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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This article is a good one indeed because with so many commercial options available sometimes, we forget to give our dogs the homemade options of food. I personally like to give my pet baby homemade food. Great share and I will definitely try the recipe you have given. Cheers.
It is good you are pointing people towards Balanceit for home made diets. It is essential that pet diets are balanced with all the vitamins and minerals they need. I have a small version of “Balanceit” in Australia with free balanced recipes – see https://www.vetlicious.com/choose-protein. Thanks Steve.
When food is nuked all the nutrients and minerals vanish, please do not nuke for your best pals, they will be getting no nourishment for their health when food is nuked. Also I was reading about a cat eating tuna from a can above, and tuna from a can is too acidic for cats, a friend of mine had to pay tonnes of money for a UTI operation because her cat was eating tuna from a can, that’s what the Vet told her. For UTI problems for cats organic cranberry juice works, for dogs, just use cranberry extract with D-mannose for a few nights.
How many cups does this make
About 8 cups.
I just made my first batch and the dogs are loving it! I have a 30 (+) lb Corgi and a 70lb Wirehaired Griffon and I am trying to figure out how much to feed them. I feel like they are both a little overweight at this point. I have seen people mention amounts of food in lbs but I measure their food in cups. Any thoughts? Thanks!
DO NOT USE Brown Rice or Dairy in dog food EVER! It disrupts their digestion system. Dogs digestion is much quicker then in humans. Using whole grains and dairy can make your dog sick. Use white rice instead.
Hi! I just dropped by to say that I linked from my site to here. I know that it’ll become useful for my future readers. BTW, here’s the link >> Side Hustle Ideas for Dog Lovers
Hope this is you who published this:
http://godstrongwomen.com/life-saving-homemade-dog-food-view-recipe/
It is actually not but thank you so much for letting me know! I have reached out to them to have them remove the post immediately.
Is there a cookbook with dog food recipes?
Not at this time – but hopefully soon! 🙂
How long can it keep in the fridge ….and freezer?
It should keep for at least 2-3 days in the fridge (they are also freezer-friendly in individual servings) but as always, please use your best judgment.
This recipe is fantastic! My very sweet, 12-year old chihuahuas HATE ‘dog food’ and I don’t blame them! This recipe makes us both feel good. They feel like they are getting a ‘treat’ and I feel so much better about serving this to them rather than some gross canned food. Thanks so much!
Hi Chungah! I made a big pot of this dog food last week and my dog is STILL licking the bowl CLEAN after each meal 🙂 He loves it and it makes me so happy to cook something special for him. I substituted the brown rice for white rice (after reading about how it was easier for their tummies to digest) and right now I am halting the serving with his dry dog food to ween him off 🙂 But I wanted to pop in to tell you how much Felix LOVES his new food.
Thank you!
Can I replace zucchini with cucumber? If not, what can I replace it with?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, we cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications. And with this specific recipe, consult your vet if you are not sure.
Do you feed this as dog meal every day or you have other recipes to rotate? (another then easy crockpot). If you have other, can I ask how many recipe variety you feed?
Do you use supplements? how much and what supplement you use for your dog?
Of course in the end I still consult my vet, but I want to know about yours if possible or if can’t its ok.
Anyway, we both have corgi <3
Sry I think I lost in translation, already found most of the answer in your comment and after couple re-read your page 😀
I have a question, do you add any supplements to the dog food you make like “ BalanceIt “ suggests dogs need. If so which do you add? I’d hate for my dogs to be difficient in vitamins. BalanceIt sells some, but they seem kinda pricey just wondering your take on this? Thanks
Yes, I add supplements but I recommend consulting with your pet’s veterinarian to see what is best suited for your pup.
Recipe looks interesting. Can u pls suggest any vegetarian recipes for my 12 yr old Shih-Tzu dog? I can add egg. No issue. Except no meat.
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications. Sorry, Radha!
I differ with your advice that all starches are bad for diabetics. On a plant-based diet that includes lots of starchy vegetables, including white and sweet potatoes, I have reversed type 2 diabetes and done away with the medications for it and for high cholesterol. It is fat that causes the problem for diabetics. Starch is not the culprit. Our bodies use carbs and store fat. Fat is what keeps insulin from entering cells as it should and forces it into the bloodstream, thus insulin resistance and diabetes. That’s why losing weight ends type 2 diabetes.
That’s an awful lot of vegetables and grain! You need to make sure the meat contains organs and such also 🙂
Thank you for this recipe. My senior shih tzu has been picky ever since we brought him home from the shelter 6 years ago. I have switched between high quality dog foods to encourage him to eat. I added cheese, I started giving him refrigerated dog food…. still kind of picky. I thought maybe I should just let him eat junk dog food so he would enjoy eating his food. BUT!!Today I made this recipe, he ate two bowls even with his Nutro dry mixed in. The vet would tell me that he’ll eat when he is hungry, I believe that is true but I’m so happy he is enjoying his food now…..FINALLY !! Bubba the Shih tzu thanks you too.
Thanks for this recipe, Chungah! I’m going to try this with my dog this week. I see a lot of people asking how much to give. As always just ASK YOUR VET what the calorie requirements for your dog are and multiply that by the nutritional information that has been handily provided!!
My vet told me we should be shooting for 1000-1200 calories for his breed/weight. so divided 1100 by 412.3 calories per cup in this recipe that comes out to about 2&2/3 cups a day. So we’ll start with 1 & 1/3 for breakfast and 1 & 1/3 for dinner. Which is Actually very close to what we have been giving him of his dry food 😀