Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Nope, I think it is kinda obsessive, unless that is, your pet has a health condition that requires it to eat special foods, and you are willing to do it.

At Christmas I bake 'dog bones' for my grand dogs.

People learned how to cook food a long time ago, but animals never got in the habit; they've evolved to eat raw foods. I really think that cooking food for them is more to our benefit than theirs. Partially emotionally, because it makes us feel good that we're doing something special, and because it makes Fluffy seem less savage to eat cooked hamburger rather than raw hunks of meat and bone. And cooked and processed kibble lasts a lot longer at room temp than a gunnysack full of squirrels.

And I believe (but could be madly wrong) that feeding them a diet that's closer to what they'd naturally eat is better for them.

That said, I hate to waste food, and when I dumped a bunch of flour on the floor, I scooped it up to make dog cookies.

As for the bunny, instead of trying to make treats from things that bunnies don't normally eat, how about drying foods that she'd normally eat raw? I don't know that she'd actually like them better, but if she does eat them, it would be a way to preserve some produce that might not last long enough otherwise.

During the hot summer days I like to make frozen peanut butter treats for my dog. I use plain low fat yogurt and melt some peanut butter, then mix the two together and freeze the mixture in cupcake tins. Makes a great cold treat for the dog and he loves them.

@db - I'd agree with you wholeheartedly if I'd found my dogs in the forest and brought them home. But at this point, considering that many breeds did not even exist in "nature", it's hard to tell what they'd eat naturally. I may be really mistaken here myself, but I do believe that dogs' immune systems may have changed over the years of being bred and cultivated as house pets, and their stomachs may not be as well adjusted to eating raw meat as their predecessors' were.

@brooke, we've been meddling with dog breeds a lot longer than commercial dog food has existed. I mean, canned food for people is a fairly recent invention and canned and processed dog foods came well after that. Yeah, our grandparents' dogs weren't really wild, but they weren't eating processed kibble, either.

I prefer not to eat processed foods except as the occasional treat, and that's pretty much how I feed my dogs. It's a personal choice though, and I've got to say that doling out a portion from the giant bag of kibble is about as easy as it gets. It's just not what I choose to do.

@db - oh, but I was saying the same exact thing in my original reply upthread - I do not feed them commercial processed food, just like I don't eat processed food myself. But it also doesn't mean that I'll let them hunt the squirrels in our garden and eat those for dinner, even though their predecessors may have done just that. So I choose to cook their food for them, that's all. As I've said before, it doesn't take much of an effort, and I know exactly what goes into their food.

@brooke, one of my dogs would dearly love for me to let her have the birds and squirrels she catches. Actually, she may have eaten a few that I didn't know about :-) And I still don't want to know.

I just think some people go a little too far into thinking that the pets are little people and should eat what we eat. There's a huge difference between preparing a heathy meal for Fido, and creating things that sound good to us, but aren't good for the dog. Like a woman I know who buys fast food burgers and chocolate ice cream cones for her dog on a regular basis.

I'm glad we agree :-)

@db - yep, apparently we're on the same page:-). I'm definitely against feeding them "people" food or worse, table scrapes, especially considering that there is so much seemingly "harmless" stuff that may really hurt them.

Not that they would mind hunting squirrels, mind you:-)

I bake dog biscuits for my dog (and his lucky friends). As for cooking specifically for him, I don't do that. He does get people food. I know, I know, it's bad. But he loves it and he's an 11 year old who can no longer have sex - what else is there but good food?

I had a friend who cooked for her dogs 2x/day every day. They lived very, very long, happy lives. She just got a new pup and swears she's not cooking for him. Let's see how long that lasts...

@Brooke, not only do my dogs want to hunt squirrels, but they're pretty good at hunting vegetables, too. Probably the funniest thing I ever saw was the day when I was hauling in food that I'd bought at the farmer's market. I left a bag of carrots at the gate while I brought the rest in the house. Bag stuffed full of carrots, tops on. When I came back for the carrots, the bag was still there, looking untouched. But each dog had extracted one carrot, and they were laying in the grass munching their prizes.

I think preparing food for your pets makes sense if you're keeping in mind what's good for them and not what looks good to you. For people who cook, it's pretty simple to figure out how to feed a pet. For people who live on fast food, the pets are better off with kibble.

@dbcurrie--my in-laws had beagles who were notorious for raiding the garden for carrots and green beans.
Our golden loved grape tomatoes last year--not the foliage which can be poisonous to dogs--just the tomatoes. Every morning I'd check and say to myself, tomorrow these should be ready to pick--and I was blaming the birds and squirrels for their disappearance, (duh, we have three cats, so we're pretty much bird and rodent free). Then I saw our pup ever so carefully pluck the most ripe grape tomatoes off the vine right after I let her out to pee. I guess that was her idea of a morning appetizer. Needless to say the tomatoes and herbs she likes are on the front porch out of her reach, this year.

I do feed my dog kibble, but as she is a chihuahua she does best on a low-protein, high-fiber diet. Given people food, even low-calorie meat with fibrous vegetables and grains, she still gets extremely constipated and puts on weight. Even on high-premium dog food with a high protein content and a low fiber content she tends to get er, fluffy. I only give her human food as a treat, not as a mainstay.

However, every dog is different--what we call 'dogs' encompasses a huge array of weights, shapes, and metabolisms--due to quite a bit of interference with doggie genetics by humans over many years. Many working dogs really seem to flourish plain, high-quality 'human' protein to thrive.

For a rabbit, although you could make alfalfa treats--I have to say that most rabbits I have known seem to be happiest with veggies. My cousin's late rabbit especially loved lettuce.

I seriously considered making food for my two cats, even bought a cookbook of sorts (Picarin????), but the recipes seemed to make tons of food, and I was afraid of spoilage. Now I just feed them Dick van Patten's food. And the occasional pizza crust for one (who doesn't eat it, he just likes to tear it up and leave it on my floor)

Honestly, it's pretty much an obvious 'no brainer' not to feed your pets human junk food.

The concern some vets have about cooking for pets is that some people have trouble cooking a healthy diet for themselves, let alone an animal with different nutritional needs that can't articulate if it feels ill, in any way other than getting sick. However, if you're willing to do the extra work and your pet seems healthy and flourishes, of course that is a different thing entirely.

My first dog didn't do well on people food--she was very tiny, like my current dog, and had teeth problems without having something hard to chew on.

Dogs are, as some have observed above, omnivores, and can be healthy on many different diets, just like humans--and as with humans, the key is to fine tune to diet to the dog's specific needs. Dogs may need adjustments in diets over their lifespan as well, just like us!

I would love to cook for my rabbit! I resist, though, because of the sugar issues. We do buy him special "fancy" hay that's a mix of sweet meadow, timothy, and dried herbs, and he goes wild for that. I guess I'll have to settle for fancy hay, fresh salad, and the occasional TB of banana (his favorite) as a real treat.

What the bagel is wrong with all of us?
My dog eats a scientific diet, and seems to be fine.

My cat is pretty happy with dry food, but she loves to "taste" whatever I happen to be eating. She gets an occasional bite of junk food, but she only gets a morsel the size of a pea. She digs french fries, and I no longer eat hot pockets, because she would be all over me.

She also likes healthier foods. Normal cat things like chicken, tuna and cheese. But also totally non-cat things like clementines and bananas.

And if it matters, she is nearly 12 years old and weighs 7lb. She is full of energy and no one, not even the vet, can believe that she's a day over 2.

I guess different animals, like people, have different nutritional needs.

My Bryan always gets a burger when i make them. BTW Bryan is my dog not my husband.

@brooke--tonight they ate steamed broccoli for the same reason. Now it's becoming somewhat of a betting sport here to see what they'll eat just to keep the other from getting it.

I make brown rice, mix in some frozen mixed vegies, and a can of salmon. I supplement their kibble with some of this mixture daily. Their fur is so soft and silky. My Bull Mastiff was allergic to proteins so she ate vegetarian food. She loved all kinds of vegetables and fruit. One Halloween she wanted the pumpkin pulp we were carving. She loved to devoure watermelon rinds, carrots, and tomatoes off the vine.

my cat likes raw foods. the only thing i cook for him is salmon. which is to say if you grill a salmon steak the center is mildly under-done and after checking it for bones, i will offer him bits.

I'm owned by 3 cats, two Maine Coon mixes and a pure-bred Sphynx. One of my Maine Coons will rarely touch anything but cat food. The other craves meat. A few times a week I'll chop up raw beef for him and he devours it. The Sphynx will eat anything that isn't nailed down.

I haven't tried to make home-made cat treats yet - but I might. I am a crazy cat lady and enjoy giving the kittehs treats. I'm not against bribery to get them to do what I want. ;)