How To Make Homemade Dog Food – Do’s, Don’ts, Tips & Advice

655Shares

Shop Amazon's Dog Store - Shop by Category - Dog Food - Dog Treats - Dog Potty Training - Health Supplies - Dog Beds - Dog Furniture - Dog Collars & Leashes - Dog Training - New Arrivals and Best Sellers.

JUMP TO: BASIC RECIPE – How to Make Homemade Dog Food.

DO:  Always check with your vet or a professional animal nutritionist before starting your pet on a new diet.
DON'T use TABLE SCRAPS.

I feed my dogs homemade dog food. I am not a pet nutritionist, and am doing this through investigating, educating myself, and reading about the horrible commercial pet food industries disgusting manufacturing for profit mentality.

Check with a professional, such as a pet nutritionist or a veterinarian that specializes in pet nutrition. Or ask your own vet before switching over to a homemade dog food diet.

This can be done easily by reading books written by animal nutritionists or veterinarians.

Slowly wean your dog onto the new food. A sudden switch could cause stomach upset. Let him/her get used to the new food by gradually mixing in the new food while slowly decreasing the old food. Once adjusted to one new foods, try another using this method. You will find that your dog will tolerate many different types of foods, just as we do. A variety diet is much more enjoyable than the same bowl of dry kibble every day!

Ensure a well balanced diet by mixing 50% protein, with the balance consisting of fruit and vegetables and carbohydrates, in their daily diet. Following this basic formula will ensure a well balanced, healthy nutritious diet.   (RELATED LINK : How Much to Feed – CHART by dog's weight)

I always cook the meat before serving, and let it cool off to room temperature. I found that feeding my dogs their food hot or too warm seemed to cause them stomach upset. (Lady always vomits if it is too warm – yuck)

Raw Meat can be used instead of cooked if that is your preference.

AMAZON.COM

Organ meat (liver, kidneys etc.) and occasionally adding eggs are very good for your pet, and as we all know variety in our diets is always nice.

Feed your pet the daily amount as recommended by your vet, according to the animal’s size, or you can use this dog food feeding chart, that gives you the proper weight to food amounts. I separate their daily requirement into two portions – morning and evening.

Rotate for variety. I buy the meat every week that is “last day” sale. At my meat market this is the meat that is still for sale for human consumption, but has to be sold by today. My butcher sells this at 50% off the sticker price. I then bring it home and use it the same day, or freeze it and make the freshly cooked meals in batches later.

This is actually cheaper than the inexpensive dog food that I used to buy. I had a week’s worth of fast fry steaks for my two 80 pound Labrador retrievers that cost under $20.00. Just look for and stock up on sales. I made a big batches of meat, rice and veggie stew for them and freeze it in individual portions. Simple as when we grab for a frozen dinner on those nights when we’re too tired to cook, but nutritious, healthy and homemade.

Use unprocessed oatmeal, brown rice, bulgur, millet, whole wheat couscous, quinoa, barley, pasta or potatoes as the starch requirement. I slightly overcook this ingredient, as raw grains are not properly digested by dogs.


Use fresh or frozen fruit and veggies and cook until tender. Make a puree after cooking any combination of veggies and fruits that your dog likes. Don't add extra salt when cooking veggies. Use more veggies to fruits (3/4 to 1/4) Start with basics such as carrots/green beans and apples. Get creative by trying new tastes and flavours as your dog will tolerate, such as: tomatoes, peas, corn, blueberries, bananas, peaches etc.

All recipes can be converted into a healthy homemade organic meal, simply by replacing the ingredients with organic ingredients.

DO NOT USE GRAPES AS A FRUIT PORTION AS THEY ARE TOXIC TO DOGS.

Lady (black Lab), Lola  (yellow Lab) and Clyde the pug –

(This recipe makes 4 portions for a 20 pound dog @ 2 servings daily)

  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 2 1/2 cups minced cooked lean meat
  • 1 1/4 cups pureed veggie and fruit mix
  • 3/4 tsp. canola oil
  • 1/4 tsp. iodized salt
  • Supplement

Precook rice, meat and make a veggie/fruit mix ahead of time

Use any lean meat such as chicken, turkey, venison, lamb, beef. Remove fat.

Use brown or white rice (or substitute cooked macaroni potatoes)

For the fruit/veggie puree I usually stick with the favourite of carrots and apples.

I mix 3/4 vegetables to 1/4 fruit. Cook fruit, cool and puree in food processor.

Mix meat, veggie/fruit puree, starch and salt together, drizzle with oil and serve.

Separate into 4 equal servings and feed 2 servings per day. (This equals 2 days worth of food.)

Make bigger batches when you have the time and freeze in portions for easy meal time.

 

3 thoughts on “How To Make Homemade Dog Food – Do’s, Don’ts, Tips & Advice”

  1. Hi, glad I found this on pinterest. I give my schnauzer Dr Jones supplelement to but was not aware of the bone supplement. I will be adding that now. My doggie has allergies so cooked chicken and to save time I use Dr Harveys freeze dried veg to bowl veggies. All u do is add water to it and your done. I do a month at a time and freeze it.

  2. I like your pages, and would love to have them a a reference, but the graphics are unprintable. Would you consider adding a “printer-friendly” function to your recipes and references that strip them to text only?

Comments are closed.

You cannot copy content of this page

Scroll to Top