Green Tip #2

Organic home-grown home-made pet food.

Serving up any pet food picked up from the supermarket is a bit shameful - it's quick, easy, and made with whatever filth the manufacturers have lying around.

Choice magazine has whipped out a guide to making your own pet food, from Professor David Fraser of Sydney University. (I've read some guides on the 'net, but to be honest - the internet has people like me writing on it - and I just don't trust me, but that guy is a professor of some sort.) I'll reproduce it here with scant regard for their copyright, but I'm a member, and this information needed to be freed. Plus it's freely available here.

NOTE: Obviously, you're only likely to be able to grow the potatoes yourself. But, for dog food at least, I've read giving them vegetables (just not onions, garlic, and I assume, shallots) is good, but there are quite a few to be careful of. Do your own research, ask your vet, if you stray from this guide, make sure it's OK, and probably just supplement their diet with this - don't make a sudden switch.

MY TIP: Buy a GIANT pot, get serving-sized containers, and make about a weeks worth in one hit. I would freeze the meat, it's never wise to keep meat in the fridge for too long, or just stew some up every second day.)

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Adult dogs:

Ingredients:
550 g boiled potato
350 g lean meat (lightly stewed)
80 g raw sheep or beef liver
20 g corn oil
20 g bone meal (Can be found in certain healthfood stores, excellent source of calcium)
5 g table salt

Mix all the ingredients together and feed it to your pet once a day.

Dog weight / Serving size
5 kg / 270 g
10 kg / 460 g
15kg / 620 g
20 kg / 770 g
25 kg / 900 g
30 kg / 1000 g

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Adult cat

250 g boiled potato
600 g lean meat (lightly stewed)
100 g raw sheep or beef liver
20 g corn oil
25 g bone meal (Can be found in certain healthfood stores, excellent source of calcium)
5 g table salt

Mix all the ingredients together and feed it to your pet once a day.

Cat weight / Serving size:
2 kg / 100 g
2.5 kg / 120 g
3 kg / 140 g
4 kg / 190 g
4.5 kg / 210 g
5 kg / 240 g

For more information, check out the Choice article. Then Google as much as possible - and relish in the somewhat conflicting information and lack of official dietary advice.

Green Tip #1

Don't ALWAYS cook your vegetables. Fresh raw vegetables rock - and there's research that suggests a mix of raw and cooked vegetables is the best option. So if you're whipping up a stir fry - chuck them in, if you're boiling them on their own - just serve them raw.

Electric stoves use a lot of power, and gas stoves still use fossil fuel, so cut back a bit on non-essential cooking.