![]() The total amount should be about one ounce of fish per pound of other meats (including RMBs). You can feed small amounts of fish daily, or larger amounts once or twice a week. ![]() ![]() Remove bones from fish you cook yourself, and never feed raw Pacific salmon, trout, or related species. Canned fish with bones, such as sardines (packed in water, not oil), jack mackerel, and pink salmon, are good choices. Heart is a good choice, as it is lean and often less expensive than other muscle meats.įish: Provides vitamin D, which otherwise should be supplemented. Read a full report on raw meaty bones here.īoneless Meat: Include both poultry and red meat. Use the lower end of the range if you feed bony parts such as chicken necks and backs, but you can feed more if you’re using primarily meatier parts such as chicken thighs. Raw Meaty Bones (optional): If you choose to feed them, RMBs should make up one third to one half of the total diet. It’s better to feed dark meat poultry than breast, however, unless your dog requires a very low-fat diet. Unless your dog gets regular, intense exercise, use lean meats (no more than 10 percent fat), remove skin from poultry, and cut off separable fat. Another potential hazard of diets containing too much fat: If an owner restricts the amount fed (in order to control the dog’s weight) too much, the dog may suffer deficiencies of other required nutrients. A raw diet for dogs can be excessively high in fat, which can lead to obesity. Meat and Other Animal Products: Should always make up at least half of the diet. Leftovers from your table can be included as long as they’re foods you would eat yourself, not fatty scraps. No single type of food, such as chicken, should ever make up more than half the diet.Įxcept where specified, homemade food for dogs can be fed either raw or cooked. GUIDELINES TO CREATING BALANCED HOMEMADE DOG FOOD RECIPESįollowing are guidelines for feeding a raw or cooked home-prepared diet to healthy dogs. See “ Puppy Food: Nutritional Guidelines to Maximize Health,” for more on puppy nutrition. Large-breed puppies are particularly at risk from too much calcium prior to puberty. Keep in mind that puppies are more susceptible to problems caused by nutritional deficiencies or excesses than adult dogs are. As long as your dog doesn’t have a health problem that requires a very specific diet, homemade dog food should be the same way.įor more on homemade dog treats, see “ DIY Gifts for Dogs: Homemade Dog Treats & Healthy Recipes.” Instead, a human would be given guidelines in terms of food groups and portion sizes. Similar to the way humans eat, as long as your dog gets everything he needs spread out over each week or two, his diet will be complete and balanced.Ī human nutritionist would never expect someone to follow a single recipe with no variation, as veterinary nutritionists routinely do. Home-prepared dog diets that include a wide variety of foods fed at different meals rely on balance over time, not at every meal. It is not important, however, that every meal be complete and balanced, unless you feed the same meal every day with little or no variation. It’s important homemade dog food is “complete and balanced,” meaning it meets all of the dog’s nutritional needs. You do not want just one dog food recipe to follow – you need several, and need to be comfortable mixing and matching ingredients, for reasons explained below. Here’s how to make dog food at home, and specific guidelines to help ensure that the dog food diet you feed meets your individual dog’s requirements. Too often, people think that they’re feeding healthy homemade dog food, when key ingredients may be missing or are fed in excess. Problems arise with how healthy dog food is interpreted. The best diet for dogs, in effect, is a diverse diet. Just as with the diet you feed yourself and your family, feeding a wide variety of healthy foods in appropriate proportions should meet the needs of most healthy dogs. I want to be clear, though: I don’t believe this is a requirement for feeding home-cooked dog food. To do this, I analyzed the cooked and raw homemade dog food diets and compared them to the National Research Council’s guidelines for canine nutrition. In the past few issues of Whole Dog Journal, I have offered critiques on homemade dog food diets in order to address the dog’s health concerns – or simply to optimize the dog’s diet plan. Review your homemade dog food diet plan with a veterinarian for approval. Keep in mind that the less variety of foods you feed, the more important supplements become.ĥ.
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