A Guide to Starting Your Dog on a Homemade Diet
So you've made the decision to feed your dog a homemade diet, but have no idea what a homemade diet for dogs is.
Are the nightly leftovers sufficient? Are the same foods that are nutritious and healthy for me, also for my dog? These are great questions and I have easy answers.
First, congratulations on making the decision to feed your dog a healthy homemade diet.
Preparing your dogs meals is one of the best things you can do for his or her health and well-being.
A homemade dog food diet ensures that your dog is receiving the best nutrition available and that he or she is not exposed to harmful and unnecessary chemicals, hormones, preservatives, dyes, additives and rancid meat by products.
The process begins with understanding what makes a balanced and nutritious diet for a canine.
Simply feeding the leftovers and whatever else that you don't want in the fridge is not a good idea, and can even endanger your dog's health.
If a homemade organic diet is important to, all you need to do is use only organic products when preparing your dogs food.
I would recommend informing your veterinarian about changing your dog's diet and make sure that your dog has no known dietary issues.
Be aware of the foods that are toxic and poisonous to your dog as well; grapes, raisins, avocado, onions, garlic, caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, macadamia nuts and mushrooms.
When introducing a new food its best to do so slowly, over a period of a week or even two.
Gradually mix the new food in with the old, adding a little more everyday and your dog should adjust without any issues.
Once your dog is off kibble they will really enjoy the variety a homemade diet offers.
I try to keep some of the base ingredients the same, as to not be changing the food too much and having any shocks to their systems.
It takes a little experimenting, but its fun and your dogs certainly will enjoy.
Dogs require diets that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates.
So the basic formula that I use is 80% protein which breaks down into 65% from muscle meat and 15% from organ meat.
The remaining 20% is fruits and vegetables that I food process up.
I don't add any rice, a lot of people will add a little brown rice, but I stay away from any grains.
If I had to feed grains I would only feed absorbable grains.
In terms of the meats that I use, the main ones are chicken, turkey and beef, but on occasion I might use venison or bison.
As for the organ meat, livers and kidneys are excellent.
The veggies are pretty much always the same with small variations here and there depending on my grocery list; broccoli, carrots, green beans, apples, strawberries, blue berries, bananas, sweet potato and maybe squash or pumpkin.
I always add a good vitamin and mineral supplement and fish oil.
No salt and maybe a teaspoon of cider vinegar to help digest, if I have a dog that I think needs that.
Once I figure out how many ounces per day is ideal for my dog I can then calculate how much of each ingredient needs to be in the food.
I like to make a week's worth of meals at a time so if my dog ate 10 ounces a day I would make 70 ounces of food.
80% of that would come from the protein sources, muscle meat and organ meat, and the rest from fruits and veggies.
That would be about 45 ounces from the meat, 11 ounces from organs and 14 ounces from fruits and veggies.
I use that breakdown with most of the recipes I use.
If a recipe calls for different ingredients in different quantities, I just tweak the recipe to fit within my parameters and ingredients.
Following this basic formula your dog will be a much healthier and happier pet.
In terms of how much to feed, that's a tricky question.
I hate the feeding charts on bags of kibble telling you how many ounces to feed based on how many pounds your dog weighs.
I always found those formulas to be too much food for my dogs.
Every dog is different; they all have different metabolisms and needs.
So it's hard for me to say feed x amount of food for a dog that is x number of pounds.
It just doesn't work like that.
Some can eat all day and never gain a pound while others just look and food and get heavier.
If your dog looks like they are gaining weight and getting on the porky side you have to cut back, if you can see some ribs you probably should be feeding a little more.
I have a 2 years old American Pit Bull Terrier that has a ton of energy and weighs 48 pounds; I her feed 15 ounces of food a day.
Usually I will give her about 4 ounces first thing in the morning and the rest in the early afternoon.
It's important that you get a good scale so that you know exactly how many ounces you are feeding, this way you can be consistent.
The scale also makes it easier to portion out; most likely you will be making a large batch of food at once then breaking down into meal portions.
It doesn't really make sense to do it any other way, so you need a scale.
Get a few recipes that you like and are easy and economical to make.
After you cook, it's a good idea to let cool of before letting the dog eat.
The rest I break up and put in fridge or freezer.
It's really pretty simple and once you get into a routine of doing every week you will be surprised at how easy it can be.
The choice to feed your dog a healthy homemade diet will undeniably be a tremendous improvement to his or her health and well-being.
Are the nightly leftovers sufficient? Are the same foods that are nutritious and healthy for me, also for my dog? These are great questions and I have easy answers.
First, congratulations on making the decision to feed your dog a healthy homemade diet.
Preparing your dogs meals is one of the best things you can do for his or her health and well-being.
A homemade dog food diet ensures that your dog is receiving the best nutrition available and that he or she is not exposed to harmful and unnecessary chemicals, hormones, preservatives, dyes, additives and rancid meat by products.
The process begins with understanding what makes a balanced and nutritious diet for a canine.
Simply feeding the leftovers and whatever else that you don't want in the fridge is not a good idea, and can even endanger your dog's health.
If a homemade organic diet is important to, all you need to do is use only organic products when preparing your dogs food.
I would recommend informing your veterinarian about changing your dog's diet and make sure that your dog has no known dietary issues.
Be aware of the foods that are toxic and poisonous to your dog as well; grapes, raisins, avocado, onions, garlic, caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, macadamia nuts and mushrooms.
When introducing a new food its best to do so slowly, over a period of a week or even two.
Gradually mix the new food in with the old, adding a little more everyday and your dog should adjust without any issues.
Once your dog is off kibble they will really enjoy the variety a homemade diet offers.
I try to keep some of the base ingredients the same, as to not be changing the food too much and having any shocks to their systems.
It takes a little experimenting, but its fun and your dogs certainly will enjoy.
Dogs require diets that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates.
So the basic formula that I use is 80% protein which breaks down into 65% from muscle meat and 15% from organ meat.
The remaining 20% is fruits and vegetables that I food process up.
I don't add any rice, a lot of people will add a little brown rice, but I stay away from any grains.
If I had to feed grains I would only feed absorbable grains.
In terms of the meats that I use, the main ones are chicken, turkey and beef, but on occasion I might use venison or bison.
As for the organ meat, livers and kidneys are excellent.
The veggies are pretty much always the same with small variations here and there depending on my grocery list; broccoli, carrots, green beans, apples, strawberries, blue berries, bananas, sweet potato and maybe squash or pumpkin.
I always add a good vitamin and mineral supplement and fish oil.
No salt and maybe a teaspoon of cider vinegar to help digest, if I have a dog that I think needs that.
Once I figure out how many ounces per day is ideal for my dog I can then calculate how much of each ingredient needs to be in the food.
I like to make a week's worth of meals at a time so if my dog ate 10 ounces a day I would make 70 ounces of food.
80% of that would come from the protein sources, muscle meat and organ meat, and the rest from fruits and veggies.
That would be about 45 ounces from the meat, 11 ounces from organs and 14 ounces from fruits and veggies.
I use that breakdown with most of the recipes I use.
If a recipe calls for different ingredients in different quantities, I just tweak the recipe to fit within my parameters and ingredients.
Following this basic formula your dog will be a much healthier and happier pet.
In terms of how much to feed, that's a tricky question.
I hate the feeding charts on bags of kibble telling you how many ounces to feed based on how many pounds your dog weighs.
I always found those formulas to be too much food for my dogs.
Every dog is different; they all have different metabolisms and needs.
So it's hard for me to say feed x amount of food for a dog that is x number of pounds.
It just doesn't work like that.
Some can eat all day and never gain a pound while others just look and food and get heavier.
If your dog looks like they are gaining weight and getting on the porky side you have to cut back, if you can see some ribs you probably should be feeding a little more.
I have a 2 years old American Pit Bull Terrier that has a ton of energy and weighs 48 pounds; I her feed 15 ounces of food a day.
Usually I will give her about 4 ounces first thing in the morning and the rest in the early afternoon.
It's important that you get a good scale so that you know exactly how many ounces you are feeding, this way you can be consistent.
The scale also makes it easier to portion out; most likely you will be making a large batch of food at once then breaking down into meal portions.
It doesn't really make sense to do it any other way, so you need a scale.
Get a few recipes that you like and are easy and economical to make.
After you cook, it's a good idea to let cool of before letting the dog eat.
The rest I break up and put in fridge or freezer.
It's really pretty simple and once you get into a routine of doing every week you will be surprised at how easy it can be.
The choice to feed your dog a healthy homemade diet will undeniably be a tremendous improvement to his or her health and well-being.