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.
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I have not yet made this recipe but I intend to this weekend. My almost 9 year old Jack Russell mix woke me up this morning to an upset belly which is not like her at all! The only thing I can think of is I had opened up a new can of wet food (I usually mix some wet with her dry food) but other than that I don’t know what else could of made her belly so upset. So, I made her some bland white rice with chicken. She gobbled it up! Which is now even more so making me think that I’m going to switch off dog food to this. I have a couple of questions, I also have a 6 month old pittie pup he’s about 31 pounds now. How much should I feel him and her? (She is 12 pounds). Does anyone mix some dry dog food with the homemade food? Does this recipe contain the proper nutrition for the puppy?
It is best to ask your Vet or Vet nutritionist questions about how much homemade food to feed your puppy. They will have more experience on the needs of particular breeds and their protein to weight ratio.
Just came a cross this recipe and going to try it today for my long haired chihuahuas. I had the worst dog food experience yesterday. 30 minutes after feeding my dog Taste of the Wild smoked salmon for puppies ( 30 pound bag ) my dog started to drool act lethargic, walk drunk as if she was being poisoned. Got her vomit it all out by 11 am she was 60% better, they are afraid of there food now and I wouldn’t blame them. Looked up the dog food brand saw there was a lawsuit for high levels of lead causing death and other metal ingredients not clarified on the ingredients. Looked up lead poisoning symptoms 12 out of 13 symptoms were present. I was at the vet all day. Now I’m scared to feed her dog food, I never thought I would have to look up my dog’s food to make sure it wasn’t killing them with high levels of lead and other dangers ingredients, now I will cook my dog food to keep them alive and have them healthy, I’m going to try this recipe. I never want to go through that experience again.
Y’all should watch the documentary “Pet Fooled” on Amazon Prime (they used to have it in Netflix). It’s a big eye opener.
I made this for my Papillon and she loved it!! No more dry food for my fur baby!! I used Turkey and added homemade beef bone broth to her serving.
Thank you I will!
I have a 14week old blue staffy pup, she absolutely loves it. Turkey mince from aldi.
This recipe looks great and super simple to create. How much food would I need to feed a Doodle and 40lb Poodle? I plan on just using this as a topper or half n half with their purina pro plan. Thank you.
This recipe is nearly identical to what I cook for my shepherd/chow mix. I feel good knowing exactly what my doggo is eating and it’s actually economically sound as well. He looks forward to his meal times and there is no waste. His stool is a tad smaller than when he was eating commercial dog food and less smelly. His energy level is great!
Easy to make, but my dog can’t eat rice. Can I substitute an equal amount of sweet potato?
We substituted barley for the brown rice.
My Shih Tzu has a sensitive stomach, so I will be using Sweet Potatoes rather than Rice.
Thank you for sharing this recipe, it’s been a life saver! My pit bull has cancer is going through chemo, so she’s been low energy. She broke a canine tooth and our vet clinic had to schedule her surgery almost 3 months out. This week the tooth became infected and has been quite painful. Yesterday the vet and animal hospital couldn’t see her and she only managed to eat two bites of solid food in the morning before refusing it for the rest of the day. I whipped this up for her minus the spinach (I am extra concerned for her kidneys with the chemotherapy) and added extra zucchini. She inhaled it! The vet saw her today and we have her on a pain medicine and antibiotic regime until we can do her surgery next week. She lost 5 lbs in a month so she is 71lbs but I estimated her food for 75lbs. I’m giving her 4 cups per day for 2 days just to fatten her up a little and then 3+ cups for the next week. I forgot to cook the shredded carrots so I will be mixing them in raw and every other day I’ll add a sunny side up egg on top. I used organic coconut oil btw, and read that organ meat can be supplemented for up to 10% of cooked dog food protein so I will be picking up a little container of heart or liver to use soon. Also I tripled the recipe to make food for a week and used a mandolin slicer to shred the zucchini and celery that I added.
My little rat terrier quit eating the Blue Buffalo that I had been feeding my weird little wolf pack trio (The other two still thriving on said food btw) So I tried this recipe and he LOVED it! He eats every bite and sits patiently and attentively behind me at the stove as I make the next batch. I NEVER in a million years saw myself as one of “those people” that cooks their own dog food, but here I am…totally worth it❤️
My dogs also stopped eating their Blue Buffalo brand. That is why I am looking up recipes. I wonder if they changed something and made it less quality?
I make my own food as well and use these ingredients plus more alternating dog friendly veggies, fruits, over easy eggs, EVOO, Nutiva coconut oil, BioStar K-9 Camelina oil and cubes. As for my spinach, I’ll leave it out, mince it, and sprinkle it on the meal once she’s getting ready to eat. I love all the questions because I to have had my vet push dry store bought dog food, though believe its not the healthiest. My Lunita just turned 1 and I’m wondering if I should switch her to 2 meals a day and how much per meal as I cannot get these questions answered by my vet. Anyone know??? Help please! Thank you all 🙂
Hey, it will take some work but what you need to do is find out the daily calorie intake Lunita needs, that way you can gauge how much she eats. However you need to also make sure the nutrients she is getting per meal is balanced – depending on her breed she might need a protein heavy diet or not. What you might need to do is figure out the calories in each of the ingredients of the meal so as to add them up to her daily requirement. As per feeding once or twice a day it depends on you and what you notice works best for her. I noticed one meal a day works for my Rohe. Mind you I am no expert whatsoever so everything you just read might not make sense but its what I’ve been able to have success with. I am also a first time pet owner and new to home cooked meals, so I am also learning as I go on.
Hope I was able to help though.
I do this for both my dogs. I got tired of the vet bills. I was told that I couldn’t do this as it wouldn’t be essential for my dog. I also give fish oil. I substitute fish (salmon, tilapia fresh) in place of the meat. I also mix it with beef chicken and fish with the amount of meat I am supposed to use. I was scolded by the vet office as she said he needs dog food. I am spending 400.00 a month in vet bills from allergies. Red itchy eyes and ears. Cost to much a month when I can be putting this towards healthy food. I organized it within one day to prepare the meals. I have a 70 lb bull dog, 100 lb Bullmastiff. I have done this for two days and I see tremendous changes. Also they don’t beg anymore when we are eating, that was instant. They both love it and enjoy their meals. Before I bought expensive dry food that caused diarrhea, then severe allergies. Remember vets should know this is the healthiest way for them to eat. I do add Dog multivitamin daily, just like humans if they don’t need it they kick it out. Vegetables are cheap when you go to a farmer stand and by a bunch and pre make the meals, label them and date them for freshness. Even if your busy you can make time to make this
How much do you feed them of this and how many times a day? I have 2 olde English bulldogge and have same allergy problems. Just trying to have them eat/feel better…
I had one rescue dog and just added a second. I have donated so many bags of expensive kibble to our humane society because my first dog is such a picky eater! He hated everything expensive! Our newest rescue had been abandoned, left with a broken bone and emaciated. I decided to try cooking for them. Mr. picky loves it and so does our new girl who gained 2# in 3 weeks! I also give them Canine Minerals ordered from Chewy, green beans instead of spinach and add sweet potato or pumpkin. Portion & freeze!
My dogs love this. Can you tell me the serving a day for a 12lb dog?
I assume it would be 1/2 cup in morning and 1/2 cup at evening meal. 1 cup per day
This looks wonderful how much would you feed a 85plus Shepard and in the store bought dog food there are vitamins B3 and D3 should I be putting this in or not thiamin???
I have been making this recipe for a few years now for my dogs. I thought it was such a healthy recipe and I just stumbled across an article about things you should not be feeding your dog and it said no spinach, a little bit every now and then is okay but not daily. I am so upset because here I thought I was doing something wonderful for my boys and now I read I am hurting them and can be damaging their kidneys. Can you please tell me what I can substitute for the spinach, I was thinking kale but I read kale can also cause damage to their kidneys.
Let’s keep it real. A dog would have to eat its own weight in spinach -DAILY- for adverse effects to occur. In normal quantities, it is indeed healthful for dogs. As with humans, everything with moderation. Please inform yourself and read beyond salacious headlines.
Unless your dog’s kidneys are compromised in some way, chemo, liver disease, etc etc, the amount of spinach in this recipe is low enough that it shouldn’t cause adverse effects in an otherwise healthy dog.
I use green beans instead of spinach in mine. I also add some sweet potato or pumpkin.
My dogs are so much happier at mealtime now!
Can you tell me about how much you feed your pup and how often? I have a 55 lb lab mix. Just curious! I’ve read you don’t necessarily have to feed dogs twice a day every day
So healthy and simple! My dog has recently had some major GI issues, so I’m going back to making homemade food for him again. He loves this recipe!
Very informative and helpful! I will be doing this for my future furbabies. Thank you!!!
I understand you are not a vet, but I’m curious if you (or someone here) can help me to figure out portion size for protein in giant breed puppy, and then portion size when giant breed puppy turns 18 months, as I have been told that’s when he should be given giant breed adult food. aaand then — how much do I feed him in a sitting!!??
I have a Great Dane and the two giant breed puppy foods we have tried, he continues to have very soft BM. So I have added about 1 1/3c pumpkin puree to his meals, which had helped to give that fiber-bulk. So I’m very interested to see how to give him the fiber-bulk with other foods in these meals. Sweet potatoes, maybe?
Thank you in advance for any recommendations you might have! ❤️
I’ve been making my dog’s food now for the last 6 months she’s 14 years old and I appreciate all your input
Love this. I make it regularly and add omega oil to it. I’ve also added sweet potato to some batches. I do make the rice with organic chicken broth instead of water. But I mix it with low calorie organic dog kibble. My dogs love it. And adding the omega oil has helped their joints, shined up their fur and reduced shedding. I regularly have 7+ dogs in my home and all fosters thrive on this food!
Vironika, giant breed dogs require adult food. Or giant breed puppy food only. There are too many nutrients in regular puppy food that can cause giant breeds joints to grow too quickly causing many health/joint issues. Please research and consult with your vet before continuing with puppy food. After he’s grown, I’m sure this recipe will be a huge hit for him/her
I made it with oatmeal and chicken because i didn’t have rice&turkey, and my belgian malinois loved it! Such a nice meal! Thanks for sharing!
Our Malchi loves it. Being only 10 pounds using your recipe one batch of food lasts about two weeks. We were concerned about our dogs health and feel so much better feeding our dog JoJo something that I would eat myself. I tried it. Good stuff.
My very finicky eater was not happy with all the different brands of store food. I found your recipe and began feeding him exclusively this. He loves it. My Vet did state I would need to add minerals to the food for a complete diet. Do you have suggestions on this? Thanks so much.
Chewy.com has a great canine mineral supplement!
I have 2 pugs. How much do you feed a pug that is 17 pounds and another that is 24?
I feed my pugs 2/3 daily. 1/3cup at breakfast and 1/3 cup at dinner. They are 20 pounds each and healthy
My Stevie had not eaten in a few days. He no longer was eating his dry dog food. I saw your recipe and we jumped right into making it. We were able to get 12 days worth of meals for our 22 pound part Fox Terrier. Well the true test was rather our picky eater would eat it. I’m very happy to report Stevie loved it and wanted more.
I have followed you for years and I love your blog.
Thanks for being AWESOME!!!
Do you feed them this all the time? I would love to try.