Homemade Dog Food

both our danes have a pretty sensitive stomachs, one more than the other so we're constantly cooking chicken and rice for them.  i've wanted to add more ingredients to make it a bit more nutritious so i set out on a search for various homemade dog food recipes. yesterday i made 5 different types for them.


i tried two that i found, two i made up and our staple of chicken, rice and veggies. before you do this consult with your vet and please please please read the list of harmful foods for dog! a lot of these won't kill your furry friend right away, but it's definitely not good for them. also, take into account the size of your dog. bentley at 130lbs, has eaten half a chocolate bar he stole off the counter and been fine where as a 3lb yorkie may have to be rushed to the vet.

as i said before, we've been making chicken and rice whenever one of them got an upset stomach and it became an every day thing after kenzie was diagnosed with pneumonia. so...



 i'll start with what i bought and the prices i paid for this trip. it was sort of an experiment to see what was easy and what they liked - so i overspent a little. oops.

20 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast ($1.99/lb)
20 lbs ground beef ($25.93)
5 lbs ground turkey ($8.78) (could get away with half)
18ct eggs ($2.24)
4 boxes of instant rice ($3.64 ea) (i used 3)
2 big bags of frozen peas ($1.98 ea)
2 big bags of frozen green beans ($1.03)
1 bunch of kale ($1.18)
3 sweet potatoes ($1.28/lb)
4 apples ($0.98/lb)
5 lb carrots ($2.48/bundle) *

(just under $85 total)

* next time i will definitely buy the frozen bags of peas & carrots combo or just frozen carrots, because chopping them was dreadful! (i also had a couple bags of frozen veggies in the freezer already.)

when i mix everything i try and stay at a 40-50% protein, 25% rice, 25% veggies. and all in all between the rice needed for the loaves and to mix i made 48 cups of cooked rice.

one.
the first thing I tried was this crock pot recipe that i found here. its super easy and would work great if you have small dogs or want to do this every day or so, but for us this would last maybe one day so it's not feasible. but if it is for you..

1.2 lb      boneless skinless chicken
20 oz      ground turkey
2             apples (cored and deseeded)
1 lb         bag of carrots
1 lb         bag of frozen peas



put the chicken then ground turkey in the crock pot. 

 then dump in your apples & veggies.

 cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6. once it's done stir everything together and combine with rice.

SUPER EASY, but i would need a about 10 crockpots going at once to make it work.
















two.
Next i mixed all the stuff for the mini meatloaves found here. i doubled the recipe and used ground beef instead of turkey.

4 lbs     ground turkey
4           eggs (blended with shells - trust me)
6 C       cooked rice
16 oz.   peas
6           carrots, diced
2           apple, diced

preheat your oven to 375 degrees and combine all ingredients.

 i put a small handful in each cup and bake for 30 minutes.

i will say only 12 actually held together so for the ones that didn't i put into a bowl and combined it. these smell amazing and i'm trying to figure out a way to be able to just cook this all (maybe in a normal loaf pan?) and combine it and serve it as a rice/beef mixture, which would be better for our large dogs anyway.


three.
this next recipe i sort of made up..

3 lb     ground beef
14       eggs (blended with shells)
1         large bag frozen peas
1         large bag of green beans
3         carrots, chopped

 brown ground beef

 add in eggs

then, add in veggies until soft...

mix with rice & done!

four.

i don't have pictures of this one and it's another experiment. I browned the last 3(ish)lbs of ground beef and added in the kale and 2 sweat potatoes, chopped into small pieces. I added about a half a cup of chicken broth (from the chicken i had boiling), covered and let simmer until the potatoes were soft. then mixed with rice. 

five.

this is our staple chicken and rice recipe. 

chicken

rice, instant

frozen veggies

i boiled the remaining chicken breasts (2 breasts less than 20lbs) and shredded it. 

* note - if you have a mixer, especially a kitchen aid, you can shred chicken SUPER easy by 'mixing' the chicken like this..

after the chicken breast was done i used the broth to boil the remaining frozen veggies and left over carrots and potatoes. 

mix it with some rice and you have an easy fairly bland diet for your pooch. now if only they could learn how to do the dishes! 

we'll see how these work. I have a feeling i'll keep doing the chicken, rice & veggies and the ground beef, veggie and eggs.

this made us just under two weeks worth. 

enjoy!