What You Should Know: Homemade Dog Food
You’ve heard all the benefits of moving to a fresh foods diet and you are considering making your dog’s food.
This is a great step for those who enjoy the process. The shopping, chopping, and a little bit of math. And a little bit of reading.
You Need Core Ingredients:
Protein - muscle meat, fleshy meat.
Organ Meat — Liver, Kidney, Gizzards, Heart, Tripe
Fat — Leave the skin on your chicken, Animal Fats are best — think grass-fed butter, ghee, tallow.
Calcium (in ratio with Phosphorus)
Omega 3? Omega 6? 7, 9? Yes, You need them.
Are you getting enough of the essential vitamins? Minerals? Amino Acids, EFAs? Taurine? (Do you know what those are —and how much is needed — you’re probably going to need to supplement)
Vegetables
Supplements
Friends, you cannot just start dropping food items in the crockpot and create a balanced meal for your dog. There is a lot of consideration in the science, research & detail of creating a healthy, healing diet designed for longevity. People research and study this every day. I for one learn new things all the time relative to using food to heal and thrive for many years to come.
But by the same token, dogs have been eating and people have been feeding dogs for thousands of years. Once you get some basic principles in place — the rest is easy.
It doesn’t have to be hard & you can have someone coaching you along the way. Me!
What You Need to Know About Making Homemade Dog Food
Use Organic Ingredients Where Possible
Don’t get in a rut and feed the exact same recipe, exact same amount over and over. Variety is good and helps you prevent excesses and deficiencies in key nutrients. Rotate Proteins, Veggies, Probiotics, Fats, Organ Sources, etc.
If you are shopping at the butcher for their “dog grind” — find out the details of what proteins are blended, how much fat, how much calcium, what is the organ meat by ratio. Most will try to meet the 80/10/10 (Protein, Bone, Organ), Know that blending proteins isn’t always ideal for some dogs. For some folks, this is all they feed. Die Hard RAW feeders will not include any veg or fruit. Some of you may opt to add some fresh vegetables to the bowl from time to time.
Balancing the “bowl” is really hard to do at home. Most people don’t achieve a balanced “bowl”, but will get closer to a balanced diet each week if they are creating a variety & keeping the primary principles in mind.
RAW or gently cooked proteins are best. Gently cooked can include a slow-cooker. Grilled, Broiled, Roasted meats at high temps should be avoided. Some dogs will simply do better on cooked food.
Vegetables and a small amount of carbs can be beneficial and help you stretch the budget. But too much carb (more than 15-20%) leaves in you a situation not much better than kibble.
Veggies need to be cooked & chopped
Supplements are almost always essential in a homemade diet unless you’re calculating the exact % of macronutrients. (See Below for my suggestions)
Nutrition for Puppies & Pregnant mamas is critical to get right. Don’t do this on your own unless you are very experienced.
Custom diets for dogs with wellness concerns are available.
When getting a recipe from Google, Facebook or a friend — consider it carefully. Where’s the beef? No seriously — where’s the Fat, Omega 3, Organ Meat? How Much carbs? Is it balanced?
I have created a Home prepared Food Guide — Designed to give the basic info and what you need to keep in mind to create a balanced recipe. it’s NOT A recipe, but the guidelines and ratios you need to remember when you’re building a recipe and the types of ingredients you need to keep in mind (Protein choices & why they vary, Fat, Calcium / Phos Ratios, Carbs, Omega, Veg, Fruit, Supplements (Vitamins Minerals, Enzymes, Probiotics), etc) Calories & How much to feed.
You can schedule an appointment with me to discuss customizing a diet for your dog.
Dig Deeper & Get Some Books so that you can start understanding the basic rules & reasons (this is important!) Here Are A Few Good Options
The Holistic Guide to a Healthy Dog, Wendy Volhard & Dr. Kerry Brown https://amzn.to/3xRTu28
Yin & Yang Nutrition for Dogs — Dr. Judy Morgan https://amzn.to/3DkR8Nt
Feeding Dogs, Dr. Connor Brady — Order copy here: https://amzn.to/3skUMBR
The Forever Dog, Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker: https://amzn.to/3AJz4dC (Releases in October)
Canine Nutrigenomics, Dr. Jean Dodds: https://amzn.to/3ANxBTO
Get Instant Access To A Sample Recipe— Click Here
Fasting, Raw Meaty Bones, and all many suggestions you’ll find in this blog will still apply to your home-fed dog.
Supplement Your Homemade Dog Food
I recommend 5 supplements for every kibble feeder regardless of brand
Vitamin Mineral Supplement — supplement the synthetic vitamins and minerals found in most kibble
Endurance from Volhard
Digestive Enzymes — a must for any dog — especially seniors, allergy dogs, unwell dogs, etc — helps your dog digest foods better & use the nutrients better.
Digestive Enzymes from Volhard
Probiotic — a must for every dog — help keep the gut healthy. The gut is essential to overall health, reduction of allergic responses, even brain health & behavior!
Fidos Flora or Gut Soothe are goods one from Volhard
Include rotations of Kefir, Raw Goats Milk, and Fermented Veggies in your bowl.
Omega 3 — so essential for every dog for overall health, heart, brain, joints, skin, etc. The more chicken you feed, the more Omega 3 you need.
Krill Oil from Volhard
Joint Health — for the dog breeds with a predisposition to joint issues, start them on it early! Senior Dogs.
Jump for Joynts or Myristin — Volhard
Golden Paste / Turmeric
Go Shopping for Supplements: