Easy Crockpot Dog Food
DIY dog food can easily be made right in the slow cooker. It’s healthier and cheaper than store-bought, and it’s freezer-friendly!
If you didn’t know what your slow cooker is capable of, you’ll be very happy to know that you can now add dog food to the crockpot list.
Remember that DIY homemade dog food recipe I made recently? Well, this is pretty much the crockpot version, using a blend of different veggies that will hold up a little better in the slow cooker.
Now the best part about this, just like all slow cooker recipes, is that you can simply dump everything right in. That’s it! Simply set it before you go to work and then you can come home to 2 weeks worth of dog food by the time you get home.
It’s easy, it’s healthy, it’s nutritious, and you know exactly what’s going into your pup’s bowl. This recipe is also completely customizable to veggies that you have on hand – just be sure to double check what your pup can and can’t eat. You can simply do a “can my dog eat xyz” search on Google.
But as always, please consult with your pet’s veterinarian for possible allergies and when applying this information to your own dog’s diet.
Easy Crockpot Dog Food
Ingredients
- 2 ½ pounds ground beef
- 1 ½ cups brown rice
- 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ cups chopped butternut squash
- 1 ½ cups chopped carrots
- ½ cup peas, frozen or canned
Instructions
- Stir in ground beef, brown rice, kidney beans, butternut squash, carrots, peas and 4 cups water into a 6-qt slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low heat for 5-6 hours or high heat for 2-3 hours, stirring as needed.
- Let cool completely.
Did you make this recipe?
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style=”text-align: center;”>Please consult with your pet’s veterinarian and use personal judgment when applying this information to your own dog’s diet.
We do something similar except the dogs get raw meats in conjunction with a rice “slurry” we make that consists of:
~3lbs store purchased frozen “mixed vegetables”. We usually add a little frozen broccoli. These are sauteed with lots of olive and coconut oil, along with spices like garlic, basil, oregano, etc., (google safe spices in advance, we do different blends each time.)
~4 cups decent rice, cooked according to recipe (ends up with about 8 cups finished.)
1/2 dozen eggs, shells and everything right into the dish while everything is hot, blended vigorously. The eggs end up cooking. We have backyard chickens so there are always lots of surplus eggs around.
Any other safe “leftovers” we may have kicking around. We made a slurry today and had leftover butternut squash so it went in with everything else.
Everything gets blended together with some soy lecithin. The soy lecithin provides choline, which is necessary for our (and the dog’s) brains.
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For raw meats, the dogs get either chicken thighs (with the bones), pork chops (with or without bones,) and when they’re lucky raw beef scraps we have laying around. For the two german shepherds, they get approximately 1lb for both breakfast and dinner, about 2/3rd meat to 1/3 rice slurry mix. Sometimes we go heavy on the slurry depending on how much meat we have on hand. The golden retriever gets 10-12 ounces twice per day.
THEY LOVE IT.
Your recipe is pretty cool too, I just noticed you don’t use raw meats. Kudos to those who feed their dogs a good diet! Our vet okay’d the diet, he referred us to an online tool to determine if the diet fulfilled everything the dog needed. The only thing we were missing was the choline. I wish I could find the link… Of course, I can’t at the moment.
Dog nutrition calculator–you can create custom recipes on this site or have your current diet analyzed for deficiencies: https://secure.balanceit.com/
Forgot to add, we also put some chia seeds into the mix.
Thanks for all the information! Since soy is an allergen for pets and not good for people either, I try to avoid it in what I feed them and myself. Egg yolks and split peas have lecithin and that seems safer than soy. There is also sunflower lecithin.
Garlic is not good for dogs. Lease research it.
How many times a week do you make dog food for your dog?
Once a week!
Do you have a recipe for home made cat food…. our furball is having problems…..
Unfortunately, I do not. Sorry!
I have a 19 lb. adult female corgi, so I assume about the same size as Butters? What amount do you feed daily?
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 pup.
What would be the best thing to replace the butternut squash with?
Sweet potato would be a great substitute.
I love this recipe, I did tweek it a bit but coating the pot with coconut oil and using chicken broth in place of water and adding Turmeric and pepper.
How do I dose it right for each dog size and breed? I have a beagle (senior), a lab (senior), and a small English bulldog (3 y/o).
Please consult with your pet’s veterinarian and use personal judgment when applying this information to your own dog’s diet.
This sounds so delicious
My Scottie is sick and my vet suggested doing anything I can to make her eat, so I found your recipe! However, I’m a crock pot newbie. My dog lkes sweet potatoes, do you think changing the squash to sweet potato would work well in the crock pot?
Yes, absolutely.
How much do you feed your dog & How many times a day? I have a miniature pinscher & a German short-haired pointer mixed with a Rottweiler. I’d like to switch them over to homemade food, but was curious about portion sizes.
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.
Hello! I’ve been making the DIY Dog Food Recipe for my dogs for several months now. I got the idea of cooking their food when our beagle got really sick, almost paralyzed and none of the vets could tell us what was wrong. I found your recipe and tried it out – he’s been back to his old happy self since then and the his brother and sister have lost a couple pounds themselves so thank you! Anyway, I got a slow cooker for Christmas and found this recipe once again so yay! My experience with slow cookers is very limited to none, lol. Can I still use the same ingredients ’cause they’re what I have on hand right now? Maybe, cutting the time in half or something? Please let me know, thank you!
Awwww, I’m so happy to hear that. 🙂
You can try this crockpot version instead!
https://damndelicious.net/2015/05/13/easy-crockpot-dog-food/
Do you think a recipe like this would be good for cats? I worry about the nutrition in store bought cat food! I think this is a wonderful idea!
This recipe is suited for dogs, not cats. But as always, please consult your vet and/or use your best judgment.
Have recently made this for my boxer. I’m feeding him 2 cups a day as it’s the same calories as what his dry food was. I found a supplement that I’m putting in the food once a day to ensure he’s getting the necessary nutrition. He loves it, except for the kidney beans. He leaves those behind, so I’m thinking that in the next batch, I’m going to try a different bean like black beans or garbanzo beans. Only problem is that the food lasts approximately one week. Going to double it up next time so that I can get 2 weeks out of it. Thanks for posting this recipe!!!
Can this be fed to cats also?
This recipe is suited for dogs, not cats. But as always, please consult your vet and/or use your best judgment.
What supplements do you use with this recipe?
We use Balance IT® Canine as recommended by our veterinarian.
Dogs cannot have KIDNEY BEANS! along with garlic, raisins, grapes, onion, chocolate and avacado
Cindy, yes dogs can have cooked kidney beans. I just did a search and read up on it . They can’t have RAW red kidney beans.
can they have red kidney beans if they are cooked?
Yes! Kidney beans contain antioxidants that help maintain healthy cholesterol levels and ward off disease. Raw kidney beans, however, contain a toxin that is dangerous to pets, so please make sure to cook the beans first. But as always, please consult with your pet’s veterinarian for possible allergies and when applying this information to your own dog’s diet.
Hello! Is there a specific order that each of the ingredients should be placed in the crockpot? For example, does the meat go in first, etc? Thanks in advance!
You can add the ingredients in the order as listed in the recipe. 🙂
I am 73 and have a Chi. She loves to eat my food so I plan to make this crockpot recipe for both of us. It will be nice to have “someone” to eat with and I need the nutrition as well! Sugar will eat just about anything I give her so I do have to be careful there isn’t foods she shouldn’t have, like mushrooms and onions.
Need a recipe or advise, my dog has cancer and i start cooking for her, she received radiation treatment at Perdue University and will star chemotherapy soon . I try to feed her the best so i used high protein meats and a variety of veggies and fruits, plus probiotics. She refuses to eat her meals when I add a tablespoon of liver cod oil. And she doesn’t like to eat any fish so is a challlenge. Can you recommend me any recipe or ingredients?
Oh, and i steam her veggies…i dint boiled them so i can keep as much nutritional value possible. Thanks.
Please consult with your pet’s veterinarian and use personal judgment when applying this information to your own dog’s diet.
I feed my boxer apricot seeds to prevent her from getting cancer. I microplane one seed on her morning food and one in her afternoon food. Boxers are known for getting cancer and I feel this will prevent her from getting it. It’s almost an hour long but well worth the watch, it will explain how it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGsSEqsGLWM
Buy a multi vitamin to make sure they get everything when home cooking for your pets.