Homemade
The food defines your Beagle’s health, mood and lifespan. The comercial food however looks more attractive than homemade dog food for several obvious reasons.
Though, first of all, you wont be certain about what does your dog eat(especially when you buy cheaper food), because the commercial dog food with enough nutrients of the reequired quality can be expensive, and the producers of the cheap dog food tend to use a lot of useless or even harmful ingredients – the fillers, that way your Beagle might eat a lot untill full, but because of luck of real nutrients it can start eating grass or even feces to fullfill the biological demands.
No need to say your Beagle will be lazy, sad and depressed, add the increased risk of diseases and in result you will be just helping your dog to die faster when using low-quality nutrition. Terrible, isn’t it?
And if you dont want to waste your money on expensive commercial food, you should really consider making a homemade dog food.
And even if you are okay with buying expensive nutrition, your Beagle will be especially happy when you please him with some tasty self-made treats.
Nutrition Requirements
So, what are the nutrition requirements for Beagles? The average Beagle calory needs are 500-650 Cal for an adult dog and about 1000 Cal for an active or working dogs.
The protein requirements for Beagles are higher than average due to the activity and energy these dogs have. The proper nutrition should contain at least 25% of good proteins, while 50% of protein being the highest amount. Though it depends on your dog, so consider 30% as the standard for good enough nutrition.
Beagles can get fat pretty quickly, so you should consider using slow-burning carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates. Good sources of the slow ones are brown rice, barley, oats and sweet potatoes.
To maintain healthy skin and coat your Beagle should also get plenty of good fats. Your dog also needs omega fatty acids, which you can get from fish and flaxseed.
It is also important to prevent Beagle-specific diseases, so you should also include vitamin E for skin and coat, and iron(from fish, beef or liver) as well as vitamin B9(from pumpkins, eggs carrots) to prevent anemia.
Now, for daily meals you can just mix the ingredients considering they fit the nutrition conditions above.
And down below there are some recipes for special dog treats.
Treat Recipe Doggie Liver
You will need:
- lb Raw liver;
- cloves garlic;
- box corn muffin mix (martha-white works well).
Heat oven to temperature listed for the corn muffins.
In blender or food processor, mix liver and garlic until liquid. Mix it box of cuffin mix.
Scrap onto a cookie sheet and pat to about 1/2 to 1 inch thick. Bake until very firm but not burned. Cut into squares. May be frozen.
Doggie Biscuits
You will need:
- 1/2 c flour;
- 1/2 c whole wheat flour;
- 1 c rye flour;
- 1 c oats;
- 1 c cornmeal;
- 1/4 c liver powder*;
- 1 ts salt;
- 1 ts garlic powder;
- 1 egg;
- 1/2 c vegetable oil;
- 3/4 c beef broth.
*Liver powder available in health food stores.
Mix flours and all other dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add egg,oil and beef broth.
Mix the dough, adding enough additional flour to make a dough that can be rolled.
On a floured surface, roll to 1/2″ thickness, then cut with cookie cutter into desired shapes.
Prick with a fork halfway through each biscuit and bake on foil-covered cookie sheets for 2 hours at 300F (150C). Turn the heat off,but keep the biscuits in the oven until hardened.
Dog Cookies
You will need:
- 1 c beef, chicken or vegetable-stock;
- 1 c bread OR all-purpose flour;
- 1 c whole wheat or rye flour-OR other dark flour;
- 1 c bulgar wheat;
- 1/4 c non-fat dry milk powder;
- 1/2 ts salt;
- 1 1/2 ts yeast.
Use dough cycle:
- Roll dough to 1/4″ thickness.
- Cut with cookie cutters or knife.
- Place on baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal.
- Cover with clean kitchen towels and let rise in warm place about 45 minutes.
- Bake at 325-degrees for 45 minutes.
- When all are baked, turn off oven and return all cookies to cooling oven overnight to harden.
Store in airtight container.
