Would you eat the same food for every meal of every day? What if it wasn’t even a variety of foods on the same plate.. like rice, beans, salad and meat? What if it was literally the same exact bite, every bite? That’s a summary of your dog’s culinary life. Perhaps you should consider making homemade dog food.
Is that good for you? Would you enjoy that?
Disclaimer, I am not a vet. Check with your vet, obviously. Don’t take advice from some random guy on the internet.
I have never tried it personally. I’m not sure such a product exists for humans. Maybe breakfast cereal is the closest thing. It’s fortified with “vitamins” and “minerals” and it’s the same… every bite. It’s close to the image above but I would assume most breakfast cereals are lacking in some nutrients.
How fat and disgusting would you get eating only breakfast cereal?
How fat and unhealthy is your dog?
So, about a bit over a year ago I was on the grocery store website. I sorted beef products by price, lowest to highest (I’m cheap). Guess what? The price of beef liver was R$20/kilo (USD$1.81/lb). The thought that entered my head was profound. At the time I was pay R$40/kilo for high end dog food in Brazil. Perhaps I could make my own dog food, with real food, for less money.
Bam.
So I set out to make a grocery list of dog-compatible foods that i could use to make my own dog food.
Let me skip you to the end of this saga… It worked.. Home made dog food has been hugely successful. The dogs absolutely love it. They’re thinner, happier, and more energetic than ever. They’re 12, and 14 respectively.
Those are my actual dogs and that is a recent picture. They’re happy, and healthy. Your want to see another pic?
OMG. Anyhow… So I’m buying the ingredients.
The list generally includes the following (chicken/pork recipe)
- Chicken livers
- Chicken gizzards
- Ground pork
The beef recipe includes:
- Beef liver
- Beef heart
- Ground beef
Both recipes include:
- Potatoes or sweet potatoes
- collard greens (Kale would be a fine substitute)
- Broccoli or cauliflower
- Beets
- Carrots
- Eggs
- Eggs shells (for calcium… microwave then crush them into a fine powder)
- Pumpkin
Occasional ingredients:
- Bell peppers (usually red or yellow)
That’s it. We mix it up. It’s usually by weight about 50% meat/protein.
We do not add any ‘supplements’.
Occasionally we give them sardines as a treat. That may happen once or twice every two months.
We often give them bananas as a treat. That will occur 3-4 times per week.
They’re fine. Super healthy. Much leaner than they were on kibble. Much more energetic. And here’s the clincher: They love it. They cry to get their food in the morning. They went from 30% enthusiasm around meal time to 150% enthusiasm. It’s unreal. Clearly the taste is much more profound.
To prepare the food we take the ingredients and cook them all in a pot. Nothing special. Just cook them.
We take all the cooked ingredients and put them in a blender, and blend them.
We take the blended contents and vacuum bag them. We open those bags as we finish the last one, and scoop a portion for each dog.
Very easy. We make about 1 batch per month. That takes about 2 hrs. Maybe less.
I actually don’t know if I’m saving money at this point. The price per kilo is likely less then what we spent on dry food. However… The quality is no comparison. The dogs health and happiness is much enhanced. And the cost is equal to less.
So if you want a cheat code with your dogs health, just make them fresh food. It’s no secret. Just cook food for them. Make sure its food that is ok for dogs (no grapes, garlic, onion, mushrooms etc..). Just like you cook food for you.
Each meal does not need to be nutritionally balanced. Think of your last meal. Did it have 100% of every vitamin you need? No.
Same with your dog. A balanced diet is just fine. You don’t need to feed your dog astronaut food that is supposedly 100% nutritionally complete with every bite, but actually makes them fat and gives them cancer.
If anyone is interested in more details, comment below, and I’ll post a follow up with specific recipes, and the price per kilo of all the ingredients.
-Sirsandals