Learn how to make your own dog food for quick and healthy meals for your pooch

With some of the recent recalls on pet food, it’s no wonder more dog and cat owners are looking for new ways to feed their pets. But, there are questions that arise in terms of cost, preparation time, and more.

• How affordable is it to make your own dog food?
• Is it healthy for your pets?
• How much time will it take to prepare on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
• Can you actually save money on homemade dog food?

It’s an important time in pet owners’ lives, as dog food recalls have created a cause for concern when it comes to what is actually in our pet’s food. Below, we’ll take a look at some of the myths and realities of trying to make your own dog food.

Why Make Your Own Dog Food?

Recent recalls of some popular brand name dog foods may make you think twice about buying from the store. Over the years, pesticides, fertilizer, and many other harmful substances have somehow made their way into store bought pet food, resulting in the deaths of pets around the country.

While most dog foods are safe and reliable, making your own can actually be a creative exercise which allows you to know what’s truly going into your dog.

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Can It Be Healthy and Inexpensive?

In order to meet canine nutritional requirements, there needs to be a mix of protein, greens, and grains. Rice, carrots, and frozen ground turkey can be all you need to whip up that new dog food concoction in your kitchen. 

• Brown rice will provide man’s best friend with the necessary grain in their diet.
• For fiber and complex carbohydrates, carrots will work well.
• The protein source can come from chicken, ground turkey, or any other meat with a high protein content.  

These ingredients above are easy to prepare, on top of being inexpensive to purchase. Jim Dixon, a food writer from Portland, OR, writes about ways in which he created his own special dog dishes. He browns the ground turkey in a skillet, with a tiny bit of oil. He doesn’t cook the carrots and instead just grates them in a food processor. He then cooks the brown rice by adding it to boiling water, turning the burner off, covering, and letting sit for 15 minutes. After draining the rice, Jim mixes it all together and voila! For Jim, it costs about $6 per week to make a homemade version of store bought dog food. And it’s actually less expensive than buying the real stuff at the store.

A Simple Recipe for Homemade Dog Food

For a simple recipe to make your own dog food, there are many potential options and places to look. From a US Recall News website there’s a simple, easy to create dog food recipe that involves:  

• One boiled cooked chicken (just the meat, obviously)
• Half a bag of brown rice, cooked in with the chicken
• One cup of oats, which will be added into the mixture when the chicken is done.

This mixture should be able to feed an average sized dog for about three days, according to the website. Thus, with a few simple steps and through inexpensive means, one can create their own dog food from scratch. You’ll know what you are putting into your pet’s body and you’ll do so by saving yourself some money in the process. No more worries and no long preparation times, either. Your pet is worth it, don’t you think?

Resources:

Culinate:  Going to the Dogs.

US Recall News:  How to Make Your Dog and Cat Food the Simple Way.