Making Your Dog’s Food at Home

I begun making our dogs’ food at home consistently when my doghter Zilli (my Vizsla) had some health issues.

Until then, I thought about making their (dogs) food at home, but I never took the action. I was too busy, I was already giving them good food, I thought it would be too hard to figure out what to feed them, etc etc etc.

Then one day I came to the realization buying the best food bowl, the best dog toys, the best dog bed for my dogs were nice gestures for my dogs. However, if I am being totally honest with mySelf they were mostly to make me feel better about mySelf as a dog owner. But they did not contribute much to the health and well being of my dog. After all other than taking our dogs to vet for  regular check-ups what we feed them is the most impactful thing for their health.

Technically speaking there is nothing wrong with feeding your dog commercially made food .

Technically speaking you could eat McDonald’s every meal. But if you were to eat every meal at McDonald’s you can -and should expect some health complications down the road. This is not to poop on Mickey D’s (my first employer), but to point out whenever the food we eat is heavily processed, it naturally loses the nutrients our bodies need.

Think about it.  Why everyone loves the taste of home grown tomatoes vs the one you get from the grocery store.  The reason home cooked meals “feel” better when we eat them, is because for our bodies they ARE better. They just are. Don’t take my word for it, just refer to your own life experience.  

My first assumption was I was too busy to make dog food at home. I thought most days I don’t even cook for myself. There is no way I have time for cooking dog food at home. But it literally takes no time to put all the ingredients into a crock pot, turn it on and 8-9 hours later I have enough food cooked for roughly 10 days.

Assumption #2 was I was already feeding them “premium food”. I know we all want to believe the premium dog food we buy at the store is indeed premium. Then I recognized all the horrible crap FDA allows to be in the human food, what must be “allowed” in dog food.

Assumption #3 was It’s going to be hard to figure it out. Yes just like everything else there was learning curve to making my dog food at home until I got comfortable with it. I think after the 3rd time making it I felt like a pro.

There are infinite ways and combinations to making your dog food. This is just how I make my dog’s food. My purpose for this post is to be the catalyst for you to try it for yourSelf. Give it a try for a month and see how you like it…… I know your dog will love it.  If it works continue. If not you can always but another bag of dog food.

Use a big enough Crock Pot. Crock Pot is what makes things super easy. Larger the crock pot more dog food you can make. I’m not sure how big ours is, but I know it’s relatively big. I simply put all the prepped ingredient in the crock pot, let everything cook for eight or nine hours, and I am done. It’s that easy

Food Processor is a miracle. When I first started I didn’t use a food processor.  I was just cutting veggies to small pieces and cook them that way. Since everything is cooked for long time in the crock pot they all kind of blended together. Then, one day my wife introduced me to our food processor. WOW! That thing is amazing. You don’t need one, but you want one. I went from cutting veggies for 30 minutes to 10 minutes.

Keep it Simple. Don’t get overwhelmed with ingredients, If you don’t have a kitchen scale just buy frozen veggies; The bag tells you how much they weigh. The meat you buy will already have the weight on it.

Remember your “Why.” I have done it long enough to actually love making my dog’s food. I love picking the veggies, I am consciously flowing and infusing the food with my love and appreciation for my dogs. When I’m chopping the veggies, when I’m blending the ingredients, I consciously think how much I love my dog(s), how much they love eating it, how happy they are, and how happy they make me just being with me. Love was the secret ingredient of my grand mother’s cooking, and it is my secret ingredient too.

The photo has everything I use. And you might be a little overwhelmed (especially if you noticed that large bowl of organ meat)  Don’t start there unless you’re Enneagram 3 or Type A.

The first couple of years I used

• 3lbs of meat (half pork and half ground beef)
• 1 lbs of broccoli  or Brussel sprouts which ever was on sale (some times 2 bags of frozen type)
• 1 1/2 lbs of  zucchini  (some times 3 bags of frozen green beans)
• 4 Carrots
• 1 can of Dark kidney beans
• 6tbs of coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric and Mustard
• 1/3 tsp calcium <THIS IS IMPORTANT to have
• 1 cup of Brown Rice

Chop all the veggies, and put everything EXCEPT the rice in to slow cooker, add 4 cups of water.

Cook at LOW HEAT for 8 hours. Then add the rice, and cook for another hour.

That’s it. Turn everything off and let the food cool. That should give you about 10lbs of food. If you have a small dog, you can freeze the extra. It takes 24-36 hours to thaw in the fridge and about 4 hours on the counter.

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