Read Part 1 of this article here.
A while back I published a post about Canine Life’s new Muffin diet. It was so intriguing to me that Thomas and I decided to see what it was all about. I bought the pre-made muffins with turkey and sweet potato and holy cow the dogs went nuts for them. And that was it, we decided to fully commit to the home cooked diet and kick the kibble forever.
We decided to buy the muffin mix and bake our muffins at home so we could control what went in them.
The Ottawa Dog Blog Home Cooked Diet Recipe and Directions
with TONS of photos! Check out the entire set on flickr.
What You Will Need
All food prices from Loblaws unless otherwise stated
- Canine Life Pre-Mix Adult Trial Pack (20 Muffins) – $8.00 @ Bark & Fitz in Kanata
- Blueberries – $2.50
- Butternut Squash – $2.99
- Apples – $3.28 kg
- Frozen Beans – $2.00
- Eggs (free run large) – $4.19
- Safflower Oil (organic) – $4.79
- Cranberry Juice (organic) – $10.99
We now buy the 6kg bag of muffin mix ($45.00 @ Bark and Fitz) because it lasts much longer. This bag usually lasts us around 3-4 months. We use the regular muffin mix, but Canine Life also offers a gluten free and a cancer mix so you can tailor it to your dog’s specific needs.
This method of feeding is also great because you can control what goes IN the muffins. Our recipe is a lower protein mix for our dogs, but your dogs might prefer or require more protein so you would add a meat in there. The muffin mix comes with a sheet with substitution options. For example, you just need a green vegetable and an orange vegetable.
Orange vegetables are: carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, butternut, acorn or hubbard squash.
Green vegetables include: green beans, zucchini, broccoli (not if your dog has a thyroid problem)
For added protein, you can use: regular ground beef, chicken, turkey, veal, lamb, venison, ostrich, buffalo, salmon, tuna, pollack or mackarel.
The Canine Life website as a huge list of ingredients that are in the muffins to make them awesome. That list is also included in the muffin mix package.
Let’s Get Cookin’!
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF (180ºC).
- Slice the squash and apple and put them in the food processor. Next add in the green beans and blueberries and mix them.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the muffin mix, the egg, safflower oil, water, cranberry juice and ingredients from the food processor.
- Stir it up!
- Oil the muffin tins OR fill with a bit of water to prevent the muffins scorching or sticking.
- Divide the muffin dough into the muffin trays.
- Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes
- Let them cool on a baking rack for about 30 minutes before storing.
Complete recipe and ingredient amounts/instructions can be found in the muffin mix bag.
Now in the photos, Thomas added each ingredient separately to the mix, but more recently he has been sticking everything (aside from the mix itself) into the food processor and mixing it all up together.
Storing for Later
We keep the next day’s muffins in the fridge and freeze the rest. They are put into a big ziplock container and put in the freezer. Thomas takes new ones out every time the dogs eat for the next day.
Bottom’s Up – Let’s Eat!
The dogs love these muffins, and there really isn’t a huge list of things to do. We break up the muffins into tiny pieces because Paddington and Corduroy are so excited they eat too quickly and choke, so we break it up so they eat more slowly.
How Much Should I Feed My Dog?
From the Canine Life website.
Adult dogs should be fed twice per day. Puppies should be fed three times per day, until six months of age. Simply break up the CANINE LIFE muffin and serve. Muffins should be kept refrigerated once thawed, and will stay fresh for one week in the fridge.
| Weight of Adult Dog | Muffin Daily Amount | Weight of Puppy | Muffin Daily Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| ½ – 1½ | Up to 10 lbs | 1 – 1½ | |
| 31 – 40 lbs | 1½ – 2 | 10 – 20 lbs | 1½ – 2½ |
| 41 – 50 lbs | 2½ – 3 | 20 – 35 lbs | 2½ – 5 |
| 51 – 60 lbs | 3 – 4 | 35 – 50 lbs | 5 – 7½ |
| 61 – 70 lbs | 4 – 5 | 50 – 70 lbs | 7½ – 10 |
| 71 – 80 lbs | 5 – 7 | ||
| 81 – 90 lbs | 7 – 9 | ||
| 91 – 100 lbs | 9 – 11 |
Cost Analysis
As I mentioned in the previous article, the costs are about the same. I found that it doesn’t feel like we’re “running out of dog food” as often because we get the muffin mix once every few months and the rest of the ingredients are from the grocery store, which we are at every week anyways.
What you will notice more than the cost, is the time this will take you with both the stew and the muffins. To us, the time is worth it because the dogs are much healthier and happier. We make an effort to eat healthy as humans, so we are committing to our dogs eating healthy as well.
If you live outside of Ottawa, you’ll still be able to purchase the muffin mix through Canine Life’s website by email.
Our online ordering is basically through emails. If customers live outside our list of retailers we can ship our pre-mix, but not the pre-made muffins. We ask customers to email so we can quote for shipping depending on where they live and what size pre-mix they would like. We actually have quite a few customers, especially in the US, that we ship to.
Conclusions
The dogs love these muffins – almost more than their meat filled stew breakfast. They are fed in the evening and for about two hours before it’s time, they are on alert, just in case we think we should feed them earlier (they seem to think).
We give the dogs the stew for breakfast, tripett at around 4pm and muffins for dinner at 9pm. They love this diet and we are so happy that they are healthy and loving what they eat.
For a full analysis on what YOUR dog should eat, you may want to consider a consultation with Cat Lane of The Possible Canine.
If you have any tips or additional information on home cooking, please share it in the comments below.
View this in photos on flickr.
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Liz Bradley is a dog lover who lives in Ottawa, Ontario with her husband,
2 Users Responded in " Home Cooked Dog Diet ~ Part 2: Muffins "
Wow you have some lucky pups there – good for you guys! I jumped on the home-cooked bandwagon about 3.5 years ago with the help of Cat Lane and we haven’t looked back. After dealing with allergies and other health issues and the tainted dog food scare, that was enough for us. We prep Elsie’s meals every Sunday for the week, she gets a different protein every day (precooked and frozen) with a base of sweet potato, brown rice and lentils. Throw in some eggshells, sardines and supplements and we are good to go! Keep up the great work Liz!!
Louise and Elsie the Westie!
This dog is adorable! What is a puggle? A pug/beagle?
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