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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You can easily substitute lettuce, broccoli or asparagus, but the veggies above have a bit more nutrients.
I love it! My dog immediantly ate the food, and she is a picky eater. Thanks for helping her eat her food!
Has anyone tried making this with turkey breast?
I only use ground turkey with this recipe! I do, though, add in some other stuff, like chicken livers (ground up on the food processor), and use a mineral supplement to be sure they’re getting enough calcium- as per my vet’s recommendations.
Just made this tonight. My babies LOVE IT!!
My vet told me i have to add regular dog food to homemade but it makes my dog sick when i do that. Is that true? I add a sprinkle of nutrithrive so hope thats good enough because he loves his homemade dog food without caned dog food
Could I make this weekly and refrigerate?
I make this for 15-30 days at a time for my two small dogs. I put an am and pm pouch for each day with the date. I put three days in the fridge and the rest I freeze. Each night I pull out the next(3rd) day out of the freezer. Works great! My dogs love it!
I haven’t tried it for my 9 week american pits but I will. I may even make some for myself.thank you this was very helpful. I think my favorite part of the recipe was that you provided a nutrition fact. Thank you and stay blessed
I decided to start making Sophie her own homemade dog food. I chose this one to start and she loved it. Sophie a Soft Coated Wheaton is such a picky eater I didn’t know if she would eat it or not but she loved it. Will try other recipes next. It doesn’t take much time and I know it has to be better for her. Thanks
ooh interesting. I have a wheaten mix and he’s also a picky eater. like won’t snack on raw carrots picky.
the author doesn’t mention portion sizes though. 1 cup for ~30lb dog seems too small.
My chiweenie was a picky eater until I started making her food using damn delicious recipes now she eats good, very active, good breathe and happy. TYVM
I have an over weight Chiweenie. She doesn’t like walking and is a little couch potato. We worry about her weight. We have tried different kinds of kibble for weight management. Nothing is working. She is almost 9 lbs and I feel we’re not doing enough.
Questions: How much of a portion should she get?
Does anybody find it has helped in weight loss?
My puppy is turning 20 weeks(5 months) on 15 Apr. I would like to know some substitute for the vegetables if the ones posted on the recipe is not available.
What other vegeatbles applicable for puppies to eat or add to the recipe?
Thank you
My 10 lb Klee Kai is the biggest picky eater and is allergic to every protein expect Turkey! Kibble has NEVER worked for her. For the past year, we’ve been giving her Just Food For Dogs Turkey and whole wheat macaroni fresh recipe, but after a year of only being able to eat the same thing everyday, she started being picky again and boycotting her food. Since she can only have Turkey, I went searching for other fresh options. I made her this recipe and WOW! She loves it! It’s a great option and she is more excited for meal time than I’ve ever seen! I did add to it a little based on what I’ve learned from JFFD…I added an omega 3 salmon oil to it and Turkey liver because that’s rich with vitamins. I also started giving her a multivitamin treat. I’m so happy I found this recipe and have my little girl eating again!
FOR THOSE ASKING ABOUT QUANTITY….
Just Food For Dogs has a great calorie tracker on their website. You put in the type of dog, age, spayed or not, energy level, amount of treats, and it tells you how many calories your dog should be eating in a day. When you purchase their food, they then tell you how much of that meal you give them. However, the quiz is free. I use that quiz as a gage. If you make the recipe to be somewhat accurate, than the nutritional chart the author has there tells you the calories per cup and you go from there to know how much to feed per day, divide by 2 for 2 meals.
Thanks again for this awesome recipe!
I can’t get the calculator at Justfoodfordogs to work beyond anything other than recommending a food this site sells. There is no recommendation for how much or how many calories per day my dog should have based on all of the information that I input And at $13 a day for a 70 pound golden retriever… their recommended food is WAY more than I spend on myself! Who can afford the stuff?
I couldn’t find a calorie tracker. Am I going to the right site? https://company.justfoodfordogs.com/
My 10 lb Klee Kai is the biggest picky eater and is allergic to every protein expect Turkey! Kibble has NEVER worked for her. For the past year, we’ve been giving her Just Food For Dogs Turkey and whole wheat macaroni fresh recipe, but after a year of only being able to eat the same thing everyday, she started being picky again and boycotting her food. Since she can only have Turkey, I went searching for other fresh options. I made her this recipe and WOW! She loves it! It’s a great option and she is more excited for meal time than I’ve ever seen! I did add to it a little based on what I’ve learned from JFFD…I added an omega 3 salmon oil to it and Turkey liver because that’s rich with vitamins. I also started giving her a multivitamin treat. I’m so happy I found this recipe and have my little girl eating again!
FOR THOSE ASKING ABOUT QUANTITY….
Just Food For Dogs has a great calorie tracker on their website. You put in the type of dog, age, spayed or not, energy level, amount of treats, and it tells you how many calories your dog should be eating in a day. When you purchase their food, they then tell you how much of that meal you give them. However, the quiz is free. I use that quiz as a gage. If you make the recipe to be somewhat accurate, than the nutritional chart the author has there tells you the calories per cup and you go from there to know how much to feed per day, divide by 2 for 2 meals.
Thanks again for this awesome recipe!
Thanks so much for this recipe! My pointer mix has stomach issues and I made this recipe exactly as written and she loved it! I need to add some supplements to it, can any of you suggest some that I can look into?
Just started making this recipe for my dogs and they absolutely love it!
Question: I have 4 dogs, they’re all around the same size (two of them are around 15 lbs, the two others are closer to 20) how many cups should I be feeding each of them a day?
Thanks!!
My 10 week old German Shepherd puppy had only been eating a high end expensive dog food. Obviously we know all poop stinks BUT HIS WREEKED. I knew something was wrong. I did my research on the food & learned that these dog food companies have loop holes to feed our pets “by-products” that aren’t what we are being sold. For example chicken by-product can simply mean “chicken feathers” & yes this has been done.
Anyway, I decided to make a batch. My puppy hesitated for a few seconds then devoured it. Immediately his poop was healthy and not fowl. I just picked up a surprise I found in my restroom only because I visually saw it but to our surprise didn’t smell it.
This is GOOD STUFF
THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR RECIPE
p.s. I made it without the rice & spinach only because I didn’t have any at hand.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND
OHHH one more thing! Our 6 year old chihuahua hardly eats her food (good brand, & we’vetried many)
Well when we fed it to her she ate more than we had ever seen her eat before. She finished!!!
Thank you for this recipe. I recently found out my pup had lost a lot of weight. Turns out he’s super picky and a slow eater. I’m tweaking the recipe and most days he eats! If not the older dogs finish it up!! Trying to add vitamins but he usually can tell. I’ve been a my wits end
My dog loves it ! Easy and cheap
I made the DIY dog food tonight. I have a 20 lb. dog, so I cut the recipe by 2/3. He is a picky eater as well, so I didn’t want to make too much unless I knew he would eat it. He absolutely loved it (and so did I). Now I wish I had made the full recipe. It’s very easy to make, so it’s no big deal. At the intelligent advice of a friend, I put most of the remaining food in ice cube trays and then the freezer. I will be able to then put them in serving size ziploc bags when they are completely frozen. Overall, I give it a 5 out of 5. It really is very, very tasty, inexpensive and quite easy to make‼️
Hi Kelly, my dog is also 20 lbs I’m confused about the quantity of food to give him (can you share the quantity per meal you are giving to your dog? )
I double the recipe and use my vacuum sealer to freeze each serving… our 5 year old lab loves it!
How much do you feed your lab at a time? Do you feed only this food for both meals or do you also add dry dog food?
I can’t wait to try third recipe, thank you! Just a question, how do I know how much food to give my dogs?
Thanks for publishing this recipe. I just started making my senior pitbull dog food after she seem d depress and lethargic. Worked great to go e her more energy and she looks forward to her meals now.