Homemade Dog Food
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As I'm writing this blog post, our corgi, Cooper, is laying on the couch next to me and I've taken extra care to cover him up with a blanket. I'm absolutely in love with him and want the best for him! He's actually our third dog and, unfortunately, we lost our first two both to cancer. After watching them suffer, it became imminently clear that we wanted to do better by Cooper. Our first dog, we just fed dog food from the grocery store. I felt like, at the time, we were buying the best brand option, but around the time that he got sick, there were some investigations into the food because cancer was becoming a known issue from it. For our second dog, we bought a better brand of food from the pet store. Again, we thought we were doing our best with that. Whether his food was a contributing factor or not, we're not sure, but with Cooper, we wanted to do more to protect him.
We upgraded the dog food we chose for Cooper and went with that until about two years ago. At that time, our cat actually got very sick. The vet said it was likely from feeding him poor quality food and treats. We worked so hard to get him healthy again, fighting that sickness for close to six months. He, thankfully, pulled through, and we've been feeding high quality ingredient foods ever since. Our cats haven't been interested in raw food, but Cooper will eat just about anything. So, for him, we've been buying raw dog food for the last two years. I have no regrets about doing this, but it is very expensive. I've been looking into homemade dog food recipes for quite some time and finally found THIS ONE that seemed like I could not only make it, but keep up with making it.
The original recipe was a great jumping off point for me and I've made a few adjustments to make it work for us. Also, it's going to be a great base to work from so Cooper doesn't get bored with the ingredients, although, I don't think that will be an issue at all. Not only is homemade dog food relatively easy to make, but it is so much less expensive than what we had been feeding Cooper. It is not raw, however, so if that's what you're looking for, you may need something else. I didn't want to mess with making raw because of the cross contamination factor and just how closely I would have to watch it when thawing, etc. I didn't worry about the raw we were buying because someone else was making it and it came frozen. Making it ourselves just seemed like more than I wanted to deal with. I don't think there is much difference in the available nutrients between the two options though, so I'm fine with making a cooked version!
Okay, the big seller of making this homemade dog food recipe for me is that you can use a crock pot. Making it without the crock pot or slow cooker would be doable, but this makes it so much easier. I think all in, from start to finish of the whole process, is less than an hour. The only other time involved is hands-off cook time. I actually thrifted a second crock pot a few months ago for making double recipes of BONE BROTH, so I have also been making double the homemade dog food. If I'm already making the mess...might as well stock up in the process!
What You'll Need to Make Homemade Dog Food:
EXTRA LARGE STAINLESS STEEL BOWL
Ziploc bags for storage (I bought inexpensive sandwich bags from Aldi)
Ingredients to Make Homemade Dog Food:
3 lbs chicken breast
1 sweet potato
2 carrots, sliced
2 cups frozen green beans
2 cups frozen peas
1 large apple, cored and sliced (no seeds!)
1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
2 T. coconut oil
Steps to Make Homemade Dog Food:
- Add all the ingredients (except peas) to the CROCK POT
- Top with water until the meat is submerged
- Cook on low for 8-9 hours (add peas in the last 1/2 hour)
- Blend everything with your IMMERSION BLENDER
- If you're making a double batch, mix both batches in a LARGE BOWL, making sure everything is evenly blended
- Measure out individual servings into bags
- Freeze on sheet pan until solid
- Keep frozen until ready to serve-thaw a couple days worth at a time
I've already made some amendments to this recipe, but you can follow it just as is, if that's easiest for you. I do a mixture of chicken and ground lamb. You can sub out a lot of different meats, but I would do a quick research for safety before you do, just to make sure. Also, the last time I made this, I subbed pumpkin puree for the sweet potato (not pumpkin pie filling, just plain puree). Since I make a double batch, I mix both finished batches in a large bowl to make sure each serving is an equal blend. If I notice any lumps at this point, I will run the IMMERSION BLENDER through it again.
Jason and I tag team bagging up the homemade dog food and that makes it go so quickly. I scoop the food using the appropriate MEASURING CUP for the serving into the bags and he arranges them on the BAKING SHEET. Once all the bags are filled, we pop them into our deep freeze until theyre frozen solid. After that, we transfer them to our regular freezer to pull from as needed. While the dog food is fully cooked, you only want to pull out a couple days' worth at time, so you make sure it's the freshest for your dog.
The hardest part of the homemade dog food is figuring out how much to feed our dogs. I'm not an expert on this, so I did a bit of RESEARCH and landed on 3/4 of a cup of food per day. I split this in two servings, with the addition of a few supplements in one of the servings. Again, do your own research to find a serving you feel good with. Cooper does get a few "last bites" from us occasionally and a treat here and there. Corgis really have to watch their weight, to alleviate strain on their backs, so I'm ok if he's not getting a lot of extra calories. If I feel like he's losing too much weight or isn't getting enough nutrition, I can always add a cooked egg to one of his servings to supplement.
The additional supplements I give him are: crushed egg shells (I rinse them and bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes, then crush them in my blender), OMEGA OIL, PUMPKIN, and a DAILY VITAMIN. I use almost almost all products from NATIVE PET and have for years. I trust the products and have found success with them. Since I added pumpkin puree to my current batch, I don't need to add more, unless I notice that Cooper is struggling with loose stools. It really is important to stay in touch with your pets' constitutions.
I haven't done a full rundown of the cost savings on making the homemade dog food versus buying the raw dog food, but roughly, the cost of the food we had been buying was around $200 for a month(ish)'s worth. The ingredients for this recipe (minus the supplements) is around $40. I don't do any shopping around for the best deals on ingredients, but I've been buying most of them at Aldi and I know that by far, they have the best prices. If you find a sale on meat especially, and you know you're going to be making this recipe, stock up if you can! Also, the SUPPLEMENTS I listed are a better price the more servings you buy. I always grab the largest container, knowing that we're going to use them.
If you decide to try making homemade dog food, I'd love to see! Share to your INSTAGRAM and be sure to tag me!
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