Sweet Potato Filler

the gloop that kind of looks like cat vomit
is the "sweet potato filler"

All dog food companies make "fillers" to go into their dog foods. They make claims of great nutrients and benefits for your dogs, but really all they're doing is trying to pad their dog food with cheap ingredients and thus, pad their wallets a little more. I can't say ALL dog food companies do it for this reason or that they are ALL terrible sources, but I can feel comfortable saying that most do. Most commonly grains and starches are used as fillers. A homemade diet filler kind of proves the same benefit; you aren't spending as much money on Bones Meats and Organs (BMO's) but at least you know exactly where those whole ingredients are coming from and what form of nutrition they provide. A lot more comforting than knowing that a dog food company can have a food that passes AAFCO standards with just sawdust, leather and canola oil (true story, and if you don't think that's terrifying enough, same goes for our own foods!). If you're feeding raw on a budget, knowing how to make a little nutritious filler to add once in a while can help save some pennies for you!


 Sweet potatoes can actually be a great source of nutrition if you're feeding real whole ingredients, but it's one you don't want to feed too often. More information on how to prepare and feed Sweet Potatoes can be found here.

Below is the most recent filler I made with sweet potato and pork liver. Of course, there are many different fillers you can come up with, so get creative and remember to research the ingredients first!

Filler ingredients:

•  1  sweet potato
•   pork liver
•   about 1 tbsp of coconut oil
•  green lipped mussel
•   flax seed powder
•   calcium powder from egg shells 
•   1-2 tbsp water
•  about 2 tbsp of deer meat (ground)

Preparation

The sweet potato should be washed and peeled. Cook the sweet potato. I think the quickest, easiest way would probably be to boil the sweet potato.

 When I first made this filler I did not cook the sweet potato, and did not learn until later that uncooked sweet potatoes are unsafe for dogs because they contain a substance that inhibits trypsin, a natural enzyme necessary for the pancreas to digest proteins. I didn't feed that much potato though, and my dog didn't seem to have any ill effects. Due to this new information, the next time I make it I'll cook the potatoes first! 

After cooking the potatoes, cut them into chunks and put them in your blender or food processor. I use the NutriBullet and so far it's worked really well and stood up to what I've dished it.

Slice the pork liver into small chunks and throw them into the food processor as well. Add deer meat at this point too.

Add coconut oil and  other supplements (in this case, flax seed and green lipped muscle powders).

Blend into a nice goop. You may have to add a tablespoon or two of water, as the meat often blends into a fatty pulp at the bottom and mucks the whole thing up. I found a bit of water de-mucks it, but too much water will make your goop too runny!

 Storage

 If you're planning on freezing your goop, I mean filler; you can do it in a number of ways. A zip lock baggie, container, or ice cube tray (I kind of like the latter best, if you have the time and patience to pour it all into little cubes). The way I did it I wouldn't recommend, I'm not sure what I was thinking. I thought I could just pop out a little frozen ball of filler and feed it that way, but there was no way it would come off the Saraann wrap and the only way to do so was to thaw it (which made the Saraann wrap moot).

I froze over night, along with the rest of the pork liver which I'd cut into portion sizes easier for serving (I managed to snag several ginormous bags of pork liver for very cheap at Overwaitea).

You don't need to freeze it either, you can always serve it in it's goopy state, I just found it lest revolting to deal with if it was frozen, and only one of my dogs can have sweet potatoes so there was plenty left over from even the small amount I made.

Serving

You can serve on it's own, since it has meat, organs and "bones" (calcium powder), or with other foods. I chose to serve it with a large chunk of liver and small bits of deer left over, as well as few pieces of sweet potato raw.  Again, at this time I did not know this was bad! I figured even if they didn't get any nutritional benefit it would help clean their teeth. Scratch that though, don't feed it raw!