DIY Homemade Dog Food
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Keep your dog healthy and fit with this easy peasy homemade recipe – it’s cheaper than store-bought and chockfull of fresh veggies!
I never thought I would be one of those dog owners who made homemade human food for their pups. Not in a million years.
But when Butters recently fell sick with an upset stomach, our vet advised us to feed him a bland diet – chicken and rice without any kind of seasoning. So that’s what we did – we poached a chicken, shredded it in a food processor, and mixed in some white rice and fed him this bland diet for 3 days.
That’s when I started to do some research on homemade dog food, and I have been so amazed as to how many different kinds of vegetables dogs can have. And with the help of Balance IT, you can create so many different recipes for your pup!
Now the best part about making homemade dog food – just like making anything at home – is that you know exactly what is going into the dog bowl, and not any of that questionable gelatinous gunk from the canned food.
But it’s important to note that dogs have different nutrient requirements than humans for their proportional body size, such as:
- High-quality protein (meat, seafood, dairy or eggs)
- Fat (meat or oil)
- Carbohydrates (grains or vegetables)
- Calcium (dairy)
- Essential fatty acids (egg yolks or oatmeal)
Now this recipe here has a balance of 50% protein, 25% veggies and 25% grains, but the ratios can easily be adjusted to suit your pup’s breed and/or needs.
Once you’ve made your batch, you can divide them up into single servings, note the date, and freeze it. When ready to serve, you can defrost it in the fridge overnight and nuke it for 15-30 seconds. That’s it! Now who knew that making dog food would be this easy?
DIY Homemade Dog Food
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups brown rice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 pounds ground turkey
- 3 cups baby spinach, chopped
- 2 carrots, shredded
- 1 zucchini, shredded
- ½ cup peas, canned or frozen
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 3 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add ground turkey and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the turkey as it cooks.
- Stir in spinach, carrots, zucchini, peas and brown rice until the spinach has wilted and the mixture is heated through, about 3-5 minutes.
- Let cool completely.
Did you make this recipe?
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My dogs devoured this, and they are very picky. Thank you!
Can you add bone broth? I’m going to try this out today.
Cook the rice in bone broth instead of water. I saw that on another site.
Yes – I cooked the leanest ground Chuck and turkey then added cooked rice using bone broth – be sure to get sodium free
Alright so my canine LOVES this formula. Just issue is I’m discovering he can’t process rice like by any means… So I’m attempting to sort out what to substitute it with. Online it says yams. In any case, idk the amount I would use to substitute it.
You could maybe try oatmeal?
No oatmeal,no heavy grain ,get like more raw meat, like turkey liver,beef liver raw more meat is always better for dogs ,raw meat ,yes raw meat the spinach,yes,ginger,carrots,no rice.it needs to be 80% of the raw meat they can have ,look at Dr.Martins video
My pooch had a difficult week, vomiting for a few days. We switched to making her our own mixture of pumpkin, ground chicken and rice. She loved it so much (and it cured whatever was ailing her) that we decided to continue making her own food.
I’ll be trying this recipe next! I have everything in this recipe so it will be made this week! Thank you!
My Collie loves this recipe! She has been trying to lick the paint off her bowl to get every last bite! We have been making this recipe for 4 weeks now! Rosie’s fur looks so shiny and silky! Will try to make it with ground beef one week and see how see like that change! She is about 52lbs so I feed her 1 cup of her dry food and 2 cups of this recipe!
Makes it nice a simple. Thank you. I have been doing a trial of the farmer’s Dog. The trial was 50% off, it was lovely, but it would cost me $140 every two weeks, and I know I can easily make it.
What other kinds of seasonal veggies are recommended? Squashes, sweet potato, potato etc instead of rice? Do you vary according to season? How about blueberry or other fruit like apple?
Most importantly, we likely should add some doggie vitamins , so wondering what is the most economical multi vitamin for dogs.
My dog has hypothyroidism, allergies and A-Topic skin bacteria. He gets allergy shots, a cytopoint injection, takes apoquil and levothyroxine daily to keep his skin from breaking out and becoming infected. We’ve tried so many different dog foods but none made any difference. He has been eating this homemade dog food for several weeks and absolutely loves it. It makes me feel good knowing he’s eating healthy food that is soooo much better for him. Thank you for your recipe.
Cytopoint killed my 11 year old shih tzu . It lowers there immune system and makes them vulnerable to outside bacterias.
Hello – how do you figure out how much to feed your dog with this recipe please?
There are several calculators on the internet that allow you to input your puppies current weight and ideal weight to figure out daily calorie intake recommendations. For my 18lb French Bulldog, she would only need 1/2 cup of this recipe twice daily. Hope this helps!
Hi which calculator did you use online to work out how much to feed your furbaby? Thanks
My Mini Aussiedoodle is a picky eater and she loved this recipe. My problem is since I made it her allergy results have been told to me by vet. She is allergic to peas which I could replace with green beans but she is also allergic to rice. What can I use to replace rice?
I think Quinoa should be safe.
Buckwheat, steals sit oats, Farro etc.
What about cauliflower rice
Made this for my Lady (Lab) she loves it.
how did you know how to give her? I am trying to figure out proportions for my 73 pound 1 year old lab!
I use BalanceIt as well to prepare food for my dog. The recipes you can build using this site allow fruit choices. I noticed you didn’t use any fruit. Is there a reason? My dog likes the addition of apple or pumpkin.
The problem with BalanceIt is that you are missing out on key vitamins from kidney, liver and heart meat. These are very important to a dogs diet.
I just made this and have not fed pups any yet. I’m assuming based on comments that it will get 5 stars.
I ended up getting 15 cups from this recipe! I used bone-in chicken thighs and ground the meet in my food processor. I weighed out 1 lb. (16 oz) portions and used 3 lbs as recipe stated. Why did I get 15 cups when recipe indicates 8 cups?
I will try this I think it will be better, right now I’m feeding her Pedigree dog food we just adopted her last month from a animal shelter.
What percentage fat is the meat used in this recipe?
What can I substitute for the peas?
Green beans are really good for them! I use that instead of peas.
Straightforward recipe noted that the ratios are 50% protein 25% carbs and 25% veggies
Yes that is a good ratio to use. However your picture of your ingredients does not indicate that ratio. Glad you have some nutrition info, because most recipes leave you hanging on how much to feed your dog. Research how many calories a day is needed for your dog’s size. What you have matches what I normally feed in fresh food. When he gets fresh it’s about 3/4 a cup, but dry commercial food he gets
1 cup. Thank you for the clearer guideline…. I constantly scan the mark down meat bin in stores to find quality protein to make food with. I find chicken on the bone frequently. Steam and debone the chicken. Save the broth to cook your rice. Also when you debone, save the bones and cook them some more with your grain. Then remove them. I have also taken small soft bones and cartilage blended them up with a little broth and added them back to the meat mixture. It’s disgusting like beige pudding. Doggie smoothie. But the puppy sure does like it. Just some extra steps if anyone wants to add as much nutrition as possible. Remember the dog’s palate is not as refined as ours is by any means.
My dog loves this however I’m not sure exactly how much I’m supposed to feed him he’s a Manchester terrier and he weighs 30 lb and I don’t know how much of this he should be eating he’ll eat it all if I put it all down at once.
I have a puggle that weighs 28 pounds and give him 1 cup in the am and 1 cup in the pm. He eats it so fast that i didnt think it was enough but he doesnt seem to be hungry during the day.
Haven’t made this yet. But comments below look good.
We’ve got an overweight 8yo Jack Russel with skin allergies. As a last resort going to try preparing some thing like this for him. Can the fresh Zucchini (Courgettes) and Spinach be swapped out for frozen alternatives? I see frozen peas are also used. How safe is it to refreeze the mixture after cooking?
I have a JR mix, 9.5 lbs. Peas and legumes of any kind make him sick, and they’re in all commercial dog food. I started making his food two years ago, and it changed his life. 3 lbs ground turkey/chicken, 1 1/2 tsp eggshell powder, 2 cups brown rice, 3 cups finely chopped mixed yellow and green veggies (carrot, sweet potato, or butternut squash for the yellow and broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or dark leafy greens). I cook and break up the meat using a little olive oil, then stir in everything else. Add chicken broth to just cover and simmer 1.5 hours. I feed my dog 1/2 cup portions twice daily. Can store in freezer. Makes 2-3 weeks of food.
Can you add pumpkin?
I haven’t made this yet but am looking for a gluten free option for my 60 lb dog. She has gluten allergies and I’m not sure if everything in this recipe is gluten free. Would love to start making her food so I know exactly what she’s eating! Is there anything I need to omit in order for it to be GF?
Hi Beth,
Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye (amongst other things). Brown rice doesn’t contain gluten. So you should be safe with this recipe (so long as ingredients are not processed in an environment where wheat, barley, rye.. etc, are also handled).
Further down in comments people have suggested 2-3 cups of this mixture a day for a 60lb dog. Looking at the nutrition figures above, 1 cup (I calculate to be approx. 310grams) of mixture will have 412.3 calories. An averagely active 60lb dog needs [ 30 x (60/2.2) ] + 70 calories a day or 888 calories. This will be about 2.1 cups of mixture a day. Obvs, if your dog is very active, they will need more. Maybe try them about 2.5 cups and see if they are gaining or losing weight.
And it goes without saying, if in doubt check with your Vet first.
Thanks for the info!!! I’ll try 2 cups a day for my aging lab.
Hi Simon-how did you figure out the calculations of how much to feed? I don’t think Damn Delicious is responding because I asked about this already. I have a 50lb active Doberman. If I make this recipe I guess I can just take 2.5 cups a day like you mentioned and see how it goes. Thanks.
Michelle, sorry for late reply. I posted here a while back and had not checked for replies.
Balance IT website gave recipe for dog food based on ingredients we choose. You then have to modify it to say what weight the dog is and how often you want to feed them. once twice or three portions a day. usually it’ll say you’re missing vital minerals, nutrients or vitamins. i use a multivitamin supplement which I crush and add to his food. or you can pay for balance it supplement (bit pricey).
we chose turkey mince 7% fat, sweet potato, courgettes (zucchini), carrots, garden peas, baby spinach, brown rice. our jack russell was over weight at near 16kg so we calculated his food for 14kg. he’s now 14.3kg after being on this food for over a year. his skin gets occasional flare-ups esp during allergy season (now basically). he’s on 1/2 apoquel and 1/2 steroidal tablet a day. we wash him every five days with antibacterial/anti fungal shampoo from the vet. his skin is much better but occasionally flares up. I’m not sure but I think my mum (his owner) feeds him “treats” and “tidbits” which he then has reactions to. she still doesnt make the connection between bad skin three weeks after she gave him some of her ham sandwich. I saw her sneak him some the other day. . that’s the problem other people thinking its ok to give him anything.
you have to be vigilant. and constantly remind them not to feed him anything other than the prepared food. good luck!
I have celiac disease so I’ve been living the gluten free life for the past 2 years. Everything in this recipe is gluten free. The only thing you would have to watch out for is the rice in case they were processed on equipment that also processes wheat/gluten (But even that is fairly rare). Other than that you’re safe with this.
My dog loved it he’s a fuss pot dog. Thank you x