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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It is ideal that you add organ meat (livers and hearts) and perhaps ground cartilage to this recipe. Organ meats supply a great many nutrients that the primary meat will not, and cartilage does this as well as give joint benefits. Depending on the dog’s personal sensitivity you might also want to cook the rice longer than directed and in extra water, and grind up it or it may cause irritation as dogs have a harder time digesting rice than humans do and will also not digest most of the nutrients found in brown rice anyway, oatmeal is also another alternative and may be better for the skin and coat. If you get your meat from a quality (Organic, not factory farmed) source it is probably safe to give it to your pets raw as well, my dog loves raw bloody chicken livers and they are very good for her too. Adding a probiotic to your dogs food is also ideal, you can easily do this by adding a spoonful or two of yogurt or probiotic powder supplement to your dogs food after cooking it. Peas and rice are both filler and do not benefit the dog much other than bulking up their food to make them feel full faster, the protein in peas should not be necessary if you are using enough animal products. You can also cook poultry bones in a slow cooker with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and enough water to cover until they become soft enough to snap and grind in a food processor for an excellent source of protein and minerals, but this can also be tedious.
Thank you for the recipe and all those that have chimed in with alternatives and ideas. I appreciate the sharing! I look forward to making homemade food for my dog for her better health!
Thank you for the recipe. I have six little Yorkies and the cost of going to the vet was starting to be too much. I come from a place where human food was shared with our dogs (our diet has white rice, boiled veggies, boiled meat, no oil other than the fat from the meat cooked and onions are not used though tomatoes, ginger, and garlic are used heavily). The dogs rarely have stomach issues or illnesses. Now with one of our dog having shunts which caused bladder infection and blood in her urine, needing high risk surgery, I decided to go with my gut and follow my peoples way. It is 3 months and the bladder infection is gone, no blood in the urine, their wastes no longer smells, no more upset tummys and diarrhea, more energy, reduced bad breath, the cost of food has been reduced hugely even with buying organic and all natural food and no vet visit as yet. My husband is happy that expenses have been reduced It is definitely worth giving them home cooked meals!
Love your comment on this post. I have a 15 year old shih tzu and I was wondering how big of a portion do you give your little yorkies? I would love your input on that because I’m considering to do the same thing as you.
I love this post! Thanks for sharing. I recently started doing home cooked meals for my dog too. I found he wasn’t digesting the veggies very well. I put the rice and the veggies in my blender to make a soupy mixture and mix that with the meat, the texture of his poop became more solid after doing that and it seems he’s digesting it really well. I also alternate between raw and cooked meat and give raw meaty bones. For those who don’t know, dogs can digest raw meat easily but vegetables need to be cooked and often pulverized to increase digestibility. If you see pieces of undigested carrot in your dogs poop for example, best to put your veggies through a blender.
Just in response to a few posts on here: For those who think that dogs are carnivores, they can be if you make them but that’s not what they are genetically. Dogs domesticated themselves by manipulating humans into giving them more easily digestible food and letting them sleep closer to the fire. The 10 key genes that separate dogs from wolves include genes for the digestion of starch, making them genetically omnivorous. Dogs are not wolves. They are more scavengers than hunters by their genetic code. I feel my dog needs the extra energy from the carbs I feed him. He’s a giant breed, I believe it’s a disservice to deny your dog of that extra feel good energy that’s encoded in his DNA, especially when they’re growing, which for giant breed can be 3 years. Would you feed your growing child an all protein diet?
Anyway, awesome post! Thank you!
I have 2 Yorkies 3Lbs & 5Lbs how much should I give them…I can’t wait for them to make this for them! looks great… Thank you
what breed is your dog and how much does he/she weigh. And do you feed him/her 1 cup per day?
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.
Im thinking of getting a rott puppy and I know they require a high protein diet would this recipe be good or do I need to add more meat or take out some grains? It says the recipe is easy to adjust for diets, but how?
Please consult with your pet’s veterinarian and use personal judgment when applying this information to your own dog’s diet.
Chungah, this is absolutely amazing! My dog loves it and I feel so much better making his own food. Thank you!
This recipe is great. I have been feeding my dog with only homemade food and hee is gonna turn 13 this year so i would love to share some recipes with you guys http://www.dogfoods.gr8.com His name is SNOWY 🙂
Thank you so much for writing an informed post about home-cooked diets for dogs! I am a veterinarian and get so frustrated by the “alternative facts” out there about dog nutrition (SO.MUCH. misinformation!). I love that you reference Balance IT, which is my favorite website for helping owners create balanced home-cooked diets for dogs and cats. I will be trying this one for my own pup<3
I have two coonhounds. How much should I put in each serving?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
dogs eat RAW MEAT, BONES AND ORGANS….and that’s it!!….they do NOT and should NOT eat vegetables or rice, or anything else that is in a human’s varied diet …..they are carnivores, and have made it thru millions of years being hunters and scavengers…..look at their teeth….should they be eating cereal nuggets or vegetables or rice????…..would you feed that human stuff to a lion?…NO!!… dentition dictates what they should eat…a lion has EXACTLY the same teeth as a dog…..dogs are NOT omnivores, and although they can survive on just about anything, that doesn;t mean that fruit veg and rice is the right food….and think about it….what about those dogs who can;t make their own rice, like the ones in |China can?….oh wait, THOSE dogs in China have no thumbs to be able to cook rice on a stove either….
Janice is 100% correct.
****THIS POST SHOULD COME WITH A DISCLAIMER****
It is very dangerous to offer this type of information without doing proper research. It’s vital for dogs to have a certain percentage of RAW bones (never cooked), kidneys, liver etc with every meal in order to make sure they’re receiving all the proper nutrients.
What you offer above IS NOT A COMPLETE DOG FOOD DIET.
The recipe is void of those things (as well as supplements) and will longterm cause health issues and malnutrition (especially because the food is all cooked).
Dog kibble is garbage but at least they are sure to include all the necessary supplements that dogs need in their diet.
Very true
While dogs certainly do not need rice, they are not entirely carnivores, they are omnivores. Dogs do naturally eat a diet of mostly meat, but they will eat the fruits off of shrubbery as well much similar to bears. Dogs also get a source of plant matter from their prey, unless you are feeding your dogs whole prey with bellies full of plant matter you may need to supply it in the form of cooked vegetables.
How long can this stay in the freezer for after it has been made?
Methods for optimal food storage and shelf life should be based on good judgment and what you are personally comfortable with.
This recipe is amazing! my puppy loved it! my kids got a whiff of the aroma as I was cooking it, they asked to eat some! It’s hillarious because now they ask me to make dog food for lunch! jajaja
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I made it for my puppy and she loved it! I used ground beef and white rice and made it in my slow cooker to save myself some work – just dumped everything in except the spinch and frozen peas which I added for a few minutes at the end. I noticed that this recipe had double the percentage of protein compared to other recipes I’ve seen. So I did a little research to better understand how much protein dogs need. From what I’ve read, dogs only require between 15% and 35% protein in their diets (depending on their age, activity level, etc.). I will definitely make this again, but in future I will either cut the meat in half or double all the other ingrediants. Not only will this be in keeping with a dogs nutritional requirements, but it will be less expensive to make and the recipe will stretch a little further in feeding my large breed dog.
Thank you for this recipe! I am getting the ingredients today to make for my dogs.
I’ve been looking for a healthy dog recipe.
I love the versatility of your recipes.
Hi there can you tell me what is the breed of your dog. I would like to know if these proportions are suitable as well for a shih tzu. Thanks!
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 labradors.
How much in cups do I give my labradors per feed based on your recipe?.
We feed our 1-yr old, 19-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 labradors.
This seems like a great recipe . Once the recipe is done cooking how many cups Of food do you get from 1 batch ?
About 8 cups.
I have 4 yorkies who are picky eaters. Every couple months they decide to boycott and stop eating their food. The most recent food they have been eating was Merrick canned classic recipie. My dog food bill was getting up in price so I decided to research making my own. I found your recipie and went straight to the grocery store. In no time at all I had enough meals for 5 days for all my 4 dogs. I feed them twice a day and each dog gets 3/4 cup for breakfast and dinner. They love the home cooked meals I make and its all done with love. The food is fresh and its much cheaper then the 6.00 I was spending per day on canned food. The only substitution I made was coconut oil instead of olive oil. Thank you so much everyone for the recipie, all the comments and suggestions. It’s clear we all love our fur babies.