Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Make Your Dog’s Food

I get it! You’re super busy, and cooking for Fido isn’t on the list of priorities. There are many compelling reasons why you should make your dog’s food. Trust me on this. I know you want your dog to live a long, healthy life. Here are reasons why you should make your dog’s food (at least once in awhile).

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Make Your Dog’s Food

1. Our Dogs are Family Members

Your dog is your Best Friend and a loving family member! Consequently, no one should reward their loyal, ever-present BFF with crunchy, processed, bagged, burnt kibble bits day in and day out! Nevertheless, if your dog is like most, he probably gobbles his kibble. Of course, kibble companies spray their products with flavor enhancers to make them more palatable. Plus, when you’re really hungry, like your dog is around meal time, you might eat anything too. Imagine rewarding your Best Friend with a wholesome, nutritious and varied meal plan. What a fine reward for being such a loyal Best Friend and revered family member!

2. It’s More Economical

Before you argue that making your dog’s food can’t be more economical than kibble, it’s not. Nothing will be cheaper than bagged processed food. However, if you compare making your dog’s food to purchasing a fresh subscription food service, small batch homemade dog food, or commercially produced raw, cooking for your dog IS the most economical.

Additionally, in my exhaustive research of subscription and commercially prepared dog food services, I found the products to be fairly pricey. Prices ranged from $5.50 to $11.00 per pound. You can make your dog’s food for much less than that. On the other hand, when I prepare a batch of food for Wally and Oliver, I spend around $40/week on meat and vegetables. Plus, $20-30/month on supplements to add to the food.

3. You’re Minimizing Your Pet’s Carbon Pawprint

If you pay any attention to the news, you know that pet food production has a HUGE carbon footprint. There’s an environmental cost associated with transporting and processing the products. Pet food is estimated to be responsible for 1/4 of the carbon footprint of the meat industry.

Equally important, pet food is packaged in petroleum-based plastic bags, which are bad for the planet. When you make your dog’s food, you can choose local, seasonal and fresh products that don’t need to be transported across the country. If you’re a green thumb, you can even grow some of the veggies. Plus, many local farms are often happy to move organs and byproducts that we prefer not to eat ourselves. Our dogs love and benefit from eating organs!

4. YOU Control the Quality of the Food

Need another reason why you should make your dog’s food? No more crossing your fingers and hoping that your pet’s food isn’t part of a massive recall. No more wondering just what’s in that kibble bag. Accordingly, when you make your dog’s food, you control the quality of the meats. You can choose fresh, natural, high-quality meats and vegetables. You control where the protein and vegetables come from, and can support a small farmer in the process. As a result, your Best Friend will appreciate and love you just a little more!

5. Ready to Get Started?

You don’t have to be a pro-level dog food chef or even know what you’re doing to get started! As a matter of fact, can start with a simple meat and vegetable recipe and use it as a meal topper with kibble. While not nutritionally balanced, this is an acceptable whole-food topper. Use any lean meat and a dog-friendly vegetable like broccoli or green beans.

• Puree vegetables in a food processor or blender
• Lightly brown meat; don’t overcook
• If you want to add organ meat, stick with the same meat family (ex. beef liver with ground beef, chicken liver with ground chicken or turkey)
• Organ meats can be blended, chopped or added whole, just make sure to keep organ meats at about 7%-10% of the total
• Combine veggies (and organs) at the end to lightly steam
• Store small portions in reusable containers in the fridge for 1-3 days; more can be stored in the freezer for up to a month

Once again, this recipe is not balanced so should be fed as a topper or complemented with the proper nutrient supplement.

A Word of Caution

I caution you that many homemade dog diets are nutritionally incomplete. Eating only a nutritionally incomplete diet will cause your dog to become deficient in key nutrients that support her skeletal, immune, and organ health. Here are reasons why your dog needs a complete and balanced diet.

Looking for More Resources?

There are many companies that will help you set up properly balanced recipes along with necessary supplements. Check out these websites:

BalanceIT will help you formulate hundreds of balanced recipes and produces a marvelous supplement product to support full nutrition without deficiencies.

Animal Diet Formulator helps you generate different balanced recipes for a fee. Even so, this is a worthwhile service, as the renowned Dr. Barbara Royal and Steve Brown have formulated the recipes. Additionally, if you’d rather not pay the fee you can access their food formulating software for $5.00.

JustFoodForDogs also provides commercially prepared meals and recipes for homemade meals, along with the supplements to balance nutrition properly.

Dr. Mercola created a Meal Mix for Dogs along with a recipe creator. Additionally, you can formulate your own recipes and add the Meal Mix supplement to balance nutrition properly.

Complete and Balanced Turkey Recipe; formulated by yours truly. I used the BalanceIT software to come up with a recipe that needs minimal supplementation.

There are so many reasons why you should make your dog’s food, and I know you want your Best Friend to stick around for a good long time. Why not start today?