Turkey And Vegetable Dinner
This is a dish that should give your dog the protein and vitamins that he needs. Turkey, if you havent known by now, is rich in protein. It also has less fat than beef, so this is a good recipe to follow for pet owners who have dogs that can afford to lose a few pounds.
The vegetables in this food carrots and green beanswill provide your dog with the vitamins and minerals he needs.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of brown rice
- 1 cup of chopped carrots
- 1 cup of chopped green beans
- 1 tablespoon of fish oil
You should not use heavy oil for this as it can lead to your dog having an upset stomach.
Step by step guide
- In a non-stick skillet placed over medium heat, cook the ground turkey. It should take around 5 minutes for the meat to get cooked.
- Add the brown rice and water to a large pot. Bring to a boil.
- Lower the heat and cook for an extra 5 to 10 minutes or until the rice has become soft and tender.
- Add the carrots and green beans. Cook for 5 to 10 more minutes or until the vegetables have become tender.
- Add the carrots and green beans. Cook for 5 to 10 more minutes or until the vegetables have become tender.
- Cool before serving.
This recipe should last for 4-5 days.
Other Pointers For Home
After you cook a batch of food, let it cool, and â if you make more than your dog can eat within a couple of days â portion it into reusable, washable containers, then freeze and defrost as needed. You can safely keep cooked food in the refrigerator for three days after that, spoilage is a concern.
Generally, a healthy, adult, medium-sized dog whoâs moderately active requires approximately 1,800 mg of calcium daily, according to Dr. Sommers. If your dog is smaller or larger, their total calcium requirements can be calculated using 600 mg for every 12.5 pounds.
How Do You Get Your Dog To Switch To A Homemade Dog Food
Most dogs will gladly give up their kibble or canned food if given the option of eating real food.
But some dogs do initially withdraw from a bowl full of chicken, rice, and vegetables, and owners must occasionally jump through a few hoops to get their dog to make the switch.
One good way to start is by simply providing your dog with his normal kibble or canned food, but with a bit of real, home-cooked food on top.
For example, you may want to scatter some shredded chicken or a drizzle of olive oil on top. Slowly, over the course of about a week or two, youll want to gradually replace some of his kibble with a little more natural food.
And this is also a good idea for dogs who will willingly switch.
If you go from a 100% kibble diet to a 100% home-cooked diet abruptly, you are probably going to stress out your dogs digestive system, causing diarrhea and gas.
But again, most dogs love home-cooked, all-natural dog foods, and quickly and readily make the switch.
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Delicious And Healthy Dog Food Recipes You Can Make At Home
As the global outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak exceeds 660,000 infected people at the time of writing, more governments are implementing stricter movement control orders in a bid to curb the spread and to flatten the curve. This impacts how often we can go out to get daily supplies and a 10kg bag of dog food may not be the best use of the limited space available for stocking up.
However, you can make delicious and healthy dog food right at home from ingredients you already have, and your pet would thank you for it. With your spare time from the lockdown, here are 10 popular recipes that you can try out from home for your pets.
Meat And Other Protein Sources
Protein sources should make up at least half of the diet, and preferably more.
Meat should include both muscle meat as well as organ meats . Because organ meats are nutrient-dense, it is best to feed small amounts daily or every other day, rather than large amounts at one time.
You can also include canned fish, such as pink salmon, sardines, jack mackerel, once or twice a week.
Dairy products such as yogurt and cottage cheese offer good nutritional value. These should be added after the food is cooked.
Eggs can be soft-boiled, hard-boiled, gently scrambled, etc.
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Peanut Butter And Banana Dog Biscuits
No compilation of homemade dog food recipes would be complete without a treat! If youre watching your senior dogs weight, moderation is key, but for a special occasion, try thesepeanut butter and banana dog biscuits from All Recipes.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ½ cup wheat germ
- 1 lightly beaten egg white for the egg wash
Directions:
Whether you go with commercial food or you try one of these homemade dog food recipes for senior dogs, combining a nutritional diet with exercise will keep your older pooch healthy and energetic. If your senior dog has mobility issues, check out ourDogger dog stroller andGrippers traction socks. The assistance products are designed to help keep dogs moving, so they can safely get the exercise and stimulation they need.
Recommended Serving Amounts For Homemade Dog Food
As a general rule, dogs will eat around 2 to 3 percent of their ideal body weight in fresh food daily. Larger breeds may need as little as 1 1/2 percent, and smaller breeds may need as much as 4 percent.
This works out to be approximately:
- 2 pounds of food per day for a 100-pound dog
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of food per day for a 50-pound dog
- 1/2 to 3/4 pound of food per day for a 25-pound dog
- 5 to 6 1/2 ounces of food per day for a 10-pound dog
There is much variation in what the ideal amount should be as it depends on how much your dog weighs and how active she is.
I feel that the best approach is to feed and watch if your dog is losing weight, give more, and if your dog is gaining weight, give less.
For our pugs, we feed a scoop each in the morning and a scoop each in the evening, plus all their supplements.
We have an easy system for this: homemade food is refrigerated in a sealed container with a measuring cup , and all the supplements are lined up together in a cupboard in the kitchen. Keeping your ingredients organized and accessible will make feeding time fast and smooth.
Compared to feeding commercial food, where you might scoop out kibbles or open up a can, feeding homemade food with all the supplements takes maybe 10 seconds more. And even if it took 10 minutes more, fresh wholesome food for our furbabies is worth it.
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You Have To Follow The Recipes Exactly
Once you have a nutritionally balanced recipe for your dog, you need to follow it preciselyfrom the ingredient types to measuring the ingredients to the cooking methods used.
Cooking methods matter because steaming versus roasting versus boiling can change the nutrient composition of a food, which contributes to a balanced diet.
Adding or substituting ingredients, like adding chicken on top, or substituting chicken for beef in a given recipe, unbalances the diet and poses a risk for providing too much or not enough of one or multiple nutrients.
Generating several balanced recipes, using a reliable professional source, will allow you to offer a wider variety of ingredients while still making sure that you meet your dogs specific nutritional needs.
A Meal For You And Your Dog
Love cooking for your dog but never have the time? Rocky Kanaka from The CWs SAVE our SHELTER, Dog’s Day Out and founder of The Dog Bakery, has a solution. This easy to make salmon meal for yourself can also be made for your dog.
This recipe is designed for those who want to eat healthy and want their dogs to eat healthy as well but are always on the go. This is also one of the most eco friendly recipes we have seen. Instead of tossing things we would usually not eat such as broccoli stems, the recipe uses these as a key part to the dogs delicious meal.
This recipe also has a bonus tip on what to do with that salmon skin that is usually thrown in the trash. I get asked a lot if salmon skin is okay for dogs. While it is not safe if consumed raw, due to unwanted parasites, cooking in the oven for 20 minutes to make a crunchy, healthy, limited ingredient, organic, high omega dog snack that may help with heart health and give them a great skin and coat is a big win! says Rocky.
And there is more, when you cook for your dog you are more conscious of what you put in your body. For all of those reasons and more we give this recipe four paws up!
Healthy meals are important for you and your dog but the best thing about this recipe from Rocky Kanaka is it allows you to take time out of your day to spend time with your family two and four legged! Read on to find out how to do it or watch Rocky has he demonstrates!
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Why Do Dogs Need Homemade Food
Makers of commercial dog food products may want you to believe otherwise, but feeding your dog with homemade food is actually good for him.
Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that you can personally choose the ingredients to be used in the dog food. This is very critical if your dog has allergies, or you just want to spare him from consuming certain ingredients.
You can also be assured that the food you are giving him is 100% safe. In times when dog food recalls due to possible contamination have become a very common occurrence, you will have peace of mind knowing that the food your dog is eating wont make him sick.
It is also possible to save time and effort when you prepare your dogs food. Preparing foods in large branches would let you do so, as you would be able to freeze smaller portions which you can feed to your dog later on.
Of course, you get to benefit from preparing your dogs food, too. While preparation may take up time, you can save a lot of money in the long run especially if you buy ingredients in bulk.
Diy Homemade Dog Food
Want to start your dog on homemade dog food tonight? This recipe from Damn Delicious is one of the fastest recipes on this list.
INGREDIENTS:
- ½ cup peas, canned or frozen
DIRECTIONS:
- Cook rice according to package instructions and set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add ground turkey and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the turkey as it cooks.
- Stir in spinach, carrots, zucchini, peas and brown rice until the spinach has wilted and the mixture is heated through about 3-5 minutes.
- Let cool completely before giving it to your dog.
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What To Season Homemade Dog Food With:
While dogs cant have all of the same aromatics as humans can they can have a small variety of dried or fresh herbs and spices that contain great nutrients and help flavor their meals. Use a few teaspoons sprinkled on top or mixed into the food. These are some easily digestable herbs and spices to try:
- Basil
- Ginger
When People Find Out We Make Our Own Dog Food At Home They Always Ask Us What About A Raw Diet So Lets Get That Out Of The Way First
There are LOTS of thoughts and theories on feeding your dog a raw diet especially a dog that is living with kidney disease. Our vet however, was personally opposed to feeding a raw diet due to the fact that dogs, just like us, are very susceptible to food poisoning. Besides that, a raw diet can be tricky to get just right! You run the risk of giving your dog a horrible belly ache by mixing a raw diet with cooked treats, so if you decided to go raw it is important to have both raw meals and raw treats planned for your pup at all times. NO MIXING the two! Since raw and cooked foods digest at different rates any combination of the two can wreak serious havoc on your pups gut which can lead to some pretty unpleasant situations for you if you get my drift.
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Homemade Dog Food Sources
- Meats: chicken, turkey, beef, bison, pork, lamb, venison
- Vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, zucchini, summer squash, spinach, kale, collard greens, chard, thawed frozen peas
- Complex carbohydrates: brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, lentils, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, winter squash
Recommended Serving Amounts
- 2 pounds of food per day for a 100-pound dog
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of food per day for a 50-pound dog
- 1/2 to 3/4 pound of food per day for a 25-pound dog
- 5 to 6 1/2 ounces of food per day for a 10-pound dog
This information is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Every dog’s dietary needs are different. Please consult with your veterinarian and use personal judgment when applying this information to your own dog’s diet.
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Keep your dog healthy and fit with this easy peasy homemade recipe its cheaper than store-bought and chockfull of fresh veggies!
I never thought I would be one of those dog owners who made homemade human food for their pups. Not in a million years.
But when Butters recently fell sick with an upset stomach, our vet advised us to feed him a bland diet chicken and rice without any kind of seasoning. So thats what we did we poached a chicken, shredded it in a food processor, and mixed in some white rice and fed him this bland diet for 3 days.
Thats when I started to do some research on homemade dog food, and I have been so amazed as to how many different kinds of vegetables dogs can have. And with the help of Balance IT, you can create so many different recipes for your pup!
Now the best part about making homemade dog food just like making anything at home is that you know exactly what is going into the dog bowl, and not any of that questionable gelatinous gunk from the canned food.
But its important to note that dogs have different nutrient requirements than humans for their proportional body size, such as:
Now this recipe here has a balance of 50% protein, 25% veggies and 25% grains, but the ratios can easily be adjusted to suit your pups breed and/or needs.
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How Much Homemade Dog Food To Feed Your Dog
Making a homemade diet for your pup is a great alternative to commercial kibble if you do it right. However, it is NOT that easy to determine the proper serving size of homemade dog food for your canine. For this reason, it is highly advisable to check with your vet to plan a nutritionally-balanced homemade diet.
Many factors must be kept in mind while calculating the nutritional requirements of your dog. Some of the most important elements among them are listed below.
- Age
After analyzing all these aspects, you will have a better understanding of the nutritional needs of your companion. Therefore, it will help you to figure out a suitable serving size for your pup.
Important Reminders In Preparing Dog Food
There are many things that you need to consider in preparing a DIY dog food for your pet. But here are 10 reminders that you should keep in mind when you are to plan or make food for your canine friend:
Whatever recipe you might want to prepare for your dog, you should prepare the recipe correctly by avoiding experimentation. Follow the recipe to the T, so to speak. Dont experiment by adding recipes, as it can cause unintended effects on your dog.
Be careful when swapping ingredients. Because there are some ingredients that may have the same flavor or taste, but dont have the same nutrition. Whenever you use ingredients in lieu of another, be sure it can be accepted.
For instance, olive oil should not be substituted for corn oil which contains essential fatty acids that are beneficial to your dogs health. Doing so could lead to him being fed with an unbalanced diet.
Invest in a food scale. This can help you in accurately measuring cups.
Dont add seasoning. Unlike many of us who cant cook without adding a lot of seasoning to their dishes, dogs dont need seasoning. As such, you dont have to use salt or pepper for your dogs homemade food.
Certain foods are considered dangerous and even lethal when given to dogs. Aside from onions, dont give chocolate, raisins, avocado, grapes, walnuts, and raw yeast dough to your dogs.
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