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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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.
I started making this food for our Yorkiepoo, she lost a fair amount of teeth.. we figured this would be easier for her to eat.. she loves it and our miniature poodle does as well.. I was watching my son’s Sheppard/Collie mix.. she licked the bowl clean and wanted more.. I asked my vet about this mixture.. she added a supplement to ensure they were getting all the extra vitamins and minerals.. when I questioned rice and grain.. she spoke of how our previous fur baby had an enlarged heart when she got older.. she encouraged us to use brown rice or lentils for our dogs.. yes they need grains for their heart.. I have trusted my dogs health to her and she has never given us a reason to question what she recommends. To anyone who is unsure about this food talk to your vet.. in our home this is what our dogs eat and rarely eat the kibble we put down..
My dog is almost 15 years old and has had stomach issues the last few years; he even started to be a little incontinent. A stomach upset got me putting him on the plain pumpkin diet [then pumpkin and rice, then pumpkin rice and chicken] and while his stomach got better I noticed a week of no accidents! We introduced his own high priced dog food again, and the accidents started. Immediately took him off the dog food, found this recipe, and the accidents stopped. I make all his dog food now according to this recipe, but have tweaked it by adding things like cranberries and pumpkin for bladder support; this has kept his stomach and bladder happy – more consistently. And yes, he loves his food! Thank you Damn Delicious!
To Gardener Girl, our Border Collie rescue had incontinence issues when we adopted her. Our vet put her on 50mg Proin 2x/day. The drug really works. No more accidents.
My dog is very picky and not a fan of vegetables. So I was worried that she may not like it. To my surprise, she not only finished her first bowl, she asked for seconds. Even my human children love it! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I started with this recipe because it’s inexpensive and easy to make. My dogs went crazy for it. I think I’m going to become one of those people who make their own dog food lol.
This is sooo good for our dog! She loves it! So easy to make, I’m glad that I did this and will continue to do!
This recipe would be fine to give occasionally but long term it’s lacking in such things as omega 3s, minerals, anti-oxidants, vitamins, calcium, bones, organ meats.
One of the most common allergies in dogs are carbohydrates and grains. That’s why commercial pet food has caused so many problems in the health of dogs & cats.
CHARLY could you recommend food that has the omega 3s, antioxidants, calcium, bones, minerals, and vitamins…I am not a nutritional expert, just a person who would like to make her yorki-poo homemade food as I can’t afford the good dog food at 4 dollars a pack, I’m on pension you see.
You can reduce your food quality and give your dog better food quality. Dry dog food is bad for them.
You could make this recipe and add Nutrition4all Bio-8 powder (eggshell calcium with trace nutrients designed for home made diet) for the calcium at about 1 tsp per 1-2 pounds of food (depends if you feed other commercial foods or feed bones etc), and add cod liver oil or get it in capsules and feed a capsule daily or every other day as a treat. 🙂 I’ve fed raw diets to several dogs and one cat for almost twenty years and the bio-8 powder and adding CLO were my best discoveries for balancing their nutrients.
Could my post be edited to correct that to essentials4all dot org for where to purchase the bio-8 calcium? 🙂
Love the recipe, but frustrated with the inconsistencies in the recipe. First of all the picture shows chicken and the recipe calls for ground turkey, there’s a typo in the rice (you need a cup and a half of rice if you’re using three cups of water), and the yield and therefore the total calories per cup are off by about 50%. If the end result is 25% carbohydrates that would mean the recipe makes at least 12 cups.
I have modified the recipe so I can double it with the ground turkey I get at Costco. I use just shy of 7 lb of turkey, 8 cups of cooked rice, 2 packages of frozen chopped spinach, 4 carrots, 2 zucchini and 1 cup of peas. This yeilded 34 cups, which equates to a little over 200 calories per cup.
All Of You Please Get a I.Q. Test .
Dog’s Eat Meat !
At Sometimes , Some Vegetables, are Good For Some Dog’s.
But NOT As 75% of The Meal.
Please Get Tested, Before Continuing With Your B.S.
I Have Talked To My Vet As Well !
He has helped Take Exceptionally Good Care of All of Our Animals on our Farm, for Over 40 Years , And Is Constantly Requested By Everyone who lives in our Small Town of 30,000.
He Thinks Your Full of B.S. as Well !
Entrenous !
I’m sorry you didn’t like the article. Not sure why you went through the trouble to comment and be rude. You could have moved on. There is no need to say things like this to people who want the best for their dogs.
Scram, boomer. You don’t need to capitalize every word.
What does Entrenous mean? Unless you’re meaning the French term, entre nous, which means “between ourselves; privately.”
Asking others to take an I.Q. test is a bit ironic, don’t you think?
Hey JCH, talking about IQ tests , you should have written “Get an I.Q. Test”
not “Get a I.Q. Test”
Thank you for sharing. I have a few suggestions especially if ur dog has any kind of allergies.
You may hacve to leave out all starch like peas and even rice. If u can use rice only use brown. I substitute the rice and peas for cabbage and green beans. I also do venison, turkey or lamb instead of chicken. Check with local farmers and butchers for discounts. I also pour beaten eggs over the entire mixture in a heavy cast iron skillet and let it ” bake” the eggs through” but it depends what ur dog is allergic too. U can google foods that are ok for dogs. you can add anything to this mix and left over blueberries are really good for them but never grapes. Also anything theyll eat raw like cabbage is best raw just like for us. I have been doing home made dog food for years after our dog developed severe yeast. I do mostly raw with her meats and bones but some foods she wont eat raw and i was worried about her balance of nutrition so she gets her raw food with the cooked on the side. The cooked meat is just enough to give the veggies flavor. Hope this helps.
I’m a foodie and cook, it was easy to make and tasted really good both our dogs lapped it up, thank you
Dam delish
Will this keep for a week in the fridge if I make it once a week!
1st time I made this I mix it with with their regular dry food for breakfast and they went nuts for it. When I finished up the first batch they were disappointed that they didn’t get any more of the good fud!! Just finished up a second batch so won’t they be surprised tomorrow morning!!
I am trying to do this for my pup, who was previously on those subscription food program, however, it just tends to be costly.
I will try your recipe, and hope that she likes it :)! I do want to ask however, when you did BalancedIT, did you buy any of the supplements that they recommend?
Thank you. Perfect for my dogs and I am confident of good nutrition now. My dogs are active on the road and their paws are dry. I will let you know when the paws are supple again.
I’m very confused – I followed this recipe to a T and my yield is 15 cups. Is there a typo on the recipe??
I would like home made receipes for my dog mostly. I’ve tried making some myself & he is loving it. Thanks.
Made this for my mix breed dog who weights about 20kilo. Tried her on a taster and she loves it. I’ll change the veg and meat around for variety. I’m giving her 1 cup for breakfast and 1 cup for her afternoon meal. Hopefully this will calm her tummy as she is very sensitive.
My two dogs LOVE this. One is dealing with some ear and skin problems and im hoping that this will help. Thanks for a great alternative to store bought dog food.
I’m looking into cooking my GSD home cooked meals , as she has allergies and the vet can’t tell me what she’s allergic to , she also has bad ears … So what could I cook for her
I guess you can switch out the type of meat? The recipe calls for ground turkey… the picture shows ground chicken. That would change the nutritional information. Great recipe, I’ll see if I can play around with ingredients. Maybe change them up week to week, batch to batch. But this a great starter recipe!! Thanks do much!
Just made this, and hoping my dog loves it. She was recently injured and had to have one of her back legs removed. She hasn’t been eating a lot, so I made this to give it a try.
Will you please tell me how much she should have in a day. I am guessing 1 cup twice per day. Is that correct. She is a border collie and weighs 40 lb Thank you for any and all help.
80lbs-3 1/2-4cups per day
60-3 cups
40-2 cups
20-1 cup
10- 1/2 cups
Adjust if gaining or losing weight.
I would also suggest supplements
What about a 97 pound GSD? Currently he eats 6 cups of kibble a day
100-5 1/2 cups
Just made this tonight and want to make sure I’m feeding my fat 18lb Pomeranian, the right amount – he absolutely loves it! But, he needs to lose weight…so with the ground turkey recipe, how much do I feed – and what supplements do I need to make sure he is getting? Thank you for any help!
Our 4 year old English Lab weighs 95 lbs. (about 20 lbs more than she should). She is walked daily. She does have a sensitive stomach, flaky skin, and I really worry about her hips.
I’m trying to get my husband on board to try this type of diet for her. Of course, he must stop the bagged treats.
What would you suggestion for potion size for weight loss, yet keeping her satisfied?
Do you add fruits to the meal or do them as a healthy treat?
Any ideas for treats?
I have looked at the BalanceIt calculator and it seems to be very helpful.
What supplements would you recommend?
Jodie, do yiu think this is a decent recipe, author is v honest re not feeding all the time …. but there r other sites that hv v similar recipes and they say u can, glowing reports even,,!! Thank you. Do u hv a good recipe please. Thank you
Thank you! I wondered how much to give my girls. The Dovie is doing well but my chi needs to loose a lot more. Right now they are both 16 lbs. I give them each 1/2 c and 1/4cup maintenance kibble at each meal. My vet said they need the dry food for the teeth. Keeps the teeth cleaner. They love meal time! I swear the can read the clock because at 5 the doxie barks and the chi dances in circles.