Is it healthy to make "home-made" dog food?

Question

My peke is so picky and has gotten to the point that she just turns her nose up at dog food. So we got some chicken breasts and boiled them until tender, cooked some rice and added some green peas. The combined the mixture and made little food "packets" for her meals. Is this a decent alternative to dog food?

Answer 1

Very good. With the recent recall you will soon see more people making their own food. Here are two web sites where you can find more recipes.

www pet-grub.com
pets.onyxopenions.co

Good luck.

Answer 2

I would actually suggest raw over the homecooked but home cooked is still better than what they offer you at the pet food store. I looked into homecooked diet look at the books out thier that suggest natural health for cats and dogs they have very helpfull recipeis but when you cook the food you seem to have to add tons of supplements. There are a few recipie books too but the one I got was rather complicated and the ingredients were strange and you were supposed to add bone meal so I thought why not just go raw. I think you are on the right track for homeade food but I would say no milk use yogurt instead

Answer 3

Dogs are carnivores..their diet should be made up of mainly meat, organ meat and bones..grains are not a necassary part of a dogs diet and actually dogs aren't designed to extract much nutrition from them.

If you want to feed a raw or homecooked diet for your dog you need to do it correctly in order to maintain proper nutrition. Just throwing meat and rice and a veggie or two together isn't going to do it.
Some good books to get on the subject :
Raw Dog Food: Make it easy for you and your dog by Carina Beth Mcdonald
Natural Nutrition for dogs & cats; The Ultimate Diet by Kymythy Schultze
Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog by Wendy Volhard and Kerry Brown, DVM

Answer 4

When you think about it, what does your dog need from its food in order to be healthy?

Today our pets have a wide variety to meet their tastes and needs and we have our choice of what kind of food we can choose to feed them. Despite the variety, pet foods usually fall into three major categories. These categories are: Grocery store foods, these types of dog and pet foods are usually found in grocery stores and mass marketed retailers and can contain lower quality, less expensive ingredients. The second category is "premium dog foods," which can also be found in grocery's stores but are also found in pet stores and through your local veterinarian's office. These types of foods are usually made from some higher quality ingredients and are usually made evident by the expense of the food. Some of these pet foods though can contain lower quality ingredients that you aren't aware of. The third and final category is homemade dog food.More and more people are beginning to make their dog's food at home rather than buying commercial formulas. Homemade dog food doesn't contain any substances that could possibly be harmful to your dog's health such as artificial coloring and artificial flavors.

Another reason to make homemade dog food is the preservatives added to the commercial dog food. Homemade dog food has the benefit of optimum freshness without preservatives.

There are dogs that would greatly benefit from a homemade diet. Some dogs who suffer from allergies that cause severe itching may find relief once switched from commercial dog food to a homemade diet.

Processed dog food is a relatively new product and scientists don't fully understand the differences between commercial food and a diet of fresh food. There may be problems occurring in a dog's health because he is being given food that has had the nutrients cooked out of it and then sprayed back on.


Would you like to prolong the quality and length of your dog's life by 135%?You should keep your dog healthy by homemade dog food.

Answer 5

I'm not a vetranarian but, I am into eating healthy and your recipe seems much healthier than anything selling. And by the way, there is a scare recently and some dogs are dying from eating canned food. Liver failure! Very sad! I don't know if it's nationwide but it is in California. I have a cat and since the scare I will not give her anything but dry food and my own meat I have cooked that day. So don't worry. Probably dry food is necessary because they need the roughage that it provides. It just makes sense what you are making. I fed my cat tuna and that was not good because of the salt content but fresh meat. That's what they eat in the wild.

Answer 6

Yes!

It is a wonderful mix vegetables rice and meat the perfect and balanced healthy diet it's way better than dog food from the store no wonder she likes it so much!

Let me say that your dog has really good taste when it comes to food, yes it may be a hassle to prepare it from your side but trust me the food you are giving her right now is 10 times better than the stuff you buy from the store at least you know exactly what is in her food, unlike store bought you never know what they put in that stuff!........

Answer 7

Hi.. I've been making homemade dinners and vegetables for my two dogs since they were babies! Thank goodness for that now that I see the problems going on with all this!! I buy chicken thighs, its cheap and easy! I package 4 pieces in tin foil at a time and freeze them.. I take a package out every morning to thaw in the sink on napkins so that nothing gets contaminated from bacteria... put the chicken on a plate, cover it with paper towels and microwave this for 9 minutes or so! let cool and cut into bite size pieces for my dogs to enjoy! To give them a change in menu, I would add some brown rice, cooked carrots and broccoli on occassion... For breakfast.. I throw a few eggs in a microwave safe bowl with some oil (for their coats) and they devour this in the morning! Once a month for dinner I'll microwave some beef liver for them too.. They smell it and come running!! Hope this helps all our animal lovers out there!! My dogs thank me everday!!

Answer 8

Yes it is a very good dog food even if a little expensive. You just need to make sure your dog doesn't get over weight with the amount you feed.

Answer 9

It's an alternative, but healthy, I don't know.
But the dogs likes it and in my opinion it's not bad. Nowadays dogs get ready-made dogfoods, but formerly many dogs ate the rests of the dinner and these dogs remained healthy, too.

Answer 10

My parents live in Southamerica. Dog food over there, is very expensive so they feed the dog with groundbeef and rice and he always gets a bone for bonus.
He has been in the family for almost 8 years under that diet and seems to be very happy. By the way, he is a german shepperd dog.