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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It is great that you are providing a means for people to prepare a homemade diet for their pets. I would like to respectfully point out that this recipe is deficient in providing an essential ingredient: calcium/phosporus. I encourage you and your readers who are interested to visit Donald Strombeck’s website (DVM) has a wealth of recipes that are properly balanced. http://dogcathomeprepareddiet.com/ is a wonderful resource. By simply adding bone meal (which has the proper mix of calcium/phosphorus) to this recipe, it will become more complete–adding to the current freshness and wholesomeness. Failing to do so means that the dog’s body will get what it needs from the dog’s bones causing structural damage.
Hello, I believe if it’s not added in their food directly, this can be solved with the right vitamins.
Cheers!
So glad to see some exact measure recipes. This makes so much, I know the recipe could be halved. I am wondering what luck anyone has had with freezing this in serving sizes. My little pup is a terrier mix about 13 lbs. Currently eats 3/4 cup of commercial dry dog food. Would he get the same amount of this or more? Thanks for all the information you have posted.
I meal prep for our Miniature Pincher every other week, and i freeze his food. I use snack bags & measure using a digital scale, then seal all in a gallon Zip lock bag. I don’t measure my ingredients, just try to make it healthy for him. He had a serious reaction to Blue Buffalo, and then Prescription Dog food. He is much healthier now!
I was very happy to find this recipe, as I was new to preparing my dogs food. I had no idea of the right ratio of what to what. My vet told me to use white rice though. Not sure what to think of that! But I was also pleased to see just how many veggies could be included. She eats 5 baby carrots and about 1/5 of a fresh pepper every morn but I wasn’t sure what elase was ok. Thank you again.
NIce to see some quality recipes for our fur babies out there. i Have been making my dogs recipe for 12 years. She will be 18 yrs old this March. I use 3 lbs. ground turkey, or shredded poultry with grinder carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes. A little bit of oas and sometimes bulgar wheat. All organic as much sac possible. My girl Jenna weighed 75 lbs most her life and is 65 lbs now which the vet said is ok due to joint arthritis. IF anyone else has some good quality recipes, please put them out there, Our 4 legged families deserve the best. homemade cat food recipes too!, Thanks!!♥️♥️
Hi Lisa, I add turmeric to my puppy’s mix & coconut oil too.
http://dogcathomeprepareddiet.com/ Dr. Donald J Strombeck has a wealth of recipes at this website for both dogs and cats to include special needs diets. Please consider visiting. I’ve been feeding homemade, raw diet, for 7 years. I have a commercial grinder, so I grind bone in leg quarters with equal parts boneless, skinless thighs. (40 lbs each) I also grind in 20% by weight of frozen vegetables (carrots, zucchini, green beans, cauliflower). (I buy at restaurant supply, so my cost is about $1 per lb combined).
Daily, I make a starch that I add to the raw food. I use beans, potatoes, rice, macaroni, lentils. My pressure cooker makes short work of processing some of these. If not feeding bone in, it is essential to supplement with bone meal powder. I also use a multivitamin as recommended. Now my cats…they get commercial food…could never get them switched over. While a little more work involved, it has contributed to the good health of my dogs.
My dog isn’t a picky eater but for some reason, he doesn’t eat his dry food unless I mix it with wet food. I know his wet food isn’t exactly the best for him so I tried to make him a little something today.
I had to substitute for some ingredients since I didn’t have them all. I used multigrain rice, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and yellow carrots. He really liked it and gobbled it all up. I will definitely add meat next time.
For reference, I have a 11 lb Shih Tzu/Maltese mix. We feed him half a cup of food per meal.
How much do you feed her a day, my dog is 68 lbs
I feed my girl two cups a day one in morning at six and one in the evening around six. Due to some health issues She is not as active as she used to be that’s why only two cups.
How much should I fed my 3 dogs? I have a 65lb GSD, a 60lb Lab/Rottie mix, and a 14lb Chihuahua/Pomeranian mix.
If you go to the BalanceIT website it will help you. I did a quick run of this recipe for a 65 lb dog, caloric intake should be 1417, if feeding twice a dog that almost 2 cups per meal time just for the one dog. The 60 lb dog should have 1335 calories per day and the 14 lb dog should have 448 calories per day per balanceit.com
I weigh my food. I believe a food scale essential. How much you feed depends on the age and activity level of your dog. I might suggest that you try 20-28 oz of food per day for your larger dogs. I have a 65lb pit bull that I feed at that level. I have a 45 lb English SEtter. She’s geriatric (15), she gets 15-16 oz per day–and she maintains her body condition. Another English Setter (13-14) gets 11 oz per day. She’s smaller, and much less active. Your little one will need much less. Watch the body condition and adjust as appropriate. You can vary the protein/starch mix from a 1:2 to 1:1 ratio. I use the scale to measure and keep those ratios. A more active dog needs more protein (and calories). http://dogcathomeprepareddiet.com/ is the most comprehensive resource on the internet for feeding this way in my opinion.
My Harley loved this … 3lb of mince.. seemed loads .. unless I weighed wrong … I have now bought aniforte complete .. so now I can cook his meat and veg and add the essentials he needs in a meal .. wish you had more recipes for doggy meals .. I feed my Harley 9oz of food a day … he weighs 13.3 kg .. trying to lose weight .
I haven’t made it yet but how much would I need to give my 3 dogs? I have a 65lb GSD, and 60lb Lab/Rottie mix, and a 14lb Long Hair Chihuahua/Pomeranian mix.
I tried and he loved it
I also have been making my dog Tori, a carin terrier, food. I was adding cauliflower to her food and noticed she was having loose bowels and not able to control her going in the house which she never before did. I took the cauliflower out of her diet as I read up that this could happen. She now is over the bout of problem bowels and back to her old self.
It your baby is having bowel problems, check to see if it is cauliflour.
I’m so thankful to have found this homemade recipe. I started making this two weeks after noticing that my puppy doesn’t like much of the three kinds of puppy food recommended for her. My 5 month old Peekapoo is happy and loves this recipe so much. She weighs 8 lbs. and I feed her 1/2 cup three times a day.
Thanks again.
Commercial dog food cant be good fo4 dogs just like processed food is not good for people. Toxins are produced when dog food for kibble is cooked at extremely high remperature to give it longer shel& life. Starting today i will cook his food just like I cook my food.
I was wondering how much should be fed to a dog that is about 34pounds/14 kg?
Hello! Most dogs need about 25 to 30 calories per pound per day to maintain their weight, depending on how active they are. My 24 pound dog requires 670 calories per day and she’s a couch potato other than a daily walk around the block.
Started making his about a month ago. I knew going in my dog had a chicken allergy but decided to try turkey. He seems to bE allergic to that as well. He loves it though and devoures it!
Just wondering if I replaced the turkey with fish, if it would still be a good diet for him. If so, what kind of fish would you recommend- one that won’t entirely break the bank. Lol
My husband deer hunts and I use venison. My dog has really bad allergies and venison and fish are about the only meats he can eat.
Try lean beef. I had to give my border collie lean ground beef last week because he was throwing up something he should not have ate. I boiled it in water, drained it and mixed with rice and beef broth.
I like the basic idea, but I want you to keep in mind that the current high quality food scare comes from the use of legumes as carbohydrate and protein provider. There is a danger that what is healthy to us humans (beans, peas, lentils) is not for dogs as they have a high need for Taurin. To further the issue, Poultry has lower Taurin levels than red meats to begin with. Starches from legumes are suspected to mask Taurin so that lesser can enter the blood stream.
I decided to go raw, because one of my dogs is losing his hair and has bald patches in a number of places. For the most part, I got it under control with Freshpet and Blue kibble. However, its started again, so that led me down the raw food path. After pricing out a few raw brands on Chewy, which were ridiculously high, I decided to make my own. My dogs are picky, so I pulverized the veggies and rice in a food processor before mixing with the ground turkey. I also added a little season, and ground eggshells for calcium as well as fish oil to each helping. Its quick to make with frozen veggies and I make the rice in advance and freeze. It’s easier to run the rice through the food processor this way. I only just started this, so I haven’t noticed any hair growth yet but I’m hopeful. I prep my meals on Sunday, so it really doesn’t take much time to do this as well.
Helena I am just reading reviews because I am making this tomorrow, but saw your review about your dog losing hair. We have one too and my husband kept researching because we thought it was a food allergy but ours has Cushing’s. We bought this online product for him and his hair is almost 100% back.Just a thought. Read up on it. Good luck.
Hello Gayle, what is the product you bought online? My puppy is losing hair too. Also are there any websites you could recommend where I can read up on it? Thank you so much.
Love this recipe just wish it would specific how much i should be feeding my dogs? I have 2 coonhounds around 55-70 lbs.
I have a 40 pound mix beagle, I feed her 2 cups in the morning and two cups for dinner. This maintains her weight which the
Veterinarian says is good. She’s not overweight. I have a 16 pound chiweenie , feed him half a cup in the morning and a half a cup in the evening.
Great information! If we as humans would simplify our recipes like this, we all could live long enough to see Great Grand kids and to out live most of our relatives! I have been cooking for my dogs for years now and it’s the best thing for them. This is what the dog food industry doesn’t want to hear, so information that is like this hasn’t been distributed enough and dogs lives are being lost by greed with corporations putting profit over common sense. As soon as you change their diet to this you’ll never go back!
My roommate said. Bella is not going to eat that. 1 minute later 2 cups of food gone. She absolutely loves this recipe.
I have a dog named Bella also and she lives this. She gobbles it up
My dog is a year old do I need to add calcium and a vitamin for this recipe?
So I eat dog food now. It’s delicious.
I will try, but wondering if I could can this in a pressure cooker. I could make a bunch of quart jars for a month of feedings as I am sometimes pressed for time.