To Make Dog Food At Home – What You Must Know

With our household budgets getting tighter and tighter every year wouldn’t you like to know how to make dog food at home?

Anyone who has owned a dog knows that it can be an extremely rewarding time, however it can also be a very testing time.

You have the daily walks, the training so as you have that well-behaved dog that everyone loves, the sadness you worry they will feel every time you head out of the door and then you need to work out what you are going to feed them.

What Are the Options?

In today’s world we have so many options available to our four-legged friend.

You have the good old dry biscuits or kibble; you look on the internet and raw food diets are all the go. You have natural solutions and holistic just to mention a few.

As you can see, just the number of choices is enough to send our minds into a confusing spin!

Is Homemade the Answer?

Today more and more people, myself included are now starting to make dog food at home, creating their own fresh recipes.

I love this way as I know exactly what is going into every meal, and ALWAYS make sure I am including everything they need to keep them in the best shape and condition possible.

So if you have read to here, and are keen to try out some home cooking with your fur ball here are a few things you will need to know about how to make dog food at home.

To Make Dog Food At Home – What You Must Know!

Maintain Balance

When it comes to a dogs eating habits they really are not much different to their humans in the fact they must eat a well-balanced diet.

If there is any key nutrients, vitamins or minerals you leave out this can lead to all sorts of problems for your dog over an extended time. A lack in any of these, especially calcium could lead to some nasty health problems.

An older dog will definitely handle a lack in these a lot better than a puppy, however you should still do your research before transitioning to home cook.

My best advice if you are deciding to make dog food at home would be to speak with your vet as they will be able to help you with some choices you have available to you.

Researching recipes on the internet is also very useful, however make sure to search reliable sources. I personally like Nature World News and Pet Md for my research when I am thinking of changing or adding to existing meals.

Always use Fresh Quality Meat

It makes sense, I mean it’s what we eat when we sit down to dinner. I know I would not be caught dead eating 3-week-old steak, would you?

While a growing trend at the moment is Vegan for dogs, I am a firm believer that while veggies are great as part of their stable diet, I tend to believe my dogs are more meat eaters than vegetarians.

For this reason, it is why I either give my dogs raw or cooked meat as it is a great source of protein.

I will mix between cooking the meat and not. So, while they are not on what people call a full raw diet, they are at times given this to add even more variety to their meal choices.

What Meat Do I Use?

I will always see my butcher for our family meat as buying in bulk from a butcher works out a lot cheaper than heading to one of the big supermarket chains.

I am sure you shop for meat for yourself. All you are doing is adding on your dog’s meat order to yours.

The meats I will bulk order are as follows.

• Kangaroo
• Beef
• Lamb
• Chicken
• Pork
• Turkey

Also depending on where you may be in the world you could add ostrich and buffalo to this.

I mentioned earlier about us not eating 3 week old steak. Make sure you always order fresh meat, something you would eat, don’t go for cheap off cuts, you will regret it in the long run.

What About Vegetables?

We all love our veggies, right?

My dogs have their vegetables with every meal, and I will make that roughly around ¼ of their meal.

We all grew up listening to our parents preaching how good our vegetables were for us, and it is no different for our fur balls.

Veggies are a great source of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

My dogs love their vegetable raw which is ideal because this way they lose none of their goodness and value they bring to your dog.

However, don’t stress if your fur ball turns their nose up at raw, just slightly steam them, making sure it isn’t for to long as the longer you steam or boil the more of those good nutrients you are losing.

The Vegetables I use are.

• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Pumpkin
• Green Beans
• Peas

All vegetables are not good for dogs so please do your research on what is not good.

Avoid veggies like potato, spinach, garlic and onions as they can be toxic to your dog.

What About Carbs?

My two dogs, Saffron who is my 2 year old Mastiff and Narla my 12 year old Black Labrador who I have affectionately called Vacuum!!

Narla will eat absolutely everything and anything. Unfortunately for her and any dog for that matter they lack the enzymes required to break down carbs.

As humans, carbs are part of our essential diet, in that they help with our energy production when broken down by the digestive enzymes we have.

For dogs carbs have pretty much no value when added to their diet and can help bring on a fat overweight fur baby. It is also one of the leading contributors to skin allergies and kidney disease/failure.

To Make Dog Food At Home – Do I Still Want To Do It?

I make my dogs homemade food for two reasons, firstly because I like to know I am giving my dogs the best nutrition possible; I mean it is what I am eating.

Secondly, compared to buying products like this from pet food suppliers and the like is way more expensive. Plus, it’s great fun and I love it!

Hey, its not easy though. You need to make sure you do a lot of research and planning of meals, all of which I will be explaining in some future articles inside of Our Dogs World 101.

It is also very important to know that every dog is different in what they need so please make sure before making any changes to a dog’s diet that you discuss this with your vet.

Also it is important to remember that whenever making drastic changes to your dogs diet it is done over several days in a gradual manner which I cover in an article Raw Dog Food Feeding Guide – A Starters Guide.

Some More Articles to Help You Out.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this article on, To Make Dog Food at Home – What You Must Know.

If you would like to have a look at some more articles on nutrition for your dog, I have included some others I have written and I know will help you and your fur baby.

• Best Nutrition for A Dog – Marks Guide
• Best Raw Food Diet Dogs

If you have any more questions on this or would like to leave your own personal homemade recipes, tips or advice, please feel free to leave a comment below and I will respond to them as soon as possible.

May Your Home Be Filled With Love And Dog Hair.

Mark

Founder of our Dogs World 101