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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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.
This was a life saver! We had no dog food and it was a public holiday. Went online found this recipe and made it hoping our dog who is a bit of a picky eater would like it. Turns out he loved it. On the first time we used chicken instead of turkey because it was all we had but now we use turkey. It was so good that now it is a part of his daily diet and he is still loving it.
I’ve made some modifications due to allergies (peas are a no-no), and the girls just love it. But I have a question- what fat percentage of meat do you use? 93/7, 85/15, 80/20, etc? Thanks!
My yorkie /chihuahua mix loves it
How many pounds is your dog & how much does he/she eat? We have a new chihuahua that is so picky.
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!