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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Great idea! I am going to give it a try for my pack 🙂
Use only frozen or fresh peas. Canned peas have no food value for dogs. It is cooked away. Love your recipe website, Chungah. I use it a lot.
If my dog eat 400g of dry food proformance how many gram should i feed my dog from that recipe
Just a note that homemade diets can be more dangerous than kibble. There are vitamins and minerals in kibble that are essential. And obviously ingredients that should NOT be included. Please consult your veterinarian if you would like to solely feed your dog homemade food.
Thank you so much! My dogs live it and they’ve slowly been losing weight.
We eat 2 and 1/2 cups of canadae dry foods per feeding 2x daily. My collie 14 mos old. He is 85 pounds.How much should I feed for fresh food?
Robin
Do you need to give them a vitamin supplement?
Supplemental fish oil? If so liquid or pill?
I’ve read in many articles brown rice has arsenic and to use Oats instead ?
Any ideas for toppers?
Thank you
Can you freeze any extra dog food you make for later.
Yes
After reading an article about kibbles , how they are made and all the expired meats and dead animals being incorporated in it , I stopped feeding my chi any type of kibbles . For the past 4 years , she has been eating homemade healthy food . Brown rice , quinoa , oatmeal , cow raw milk , fish , fruits and veggies . She loved carrots and broccoli mixed with quinoa ❤️ If this is the first time you’re making homemade food, just make sure all you google all the ingredients just to double check your feeding not the toxic food ❤️❤️Thanks for this website . Good to know there are other pet owners who is feeding their dogs real food as well ❤️
Is it okay to use white rice in the recipe? I can’t find any brown rice in my pantry and I was hoping to make it today.
I’ve been feeding my Maltese white rice for years with chicken, carrot and peas. She’s very regular and never ever had issues.
Our holistic guide has steered us away from white rice, white sugar, and white flour. They are loved by candida and ultimately affect the immune system negatively.
This is such a nutritious and easy to make food. My dog loves it! I’ve been struggling for years with his dog food, he never even like any of the and would be skipping meat times trying not to eat it. I should have done this years ago. Thank you for the recipe!
I have a question does anyone know how many days this recipe lasts for because I feel like my 1 year old beagle will love this.
I read somewhere you feed them 3% of their body weight twice a day so however much it yields.
Sure wish I knew how much to give them
Serving size is 1 cup and contains 412 calories. Check the bag of food you currently give your dog and compare to that nutritional information. For my dog, he is 60lbs and I had been giving him 4 cups daily of his old food which was 1400 calories. With this food, he only needs 3 1/3 cups for the same calorie intake. Hope this helps and good luck.
Nice recipe! Thanks! It’s great to see what other people do.
I have been making my toy poodle’s food for a long time now and use my slow cooker. I switch up the meats, veggies, and grains. I’ll often throw in a whole egg (shell and all!) into the slow cooker to add calcium.
When it’s cooked, I will purée it in my cuisinart so it’s all soft. Basically baby food. The egg shell gets ground up super fine so that’s no problem. If you’re worried about nutrients, your vet probably sells the supplements to add to DIY dog food. Mine does but I haven’t bought any yet.
I freeze my dog food in blobs on a cookie sheet then put the blobs in a big Tupperware in the freezer.
Easy!
How do you know how much a serving is for each dog. I have 110# dog and a 24# dog. I really want to try this for the little because he won’t eat dry.
My dog is a very fussy eater and does not like dry dog food. I feed him a very high quality dey dog food and I mix in a few tbls of this recipe. He loves, LOVES his meal times now!
Hi Laurie, I also have a toy poodle and he is 7 months old. He doesn’t like any dog food I have bought. He wind eat the dried food either or treats are not his favourite. The person that gave the home cooked recipe said each breed has its own nutritional needs. Can you give me an idea of what veggies to give him? Thank you Brenda
I have recipe close to this, I switch out baked chicken, hamburger and ground turkey. I use mixed frozen veggies, peas, carrots, corn, green beans. I also add 1/8 cup of dry dog food. She loves it. I feed her 1/4c AM and PM. I am concerned is she getting enough vitamins etc? She is a small dog.
NO CORN. Bad for them
Can you explain why you think corn is bad for them? I asked my vet and she said in small amounts like anything else, is fine.
They can not digest the corn. I once saw a dog poop out an entire pile of corn kernels while working at a shelter. I think it is used as a filler food. Thus, I don’t think they gain any nutritional value from the corn.
People are the same way with corn. We don’t digest it. But it still has some nutritional value and we eat it often.
Have been debating and researching and deciding to do this for a long time for our 4, 50lb+ pitbull mixes and 4lb Chihuahua. You can imagine the struggles we have getting the entire pack to eat the same thing for more than 2 months. So for many many many reasons, I decided to finally pull the trigger and try. Holy. Crap. I figured I’d have leftovers to bag up for the freezer. Not. Even. Close. 8cup yield and my dogs had licked everything clean. They LOVED IT. My husband had to monitor them because they kept trying to steal each other’s. I am going to do more research on proper vitamins and calcium, and I also do see this one is fairly high in fat. So those would be my only long term concerns. Wonderful recipe! Thank you!!!
Is this dog food okay for puppies?
I have been using a similar recipe since my puppies were transitioned from gruel at 10 weeks old. My recipe is 50% cooked protein 25% (2 cups ) cooked brown rice and pumpkin one small can 25% mixed cooked vegetables (no corn) and I only use 1 tbsp vegetable oil per 3 lb of meat. I also add the recommended calcium of 1/2 teaspoon per pound of meat. This is both the Canadian and American Kennel Club recommendation. I puree the vegetables simply because younger dogs cannot fully digest the outer skin of peas even though they are cooked. I freeze these in 1 Cup freezer bags. The six puppies and mama are very healthy have beautiful skin and Clear Eyes. It is one of the only foods that my 17 year old Chihuahua will eat. Mama gets 8 ounces her day she is 10 lb and the puppy’s which are 4 and 5 pounds get half a cup per day cable is always left out available for any snacking. The kibble is a very high grade Fraser Valley beef or chicken.
How do I know how much to feed them? I have two pitty pointers who are overweight, so looking for a healthier option for them. One is 100 lbs, other is around 85.
How many cups of food does this recipe yeild?
Recipe lists yield as 8 cups.
My 15 lb Chihuahua loves this recipe. Sometimes I use Ground Beef, sometimes Chicken and sometimes, Rice. Your instructions do not indicate cooking the veggies, but I do since my dog prefers soft food, sometimes I swap a Sweet Potato for the carrots. My pet eats about 4 ozs
Twice daily. Thanks for your recipe. And f you have others, I’d love to see them.
Also, do you add vitamins to the food?
it would be helpful to know how much protein serving to give as per needs of the type of the dog! I think that would prevent the pup from always appearing hungry, as a good serving with appropriate amounts of protein etc should be then filling! Also for calcium, I put in egg shells! I cook them along when I make homemade dog food: brown rice, chicken breasts, sweet potato, mixed veggies. I will also add in blue berries after it is all cooked as well. I was told by an employee at a dog food store that if using brown rice to wash it really well). Also same employee told me that if the dog is pooping it all out, that means they are eating only nondigestable food or kibble! So the less they poop , the better for the pup and means they are getting full in their meals and should not have to worry about over feeding etc. Again, the one question I have is how much is enough!!?? great comments here thank-you! Thanks for this recipe, I will definitely be trying this, though it is very similar to what I already do and again I add in egg shells for calcium!
I will make this recipe this week. During this Covid-19 my dog was diagnosed with severe allergies, the #1 being cockroaches. I do not have cockroaches in my house or around but my vet said they are in processed dog foods/treats. So immediately am cooking for my dog at home. Within 24 hours she was a changed dog. She is still allergic to many foods but I can modify this recipe. I love my vet and she has diagnosed many issues for my dogs over the years but I think this was the most eye opening ever. So thank you for this recipe and I hope my comments help other dog owners.
I made something similar for my dog because after hear health improved with Dr. marty’s probiotics, i still wanted to address allergies. Her nose also has that dry brown crust. i think it is because of the dry food from Costco so i am taking her off completely to see if that clears up. i also feel like there’s so much in the food that we don’t know about…that literally makes them sick.
Have u seen improvement in her crusty nose? My baby girl has same issue.
About the nose crust:
Our pittiful Midge has developed some itchy skin and hot spots. I ordered skin balm from Natural Dog Company. It’s awesome! They also have other balms for crusty noses, wrinkles, pads, and tear stains. They also have supplements.
Nest step is cooking Midge dinner. I sure hope this helps!
I made this for my 4 small dogs ( yorkie mixes) and they loved it! Thanks for sharing!