fat source — rendered fat
  • A calcium source — finely ground eggshell, baked and powdered, or bone meal
  • A way to cook everything — raw or undercooked meat carries parasites and bacteria; see Cooking Temperatures

Method: Energy, Check The Minimums, Add Calcium, Adjust

Step 1: Find the resting energy requirement (RER). RER in kcal a day = 70 × body weight in kg raised to the power 0.75.

Step 2: Multiply for the dog’s life. Typical multipliers I am recalling: about 1.6 for a neutered adult and about 1.8 for an intact adult, about 2 for light work, about 3 for moderate work, and 4 or more for heavy work. Start low and adjust by the dog’s condition.

Step 3: Check the minimums at that energy. The adult-maintenance minimums per 1,000 kcal of energy I am recalling are 45 g of protein, 13.8 g of fat, 1.25 g of calcium and 1.0 g of phosphorus, with calcium between 1 and 2 times phosphorus.

Step 4: Build the ration and test it against the minimums. See the worked example. Cook all animal foods.

Step 5: Add calcium. A grain-and-meat ration contains very little. Add ground eggshell or bone meal in the amount calculated.

Step 6: Feed 2-3 small meals, as the parent article advises for deep-chested dogs, and avoid hard exercise just before and after a meal.

Step 7: Weigh and feel the dog. Ribs should be easy to feel under a thin layer of fat and the waist visible from above. Adjust the ration in small steps, about a tenth at a time, and recheck in two weeks.

Worked Example: A 30 kg Working Dog

Energy. 30 raised to 0.75 is 12.82, so RER = 70 × 12.82 = 897 kcal a day, about 900.

  • At 1.8 (intact adult): 897 × 1.8 = 1,615 kcal.
  • At 2 (light work): 897 × 2 = 1,795 kcal.
  • At 3 (moderate work): 897 × 3 = 2,692 kcal.
  • The parent article’s 1,500-2,000 kcal is 1,500 ÷ 897 = 1.67 to 2,000 ÷ 897 = 2.23 times RER, which fits an adult between maintenance and light work. Its 2,500 or more fits moderate work.

Rice alone. Target 1,800 kcal. Rice at 3,600 kcal per kg (Emergency Caches) is 3.6 kcal per g, so 1,800 ÷ 3.6 = 500 g of dry rice. Dry rice is about 7.1% protein (recalled), so 500 × 0.071 = 35.5 g of protein. The minimum at 1,800 kcal is 45 × 1.8 = 81 g, so rice alone gives 35.5 ÷ 81 = 44% of the protein needed, under half, and almost no fat.

A mixed ration.

  • Dry rice, 280 g: 280 × 3.6 = 1,008 kcal; protein 280 × 0.071 = 19.9 g.
  • Cooked lean meat, 300 g, at about 165 kcal and 31 g protein and 3.6 g fat per 100 g (recalled): 495 kcal, 93 g protein, 10.8 g fat.
  • Eggs, 2 (about 100 g), at about 143 kcal, 12.6 g protein and 9.5 g fat per 100 g (recalled): 143 kcal, 12.6 g protein, 9.5 g fat.
  • Rendered fat, 15 g at 9 kcal per g: 135 kcal, 15 g fat.
  • Totals: 1,008 + 495 + 143 + 135 = 1,781 kcal, within about 1% of the 1,800 target. Protein 19.9 + 93 + 12.6 = 125.5 g, above the 81 g minimum. Fat about 2 + 10.8 + 9.5 + 15 = 37 g, above the 13.8 × 1.8 = 24.8 g minimum.

Calcium. The minimum is 1.25 × 1.8 = 2.25 g. The foods above supply only a small fraction of that (recalled as tens of milligrams each). Eggshell is mostly calcium carbonate, about 38% calcium by weight (recalled), so 2.25 ÷ 0.38 = 5.9 g of shell powder a day, about a level teaspoon (weigh it to check). Without it the ration is calcium-poor and phosphorus-rich, which over months weakens bones, and adult-sized doses of calcium are not suitable for growing puppies of large breeds, who are harmed by excess.

What this leaves out. Vitamins A, D and E, iodine, zinc and others come from variety: egg yolk, fish, organ meat in limited amounts (liver is very rich in vitamin A and too much is harmful), and a changing mix. A long-term homemade diet without a tested recipe often falls short in micronutrients, which I recall from veterinary nutrition studies but cannot cite; watch the dog’s coat, energy, stool and weight, and vary the foods.

Common Mistakes

  • Rice and scraps only. Protein falls below half the need.
  • Meat without calcium. The commonest long-term error.
  • Feeding raw pork, undercooked meat or raw salmon-family fish. Parasites and a serious fish-borne illness known as salmon poisoning in some regions.
  • Cooked bones. The parent article warns they splinter. It recommends raw bones; raw bones also carry risks (cracked teeth, a swallowed piece lodging in the gut, bacteria), and I could not settle a safe rule, so avoid weight-bearing bones and any piece small enough to swallow whole.
  • Treating garlic as safe in small amounts. The parent article says small quantities occasionally are tolerable; I recall that garlic and onions damage red blood cells and the safe course is to avoid both.
  • Sudden changes and large fatty meals. A sudden change upsets the gut, and a large fatty dose can cause serious pancreatic illness.

Safety

Poisons, bloat and food that has been stored badly

Chocolate, caffeine, grapes and raisins, onions and garlic, xylitol, alcohol and macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs; keep them out of reach and know that a vet may be unavailable. Never feed a dog food from a bulging, hissing or foul-smelling container: botulinum toxin affects dogs; see Food Safety. Do not feed mouldy food. Deep-chested dogs can suffer bloat; feed small meals and rest the dog after eating; see Field Medicine for Dogs. Wash hands after handling raw meat and dog food.

What’s Next