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My Homemade Dog Food Recipe

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I never thought of myself as being one of those people who cooked for their dogs. Heck, I don’t even like cooking for people (though I do it almost every night).

So what has changed my attitude towards making my dogs’ food? Two very picky Yorkies with one having severe allergies.

My chihuhuas Lucy and Lucas will eat pretty much anything you put in front of them. My Yorkies are very picky and when they do like something, they may like it for a few days and then turn their noses up at it.

black yorkie and orange and white chihuahua eating dog food

So we have some variety. I have several different kinds of meals that I feed them and we switch those every few days. The other foods I feed them aren’t homemade, but they are high-quality home-delivered food. Even though the home-delivered food is more expensive than many of the dog foods found in stores, they don’t aggravate Ziggy’s allergies and I feel better about giving all the dogs human-grade food. Also since I don’t feed it to them every day, it’ lasts longer than it would if they ate it daily.

Yorkie in blue sweater eating dog food

So the way it works is I will do 2 days of the food I make, then I will do a day or two of home-delivered food, and then another day or two of my food, and so on. This way they will always eat what I give them.

So you are probably thinking, get on with it, get to the recipe. Okay, here you go:

Cathy’s Dog Food Recipe for Picky Dogs

Ingredients:

Ingredients for homemade dog food recipe
  • 1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
  • 1-2 Tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
  • 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 bag frozen mixed veggies, prepared according to directions
  • 1 cup brown rice, cook according to directions ( I often switch this out for cubed sweet potatoes and sometimes pumpkin)
  • 1 can tuna
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 to 1 cup Beef bone broth
  • Dog Vitamins (I use these)

Instructions:

  1. Cook up your ground beef or turkey in olive or coconut oil.
  2. While the meat is cooking, prepare your rice (or sweet potatoes) and mixed veggies.
  3. When the meat is almost done, add the eggs and scramble them with the meat until cooked through.
  4. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and cool in the fridge.
  5. Transfer to a sealed container.
  6. I feed my dogs 1/3 cup of this at mealtimes. I will often add a small amount (about 1/8 cup) of dry food to give them something crunchy to eat with it.
  7. You can store this in the fridge for up to a week and you can also freeze it.

So is the extra work worth it to me to make their food? Yes! It doesn’t take long to make it. Maybe 20 minutes. And I control what is in their food.

Ziggy’s allergies are under control now and both Yorkies will eat this food as long as I vary it every couple of days with something different. Of course, Lucas and Lucy love the homemade food too and they would be fine with having it every night.

If you are interested in the other foods the dogs eat here is the list. I have written articles about them and will add the links to those if you are interested:

A Pup Above dog food

Ollie Dog Food

My vet has checked over my recipe and approved it. The only suggestion he had was to add some dog vitamins which I did.

Let me know if you try it and if your dog likes it. And leave a comment if you have any questions.

Cathy signature with cartoon chihuahua
blond woman holding white chihuahua

Cathy Bendzunas

Pet Blogger

I have had dogs all my life. I have been a pet groomer, worked in a pet hotel, and a kennel, and have bred and showed dogs.

Yasmine

Thursday 31st of October 2024

Hi Cathy, thank you so much for the great advice and tips. I have my chi and 5 sausages on this diet. They love it! May I ask, what multivitamin would you recommend? Are you still using the same that you previously recommended ? All my babies (6) are seniors. I would love your recommendations. Thank you so much xxx

Cathy Bendzunas

Thursday 31st of October 2024

I'm so glad your dogs like the food! Yes, I'm still giving them the same vitamins I link to in the article. It's reasonably priced and easy to mix into their food.

Vanessa

Monday 7th of October 2024

Hello Cathy,

My chihuahua mix is 13 pounds. How do I determine how many times I feed her? I read you feed yours 1/3 cup, twice a day.

She loves the recipe. Thank you!

Cathy Bendzunas

Monday 7th of October 2024

I'm glad she loves it! Twice a day is fine for an adult Chihuahua.

Vanessa

Sunday 6th of October 2024

Hi Cathy, my chihuahua mix dog is about 13 pounds. How many meals of 1/3 cup should she get a day?

Thank you for the recipe. She really likes it.

Cathy Bendzunas

Sunday 6th of October 2024

Is she overweight or at the right weight for her build? If she's ocerweight, 2 meals of 1/3 cup a day. If she isn't overweight, you xan up it to 1/2 cup twice a day.

Kassie Green

Saturday 27th of July 2024

My 3 babies liked the first homemade dog food I gave them. I altered the recipe a bit putting blueberries, sweet potato, green beans instead of the mixed vegetables and used half turkey half pork. They picked the bowls clean!

Cathy Bendzunas

Saturday 27th of July 2024

Sounds yummy! I'm glad your fur babies liked it.

Cheryl

Wednesday 17th of July 2024

I make a nice pot of food and freeze 2 days worth in each freezer bag. I use a pack of chicken thighs(usually 6 in pack I get) cook with water in pressure cooker to make bone broth as well. Remove thighs to cool and strip from bone. Add a couple tblsp of olive oil, 2 reg size bags of peas and carrots. One can of French style green beans. 1 bag of frozen cube sweet potatoes, 1 cup brown rice and 1 cup of lentils. This makes 9-10 days worth meals 1/2 c morning and evening. I put 3 days in my sealed container in fridge to start and bag up the rest in 2 day supply approx 2 cups in freezer bags. And freeze to be used after the initial 3 day supply is fed. Since using this recipe my 12 yo senior chihuahua dances like a young pup at mealtimes. I started out doing this after grocery store dog food caused allergies and some mail delivery food was expensive and used broccoli a lot which made her real gassy. She is a lot happier with Mom cooking. It looks and smells like chicken stew.

Cathy Bendzunas

Wednesday 17th of July 2024

I love your recipe Cheryl. I'm terrified of pressure cookers so I would have to find an alternate way to cook it. As a teen I saw our pressure cooker blow up in the kitchen. I was in the other room but if I had been in there I would have been badly burned. Would it be okay if I share your recipe on the newsletter?