Homemade Dog Food

Today we are making turkey tetrazzini with our Thanksgiving leftovers. We are also getting some beef jerky marinating overnight AND we are making dog food.
Please note I am not a vet or a doctor. Should you decide to make your own dog food you should check with your veterinarian.
Our crazy rescued dog has a sensitive stomach and we get dry dog food made for sensitive stomach dogs. We supplement his dry dog food with a good sized scoop of homemade soft food. I like the soft food because he likes it, because it is homemade, and because it is usually poultry and rice heavy which helps his stomach. I like to can it because we then have many cans in the house should we get snowed in. Plus it uses leftovers that I normally wouldn't know what to do with.
I have a gallon sized freezer bag going at all times in the freezer. I fill it over time with egg shells, chicken carcass, and left over vegetables and meat scraps.
When we have enough stuff to make a batch of dog food then we defrost it the night before.
We put it all in the pressure canner with broth and a few cups of brown rice and we pressure cook it for 90 minutes. This cooks it enough so that even the bones become soft and it can all go through the grinder. I check the bones to make sure they break easily when pressure with a spoon. I take out any large bones that don't break.

We grind it as soon as it is not screaming hot. I use my KitchenAid with the KitchenAid meat grinder attachment. Grind away and then put it in pint size canning jars. It should still be pretty warm. 

Getting ready to push on the bone to make sure it breaks easily.

Leave a very generous inch of head space because the rice still expands even though its already cooked. We also add broth at this step to help fill in the air holes. Notice in the photo that we use a skewer to poke through everything to eliminate even more air holes.

Wipe the rims with paper towel dipped in vinegar. Place hot lids on Pint Jars and tighten the lids finger tight.  We treat this as cold pack and put it in the Pressure Canner with warm water and heat the water and cans together.
I want to point out here that this is "rebel" canning and does not follow approved canning methods. Experienced canners can make their own decisions on when they can stray from approved methods at their own risk.
I process at 15 lbs for 75 minutes. Follow the times and weights for your elevation and times for meats.

Ready to Pressure Can