So You Want to Make Your Own Dog Food

“Can’t I just cook for her?” “Can I make my own?” “How can I do it myself?” These are questions I am often asked by owners as they learn the down side to feeding kibble and the advantages to a fresh food diet. Sometimes they tell me they have already started feeding fresh food — describing meals of chicken breast, carrots, peas, and rice. They may add some cottage cheese or yogurt for calcium and probiotics (Spoiler – neither of these have meaningful amounts of calcium or probiotics).

Others will tell me they found a recipe on the internet. These recipes may be good or not so good. Often they are nutritionally incomplete and rely on supplements to fill in the gaps. That’s not the end of the world, and it’s far better than kibble. But occasionally I find someone who says they used an online formulation tool, and they just have to add one supplement and their dog is getting everything he needs. The site that offers this free tool allows you to choose your ingredients from five different categories, and puts them together with their supplement to make a nutritionally complete meal. They also offer free recipes which use their supplement to fill out the nutritional deficiencies in their formulations. Does it seem odd to anyone that you must use a supplement to get enough iron, or vitamin D, rather than getting nutrients from actual food, in a homemade fresh food recipe?

Let’s look at one of the free recipes anyone can download from the site:

This recipe is put forward for a healthy adult dog weighing 35 pounds. She would eat over 1 pound of potato per day, along with about 1/4 pound of frozen peas and carrots! That’s about 4 times as much carbohydrates as meat!

Now that you have chewed on that recipe, here is another one:

Again, this one is exceedingly carbohydrate heavy, and allows the dog a mere 2 3/4 ounces of meat per day! And what veterinarian, nutritionist, or other pet professional is going to suggest feeding your dog pasta and tomato sauce? After seeing such examples in the free recipes, what might a dog owner create from the DIY recipe generator? Perhaps something like this:

Despite being nutritionally complete if the supplement is added, none of these recipes are biologically appropriate for a dog. Yes, they could survive on them, but could they thrive eating 59% carbohydrates? Potatoes and peas as the majority of a meal? Cranberry sauce, bread, or industrial corn oil?

Thankfully, there are other options for those who are looking for nutritionally complete recipes that are biologically appropriate and focus on nutrients from food. Visit the Forever Dog Diet and Resources page for a variety of raw and cooked recipes for your puppy for dog. With these recipes you will find detailed nutritional information, helping you to know how closely the recipe comes to current standards. If you don’t yet have your copy of the book, get it now!

In the near future, I’ll be sharing options for those who want to craft their own recipes in a thoughtful, biologically appropriate manner, using the most accurate nutritional data available. Please follow and comment on my Facebook page to get notifications.