Re the liver stuff… My mom used to just fry it up or cut it up and toss in in chunks on their dish. They gobbled it up just like that!

Of course the fried chicken necks were the favorite.

When I bring home KFC or deli (broasted) chicken my old Brandy used to get really excited.
Scout does now too.

I did not mean to hurt your feelings.
I am saying though that if you seek out alternatives it may well not turn out to be as expensive as you might think.

My mom did not grow up with much money. Coming out of the depression they still managed to have dogs that lived mostly on table scraps and the cheapest of the cheap meats and stuff that would have otherwise been thrown out.

You might well be surprised not only at what you can get but what they will eat and do well on! You might even find yourself saving money.
If you think about it, back then they did not have commercial dog foods like we have now and her dogs were always fat and sassy. Often too fat in fact :-)

By my standards, I love my dogs very much and they don’t care about anyone else’s standards. I can’t afford to feed them as I would like to and I lament the fact that what I can (barely) afford is, as I have been learning over the past year, lower quality than what it should be if everyone was doing their jobs.

I am making “liver brownies” for Pepper (dog) , “liver pudding” for Lindsey (cat) — dump a bunch of livers (even the free-range liver at the farmers’ market isn’t expensive) in the food processer, add one or two eggs (with shell, wash first), and a cup or so of pumpkin/winter squash, then process until it’s “pink goo.”

For “liver pudding” for the cat, pour some out and put it in a pyrex baking dish with lid.

For “liver brownies” for the dog, then add a grain flour (I alternate between oatmeal, whole wheat, corn meal and rye flour — supposedly, there is less chance of canine grain allergies if you rotate grains) until you get a thick paste. Grease a jelly roll pan and pour in the batter.

Bake both in a 325 degree oven (yes, it stinks up the house) until done (knife comes out clean in both). Give as treats/supplements to main food.

But I can appreciate the folks in “reduced circumstances”.

My mom used to buy the waste meat cuts like chicken necks and outdated (or nearly so) meats. There are lots of trimmings and stuff that often go to waste that any dog would gobble up!

The butchers at the grocery store got to know her and would put stuff aside for her. It didnt cost much. A whole meat product like that packs a lot more nutrition than the corn puffs you buy in those bags. You dont have to go out of your way or break the bank to get this stuff.

I’ve posted before that I think the whole “pet food” industry has marketed the idea that table scraps are bad for dogs INCLUDING the notion that somehow chicken bones are bad for them. Except for very small breeds that dont have the choppers that Scoutie has the mushy bones of KFC or supermarket broasted (pressure cooked) chicken are little more than the proverbial “rubber chicken” and get chopped up with relish by any standard sized dog with good teeth.

I find that my dogs have eaten pretty much everything from left over pasta and spagetti to donuts and greatly prefer that to the meat cereal. The greatest regret of my recent life was in fact deluding myself into thinking that I was doing some great favor for Brandy by buying her that Beef Cuts & Gravy because he liked it so much. Since then whenever possible and exept for a little free choice snack, Scout eats what I eat.

My wife (being a cheap German) still buys bag food for him but I am always happiest when he leaves it on his plate. But even so, consumate cookie baker that she is she has a recipe for salmon biscuits that he loves so he eats some grain products too.

Frankly Id rather give him a bowl of generic Cheerios with milk than some thing that came out of a bag with a happy dog printed on it.

If you really love your dog (and who here doesnt?) you can find a way.