Creating The Ultimate Recipe
With these values in mind, I set out to create an ultimate homemade dog food formula. I call this a formula because is more a guideline than an exact recipe. Its meant to give you freedom to work with the ingredients you have, and that your particular dog can eat.
Its also meant to be flexible so you dont have to cook the same combination of carrots and peas every week. For picky eaters, this is a big deal! This is also huge for making sure your dog gets the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals over time. Feeding the same recipe week over week is likely to leave your dog deficient in some essential nutrients, as almost all recipes are lacking something. This is less likely if you use a wide variety of whole ingredients. The goal is balance over time.
But being a formula also means there is bound to be some margin for error. The calorie and nutrient content of the food you make will vary depending on what ingredients you pick, so its important to calculate and track both week by week. I generally use this formula and what I happen to have in my fridge or pantry as a starting point, and then adjust each week based on what vitamins and minerals my dogs should be getting and the protein, fat, and carb contents of the ingredients I chose.
Now, without further ado, the formula
Homemade Dog Food Topper Recipe
Maybe youre not ready to jump in with both feet on feeding homemade food just yet. You can still give your dog the enrichment of eating fresh food while providing most of his nutrition from commercial dog food. Just make sure that you keep the quantity small, not exceeding about 25% of the total food allotment.
Heres an easy recipe for a dog food topper you can add to your dogs food to make it more nutritious .
You can make it up in a batch and freeze part of it and refrigerate the other part. It should keep fresh in the refrigerator for at least a few days.
Use Up Extra Freezer Meat Or Leftovers
The last tip I have is to use up meat that has been in the freezer a while and is not something you want for dinner but still safe for your dog. I often buy too much quantity when recipe testing ingredients, and use up extra steak meat or pork I have on hand for homemade dog food. Nothing goes to waste around here, but I don’t feed her bones, fatty meats, etc.
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You Have To Follow The Recipes Exactly
Once you have a nutritionally balanced recipe for your dog, you need to follow it preciselyfrom the ingredient types to measuring the ingredients to the cooking methods used.
Cooking methods matter because steaming versus roasting versus boiling can change the nutrient composition of a food, which contributes to a balanced diet.
Adding or substituting ingredients, like adding chicken on top, or substituting chicken for beef in a given recipe, unbalances the diet and poses a risk for providing too much or not enough of one or multiple nutrients.
Generating several balanced recipes, using a reliable professional source, will allow you to offer a wider variety of ingredients while still making sure that you meet your dogs specific nutritional needs.
What Happens If My Dog Doesnt Get Enough Protein
Pets that do not have enough protein can lose weight. Their muscles can atrophy. They have poor digestion and they can accumulate fluid in their lungs or stomach. Protein deficiency due to diet is rare and does not occur when we feed our dog or cat dry commercial food specifically for them.
Animals fed without animal protein or those fed with home-cooked food that is not carefully selected for the specific nutrient needs of the animal, have a higher risk of protein deficiency.
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You Must Provide A Nutritionally Balanced Diet
Dogs nutritional needs are different from our own, so its important to provide a diet that is balanced with the appropriate nutrients needed to optimize your dogs health.
These nutrients include calories to maintain weight or encourage weight gain or loss protein fat vitamins and minerals. Not enough or too many of any given nutrient can lead to diseases, malnutrition, obesity, and even death.
Why Homemade Dog Food
At the end of 2019, during our yearly vet check, we received the devastating news that our then 11-year-old dog’s blood work showed that he was in stage 4 kidney failure!
He had shown no symptoms other than just seeming to slow down due to being older and seemed to be thirstier more often. However, it is important to note here that Hooch has always been a water guzzler – so this was not an alarming uptake in water consumption. The behavior just seemed pretty normal for him honestly.
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More Vet Approved Homemade Dog Food Recipes
Just Food for Dogs is a California-based company that sells prepared fresh dog food made from human-grade ingredients. They employ veterinarians and animal nutritionists on their staff and have been offering high-quality products since 2010. JFFD products are a great option if you want to feed fresh, human food to your dog without having to cook it yourself.
In addition to prepared dog food, they offer DIY Kits with a recipe and powdered supplement to make your own dog food at home. The site has several recipes made from common ingredients like chicken breasts or thighs, fish, turkey, and ground beef that are nutritionally complete and balanced after adding the prescribed amount of powdered supplement that comes in the DIY Kit.
The company states that its recipes have been through third-party feeding trials and are complete and balanced. They also have options for feeding puppies!
Just Food for Dogs uses ingredients that may add to a dogs healthy nutrition. For example, the chicken and rice recipe includes not only chicken thighs, but also organ meat like chicken livers, chicken gizzards, and spinach.
Ive made several different recipes that they provide for free on their website. Ive found them to be simple and my dogs love the meals!
Heres one of the recipes from the site for beef and potato homemade dog food. My dogs love this one!
- 1 Tablespoon JustFoodForDogs Omega Plus Fish Oil
- 3 Tablespoons JustFoodForDogs Beef and Russet Potato DIY Nutrient Blend
Preparation
Fresh Diy Dog Food Tips
Dog owners do get really concerned about feeding their dogs human food and scraps. I just had a really long chat with Sassy’s vet at her annual health check-up. Each dog is totally unique. Some have food sensitivities, easily get upset tummies and some have digestive issues, so regular commercial food is best for those dogs.
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A Practical Cooking Philosophy
When I first started cooking for my dogs, I clung to recipes like a lifeboat. Id follow them exactly, paranoid that if I didnt I would unknowingly slip in something toxic or that my poor pups would suffer some crippling deficiency down the line. Cooking this way wasnt very sustainable though. Was a whole recipe ruined if I happened to run out of parsley? Could I substitute kale? I had no idea.
And not every recipe, I discovered, is guaranteed to feed your dog right. A 2013 study conducted at UC Davis found that out of 200 recipes, including many written by veterinarians, only 5 included all essential nutrients in concentrations that met the recommended daily values for adults dogs. I could feel this too as I searched for recipes Id occasionally find one that seemed good, while others focused on powering your pup by superfoods or mimicking the look of a human breakfast spread. Sometimes Id try to judge a recipe only to realize I barely knew what good meant. And I didnt feel comfortable improvising at all, because I didnt understand what I was cooking or why!
Thats when I had a realization:If I could feed myself, I could figure out how to feed my dogs. I decided that the only way to break free of recipes without becoming paralyzed by nutritional charts was to feed my dogs by two philosophies I follow in my own quest for healthy eating:
1. Balance is key, and possible over time.
2. You have some wiggle room.
When People Find Out We Make Our Dog’s Food At Home They Always Ask Us What About A Raw Diet So Let’s Get That Out Of The Way First
There are LOTS of thoughts and theories on feeding your dog a raw diet, especially a dog that is living with kidney disease. Our vet, however, was personally opposed to feeding a raw diet due to the fact that dogs, just like us, are very susceptible to food poisoning. Besides that, a raw diet can be tricky to get just right!
You run the risk of giving your dog a horrible belly ache by mixing a raw diet with cooked treats, so if you decided to go raw it is important to have both raw meals and raw treats planned for your pup at all times. NO MIXING the two! Since raw and cooked foods digest at different rates any combination of the two can wreak serious havoc on your pup’s gut which can lead to some pretty unpleasant situations for you – if you get my drift.
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What Ingredients Do I Need For A Homemade Dog Food
If you are considering starting your dog on a homemade diet, it is important to understand what makes a diet species-appropriate and nutritionally-balanced. The National Research Council has developed nutrient requirements for dogs and cats. These guidelines can help provide a general guideline for dog owners to understand the dietary needs of their dog.
The number one mistake of people who feed homemade dog food diets is not adding in supplemental micronutrients to balance out the diet or only feeding chicken and rice and vegetables without making a specific recipe.
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Veterinary Nutritionist Dog Food Recipes
Check out these dog food diet types for inspiration: Ancestral, Hypoallergenic, Natural Holistic & Organic, Weight Control, Vegetarian Diet for Dogs. Formulas Used. Resting Energy Requirements = = # of resting calories per day.. Daily Energy Requirements = RER x Multiplier = # of calories per day adjusted for activity level.
4.5l of liquid Instructions: Boil the meat in the broth, then add the water for 20-30 minutes. Mix all the other ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat until all the water evaporates. Combine the meat and vegetables and add the rice and rye. Mix well and serve.
Your dog will love these easy vet approved homemade dog food recipes. You can feed these recipes-raw or cook the entire meal for your pets.
Make Nutritionally Balanced Homemade Dog Food Vet Approved Recipes Make Nutritionally BalancedHomemade Dog Food Vet Approved Recipes FREE Homemade Dog Food Recipes e-Book Try all 24 simple & healthy vet-approved recipes and find your favorite ones Download the e-Book FREE Homemade Dog FoodRecipes e-Book Try all
The best dog food recipes are those made by dog nutrition experts. Always consider the sources if your dog needs a special diet . In this case, the usual raw materials may change. Make the recipe properly. Sometimes its okay to experiment in the kitchen. However, this is not the case with your dog food.
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Low Protein Homemade Dog Food
Dogs with kidney problems or renal disease need a low protein diet. But its so tricky because theres a thin line between too much protein and not having enough protein.
Thats why vets often recommend commercially made low-protein dog foods. However, youll control your dogs protein intake more if you cook homemade food by yourself.
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Healthy Homemade Dog Food
Our Tasty Low Carb family not only consists of Joanie and Chris, but also two Havanese Sisters Lulu and Kiki! If you have pets you know how they become part of the family and an integral part of your life. Our dogs are dependent upon us for virtually everything in return they offer unconditional love and lots of fun. For that reason, we only make them Healthy Homemade Dog Food! We use only the best ingredients with no fillers or added sugars or spices. We also make all of their dog treats at home. Their food is very low carb!
Our furry family members are Chocolate Havanese. Often called silk dogs, most in this breed are white with brown or black markings. Some are brindle in color. Lulu and Kiki are each about 9 1/2 pounds in weight, although they look heavier with all their fur. They do require frequent brushing, but they are hypoallergenic and they do not shed. As you can tell, they are very much a part of our low-carb family you do get attached to your pets!
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You Should Use Safe High
Many foods, like chocolate, grapes, raisins, and macadamia nuts, just to name a few, are unsafe or toxic for your dog. When preparing meals, you should be aware of and avoid these ingredients.
Additionally, you should buy the same quality ingredients that you would buy for yourself. You should also be aware of the source. For example, ingredients purchased online may come from different manufacturers or locations, which may vary the quality of the product. Be consistent with where you get the ingredients for your dogs food as much as possible.
Start Right With A Nutritionally Complete Recipe
We always advise starting off homemade dog food from a nutritionally complete recipe as its essential your pets diet contains everything necessary, just like its important to balance our own diet! You can ensure your recipes for homemade dog food are complete by following only those developed by veterinary nutritionists, as they are vet-approved.
Start with a balanced and complete recipe to make sure your pup is getting all their essential nutrients
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Where To Buy Ingredients For Your Greyhound’s Homemade Dog Food Diet
Depending on where you live, you might find a local butcher, slaughterhouse, grocer, or farmer that can provide you with quality ingredients for your homemade dog food. Another option might be ordering from a trusted online supplier. From our personal experience, and with the help of some friends abroad, weve created a list of quality online raw food shops from around the globe:
Homemade Dog Food: Overview
1. Feed your dog a wide variety of foods from different food groups.
2. Make sure you supplement your dogs homemade diet with calcium unless you feed raw meaty bones.
3. Stick to lean meats and remove skin from the poultry you feed unless your dog is highly active.
4. Keep in mind that the less variety of foods you feed, the more important supplements become.
5. Review your homemade dog food diet plan with a veterinarian for approval.
In the past few issues of Whole Dog Journal, I have offered critiques on homemade dog food diets in order to address the dogs health concerns or simply to optimize the dogs diet plan. To do this, I analyzed the cooked and raw homemade dog food diets and compared them to the National Research Councils guidelines for canine nutrition. I want to be clear, though: I dont believe this is a requirement for feeding home-cooked dog food. Just as with the diet you feed yourself and your family, feeding a wide variety of healthy foods in appropriate proportions should meet the needs of most healthy dogs. The best diet for dogs, in effect, is a diverse diet.
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Best Dog Food Recipes
Homemade dog food should be nutritionally complete and balanced just like the high-quality dog food you buy from a store.
Its not that easy to create a dog food recipe that meets AAFCO standards and its even harder to make it perfectly day after day, week after week. But it is possible! If you are interested in making nutritionally complete homemade dog food, check out my resources below.
This Is A Balanced Dog Food Recipe That My Veterinarian Showed Me On Youtube A Few Years Ago I Want My Dogs To Live A Long & Healthy Life So I Make Their Food Myself I Like Knowing Exactly What Is In Their Food It Can Get Pricey But Hospital Bills Are Even Pricier Healthy Food = Good Health
This recipe is completely balanced and my dogs LOVE it. They have super shiny coats, healthy teeth, and good breath!
You can make a large batch of this once or twice a month and keep it in the freezer until you need it. I make about 11 pounds of food and it will last almost a month for my two small adult dogs . In addition to this food, we add a little kibble to their bowls. You dont have to do this, but it was what our vet recommended for Remy & Leeloo.
Check with your veterinarian for how much food your dog needs per serving. My two dogs are about 10 lbs each.
This recipe has 40 calories per ounce. To see the original recipe posted on Youtube by Rodney Habib, click here. This video can provide more information on the nutrients in this recipe.
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