It seems that many of our standard dog food brands have experienced serious quality issues over the last year. If I wanted to feed my dog a balanced diet, using human food, what you suggest?  Thanks!

My veterinarian does not recommend human food. She believes that dog foods today are of good quality, as long as you are not purchasing the inexpensive grocery brands. I am sure you can find the right diet of human food if you do the research.

When I was researching quality foods, I found this link to be very helpful. It has a breakdown of the guaranteed analysis: http://www.gooddogmagazine.com/drydogfood.htm

At one time, I had found a good article about feeding a performance dog. I will see if I can dig it up again.

If you are worried about the dog food recalls, there have been none since September, but here is the most recent list from ASPCA - I found it to be the most complete: http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=recall_list

Does anyone else have suggestions for human-grade food options for dogs?

We have a cocker spaniel with a sensitive stomach.  On occasion, when he is exhibiting signs of an upset stomach,  we have fed him a mixture of boiled ground beef, rice, carrots, and green beans.  This works well as a bland diet; however, it does not satisfy long-term dietary needs and it takes time to prepare.

If preparation time is not an issue and you are still concerned with the quality of dry dog food, check out Dr. Harvey’s Canine Health (http://www.drharveys.com/dogs/index.asp).  Dr. Harvey’s Canine Health is an all natural dog food pre mix using all human consumption ingredients.  It does require prep time, but my boys absolute loved it. 

Unfortunately, we are very busy humans and it was not realistic for us to be making meals every couple days, so we feed Innova (high quality performance dry dog food) with dry supplements (Platinum Performance, http://www.platinumperformance.net/animal/canine/products/index.cfm, fish oil, and vitamin E).

Thanks so much for the great information and suggestion, guys!  I will definitely check out the websites the two of you provided. At the moment, we’re feeding Kalli a base diet of green beans, baked chicken breasts, rice and boiled egg whites (with two egg yolks added per week). She seems to be doing well, but I’m always concerned that I’m doing the very best for her. Your feedback was much appreciated! 

Out of curiosity, I went to the bookstore this afternoon to check out dog food cookbooks.  There were several recipe books with Vet approved meals including nutritional info.

One recipe book that look particularly interesting was “Real Food for Dogs: 50 Vet Approved Recipes” by Arden Moore and Anne Davis.

Great information, Brianna! Thank you! I remember reading an article in a holistic journal about human food for dogs…especially geriatrics. The author of that article suggested a base diet of chicken breast meat, boiled egg whites (with a few yolks over the course of week), veggies like green beans, and brown rice. Then you add the requisite supplements to that. ...made alot of sense to me.

Thanks again for the great information. You guys are the best!!!

Laura and Kalli…