# Switching to Homemade Dog Food



## poodlecrazy#1

I would highly recommend Just Food For Dogs in you situation. I have battled my picky Tpoos for years! We finally just got into rotating our food. Never the same food twice type thing and of course tough love. If they don't eat what I give them they starve and eventually give in. Except Branna has been known to push that concept. She didn't eat much of anything for 4 days once! That's when we were trying to go to a PMR diet. Right now they on Now! By petcuran and they absolutely love it! Any ways back to the JFFD. They have recipes for you to follow so you get a balanced diet as well as a packet of powder with all the needed minerals and vitamins. That way you are for sure giving your dog a proper balanced diet. nothing is worse than an unbalanced homemade meal, which can cause all sorts of health issues.


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## MiniPoo

I have tried home cooking several different times when my dogs had health issues. It did not last long for me because I simply hate cooking, even for myself. My DH is the cook in the family. Also, besides the time it takes to do the cooking, you have to buy a lot of raw product and then store it in the refrigerator or freezer or both.

If homecooking for your dogs is something your really want to do, then there is a website that my vet told me about:

Homemade Dog Food Recipe - Allrecipes.com

They give you the recipes and you can buy the supplements from them to go with the recipes. You set up an account and give them the weight, age, and type of dog you have. Then they will recommend recipes.

There are also books you can get online about home cooking for dogs. You want to make sure you have enough calcium/phosphorous in the proper ratio.

https://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/calcium-balancing-your-dogs-diet/

If I were you, I would google homecooking for dogs and also search youtube. I found one youtube demonstration of a guy who cooked for his dog that had cancer and was given a very short time to live. The dog lived 3 times longer than he was expected to. So home cooking definitely made a difference.

Good luck on your journey here. It takes a lot of work, but if you like cooking, maybe it will be something you enjoy.


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## MollyMuiMa

When I first got my Girl I played with the idea of home cooking but dropped it after I saw how complicated it could be..............I then also discovered she was a 'grazer' not an dog who inhaled her food! I had thought she was a picky eater! I now have her on a combination of wet food, or raw chicken, in the morning and then put a measured amt of kibble in her bowl. She even got pudgy for awhile and I cut back on the amount of treats from my plate I was giving (& spoiling her with. ) I have yet to meet a dog that will starve itself on purpose if it is not ill.
If you want to give your dog an economical soft diet try 'Sojo's' or 'Honest Kitchen'.....I have given Molly both brands and mix it with 'By Nature 95% meat' canned food (she likes the smell of canned food I think) in '3 days per container' batches that I freeze and take out as I need them! Molly is 12.5 lbs and 11 inches tall and eats either 1/4 cup wet and 1/4 cup kibble or alternately, 1 chicken leg and 1/4 cup kibble and sometimes some of the kibble is still there the next am!!!


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## Mfmst

Misha, keep in mind Dallas is pretty new to the world, including food taste, kibble size and texture. I was pretty frantic with Buck. I changed up toppings because I was determined to stay on the breeder's kibble, since I had bought 60 lbs. of it. (!!!). I found a crumble of Stella & Chewy's freeze tried discs, Absolutely Rabbit, works the best. It took about a month before Buck really started gobbling his kibble. Early days with Dallas.


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## fjm

I found the advice on dogaware.com very helpful. I buy complete minced meat (80% muscle meat, 10% ground bone, 10% organs) and cook it gently with fresh or frozen vegetables, about nine parts meat to one part veg by volume. I cook about five pounds of meat at a time, a mix of beef, chicken and lamb, portion it into meal size trays and freeze. It takes me half an hour to do enough for at least a week.

The dogs also get tinned sardines about once a week, scrambled eggs, and regular raw chicken wings and green tripe chunks. They love their meals, maintain perfect weight, and are very fit and healthy.


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## SilverSpoo

I am planning to try homemade but I am paranoid about not having complete vitamins and minerals as well as not being able to accurately know the amount of calories my dogs are getting as I have one thin dog and one prone to obesity.

I found Hilary's Blend recipes which actually list complete a complete breakdown of nutrients and calorie content, when made with her supplement to balance it. I believe I am going to try this route first, for my own piece of mind.


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## fjm

While I understand the anxiety about providing a fully balanced diet, I do wonder why we don't have the same worries when it comes to feeding ourselves or our children. Somehow we have been beaten into believing that dog nutrition is so much more complicated than human nutrition that we must rely on pet food companies to make all the decisions for us. More and more this feels like relying on Kraft and Coca Cola to choose the best diet for our children...


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## Mahlon

fjm said:


> While I understand the anxiety about providing a fully balanced diet, I do wonder why we don't have the same worries when it comes to feeding ourselves or our children. Somehow we have been beaten into believing that dog nutrition is so much more complicated than human nutrition that we must rely on pet food companies to make all the decisions for us. More and more this feels like relying on Kraft and Coca Cola to choose the best diet for our children...


I think that's the biggest pitfall of any diet, lack of diversity. I ever feel that way in regards to "balanced" kibble and such. I also feel the same way about human food variety, even if balanced meals need to not be the same thing over and over. Goes back to the ole moderation and variety are the keys to life idea. So if you are going the made at home route, just make sure to keep lots of variety, and make sure you understand the difference between the canine gut, and our own. Its a lot more daunting thinking about trying to balance it perfectly. Its a lot more fluid to make small changes and start basic, learn what works and doesn't for you and your dog, and go from there. But that's my opinion  

I currently use a large breed puppy kibble as a base food, in the morning it has warm water added to it (About 1 1/3 cup kibble), mid day she gets 1 cup Kibble + 1/2 can of wet food (I make sure to switch up the protein and carb types often, if available I sometimes will give raw instead), and then in the evening another 1 1/3 cup kibble. Sometimes the evening kibble is finished off, sometimes barely touched but it is available for her. Throughout the day she gets Zukes treats, smoked bones, cow hoof, and sometimes peanut butter. I plan on introducing more made at home food along the way, and switching over moreso to home made past a year old. That said, I always plan on maintaining a kibble in the diet, as you never know when its going to be impossible or extremely difficult for you or someone else to maintain a special diet. Especially when it comes to having others watch and take care of your pets for you.

Dan & Quinn


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## misha

Thank you for the suggestion of "Just Food for Dogs", I'll add it to my list of options to consider as I know there are a few others. I've actually been reading numerous dog food books from the library and the book stores to come up with great recipes. The one I have right now is a vet-approved recipe that my dog loves! She's to the point she looks like she's about to do a flip in the air because of how excited she is by this food. I can barely walk in the kitchen now without cats and a dog all scrambling around my feet watching my every move.

I agree that dog nutrition is a lot easier than I previously thought it would be. I mean as long as you have a basic understanding for their requirements and know which foods will fulfill them, then it's pretty simple. I actually also find it kind of crazy how even I obsess and worry over it. I think as long as you stick with check ups and watch their weight and make sure to keep an eye on if they develop symptoms of vitamin deficiency's that you're doing something right. The difference between pets and children though is we are used to human nutritional needs as we are taught it from a young age - to eat balanced diets and where to get our calcium, but for a dog it's not exactly common knowledge, it's something you have to educate yourself in. Not to mention dogs can't eat everything humans can or digest things the same.

Thank you all for the information and links! I really appreciate it. I love research so this has actually been fun, aside from all the worrying. But I have cats on commercial food and I worry about their nutrition just the same. I think the difference is if it's commercial food that screws up you can blame them but if you screw up on their nutrition than it is all on you! Not to mention they've had practice at this whole dog nutrition thing what with their vets, scientists and formulas... of course dog food does get recalled, and doesn't work for every dog, and it's certainly far from perfect. I also find after only a week on homemade food her tear stains have been greatly reduced, so I can only imagine it was the food.


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## Mahlon

misha said:


> ... of course dog food does get recalled, and doesn't work for every dog, and it's certainly far from perfect. I also find after only a week on homemade food her tear stains have been greatly reduced, so I can only imagine it was the food.


One of the interesting things about recalls for dog food, often they are for risks to humans, and the animals are at no risk. In the US this is because there are laws requiring dog food in particular to meet human consumption guidelines, as during economic downturns people often turn to alternative food sources, thus why they recall pet food for Salmonella, when its rare for it to effect dogs.

Just an interesting tidbit, and that's great to hear about the tear stains, I've heard similar experiences from others after switching diet & or brand. 

-Dan & Quinn


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## Carolinek

I'm late coming to this thread, but want to offer my experiences.


I have been homecooking for a couple years now, but rotate with premade raw when life sets too busy to cook. Right now I am busy finishing up the semester and they are eating Bravo premade raw. However, Max developed pancreatitis last week, so I need to look at options. I will go back to cooking next week and hopefully get a stockpile in the freezer. A low fat diet for the pancreatitis will be easy to do with homecooking.

A few things I've discovered:

-Just Food for Dogs, already mentioned, is great and I think a good place to start because it's all planned out for you. I wish I had started with that as figuring out the supplements can be time consuming. They have packets that you mix in with the recipes and it doesn't wind up being that expensive.

-Dogaware, also already mentioned, is a good internet source and will help you start developing your own recipes. The supplements, particularly calcium, are important.

_Dr. Pitcairn's book on Wellness for Dogs has a lot of info also and is what I started with. The kindle version works well. 

-Feed Your Best Friend Better by Rick Woodford has some good recipes and a pretty easy to make "supplement stew" that you can freeze and add to each recipe. Get the paper version though- I got the kindle version and it's a PIA because there is no Table of Contents!

- My Max was itching a lot and that stopped after a few months on homecooked. The tear stains also cleared up on all dogs. 

- Costwise, if you look for sales and use less expensive ingredients, I think it is not any more expensive than good kibble, and may be even cheaper.

I like to cook (when I'm not crazy busy!) so i don't mind the cooking piece. I often combine our meals with making the dog food. I will also use parts of vegetables that I might not use in my food (like carrot peelings,sweet potato skins, broccoli stalks) in the dog's food. They don't care and the nutrients are still there. That saves money too. I usually make big batches and freeze them.

I highly recommend it, and using a premixed supplement like Just Food for Dogs is an easy way to start!


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## misha

I swear with making homemade food you almost need to have a separate freezer just for dog food. I have 2 fridges in my house and a mini fridge, meaning I got 2 freezers and a mini fridge freezer which fills with so much ice that I can't use it. Still somehow our freezers are packed with food to the point where something always falls right on my toes when I open the door, so I am probably only able to keep a weeks worth of food. 

I'll have to check out those books for sure! I don't have a kindle, was actually looking into getting one, I just tend to love feeling the book in my hand and using little page tab stickers to mark important stuff. 

I'm glad to hear Max is doing better on the dog food. My dog is itching and at first I thought fleas but if I nearly die from the cold outside (or at least feel like I'm going to die) I highly doubt fleas are jumping around out there. I can see no evidence of fleas though, and I've had to experience that with my cats in a way far worse than normal - they were actually INSIDE my cat, and that makes me nauseous just thinking about it! Of course we've been flea free for over 5 years now!

I've actually added up the costs, it's a maximum of $40 for my dogs homemade food every month. It's $5 for 1lb of meat and one pound lasts about a week. So that's $20 a month in meat, but I like to over estimate so I can set aside more money for whichever vitamin/supplement I decide to use for her and the veggies/oats - although if frozen they last a good amount of time which avoids waste.

Her commercial wet food would was around $10 for 4 days. That's about $75 a month... plus the dental dog bones for about $15-20 a month... which is why I've been thinking of switching to a finger tooth brush... she hates dental dog bones. I just pulled up her lip to see if she'd let me and she didn't even care. She's the kind of dog you can brush for hours on end and honestly does not care, although she's not fond of baths... I had to bathe her recently after a day in the mud and the only way to keep her from jumping up in the tub was to get in with her, haha. 

Personally I don't really like any vegetables so I like that I get to use them up on my dog and cats. "Oops can't eat this, only have enough left to make the dogs food". 

I wonder if any local pet shops/chain pet stores will have any vitamin products I can use that will work well with a homemade diet, as I'm not a big fan of ordering pet stuff online... because I love making excuses to take my dog out to the pet store. And it makes me happy to spend money on her, I mean as long as it makes sense. $80 a month in food doesn't make sense... There's no way a 12lb dog should eat $80 worth of food a month when I'm 120lbs and eat $200 worth of food a month. I'm glad my dogs not 120lbs haha!


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## fjm

I am wary of supplements - as far as possible I just make sure that the "real" food in their meals includes everything they need. So oily fish once or twice a week rather than adding salmon oil, ground bone and chicken wings for calcium, kale for vitamin C and K, a judicious amount of liver, heart for taurine, etc, etc. I don't really use a recipe, so each batch of cooked food is slightly different, adding to the variety. My vet was a little sceptical at first, but seems to have come around to thinking that perhaps I am capable of getting it right after all, given how very fit and healthy the animals are!


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## Carolinek

Interesting your cost analysis, I've never actually figured it out, but had the suspicion it was probably cheaper. Of course, I pretty much never calculate what I spend on the dogs- most of the time I don't really want to know:act-up: but now...thanks, I can justify a few more fancy collars! 

FJM- I agree you can do this without prescriptive recipes, but I don't feed bones so the calcium supplementation is necessary. I've thought of trying bones but with Max's recent pancreatitis, that's off the table now. 

Basically it boils down ( no pun intended) to feeding about half protein, 10% organ meats, and the rest from complex carbs and veggies. The recipes give you a backbone to start with, but I switch things around depending on what's available in the market. Really not too difficult but the calcium is a big thing if you're not feeding bones. 

Here's a link to a Dogaware piece on calcium:

DogAware.com Articles: Crash Course on Calcium (Dog World Magazine)

Also- keeping cans of sardines or mackerel in the pantry are a good fill in for when you run out- or forget to defrost like I always do! Or just cook a couple eggs and throw in some oatmeal for a meal- it's not rocket science


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## MauiMamaT

fjm said:


> While I understand the anxiety about providing a fully balanced diet, I do wonder why we don't have the same worries when it comes to feeding ourselves or our children. Somehow we have been beaten into believing that dog nutrition is so much more complicated than human nutrition that we must rely on pet food companies to make all the decisions for us. More and more this feels like relying on Kraft and Coca Cola to choose the best diet for our children...


Oh man - so so true!


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## Johanna

I have been feeding Purina products for 50 years. I have always had poodles (all 3 sizes) but have also had German shepherds, greyhounds, whippets, Italian greyhounds, Scottish terriers, a Labrador retriever, a border collie/whippet, and Chihuahuas. 

I do use toppers (plain canned meat) at times or dampen the food with broth. I often add vegetables or fruits (right now all 3 dogs get blueberries at breakfast).

My dogs have been exceptionally healthy and fit. Most of them have been shown in conformation or obedience or agility. 

And, yes, I am guilty of feeding them treats from the people table. And I have had some counter surfers who helped themselves to people food (a greyhound who stole a pork roast and a 1 lb jar of peanut butter, a German shepherd who licked all the icing off a cake, a whippet who snagged a bag of potato chips from the top of the refrigerator (she jumped on the counter to reach the top), and a border collie/whippet who was famous for stealing anything he could reach). They all survived quite well and almost all of them lived to great old age.


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## 94Magna_Tom

@Johanna 
"a German shepherd who licked all the icing off a cake" 
This one ^^ put a smile on my face! Though at the time, I'm betting you weren't smiling 😁🤣! Thanks for the laughs!


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