Niko's Home-Cooked Diet

Our dog is on a home-cooked diet.

That means all his meals are prepared fresh--by me.

I think it's important to tell you about Niko's home-cooked diet because I had no idea that the dog food our vet recommended was actually causing Niko to have severe allergies. 

We were feeding him Purina One, whose main ingredient is meat, 

which is why it was recommended to us. 

For the record, I have nothing against this brand. 

Nor do I blame them for Niko being sick. 

Niko has severe allergies to ALL types of dog food that have wheat/corn/grain in them. 

And I know that there are many dogs who don't have this allergy and can eat dry dog food without any problems. However, that's not the case with our dog.

He was on antibiotics and taking four Benadryl a day. 

It was expensive and trying to get him to swallow those pink pills was next to impossible.

It left me in tears every morning.

And trips to the vet with a sick dog were starting to wear on me.

Especially when they couldn't tell me what was wrong with my dog.

I was stressed. 

So stressed that I broke down and cried.

Then, we did our research instead of just taking someone's word for it. 

My mom scoured the internet and discovered that Niko had all the symptoms of a dog with a wheat/corn/grain allergy. 

His ears were bright red inside and he had scratched all of his fur off the back of them. 

Niko would let out a cry and then begin biting himself all over in a panic. 

He was constantly licking the carpet, leaving huge wet spots. 

He was always agitated. 

When we'd feed him, we'd notice that he ate whatever was necessary to survive, 

but would often leave food behind.

And we had to de-worm him every 3 months. 

(I know the de-worming probably doesn't have a lot to do with it, but since we put him on his new diet, he hasn't had any worm problems.)

Several owners--whose dogs had the same problems Niko did--explained that they put their dogs on home-cooked diets after realizing they had severe allergies to dry dog food. 

At that point, we were willing to try anything. 

I pulled out my Siberian Husky book and read.

On page 94, the book talked about food allergies common to Huskies. 

And wah-la! Right there, in a book I always had sitting on my desk, was the answer to all of my
Niko problems.
If only I had read further, I would have discovered exactly what we found out on the internet.

Niko's food was making him sick.

If you're interested in purchasing the Kennel Club Books Interactive Series for the Siberian Husky, you can find it here. 

Several months later, Niko is doing very well on his diet. 

He eats a variety of foods.

Meat/Protein: Turkey, chicken, liver, fish, ground beef, pork, eggs, kidney beans, & pinto beans.

Vegetables: Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, yams, potatoes, & green beans.

I mix about 3-4 of the above ingredients together with rice for him twice a day. 

I try to change it up because he gets bored easily.

At first, it really was a learning curve. 

I wasn't sure how much to feed Niko, but I instantly noticed a change in his behavior. 

He was off the antibiotics immediately and was down to only two Benadryl after three days. 

After two weeks, he was completely off his Benadryl.

Niko eats about a 1/2 pound of meat a day, a 1/2 bowl of veggies, 1 1/2-2 cups of rice, and a 1/4 can of kidney/pinto beans or 1 scrambled egg.

It took me a couple of weeks to figure out what amount was good to feed him. 

It was all about trial-and-error.

He's a very active dog so he needs a lot of protein.

Sometimes, the budget doesn't always allow us to feed him like a king.

But I always make sure he has meat, rice, and at least one vegetable. 

I keep yams on hand just in case we are running low on funds, which has only happened once.

We spend about $8-12 a week feeding him.

Sometimes it's less; sometimes it's more.

I make Niko's meals for two days at at time.

I try to keep it as fresh as possible.

I cook all of his meat (except the ground beef) in a tablespoon of Olive Oil. 

I cut everything up into small pieces, mix it together in his container, and have two days worth prepared.

It takes about 20 minutes to make his meals 2-3 times a week. 

Our trainer suggested we buy Blue Buffalo dry food for him to eat because it doesn't have wheat/corn/grain in it, but we going to stick with the home-cooked diet for now. 

He's doing so well that we don't want to mess up our progress.

If you believe your dog has a food allergy, I recommend trying a
home-cooked diet for at least three weeks. 

Hopefully you begin seeing the positive changes that we saw in our dog.

Happy, healthy Niko!