Making dog food at home may sound like a smart idea, and can definitely save you money, but there are very important considerations which I’ll cover in this guide.
Don’t panic, as once you cover the points in this guide, you’ll be in a much better position to start feeding your dog a homemade diet (either raw or cooked). You will also find it much easier and less daunting, and there are health benefits for your dog.
Please note, while researching other homemade recipes for dogs (from searching Google) it was very clear to me many of these recipes aren’t balanced, and some aren’t overly appropriate for your dog. Over the short these recipes may seem like a win, and you may believe your dog is thriving, but over the long term nutrient deficiencies from these recipes can lead to all kinds of health problems which may prove hard (or expensive) to put right.
I urge you to consider the points I make below about homemade dog food or cooking your dog’s food at home.
I am a certified pet nutritionist with many years involvement with the pet food industry, and even so must add the caveat any homemade diet is not without risk.
Let’s begin!
Cats are obligate carnivores, yet we feed them high-carbohydrate grain or legume based cat food which makes very little sense when they have no scientific requirement for such foods in their diet.
Keep in mind the digestive system, strong stomach acid, dental structure, and natural instinct of your dog is almost identical to that of a cats (and most carnivorous animals for that matter).
We also have a nasty habit of feeding our dogs high-carbohydrate kibble made of grains and legumes, yet think little of it because the pet food industry teaches us our dogs are “omnivores” like us, when they’re actually very different from us.
This means, whether you feed a raw diet or a home cooked diet, your primary aim is to feed them a carnivore or whole-prey diet.
By carnivore diet, please note I don’t mean the fad “Steak and Salt” diet as adopted by Internet influencers and gym junkies the world over. This isn’t a sensible diet, for the simple reason most nutrients come from organs, as well as essential fibre from fur and feathers of prey.
Lastly, if you’ve heard dogs naturally consume grains and legumes from the gut content of prey, this is another rumour which is relatively false – most carnivores, including dogs and cats, actually avoid eating the gut content of prey.
To summarise: A raw or home cooked diet for your dog should be inclusive of whole prey ingredients, also bone content (not cooked), and not a rice, vegetable, and mince recipe like you find recommended all over the Internet. Those diets may save you money, but they’re definitely not balanced and appropriate.
Raw (meat, organs, bone) is the most natural way to feed a dog or cat, although not without risk, and not without problems if your pet has been fed a commercial pet food until this day.
If you wish to feed raw, I highly recommend the book Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones by Australian veterinarian Dr. Tom Lonsdale.
This is the best book I’ve read on the subject. It’s an easy read, and I strongly urge you to read it – we shouldn’t underestimate the power of a book.
Homemade raw for a dog can conform roughly to an 80/10/10 rule, which means 80% meat, 10% offal (of which around 5% should be liver), and 10% appropriate raw bones.
Fibre should also be included in a raw diet, and is often overlooked by raw feeders. Fibre is needed for digestive health, and becomes more essential as a dog (or cat) reaches senior years.
Dogs and cats in their natural environment consume fibre from fur and feathers, which most raw feeders fail to consider.
Personally, I feel a homemade raw diet can benefit in part from other suitable foods – eggs are a great example, but also some veggies, superfoods, and to some extent grains (if kept to a minimum).
I won’t go into too much depth on homemade raw on this guide as there’s a great deal of information on this subject all over the place, and as said – your best initial guide is Work Wonders.
Instead of luring you in with a set of homemade dog food recipes, I’ll give you the vital advice you need to ensure whatever food you make ticks the boxes for a healthy and balanced diet.
Firstly, I recommend a similar 80/10/10 ratio as you would a raw diet.
Bones should never be cooked unless they’re ground, so you will either need to feed raw meaty bones, or a suitable alternative – ground eggshell powder, bone meal powder, a calcium carbonate supplement, or off-the-shelf premix.
For any dog food or diet to be “balanced”, there needs to be a calcium to phosphorus ratio (Ca
) of around 1.2 – 1.4:1. Or in simple terms, this is what a prey animal would offer in terms of meat to bone ratio, which is why 80/10/10 formulas are recommended.
Important note: Your dog must have something in their diet to gnaw and chew. This is to prevent the terrible effects of dental disease, of which 80% of dogs begin to suffer for as young as 3 years old.
In a raw diet this is achieved with raw meaty bones, but if you’ve chosen to only feed homecooked foods your best alternative is dried meat chews or jerky, a regular brush, or perhaps an often gimmicky treat with kelp.
You should feed your dog a mix of organs as these are the most nutrient-rich parts of a prey animal.
Liver should be included in moderation (in an 80/10/10 diet this amounts to up to half of the organ content, or 5%). Consider liver an essential organ, and never overfeed liver.
Thankfully organ meats are often cheap (and often reduced at supermarkets), so are a great way to feed your dog both healthily and cheaply.
I can’t ignore most homemade dog food recipes you’ll find online are rice-based. It’s not surprising given rice offers a very cheap way to make dog food.
However, rice provides very little nutrition for your dog.
Rice may provide energy, and in moderation may help you keep costs down, but always keep in mind it’s not essential and not overly beneficial.
I admit my own dog has some carbohydrates in her diet, such as from rice, but I would guess around 10%, and I would recommend keeping rice or other starchy carbs to a maximum of 20% as purely a way to save cost.
Before we were given kibble as the perfect convenience solution (healthy or not), most people fed their dogs table scraps and off-cuts.
I do too.
Usually I keep this to appropriate meats, fish, or eggs (if I cook an egg I cook one for my dog as well).
The odd carrot, chunk of broccoli, potato, slice of apple etc, and I don’t worry about it given my dog has a diet mostly of carnivore foods. I don’t overthink this stuff.
I find most pet owners feeding homemade diets still to the same recipe week in week out. It’s not surprising given most people feeding commercial pet foods do the very same, with the same brand of kibble for every single monotonous meal.
In our diets we achieve balance through variety.
We all consume bad foods (even toxins from dodgy foods), but through variety this rarely affects us and we achieve a balance of nutrients from various foods.
When feeding dogs and cats, we blindly put trust in one brand of pet food, and time has often proven this to cause issues.
For example, do you wonder if most cats die of renal failure because they were fed the same high-carbohydrate grain-based moisture-less kibble their entire lives?
If you stick roughly to what your dog requires from a prey animal (meat, organs, bones), then you should be able to vary the homecooked dog food recipes you feed.
Armed with the information above, you should feel more confident in choosing (or formulating your own) homecooked dog food recipes – feel free to add yours in the comments below, and we can build a library!
When you find a recipe on the Internet or social media, ask yourself if it ticks the boxes of meat, organs, fibre, and calcium from bone content or similar.
If the recipe is rice, vegetables, and some meat, it’s not an appropriate or balanced homemade dog food recipe, is it?
Read more...
Don’t panic, as once you cover the points in this guide, you’ll be in a much better position to start feeding your dog a homemade diet (either raw or cooked). You will also find it much easier and less daunting, and there are health benefits for your dog.
Please note, while researching other homemade recipes for dogs (from searching Google) it was very clear to me many of these recipes aren’t balanced, and some aren’t overly appropriate for your dog. Over the short these recipes may seem like a win, and you may believe your dog is thriving, but over the long term nutrient deficiencies from these recipes can lead to all kinds of health problems which may prove hard (or expensive) to put right.
I urge you to consider the points I make below about homemade dog food or cooking your dog’s food at home.
I am a certified pet nutritionist with many years involvement with the pet food industry, and even so must add the caveat any homemade diet is not without risk.
Let’s begin!
What is a dog, and what should they eat?
Cats are obligate carnivores, yet we feed them high-carbohydrate grain or legume based cat food which makes very little sense when they have no scientific requirement for such foods in their diet.
Keep in mind the digestive system, strong stomach acid, dental structure, and natural instinct of your dog is almost identical to that of a cats (and most carnivorous animals for that matter).
We also have a nasty habit of feeding our dogs high-carbohydrate kibble made of grains and legumes, yet think little of it because the pet food industry teaches us our dogs are “omnivores” like us, when they’re actually very different from us.
This means, whether you feed a raw diet or a home cooked diet, your primary aim is to feed them a carnivore or whole-prey diet.
By carnivore diet, please note I don’t mean the fad “Steak and Salt” diet as adopted by Internet influencers and gym junkies the world over. This isn’t a sensible diet, for the simple reason most nutrients come from organs, as well as essential fibre from fur and feathers of prey.
Lastly, if you’ve heard dogs naturally consume grains and legumes from the gut content of prey, this is another rumour which is relatively false – most carnivores, including dogs and cats, actually avoid eating the gut content of prey.
To summarise: A raw or home cooked diet for your dog should be inclusive of whole prey ingredients, also bone content (not cooked), and not a rice, vegetable, and mince recipe like you find recommended all over the Internet. Those diets may save you money, but they’re definitely not balanced and appropriate.
Homemade raw dog food
Raw (meat, organs, bone) is the most natural way to feed a dog or cat, although not without risk, and not without problems if your pet has been fed a commercial pet food until this day.
If you wish to feed raw, I highly recommend the book Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones by Australian veterinarian Dr. Tom Lonsdale.
This is the best book I’ve read on the subject. It’s an easy read, and I strongly urge you to read it – we shouldn’t underestimate the power of a book.
Homemade raw for a dog can conform roughly to an 80/10/10 rule, which means 80% meat, 10% offal (of which around 5% should be liver), and 10% appropriate raw bones.
Fibre should also be included in a raw diet, and is often overlooked by raw feeders. Fibre is needed for digestive health, and becomes more essential as a dog (or cat) reaches senior years.
Dogs and cats in their natural environment consume fibre from fur and feathers, which most raw feeders fail to consider.
Personally, I feel a homemade raw diet can benefit in part from other suitable foods – eggs are a great example, but also some veggies, superfoods, and to some extent grains (if kept to a minimum).
I won’t go into too much depth on homemade raw on this guide as there’s a great deal of information on this subject all over the place, and as said – your best initial guide is Work Wonders.
Home cooked dog food
Instead of luring you in with a set of homemade dog food recipes, I’ll give you the vital advice you need to ensure whatever food you make ticks the boxes for a healthy and balanced diet.
Firstly, I recommend a similar 80/10/10 ratio as you would a raw diet.
Bone content (never cook bones!)
Bones should never be cooked unless they’re ground, so you will either need to feed raw meaty bones, or a suitable alternative – ground eggshell powder, bone meal powder, a calcium carbonate supplement, or off-the-shelf premix.
For any dog food or diet to be “balanced”, there needs to be a calcium to phosphorus ratio (Ca
) of around 1.2 – 1.4:1. Or in simple terms, this is what a prey animal would offer in terms of meat to bone ratio, which is why 80/10/10 formulas are recommended.Important note: Your dog must have something in their diet to gnaw and chew. This is to prevent the terrible effects of dental disease, of which 80% of dogs begin to suffer for as young as 3 years old.
In a raw diet this is achieved with raw meaty bones, but if you’ve chosen to only feed homecooked foods your best alternative is dried meat chews or jerky, a regular brush, or perhaps an often gimmicky treat with kelp.
Organ content
You should feed your dog a mix of organs as these are the most nutrient-rich parts of a prey animal.
Liver should be included in moderation (in an 80/10/10 diet this amounts to up to half of the organ content, or 5%). Consider liver an essential organ, and never overfeed liver.
Thankfully organ meats are often cheap (and often reduced at supermarkets), so are a great way to feed your dog both healthily and cheaply.
Rice, and other carbohydrates
I can’t ignore most homemade dog food recipes you’ll find online are rice-based. It’s not surprising given rice offers a very cheap way to make dog food.
However, rice provides very little nutrition for your dog.
Rice may provide energy, and in moderation may help you keep costs down, but always keep in mind it’s not essential and not overly beneficial.
I admit my own dog has some carbohydrates in her diet, such as from rice, but I would guess around 10%, and I would recommend keeping rice or other starchy carbs to a maximum of 20% as purely a way to save cost.
Tablescraps
Before we were given kibble as the perfect convenience solution (healthy or not), most people fed their dogs table scraps and off-cuts.
I do too.
Usually I keep this to appropriate meats, fish, or eggs (if I cook an egg I cook one for my dog as well).
The odd carrot, chunk of broccoli, potato, slice of apple etc, and I don’t worry about it given my dog has a diet mostly of carnivore foods. I don’t overthink this stuff.
The importance of a varied diet
I find most pet owners feeding homemade diets still to the same recipe week in week out. It’s not surprising given most people feeding commercial pet foods do the very same, with the same brand of kibble for every single monotonous meal.
In our diets we achieve balance through variety.
We all consume bad foods (even toxins from dodgy foods), but through variety this rarely affects us and we achieve a balance of nutrients from various foods.
When feeding dogs and cats, we blindly put trust in one brand of pet food, and time has often proven this to cause issues.
For example, do you wonder if most cats die of renal failure because they were fed the same high-carbohydrate grain-based moisture-less kibble their entire lives?
If you stick roughly to what your dog requires from a prey animal (meat, organs, bones), then you should be able to vary the homecooked dog food recipes you feed.
Choosing the right homecooked dog food recipes
Armed with the information above, you should feel more confident in choosing (or formulating your own) homecooked dog food recipes – feel free to add yours in the comments below, and we can build a library!
When you find a recipe on the Internet or social media, ask yourself if it ticks the boxes of meat, organs, fibre, and calcium from bone content or similar.
If the recipe is rice, vegetables, and some meat, it’s not an appropriate or balanced homemade dog food recipe, is it?
Read more...
