Homemade dog food for your pit bull can offer you a healthier alternative to pre-packaged, commercial foods. If you're considering making your own dog food, be aware of what foods are better for your pet and what can be harmful.
Recommended Diet
The recommended diet of a pit bull will vary, as vets may say one thing while experienced pit bull owners, trainers and breeders may say another. For homemade dog food, many pit bull owners recommend natural raw food. This is based on the notion that dogs are carnivorous and should eat the foods that are natural for them to scavenge if left in the wild. Raw meat and bones are the basis for this diet. Some owners include raw eggs, vegetables and fruits.
Grains are not recommended since, being carnivorous, pit bulls' systems are not built for consuming grains. Grain allergies have also been known to occur.
If trying a raw diet with your pit bull, start slow, increasing the amount of raw meats until it's able to eat a whole, raw meal. Be aware that switching to a raw diet may temporarily cause your dog and its stool to smell, its coat to be dull and brittle, and its skin to be oily as the raw diet "detoxifies" their system, flushing out content from its previous diet. Your dog should become quite healthy once its body detoxifies. If your pit bull is a young puppy, detox may not occur.
Preferences
Like humans, dogs have food preferences for different foods. Within the parameters of their diet, you can provide the foods they enjoy eating and avoiding the ones that make them sick. For example, some dogs like fish, but others hate it. Some don't like raw steak but prefer ground beef. Learn your pit bull's preferences to help you decide what to feed it.
Feeding
Handle raw meat as if you were going to prepare it for yourself; make sure it's clean. If you're worried about trichinosis, raw pork may not be ideal. Raw salmon may also harm your pit bull's liver, so cooked salmon is recommended over raw. Raw beef will work, like steak and hamburger. If you are using poultry, wash and make sure it is free of salmonella. Bones, including chicken backs and chicken and turkey necks, are all suitable.
Raw eggs with the shell, fish and fish oil, vegetables like carrots and greens and fruits are all foods that you can try to provide additional nutrients. Consider pureeing the vegetables and fruits; a pit bull's teeth are meant to shred, not grind. You can freeze the puree into cubes to give the dog something to bite. Also consider giving dogs the vegetables and fruits as a treat outside of their regular meals.
Some sources, such as Animal-World.com, say that brown rice and corn should be a part of your pit bull's diet. Keep in mind that rice and corn are grains, and grains are not part of pit bull's recommended diet. Others, such as Diane Jessup, author of "The Working Pit Bull," says that dogs need meat, not things like rice, peas and carrots, which further conflicts with other owners' diet plans. In the end, use meat as your primary food source. Add vegetables and fruits and see how your pit bull reacts.
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