Take charge of your animal’s health:
Make Your Own Pet Food
Last year dogs died or became ill because of a large batch of contaminated grain-based dry food. Right now, recalled pet food from one of the largest manufacturers of food in North America is responsible for killing many family pets. What’s safe to feed? To provide the best food of all, take control of the ingredients and make it yourself.
Here are recipes for two size batches of food. It’s quite simple to put together a “complete and balanced” diet – and it will be tastier and more nutritious than anything you can buy. We’ll discuss the components of the diet and the supplements you need after we give you the basic recipes, and give you guidelines about how much to feed.
The natural diet of dogs consisted of about 85% meat and bone from small prey animals and some larger ones, and various scavenged foods, some fruits and grasses. It was high in water and protein, contained a moderate amount of fat from relatively lean prey animals with excellent omega 3 content, and whole vegetation with lots of vitamins and antioxidants. The prey animals of cats are smaller and have less bone, and the veggies are a smaller proportion of their diet.
Our recipes replicate that balance. They’ve been compared to our analyses of the prey diet, to the AAFCO (pet food standard) guidelines, and the 2006 National Research Council recommendations: http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/dog_nutrition_final.pdf. There is no grain in our recipes. Grain is not a natural part of the diet of dogs or cats and causes ill health in many ways. The potential for harm from toxins in grain-based food is completely avoided by eliminating grain from the ingredient list.
Boneless food for dogs, small batch
Enough for a medium sized dog for one day, or several days for a small dog
| Boneless chicken or beef, 90% lean | 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) | |
| Liver and heart | 2 ounces (1/4 cup) (1 ounce each) | |
| Veggie and fruit mix | 3-4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) | |
| Bone Meal or MCHA | 1 level tablespoon | |
| Sea Salt | 1/8 teaspoon |
Boneless food for dogs, large batch:
Enough for about a week for a 50 pound dog
| Boneless chicken or beef, 90% lean | 9 pounds (18 cups) | |
| Liver and heart | 1/2 pound each (1 cup each) | |
| Veggie and fruit mix | 2 pounds (4 cups) | |
| Bone Meal or MCHA | 3.5 ounces (a little less than 1/2 cup) | |
| Sea Salt | 2 teaspoons (6 grams) |
Boneless food for cats, small batch
Enough for several days: cats like variety, so make at least two kinds and rotate! Please note: You must use the heart for taurine and feed fish (preferably canned salmon) at least once per week.
| Boneless chicken or beef, 90% lean | 14 ounces (1 1/2 cups) | |
| Liver and heart | (1/4 cup) (1 ounce each) | |
| Veggie and fruit mix | 1-2 ounces (about 1/4 cup) | |
| Bone Meal or MCHA | 2 teaspoons | |
| Sea Salt | 1/8 teaspoon |
Meat Mix
The larger recipe will provide food for about 7-10 days for a 50# dog, assuming that the dog eats about 1.25# a day. If you have smaller dogs, it might last 10. However, it wouldn’t last that long in the refrigerator. Freeze food that will not be used in a couple of days.
You can use beef, chicken, pork, turkey, or fish for the meat. These recipes are for lean meats only.
Organ meats provide minerals and other nutrients that are essential: they must be included. Many humans don’t like to deal with organ meats. It may be more pleasant to deal with a larger amount of food than with a daily preparation event. You might be able to have your butcher grind organs and meat together for you. Organ meats are a requirement for both cats and dogs,
You can cook the meat, or serve it raw. In our experience, raw meat-based foods are far safer than commercial grain-based foods. However, if it’s your opinion that raw meat-based foods are unsafe, cook the meat. It’s still better and fresher than anything you can buy.
Fish (mackerel, salmon, sardines) should be included at least once or twice a week If you feed fish at this rate, you are unlikely to need fatty acid supplements like fish oil. Canned fish usually has bone and salt in it, so leave out the bone meal and salt on fish days. Never feed raw salmon. Feed cats salmon once a week to provide necessary nutrients
Eggs are an excellent source of good fats, choline and protein. See our article on this site for more information about eggs!
Veggie Mix
Cut up your fruits and vegetables and puree them. What goes into your veggie and fruit mix changes with the season. In winter, broccoli, greens, apple, and carrot can be a good base. In summer there is much more variety. Then go for melons and zucchini and whatever looks good. Broccoli, celery, and greens (spinach, chard, collards, broccoli, kale, “mixed baby field greens”) are an easy combination. Zucchini, peppers, cucumber, and parsley are another. Fresh parsley is a great source of vitamin C! Apple, orange, carrot, berries, pumpkin, melons of all kinds, pears, papaya are all excellent choices.
Cook sweet potatoes, green beans, and other starchy vegetables: they are better digested if cooked. Canned pumpkin is an easy addition.
It’s easy to blend up big batch of veggie mix at a time and freeze it. However, because the produce is raw, it does not have a long freezer life. Enzymes continue to act even at freezing temperatures. Make about what you can use in a month, and freeze in containers that you can use in a couple of days. Cooking halts enzyme action. If the mix is cooked, it will last longer in the freezer.
The veggie mixes below are just examples. Your mix will be customized to the needs and preferences of your animals, and to seasonal variation of produce. Vegetables with a lot of color are the best nutrition buy. Broccoli, for example, has more vitamins than cabbage, in the same veggie family.
Veggie mix 1 |
Veggie mix 2 |
Veggie mix 3 |
1# broccoli |
1.5# zucchini |
1# blanched green beans |
4 oz celery |
4 oz chard |
4 oz. romaine |
4 oz carrot |
4 oz. ripe pepper, red or green |
6 oz tomato |
6 oz apple |
6 oz honeydew |
5 oz watermelon |
2 oz. raspberries |
2 oz blueberries |
1 oz piece papaya |
Essential Inclusions for a Fresh Food Diet
Bone, bonemeal, or MCHA for calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium.
Per pound of 90% lean meat mix, add 2 teaspoons of bone meal or MCHA. MCHA is freeze dried bone, usually organic from New Zealand. If you’re preparing organic food, this is the product to use.
Do not use eggshell powder instead of bone meal or MCHA. It isn’t the same thing. “Experts” who recommend this have not done the calculations necessary to make this balance correct!
Salt is missing in home-made diets because we don’t feed blood (and some blood-rich organs). Add 1/8 teaspoon, slightly heaping, of sea salt to 1# of meat mix. If you use canned fish with salt, no need for added salt in that meal.
Trace Minerals should be supplemented, for the same reason as we add salt. Liquids are easy: Body Balance is a good one, as is Animinerals minerals. Many trace mineral supplements are formulated with a specific purpose, and might overload in one area. These two supplements are designed for general support.
Good additions, but not essential.
Digestive enzymes with Pancreatin provide digestive support and enzymes that are missing when all parts of the prey animals are not fed.
Glandular Powders also help to cover internal organs and body parts we don’t feed. Heart and liver are included in the daily diet, but not the smaller and harder to find organs. We are not feeding whole animals: so including the missing parts will get the diet closer to the prey model. Pet’s Friend makes a good pet product, “Pet G.O”.
Ground Brazil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts
A good source of trace minerals, vitamin E and high quality fats.
How much food does it take?
Every animal is different. Young dogs and small dogs eat more for their size. They may eat 3-5% of their body weight in prepared food a day, or more for puppies. Older and less active dogs may thrive on 2-3% of body weight. Weigh your animal when you start to prepare your own food. If he needs to lose, take it slow. Weigh him frequently to be sure you are feeding the right amount to maintain optimum weight.
Dogs fed fattier meats need less food than those fed lean meats, but lean meats will provide a diet that is in the natural balance for dogs and cats, with more calories coming from protein than fat.
Treats
Eliminate “junk food” treats. Many “problems” that don’t go away when dogs are switched to fresh food are traced to treats – we forget to include them in what we count as food! Dogs and cats don’t know the difference. Feed them real food. They like it better anyway.
Food for dogs and cats is really pretty simple. It does take some time. Take that time, and you will be confident that your animals are eating as well as you are. Maybe better!
© Steve Brown and Beth Taylor 2007
See Spot Live Longer
This article may be reproduced for educational purposes with the above credits included
