Home Made Dog Food Recipe

 My mommy makes me home made dog food every 2-3 weeks because it's much better than the commercial dog food.  Here are the steps.

She uses whatever veggies that are on sale at the supermarket.  She also uses left over veggies that are used for the humans.  Make sure to use all parts of the veggies that you would usually throw away for humans - like the leaf of the cauliflower, core of the cabbage, and the stems of the bell peppers.

 Today, she is using cauliflower (99 cents a pound), green and red bell peppers (3 for $1), old cabbage, bag of frozen spinach (99 cents), ginger, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 pound of ground beef ($1.99), and 3 pounds of chicken breast ($6).
Too much garlic is bad for dogs, but garlic naturally deters fleas, so a little bit is ok. 
 
First, boil the ground beef until it gets brown, and then drain.

Then, boil the chicken breast until cooked.

We're also using a can of chunk light tuna (77 cents) and 1/4 pound of liver.  You should add some sort of offal (heart, liver, etc), and if you look in the meat department, you will often find them on clearance since most people don't like them.  Get them for clearance and then freeze it until needed.  This was $1 for a pound.  Cook the liver the last 5 minutes of the chicken. 

You also need some sort of grains.  But, most commercial dog food manufactures use corn or wheat, which are BAD for dogs.  When is the last time you've ever seen wild dogs eat corn or wheat?  The manufactures use them because they are cheap fillers.  Dogs were not meant to eat grains, so cheap grains may be the culprit to dog cancers.

Check your dog food ingredients and make sure that the first 3-4 items are NOT grains like rice, wheat, or corn. 

Use low glycemic grains, and we mostly use barley for it's cheap (find

them in bulk at Sprouts or Whole Foods for about 99 cents a pound).  

Here is about 1/2 C; rinse it well and then boil it in the same liquid that you boiled the chicken in.  Add some minced ginger (3T) and boil for 1 hour until the barley is soft.  

Cool the chicken and the liver and then cut them into small pieces. 

You can use whatever meat that you find on sale.  Sometimes, we use all beef, chicken, pork, fish, or mixture of all of the above.  I go straight to the meat clearance section and see if they have anything on clearance.  If not, beef or chicken is usually on sale for $1 - $2 and I get 3-4 pounds.


Roughly chop up the veggies including the garlic.  You have to break the cell wall of the veggies (remember that from Biology class?) and lightly cook the veggies because dog's stomach doesn't have the acid to break down the cell walls of veggies.  If you don't, they just come right out the other end.  Have you ever given your dog a piece of fruit or veggie and then saw it the next day whole, undigested in their poop?  It's cause your dog's body could not break it down, so it just passed it right through.

 So, steam the veggies in a little bit of water for about 5 - 7 minutes.  I usually just put it into a pot with about 1/2 C of water and then stir it around every 2 minutes or so.

Combine the meat and the veggies and viola!  You're all done!

I put the food into small plastic containers and then freeze it.  I've found that after 5 days in the frig, it starts to go bad, so portion it so that you only have 3-4 days worth in the refrigerator while everything else is in the freezer.  Hint: use finished containers of yogurt and cottage cheese. 
One batch makes about 3 weeks worth of food for me, but I do still give him very high quality canned dog food (like EVO, Whole Earth Farms) and I use dry dog food (like Taste of the Wild) as treats.  He also gets multi-vitamins, Vitamin E, and enzymes. 


Remember that it doesn't have to be perfect.  Your dog will eat the barley if it's overcooked or if the chicken is dry.  No need to use salt or pepper and the veggies don't have to be uniform in shape.  They will be grateful for whatever you give them!

Here is Ripley licking the bowl.  This is his favorite part.
He's been cancer free for almost a year now, and I think that home cooked, healthy food is one of the reasons!