A lot of us are more comfortable cooking for our dogs at home, instead of buying food made by someone else. But it’s important to keep certain things in mind when doing that. Just like you’d be hygienic when cooking for yourself and using the best ingredients, you need to keep that in mind for your dogs as well. They deserve to have the best quality pet food, made with the same care that you’d make your own food. Even with leftovers, you can find a way to make it edible for your dog and it’s important to keep it clean and tasty. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Always wash your hands thoroughly when preparing meals with meat and the same goes for the utensils that you use to cut and prepare the food.
- Whatever you’re feeding your dog, it should also be fit for human consumption. If something looks suspicious, do not feed it to your dog. If you wouldn’t eat something, it’s not fair to make your dog eat it.
- The food should be properly cooked, depending on what you’re making, and do not serve anything straight out of the refrigerator. Always warm it up and then let it cool before you serve your dog.
- When cooking meat, make sure that it’s cooked through till there is no pink seen and the juice is clear.
- Always remember this – avoid feeding your dog cooked bones or meat that contains sulphur preservatives.
- Because bones are good to strengthen teeth in dogs, you can serve raw chicken necks or wings, but get rid of tiny bones and always keep an eye on them as they eat.
Cooking meat is always a difficult thing, even for human consumption, but when cooking for dogs you need to be even more careful. Studies say that meat contains 1,000 – 10,000 bacteria per gram and that could tip the balance in your dogs if you’re not careful.
