What is the Best Pet Food

I have had German Shepherd Dogs around me my entire life and absolutely love having them part of my family. It is amazing how different we take care of them today versus when I was a kid. I don't remember giving them medicine for heart worm prevention or parvo or anything other than rabies, which was required by law.

Likewise, the food we gave our dogs when I was young was more what was on sale rather than what it was made of. I don't remember any of dogs suffering at all, so I guess they had a happy life. They lived about as long as my dogs do now but looking back we probably could have done better on nutrition and disease prevention.

Recently, however, I have concerned myself with the food that I feed my dogs from the standpoint of the ingredients. I know it may sound a little prejudice but I won't give my dogs anything that is made outside of the United States, either food, chew bones or toys. I just don't trust the quality control outside the U.S. and sometimes inside the U.S. as well.

Last year one of our younger German Shepherds would have an upset stomach about once sometimes twice a week. We decided it was the wet food that we generally included with the dry food. We did try a few different high quality dry foods and it didn't seem to make a difference so we concluded it was the wet.

As I started to look into different wet dog foods I came across a video that talked about making your own dog food and freeze drying it for long term storage. I thought this was great because he made the dog food from different human foods that we have everyday.

What I realized after my first batch in the freeze dryer is that I really didn't need to freeze dry dog food so that I could keep it for 25 plus years. Not because it wouldn't be usable then for our dogs but because not only would they not live that long but neither would I.

What I did discover, however, was I could control the quality of the ingredients that I was feeding to our dogs. In addition, I could have a use for some of the foods that we had in the freezer or canned that we did not want for ourselves any longer but was still edible. (We all have some things that are past the best by date or have some freezer burn.)

In having this revelation, I came across a website that calculates the proteins, carbs, and fats for whatever combination of foods I put together. The website is: https://secure.balanceit.com/ez/index.php?rotator=NewEz and I have been very satisfied with how it works.

The most important thing in all of this is that my dog no longer has an upset stomach. They seem to really like the food and they are as healthy as they can be.

Now, let me be blunt, it is a little bit of work. My wife and I generally dedicate 4 or 5 hours to create a batch of food for the pups, but we freeze the end product and it will last our two dogs about 6 weeks.

We will pick up things on our regular shopping trips to the grocery story and stockpile them on the shelf or in the freezer until we are ready to create a batch. Often times we will get chicken on sale or hamburger or whatever that we will punch in the menu on the Balance it website and we will be able to determine the amount of protein, etc. that we are feeding to our dogs.

I know there are commercial foods that are made similarly for pets and these are relatively expensive and not available in large quantities.

I encourage you to give it a little research and see what you think and more importantly what your pet thinks. They deserve the best we have to offer.