How Do I Make My Own Raw Dog Food

How Do I Make My Dog Eat Barf

Guidelines To Creating Balanced Homemade Dog Food Recipes

Following are guidelines for feeding a raw or cooked home-prepared diet to healthy dogs. No single type of food, such as chicken, should ever make up more than half the diet.

Except where specified, homemade food for dogs can be fed either raw or cooked. Leftovers from your table can be included as long as theyre foods you would eat yourself, not fatty scraps.

Meat and Other Animal Products: Should always make up at least half of the diet. A raw diet for dogs can be excessively high in fat, which can lead to obesity. Another potential hazard of diets containing too much fat: If an owner restricts the amount fed too much, the dog may suffer deficiencies of other required nutrients.

Unless your dog gets regular, intense exercise, use lean meats , remove skin from poultry, and cut off separable fat. Its better to feed dark meat poultry than breast, however, unless your dog requires a very low-fat diet.

Raw Meaty Bones : If you choose to feed them, RMBs should make up one third to one half of the total diet. Use the lower end of the range if you feed bony parts such as chicken necks and backs, but you can feed more if youre using primarily meatier parts such as chicken thighs. Never feed cooked bones. Read a full report on raw meaty bones here.

Boneless Meat: Include both poultry and red meat. Heart is a good choice, as it is lean and often less expensive than other muscle meats.

Dog Treat Receipe For Raw Fed Dogs #:

PUMPKIN PAWS:

• Small amount of any raw meat
• Small amount of spinach, chopped carrots or broccoli
• 2 C. water
• 1 large can of pumpkin puree
• 1 small can of tomato puree
• 9-ounce paper cups

If using meat, make sure it is finely chopped or ground. Otherwise, put it in a food processor with the water to make a soup.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well blended.

Put a very generous tablespoon in each paper cup. Freeze and serve. You probably want to serve outside!

You could also put the blend into ice cube trays if you dont want to use cups.

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Making Your Dogs Raw Food

If you decide to buy ingredients to make your dogs raw food yourself, youll be buying foods like:

• raw beef or raw chicken
• raw organs like chicken livers
• raw veggies

You can buy most of these ingredients at your local grocery store or butcher. Look for meat that is higher in fat. This meat is cheaper and considered lower-quality meat for humans, but most dogs need the extra fat in their diets.

You can likely save even more if you know any local ranchers, farmers or hunters. Deer meat and organs are perfect for dogs!

The added benefit of buying your own raw dog food ingredients is that you will know exactly what your dog is eating.

The drawback, of course, is time and making sure the meals are generally balanced.

To help you out, Ive written an ebook to guide you through the process of learning to feed a raw diet.

How To Prepare Homemade Puppy Food

In general, puppies need about twice as many calories per day than their adult counterparts. According to the Committee on Nutrient Requirements of Cats and Dogs of the National Academy of Science, a 10-pound puppy that is expected to weigh 33 pounds at adulthood needs to eat about 990 calories per day. In addition, puppies need more protein, fat, vitamins and minerals than adult dogs.

A homemade puppy diet should contain the proper balance of:

• Protein, such as chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef
• Carbohydrates, like rice, pasta, potatoes
• Vegetables, such as peas, green beans, carrots
• Fat, often in the form of vegetable oil
• Vitamin/mineral supplements

Once you have chosen a recipe, it’s time to prepare it for your dog. Many owners who feed home-prepared diets set up a regular schedule, setting aside time weekly or monthly to prepare and portion the diet. The food can be prepared in bulk and portioned into containers . You can keep meals frozen for several months or refrigerated for about 5 days. When the supply of pre-prepared meals runs low, it’s time to make a new batch. If you like to feed a variety of foods, you can make multiple batches and color code by ingredients, rotating out the different meals.

Remember to increase portions appropriately as your puppy grows. It’s best to weigh your puppy every week or two to make sure you are feeding the proper amount of calories

The Spruce / Phoebe Cheong

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Homemade Chicken Dinner For Dogs

As you have learned from the earlier recipes, dogs cant get enough of chicken. This explains why we are using this poultry again for this simple dinner for our canine friends. Moreover, this simple DIY food for dogs makes use of vegetables like cabbage and spinach. You will also use apples to make this recipe.

You can also swap out some of the veggies used in this recipe, like carrots for red cabbage. But you should cook carrots if you decide to use them because the orange veggies arent the easiest foods for dogs to digest.

Ingredients:

• 5 whole eggs
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

It is up to you what type of chicken to use. You can use whole chicken which includes the heart, liver, and neck. Of you can settle for boneless skinless chicken breast, or frozen chicken breast which is best when cooked.

Step by step guide:

• Chop up the chicken and put in a suitable sized pot. Bring it to a boil.
• Reduce to a simmer then add the remaining ingredients. Let it simmer until the chicken is done.
• Remove the pot from the stove. Add the eggs and olive oil once it is cool then stir.

You can keep the leftover in an airtight container and then put this in the refrigerator. The meal should be safe enough for your dogs consumption up to five days.

As for the serving, you can give a large dog up to 2 ½ cups of this food which should last for 2 days.

Fruits And Veggies For Raw Food Diet

Some people find it surprising, but dogs arent actually obligatory carnivores they are omnivorous.

Even in the wild, canines dont just eat meat and will munch on things like berries.

Being a long-lost relative of bears with a close DNA sequence, it’s not surprising.

Veggies and fruits provide vitamins, minerals, prebiotics, chlorophyll, flavonoids, carotenoids, fibers, and more.

However, this doesnt mean that they should be the main part of your dogs diet.

Muscle meat, meaty bones, organs, and a bit of fat are whats essential.

Fruits and veggies are welcomed, but moderation is key.

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Can I Feed My Dog Raw Meat From The Grocery Store

Yes, it is typically safe for dogs to eat raw meat, even though that is not the case for humans. Just make sure that you take steps to avoid contamination or disease and give your dog a balanced diet. He will also need carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals from veggies, and other ingredients in his diet in addition to the meat.

How To Prepare Raw Meals For Dogs

It’s actually super easy to whip up raw dog food recipes once you have the ingredients on hand and prepared. It’s almost as easy as pouring kibble into a bowl .

Using the 75% meat to 25% vegetable/fruit ratio, all you have to do is mix the ingredients together and offer them as one meal, or divide into two and feed half in the morning and half in the evening.

To make up 1lb of raw dog food, you’ll need:

• roughly 12oz of meat
• and 4oz of prepared vegetable/fruit mixture
• approx 2tsp of fish oil or flax seed oil , and a vitamin/mineral supplement
• probiotics

Obviously raw food has one big difference to dry kibble, and that is the fact that it doesn’t have much of a shelf-life. Whatever isn’t going to be served/eaten right away needs to be refrigerated immediately, and will be okay for 24 hours or so. After that you need to throw it away.

To make life a little easier you can prepare large batches of food in one go, then divide it into daily portions and freeze it. Make sure to defrost thoroughly, in the refrigerator, before serving though – otherwise you could make your dog sick.

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How To Make Dog Food

I have made every effort to simplify the process of making your own homemade dog food. You wont need any fancy gadgets or gismos. If you have decided to go the raw dog food route mixing the ingredients is similar to mixing meatloaf. To make most of the homemade dog food recipes you will need something to mix the ingredients in and a pot to hard boil the eggs and cook the white rice.

I personally clean my kitchen sink and mix the ingredients in the sink. This makes clean up a breeze. I just suds up the sink with some Dawn dish washing liquid, scuba and let it go down the drain. Quick and easy.

For more details on how to make dog food click the links below.

• Tools needed to make dog food
• Storage of finished dog food
• Clean up

A Homemade Raw Dog Recipe

Serves the requirements of an 8kg dog for 3-4 days

• 250g chopped beef or lamb, raw
• 1 cup chopped carrots, raw
• 1 cup chopped apple, raw
• ¼ cup frozen peas, defrosted
• 1½ cups chopped pumpkin or squash
• cup brown or basmati rice
• 4 teaspoons sunflower oil

Method: no need to get fancy.

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Bacterial Contamination Is A Real Concern

Yes, dogs are much more resistant to things such as Salmonella and E. coli germs than we are and bacterial contamination is quite rare for dogs.

Still, it should be mentioned that its a risk with using easy raw dog food recipes and that caution should be used.

That said if you know the source of your meats, and buy USDA certified organic, and prepare it correctly, the chances of contamination are very low.

Raw Boneless Beef & Egg Dog Food Recipe: All Life Stages

Beef and egg combine for another simple recipe. Visit your butcher for beef heart and liver. Buy it by the organ or the pound. And dont be surprised by the size cows are pretty big animals.

PRO TIP

When sourcing organs for recipes, buy enough to make several batches. Measure and grind or chop whats needed for future recipes. Label with the name of the recipe, date, contents and weight. Then freeze. It will be easy to add the organs to your fresh ingredients when youre ready for the next batch.

This recipe is boneless so youll need to add a supplement. Bone meal will supply the extra minerals puppies need. Give adult dogs bone meal or seaweed calcium.

Caution: Seaweed calcium has higher bioavailability so do not give it to puppies.

Heres the full recipe: Raw Boneless Beef & Egg Raw Dog Food Recipe: All Life Stages

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Typically A Barf Raw Diets For Dogs Follow This Formula:

Percentages can vary depending on your dogs individual needs. For instance, if Fido is sensitive to organs, a 2% liver will provide essential vitamin A, minerals, and other minerals.

You can add some dairy, such as cottage cheese, plain yogurt and/or raw eggs for more protein sources.

Note: It is critical that you use high-quality grade meat.

Dr. Dobias recommends rotating the type of meat every four days to avoid monotony. Dogs can be fed multiple types of meat and various fruits and vegetables on the same day. Dogs would not be eating one type of protein if they were in nature, he explains. They would be eating a variety.

Always consult with your vet before changing your dogs diet. Its advised to consult with a veterinary nutritionist to create vet-approved raw dog recipes. Making balanced raw dog food recipes can be a tedious process.

For more advice on BARF diet nutrition and benefits check out Give Your Dog a Bone by Ian Billinghurst. This book is considered the Bible of healthy raw dog nutrition.

Can Dogs Eat Raw Meat

Yes, dogs can eat raw meat and other raw ingredients. Dogs are true carnivores and can thrive on a raw meat diet.

From DNA studies, we know dogs descended directly from the timber wolf approximately 15,000 years ago1. Wolves are clear carnivores. Geneticallyspeaking, dogs demonstrate similar and noticeable carnivorous traits. Their teeth, digestive system, and behavior account for their meat-eating capabilities.

Dogs do not have flat teeth like humans or animals like cows. They also do not chew their cud from side to side. Canines have narrow pointy back teeth, and their jaws operate in a chop-chop motion like all carnivores. In addition, carnivores do not produce amylase in their salivary glands. Dogs dont produce amylase in their saliva but their pancreas and small intestine2.

Further, dogs have higher concentrations of stomach acid that help break down animal protein faster, and the stronger acids kill bacteria found in decaying meat.

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos, a Purina veterinarian, says feeding a diet consisting primarily of raw meat may not provide the complete and balanced nutrition your dog needs3. If you plan to feed raw meat to your dog, you need to do so as part of a balanced raw meal plan, and any raw meat needs to be fresh and thoroughly washed before feeding it.

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Easy Raw Dog Food Recipes You Can Make At Home

Making the switch to a raw food diet can be a great thing for your pup. After all, dogs are naturally scavenging carnivores. In the wild, dogs hunt down their prey and eat the whole thing to get the nutrition they need.

The idea behind a raw dog food diet is to imitate what your dog’s ancestors ate before the advent of commercialized kibble.

While it can be daunting to start a raw diet, it offers a lot of benefits. One of the biggest is that you have complete control over what your canine companion is consuming.

While a lot of dog food manufacturers provide in-depth information about their ingredients, nothing beats the nutritional value of raw food. Your pooch will be able to take advantage of all the nutrition a meal has to offer.

Not only that, but you won’t have to worry about our dog consuming mystery meats, unknown chemicals, or empty fillers.

At The End Of 2019 During Our Yearly Vet Check We Received The Devastating News That Our 11 Year Old Dog’s Blood Work Showed That He Was In Stage 4 Kidney Failure

Honestly, I was a basket case, how on earth did we miss this? He seemed like he was just dealing with some symptoms of getting older – frequent urination, sometimes excessive water drinking. It definitely didn’t feel like life threatening symptoms. As much as the diagnosis was a shock, the price tag of the prescription diet he would need to eat for the remainder of his life was pretty horrifying too!

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Is Raw Dog Food Better

Many dog owners choose to feed raw dog food to their canines because they see it as more natural. Still, there are no studies to support that raw feeding is better than traditional dog food.

But those who try it find it healthier because of its benefits by just making sure it is balanced.

Everyone has the right to choose what kind of food they’re feeding to their pup. Because their healthy growth doesn’t depend on what type of food, it depends on the nutritional benefits.

Downside To Making Your Dogs Meals

• Making your dogs meals does take time. You have to allow time so you can shop for ingredients about once a week. You also need to allow time so you can prepare the food. Some people like to set aside one afternoon or evening per week so they can prepare their dogs meals for the coming week.

• The cost of making your dogs meals is up to you. If you can buy meats in bulk and freeze them, you can often save money. But if you buy your meats at your local store, the way you buy your own meat, then preparing meals for your dog can be expensive. If you have special requirements such as organic meats and vegetables, free-range chicken, or pasture-raised beef, for example, your costs will be even greater.

• There is no guarantee that your meats and produce will be entirely free of bacteria. You can use good sanitation in your kitchen, but even so, sometimes meats and produce are recalled because they have been contaminated before you buy them.

These are some of the things to consider before you decide you want to make your dogs meals. It takes some pre-planning, time, and it can be costly unless you are able to buy in bulk or buy family-sized portions.

On the other hand, once you get the hang of making your dogs food, its not nearly as hard and complicated as it probably sounds. There are lots of dog owners who make their dogs meals and their dogs are living happy, healthy lives on their homemade diet.

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