My sweet boy deserves THE BEST and so does your pup! I started making Cowboy homemade dog food about a year and a half ago. He was 12 at the time and was having some health issues and started losing mobility in his back legs due to DM. This totally broke our hearts and everything I read about the diagnosis was that he didn’t have much time left with us so I wanted to make the time he had the best it could possibly be and treat him like the king is with this homemade dog food recipe. Who doesn’t love a home cooked meal?!

Why I Ditched Store Bought Dog Food

Cowboy has always had digestive issues. When he was on Purina or any other type of “regular” dog food he would have “episodes”. These episodes included uncontrollable diarrhea, a lot of times it was bloody. It terrified us. That food wrecked his system. We tried everything and every food we could (even prescription dog food! And yes it was crazy expensive!) to help him.

As Cowboy got older he started developing these “fatty deposits”. We took him to the vet to make sure everything was okay and the vet always told us they were benign and nothing to worry about. After looking in to these “fatty deposits” I realized that they weren’t “nothing to worry about”. He was developing these deposits because the food he was eating he couldn’t process it. So his body basically was creating a defense system and taking all of the bad stuff he was eating and instead of it going in to his system his body would store it in places and it created these “fatty deposits”. I really wish the vet would have been more clear on this. We had no idea until years later when I really dove in to research.

So the hunt was on again to try to feed Cowboy the best food, when it dawned on me, I don’t want to put processed food in my body why would I put it in his. I ditched store brand food and started perfecting this homemade dog food recipe.

I have tried so many different ingredient options and ways to make his food. He was in heaven with homemade dog food. He was so excited to eat again! And it never failed every time I would make it my dad would come home and be like “YUM! What are you cooking?!” 😂 DOG FOOD!

Tips for Making Homemade Dog Food

1. Always make sure these ingredients are SAFE for your dog. Some of the healthy stuff we eat as human isn’t good for your dog. Look below for a list of ingredients that you can put in your homemade dog food.
2. Don’t make too big of a batch. We used to try to make as big of a batch as possible and freeze the food, but realized towards the end of the batch Cowboy was not too happy with the quality. Cowboy is quite picky, but I can assume that most dogs would appreciate fresher food.
3. Figure out the right serving size for your dog. Serving sizes are not one size fits all. Do your research to see how much your dog should be consuming on a daily basis. You don’t want to over feed them, but you also don’t want to leave them hungry.
4. Figure out what works best for you in terms of how to cook the food. There are so many different ways: crock pot, stove top, fresh veggies that just need to be chopped, etc.
5. Figure out veggies that your dog will eat first before making a huge batch. Cowboy does not care for some veggies and I was so disappointed when I made a huge batch of homemade dog food and he turned his nose up at it 😂 Save yourself some time and effort and get to know what they like.

My Favorite Ingredients to use

Mix and match, try different things to switch it up! Just make sure you are getting the proper nutrients in each batch of your homemade dog food recipe.

• Chicken
• Turkey
• Beef
• Liver
• Gizzards
• Coconut oil
• Chia Seeds
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Peas
• Carrots
• Wild blueberries
• Bananas
• Long grain rice
• Black beans
• Sweet potatoes

How to Cook Homemade Dog Food

Cooking in the crock pot

I started out cooking smaller batches in the crock pot. It was the easiest way for me to do as little work as possible. I would put the veggies, then the rice, then more veggies, and then raw chicken on top. Cook on low for 4-6 hours until the chicken in thoroughly cooked. This method definitely makes your whole house smell like food. After a while we started associating the smell with DOG FOOD and were so put off I couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to start cooking it a different way to keep the house from smelling. 🤣 I literally can’t eat black beans anymore because I associate them with dog food!

Cooking on the stove

This was probably the most tedious way to took this homemade dog food recipe. I thought well why don’t I just cook the chicken in the oven and then throw all the veggies in a pot to cook and then mix it all together?! Well, everything has a different cooking time and it didn’t quite work out as planned for me. I used way too many dishes this way. But maybe you’ll find a better system. I would cook the rice in one pot and then in a separate pot I would cook the veggies depending on time they need. I.E. the veggies that need the most cooking time went in first and then I would gradually add the others in when it was there time because they didn’t need as long to cook.

Fresh Veggie Style

Your dog might like the crunch of fresh veggies, but Cowboy does not. Haha! Such a picky boy! He specifically leaves certain veggies in the bowl and eat everything else and I’m then left with a bowl of peas and broccoli (eat your greens Cowboy!). I find that cooking his veggies make them all meld together and he loved the taste of everything and most importantly ATE everything!

How I cook Cowboy’s Homemade Dog Food

1. Start cooking the rice on the stove top. The rice always seems to take the longest so I always start it first.
2. Rinse and chop everything. All his broccoli needs to be chopped down and his sweet potatoes need to be cut in to cubes. I would cut the liver and gizzards down to small pieces as well.
3. Once everything is cut, start cooking the veggies. You can either buy frozen veggies you just need to microwave or fresh veggies that need to be cooked on the stove top if you would like you can use a bit of coconut oil while cooking. I typically have a mix of each depending on what I could find or what I have time to cook, but fresh veggies are definitely going to be the better option health wise.
4. After the veggies, I cook the protein. I always cook the liver and gizzards on the stove top together, no oil needs to be added they do not need it. If you try to cook the liver by itself it will stick to the pan and create a little mess that needs to be scrubbed. For the chicken I bake it in the oven until done and then chop it in small cubes. For beef I brown it on the stove top in a pan.
5. I bought these giant bowls to use to mix everything together. I make semi big batches. It is usually about 15-20 days at a time. I make sure each bowl has relatively the same amount of each ingredient and mix thoroughly.
6. Last but not least, add your extra goodies that don’t need to be cooked like coconut oil and chia seeds.

Have you decided to ditch store bought? Let me know if you try homemade dog food and if you have any suggestions for others. I’d love to hear from you!

See more recipes (for humans!) here!