Today's dog food mixes:

Chicken mix:

20 lbs chicken legs ($17.50)

1.5 lbs chicken livers ($2.50)

1.5 lbs chicken gizzards/hearts ($2.00)

1 lb beef tripe ($1)

All that gets gets ground up and mixed, portioned out into trays at a little over a lb each, and frozen. Overall cost on this is about $1/lb. The dog (pitbull) gets one tray a day, served over two meals, along with a chicken drumstick, chopped into 2-3 pieces. Drumsticks also run under $1/lb, so the dog eats for less than $2/day, most days.

I'm also making him a beef blend:

5 lbs ground beef

5 lbs stew meat

2 lbs beef liver

1 lb beef kidney

It is more expensive, but hard to price, as this all came from the 1/2 beef I bought, and it wouldn't be fair to just use the average price/lb. At grocer's prices, I could get this under $5/lb, maybe closer to $4/lb.

Same process: grind, mix, portion, freeze. The idea is every 3rd or 4th day, the dog gets the beef mix instead of the chicken. I usually add some beef broth to the mix when I feed it to him, as it ends up a bit drier. No bones ground in, I may eventually add in some bone meal. He still gets his drumstick hunks with this mix though.

Feeding the dog this plan has resolved a bad skin condition that resembled psoriasis, that had completely covered his groin area, was speading up to his chest, and had affected his butthole area as well. I definitely blamed this on a food sensitivity (his prior diet was dry kibble), and was quickly proven right. My wife tries to tell me he just has allergies, and had been getting him allergy shots - which he no longer needs. His energy is great and he loves his new food.

We still allow him to have store-bought treats (crap like Old Roy bacon and pepperoni sticks, and whatever shit Canine Carry-out molds their treats into), but hopefully a lot less of that.

Funniest thing, if it is close to meal time, he will take his treat, drop it on the floor, and leave it there until after he has had his meal, then go eat his treat as some kind of dessert!

He won't eat his meals alone, and will wait for someone to come sit with him while he eats - although he might snack on a drumstick chunck while I'm running back and forth between rooms to come sit with him.

Long note to say - for not much more (and if you are buying premium dog food, probably far less), you can be feeding your dog healthy food on a proper canine diet (they are carnivores, and while they can tolerate some plants, do not require any, similar to us). They need more calcium than we do, this is why feeding them ground bones or bone meal is important).

It also means their shit will generally harden and turn white when it dries. Dogs eating kibble tend to have yellow shit, which smells worse, and dries to brown after a while. Just like us, dogs will shit less (in volume, not in frequency like us). Our dog pisses more, likely because of the obvious additional water content in real food, as opposed to kibble.

If you want more information on feeding your dog (or cat) a real species-appropriate food diet, there is some information online, but just like the human diet, it may be a little clouded by companies with profit motives. Read it carefully, with this in mind.

What I'm feeding my dog right now will likely change a bit over time, based on what I find, or what I have on hand. I've mixed in (or added) sardines. Sometimes I add a raw egg. Sometimes he gets steak bites. Don't be too afraid to try something new, but check it out online first - I wouldn't advise any plants, or shellfish. Also, no cooked bones.