Most Nutritious Homemade Dog Food 2024

Most Nutritious Homemade Dog Food – Learn how to make nutritious dog food at home. Your baby will love his meals and you’ll love that this recipe for easy homemade dog food on the stove is easy, healthy, and made with whole food ingredients you’ll recognize!

My dog Charlie is 4 years old and I recently decided to start making his food from scratch instead of feeding him store bought dog food.

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Most Nutritious Homemade Dog Food

There are so many different meal options you can make for your dog when you make homemade dog food. I’ll start with a fairly simple, well-balanced recipe. This is a great starter recipe that consists of ground turkey, vegetables, and brown rice.

A Comprehensive Guide To Homemade Dog Food Recipes

If you’re not ready to take the plunge into homemade dog food, you can always start with some DIY dog treats (our dog loves homemade food!).

This homemade DIY dog food is packed with rich protein, vegetables and healthy grains. Here’s what you need:

The amount of homemade dog food your dog needs depends on how much your dog weighs and how active he is. This amount differs from dog to dog. I suggest you talk to your vet and get their advice on a good starting point.

You can also monitor your dog to make sure he maintains his weight and remains happy and active.

Diy Dog Food

This recipe makes about six cups of food, which is three days’ worth of food for Charlie who weighs about forty-five pounds. You can easily adjust this amount according to the weight of your dog. Also, feel free to scale up and double or even triple this recipe if you want to cook less often.

The most important thing to know when making homemade dog food for your dog is what foods he should NOT eat.

You can do a quick Google search for a comprehensive list or buy a puppy cookbook for reference. Here’s a list from the Humane Society of foods that can be toxic to pets. Be sure to take the necessary precautions if you plan to cook for your dog, but also know that you really don’t have to worry too much!

Most Nutritious Homemade Dog Food

Charlie loves his homemade food and I’m excited to experiment with new recipes and treats for him, so if you’d like to see more recipes for your pup, let me know in the comments section below!

Easy Homemade Dog Food Recipe

If you make this homemade dog food recipe, leave a comment and ★ rating below to let me know how it turned out. Your feedback is very helpful to me and our Clean and Delicious community (thanks!).

Learn how to make nutritious dog food at home. Your baby will love the meals, and you’ll love that this homemade dog food recipe is simple and made with whole food ingredients you’ll recognize!

* Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Easy & Healthy Homemade Dog Food Toppers For Picky Eaters

Dani Spies is the founder and host of Clean & Delicious; a weekly YouTube cooking show and a healthy eating blog celebrating real, whole foods! She takes a holistic approach to health and wellness and is loved for her approachable, down-to-earth style both in and out of the kitchen. This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn free on qualifying purchases.

Homemade dog food is such an easy way to treat your dog and feel good about it. All you need is a stove and a large pot to make a delicious and healthy meal for your dog.

This recipe is a cooking guide to make my instant dog food recipe. I know not everyone has an Instant Pot (although I totally recommend using one to make your life easier 😉), so I decided to make a guide that everyone can use.

Most Nutritious Homemade Dog Food

These recipes came about because the commercial dog foods available to us didn’t offer exactly what we were looking for in terms of optimal nutrition and we wanted something with no unnecessary additives, so we spoke to our vet and decided that homemade dog food will be a great option be for us.

Homemade Healthy Dog Treats

This recipe is pretty similar to what you’d get at the grocery store at Fresh Pet (I think Costco sells it in large tubes), except you get to control what goes in and it’s fun to make it yourself!

The good thing about making your own dog food is that you can think about your dog’s needs and any food allergies. Instead of having to read a million labels, you’re in control of what’s in the food. If your dog is picky, you can feed him what you know he likes:

Dogs are like humans in that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to nutrition – this is called bio-individuality. All dogs are omnivores where they thrive on eating both animals and plants – unlike cats who are strict carnivores – but the types of animals and plants they thrive on vary from dog to dog.

Some dogs are allergic to chicken, some are allergic to salmon. Some can only eat venison. Find what works for your dog and they will thrive! Just like people – I can end up in the hospital if I eat a poblano pepper and I have close friends who could die from eating peanuts. Bodies are wild.

Healthy Homemade Dog Treats

Here’s how to make homemade dog food on the stove. (To make homemade dog food in your Instant Pot, check out my recipe for Homemade Dog Food in the Instant Pot.)

First, heat a medium or large pan on the stove and cook the ground beef. (Images 1 – 3) Drain off all fat and discard as soon as it cools. (Figure 4)

Then add the drained meat back to the pan and add the coconut oil and frozen vegetables. (I add a bag or two, aiming for 20-24 ounce, frozen vegetables. If using a 12-ounce bag, use two. If using a 16-ounce bag, use one and a half.) (Image 5) Stir to combine and melt the coconut oil.

Most Nutritious Homemade Dog Food

Bring to a boil and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and the oats are soft. (Figure 8)

Easy Healthy Homemade Dog Food (and The Sweet Pug That Inspired It)

Remove the pan from the heat and allow your dog food to cool before serving or storing. You can portion the food depending on your needs – I usually cut it in half and freeze one portion. I use a measuring cup when serving food so I don’t take the time to hand it out.

I like the mixed vegetable mix from Walmart or Aldi, which is peas or green beans, carrots, and corn. (Don’t use anything with onions!) The last mix I bought also contained lima beans. You can also use a bag of carrots mixed with a bag of chopped green beans. (You know your dog so feed him what he likes – this is such a simple recipe to use what you can get at the store/whatever is on hand!)

Absolute! Fruit contains many nutrients that are great for dogs. Just don’t overdo it. We often use whatever is in season or what we have in the freezer. We like to use some kind of berry – strawberries or blueberries are best. DO NOT use grapes, they are very bad for dogs. You can add fruit before or after cooking, be careful if you cook with blueberries, your dog food will turn purple 😉

The easiest grains to use in homemade dog food are oats and leftover cooked rice. (Brown or white both work — don’t use leftover onion fried rice, of course!) If your dog has a grain allergy, you can substitute diced sweet potatoes instead.

Best Homemade Dog Gravy Recipe

We like to add leftovers of all sorts of things: cooked duck (we don’t like to use this as our main source of protein because it’s a bit fatty, greasy and heavy), roast beef, pot roast, grilled chicken..even pork. We also sometimes add eggs, beef, duck stock or sometimes even some game (she likes pot roast and we don’t like some of those hard cuts!)

We supplement her diet with raw stem bones (frozen with the marrow still in it) and raw pork feet. She loves them in all their hideous messiness.

The most important thing is to be sure and discuss portion sizes and ingredients with your vet before switching your dog to a new dog

Most Nutritious Homemade Dog Food