Is palm oil and boiled rice enough food for your dog?

I had this client, very wealthy, who owns a St. Bernard dog and two Chow chow breeds of dog. His dogs were always sick and emaciated. I treated the dogs in his absence but one of those days he requested to see me in person to discuss the cause of the incessant ill health of his beloved dogs. I welcomed the idea because I really needed to get to the root of these health issues. We met one evening when he demanded to know the cause of this re-occurrence.

I also tried to inquire further on the kind of food the dogs eat because treatment without good nutrition is vain. He called his cook to answer the question. The cook explained that they have specially packaged fish, beef & “goat meat” in the freezer strictly for the dogs which he took me to the freezer and I saw for myself. I almost started to doubt my treatment regimen. I recommended the food be increased in quantity and requested the feeding time for the dogs which they furnished me.

One Wednesday, I decided to pay the dogs a surprise visit at the feeding time, on arrival I asked if the dogs have been fed and got a positive answer. I started to head to where food was usually served, on getting there; looking at the dogs’ plates left me dazed! It was BOILED RICE & PALM OIL mixed together! I didn’t see any meat inside, probably the dogs ate those first if there was any at all. I quickly took the pictures of the concoction and kept. I didn’t try to raise alarm; I only asked if the dogs are eating well and if the medications are being given as required, then left.

The next day I arranged a meeting with the dogs’ owner in the evening to show him what his dogs have been eating. He didn’t want to start having issues with whoever was doing that concoction and why, in my presence; he only asked for an immediate solution in which I recommended that he should go for commercial dog food, either can food or dry dog food. He complied immediately and within two weeks the difference was very obvious.  

Where is this theory of PALM OIL WITH BOILED RICE concoction for dogs from? I was moved to write this article because just yesterday – a day before this article- a new client, who is a novice with dogs, told me that she was told that things like tomatoes, onions and pepper are not good for dogs but that PALM OIL AND BOILED RICE are best. “Chai”!! 

The question is “how much nutrients does this concoction contain to sustain the dog’s requirement?” I guess the answer is obvious - “not much”.  Some people try to add some meat into the food to supply protein for the dog which I have no objection for, but some others add bones with little meat attached to supply the same protein which I strongly object to.

My recommendation

From my own experience, some dogs prefer home foods to some commercial dog food especially the dried commercial dog food. If your dog is in this category, I want you to note that you should endeavor to make as much nutrients as possible to be available to the dog. Many of these nutrients are contained in the various ingredients used in cooking the food, so use them, but watch the stool (feaces) of your dog to see if any of the food makes the stool too loose. I had given my dog “suya” which contained much pepper and her stool became too loose, in fact she couldn’t control her stool at all but the same “suya” with little pepper had no effect.

I wish to state categorically here, that I don’t agree with that idea of palm oil and boiled rice as food for dog because it has little to offer nutritionally. Thank you.