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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Can I use Chicken instead of turkey? It’s hard to find Turkey in my country.
Sure! 🙂
My Collie is 55 lbs. How much of this recipe should I be feeding her each meal. I feed her twice a day. She is a good weight right now and 3 year old.
Barbara, this may be best discussed with your pet’s veterinarian and/or nutritionist.
Feeding food like this is based on weight, 2-3% depending on activity level etc. then converted to cups. I’ve been feeding my westie homemade since he was a puppy. Not a vet, but that was the advice I was given to calculate, leave some room for treats by feeding a little less than the total amount.
This looks great. I was just looking into buying this pre made and it totaled about 200 bucks per month. This seems more sensible. I have a bulldog. How many servings did you give your dog per day.
Thanks for the help.
We feed our 3-yr old, 18-pound corgi one cup of food each day, supplemented by treats. This was decided after consulting our vet and a nutritionist. I recommend consulting with your own veterinarian to see what is best for your dog.
Planning on making this recipe for my Pomapoo. She’s a finicky eater and barely eats anything unless it’s what we’re eating. Do you add a supplement to this recipe to make sure they are getting the right amounts of nutrients/vitamins?
Yes, I add supplements/vitamins (ex. Balance IT® Canine) as directed by our vet/nutritionist.
I have the pickiest 12 pound chi-Yorkie mix ever. Think “refusing to eat the same food 2 days in a row” picky, even when it’s people food. She’s been like this since we adopted her at 4 months old, which was over 6 years ago.
Moxie had developed chronic diarrhea and was losing weight so I had to do something. I thought about ordering from a delivery service that makes food for dogs but the cost was way more than I could afford especially since I have 2 other rescues who need special expensive diets for urinary stones. I wasn’t sure where to start with making food for her but found this recipe and decided to try it.
It’s been 4 days and she’s still happily eating it twice a day. I never thought she would like something with zucchini and spinach but she is eating more on it than she ever has on prescription or commercial dog food. There’s no diarrhea and she seems to feel better now that she’s eating regularly. It was painful every day to offer various foods and have her walk away, knowing she was hungry but not interested in eating anything while I stressed over her nutrition.
I’m glad I tried it. 5 stars from Moxie!
I have not made this recipe yet. My commit/question is how much does this recipe make. It reads serving size is 1 cup, and servings per container 1 cup ??
Hi Tracy! The recipe yields roughly 8 cups. Hope that helps!
I have a 9 year old yorkie Pomeranian and she started have allergies to the food I was giving her and blood in stools so I made chicken breast no fat cooked with olive oil and then brown rice added squash carrot’s spinach string beans blend the veggies with the juices from them and my dog ate it so fast she will not eat anything else now and as a treat I give her small bites of cheese and she is much better and active
I used this but substituted lower histamine poached salmon and added natural histamine reducers like spiralina, CBD oil, glucosamine, chrodrotin and krill oil. Added some oats and pureed into a blender and made portion sized rolls to freeze.
After feeding this for 60 days, the stage one mast cell cancer (believed to be a result of high histamines in the system) diagnosed in my jack russel/lab mix appears to have gone into remission and her subsequent blood labs look great.
That is such great news, J cal!
I have a 12 year old yorkie that refuses to eat dog food. I made this for him today and he gobbled it up. Thanks for the recipe.
I have two Yorkies. I’m considering making this recipe because they have become somewhat finicky with their food. How much does your Yorkie weigh and what is a serving for him?
So making this for my boys!
Been looking for home made recipes to help increase energy level. Thinking to vary the meat, turkey, beef and chicken so they don’t get bore. Someone mentioned that chicken liver is a great meat option with high protein, is that correct?
So I have a question well two.
I have a 2 1/2 year old red nose Pitt Bull.
And I have a 3 month old dalma doodle what serving size should I give them each? How many cups each? And how many times a day would you recommend?
Can I also feed to my symeese cat? Again any recommendations to mall size are how frequently I’d feed her. Thank you for your help..
These are all great questions but please consult with your pet’s veterinarian and use personal judgment when applying this information to your own pet’s diet.
Hi there, is it 1.5 cups of cooked rice or uncooked ? I followed your recipe exactly (1.5 un cooked) and it yielded 12 cups. Do you pack it tight in 1 cup?
Evgeniya, the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice.
My pugs loved this homemade dog food. Was spending over $400. A month on food for two pugs what a great way to save money and provide better quality food for our babies !
How long will this last in the freezer?
Hi Andi! Methods for optimal food storage and shelf life should be based on good judgment and what you are personally comfortable with. Hope that helps!
I’m no expert at all here, but imo if frozen right after cooled and packed I’d give it no longer than 2 months. 1 being more ideal.
Either way this recipe is killer and I can’t wait to spend a day doing up a huge batch for my pup, thank you!
Should I drain fat off of grd. Beef. Some say drain others say it’s good for dogs.????
Yes, you can drain the excess fat if you wish.
That’s def your choice but be careful it isn’t too much. I thought it was okay but our boy almost got pancritis disease (spelt wrong). I’m sure in small doses its totally ok n they sure love it. Just be careful not to overdue it. Don’t want to see another pup in pain like ours was.
So I have a question… my vet told me to boil any meat I gave my dogs. I told him that I cooked ground turkey in the skillet as mentioned above and gave it to my dogs. He said I should boil it because it omits the sodium in the food. Sodium can cause issues with their pancreas. This recipe above doesn’t mention boiling the meat…??
Yes it does, read again
No, there is no mention of boiling the meat
I agree, the meat should be boiled not browned in a skillet. Also, me vet suggested I use white rice instead of brown.
Our chihuahua was recently diagnosed with pancreatitis from too much fat. My recipe is similar to this but I use chicken and I boil his meat and vegetables instead of pan fry like i used to and mash it up a bit for easy digestion. Boiled chicken with white rice, pasta, peas, beans, sweet potato, broccoli, carrots and cottage cheese. Loves it and no more issues. So unfortunately no treats or table scraps!!
Would you be able to post the nutritional breakdown for vitamins, minerals?
Julie, this may be best discussed with your pet’s veterinarian and/or nutritionist.
Your recipe has been amazing. I am cooking for our 15 month old Great Dane. He has lots of allergies so we thought we would try this. The improvement is amazing!! He looks better than he EVER has and his stomach is better than it ever has been!! Our vet reviewed recipe and gave it a thumbs up. Only down side is that due to his size he eats 6 pounds of food a day over 3 meals…the improvement in his skin and stomach keeps me cooking!!!!
WHAT IN GOD’S NAME!
Now, I have to try this recipe because my dog’s name is Butters (and he too has an upset tummy so I want to switch him over to homemade food)
I will be back in a few days to share my thoughts…
Let us know how it goes, Stephanie! 🙂
I just met a Butters at the beach! I wonder if it was you and your dog. I just looked up this recipe for my Shelby. I hope Butter’s belly is better!
Hi can these recipe help dog loose weight? Or do i need to adjust it?
Alison, this recipe is not specifically tailored for weight-loss.
Alison – we have used this food to help our dogs loose weight. To do this you must know the target calories a day for your pet – I got this from my vet – and then using the nutritional information below I calculated what serving portions would be. I divided by the number of times we feed the dog.
We feed the dogs this recipe at night and a commercial food in the morning – a combination of canned and kibble.
My little one has lost 4 lbs – 25% of his body weight and the other 9 lbs – 22% of her body weight. It has been a challenge, no different than a human losing weight.