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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Have not tried this yet but I have a golden retriever that has cancer and another with itchy paws so I am going to try this. Has anyone tried adding mushrooms? I understand there are a lot of benefits to their immune system. I think turkey tail mushrooms were recommended
My last dog with bladder cancer was actively bleeding and before it completely took over I put her on turkey tail supplement and when I tell you it COMPLETELY stopped the bleeding and held off the growth for a little bit every vet was shocked. Not a vet but please give this a try!! I got a powder blend on Amazon and went down no problem mixed with food and good supplement in general!
You mention “Balance It”. Do you have to add a powdered vitamin mineral supplement? Especially when using many veg etc.?
I use either turkey, chicken, beef, fish (sometimes egg) with spinach, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots (usually a bag of frozen veg + fresh veg, & rice. Boiling veg until soft (just had teeth removal) in a fry pan with virgin olive oil I add the meat, then the veg and mix with rice.
I can’t figure out what vitamins I actually need to add.
Thank you!
Click the balance it words, it’s a link to a nutrition calculator
My 7lb pup loves this. I change up the proteins and veg mix weekly so he has variety. I feed 1/2 cup 2x daily. Healthy happy pup.
My dog loves this!!!
Good recipe. I’ve been forced to cook for my very picky eater. I know some commenters have mentioned caution about balancing the trace minerals and vitamins and such. And I genuinely get their point….but….do we even pay that detailed attention to what we eat? Or what our kids eat? Do we even know??? Just saying. Good food made from real ingredients is good food. Do a bit of research but don’t get too freaked out about all of that too much.
I am looking forward in making this for my boy, how much of one serving do I give him. I don’t want to give him to much or to little.
Any thoughts on cooking a chicken breast in the air fryer and then dicing it? Does the air fryer pose a problem?
Will this receipe work for a dog with high cholesterol? He is not a pickey eater . If not, can you share a recipe please ?
Turkey has the lowest cholesterol next to flounder, olive oil is an excellent healthy fat and the rest of this recipe is whole grain and vegetable. Could not be better for high lipids/cholesterol.
Very similar to what I cook for our boys (I chop peeled sweet potatoes, swede, carrots and add brown rice, then maybe some extra veg – frozen , always spinach, then whatever we have that needs eating up) it then gets mixed with their raw chicken mince (which sometimes I cook in with the veg) and some fish oil
I think what you’re doing is wonderful! The high heat processed commercial dog food is causing cancer, etc… Just like the American processed diet. I have one constructive comment. Please do not “nuke”/microwave this food. You are changing the nuclear structure of the ingredients, and nullifying all your work and the dogs nutrition. Radiation. I’m going to do this with my granddaughter…. she’s interested in feeding her dog better. Thank you for providing this recipe!
I made this for my dog and he loves it, except he did not like the zucchini. He would pick it out or eat around it. Can you suggest a substitution?
Sweet potatoes are always my dogs favorite
Be careful as sweet potatoes can cause diarrhea.
Some people have posted about needing to add vitamins and fish oil to their diets to make the recipe a good one. But, if they are already just getting dry kibble, wouldn’t anything be an improvement?
(I’m genuinely asking.)
Even low quality dog food is usually fortified with vitamins and minerals; kinda like breakfast cereal. So while homemade food is definitely an improvement, it can sometimes lack important micronutrients.
They do sell all kinds of doggie supplements including a multivitamin. I just found one for my dog that was relatively inexpensive. Most people suggest going over the food recipe with your vet to see if there’s any breed specific gaps.
Hope this helps!
This is a good start for a recipe but please be aware that your dog needs a careful balance of vitamins and minerals as well – the balance.it website can help you figure out what else they will need. In particular, it can be challenging to meet the calcium/phosphorus balance. And never cook for a puppy, their needs are even greater and the repercussions to their growth and development are serious.
My dog is allergic to Turkey , peas and olive oil also sunflower oil .. what can I substitute the oil with. I was going to sub the Turkey with beef and peas with green beans. Also can I sub the rice with sweet potatoes, thank you
I have a 11 month old cockapoo he is a very picky eater. I have try some many dry & wet food but nothing makes him happy. I decided to cook for him now and I tried this first recipe and he loves ❤️ it.
A homemade dog food should also have an organ meat. I always put beef liver in mine. They also need to have a good fish oil and a daily vitamin supplement so they get all the minerals and vitamins needed. I use salmon oil and canine complete for a supplement. They can both be purchased from Chewy. If you are serious about feeding this to your dog, PLEASE check with your vet!!!!! If dogs don’t get the proper balance of nutrition they need, it will affect the heart and other organs!
My dog is the PICKIEST eater! I’ve never been able to keep her on the same food because she’d rather starve (literally to the point of vomiting) than eat something she doesn’t like.
I had her blood checked to make sure she was ok, everything came back normal. My dog is part poodle and the vet said poodles are known to be really picky eaters.
Made this recipe, also got the idea from Instagram to pretend I was adding salt and pepper like I would to my food. Ha ha. She was hesitant at first but then wanted seconds than thirds! I made a new batch today with chicken. Even caught the cat taking a nibble when my dog was done.
Thank you for sharing!! This one’s a keeper!
My dogs love this… It seems to be well balanced nutritionally… time will tell… so I’ll be getting back to you in a few more weeks. Thank you for doing the hard stuff… then sharing this recipe with us all!
I want to just incorporate this with kibble. Any idea the amount of kibble to take out and this to add in? I have a 110lb golden that eats 2cups dry kibble twice a day.
I would start with equal amounts.
It looks so delicious and healthy .. I am thinking to cook for me and my dog .. salt and sugar is not good for humans .. or may be sprinkle salt for taste
I use the same except raw meat ( both vegetables raw meat in to different container!)