I have a sweet sweet 13 year old/30 lb super mutt that was just diagnosed with bladder cancer and non stop uti’s. She has eaten pretty much kibble (purina pro plan and taste of the wild) until about 6 months ago when she became super picky - so we thought. Figuring she was sick of dry food, We switched to fresh pet, then to the farmers dog, then to canned. Each one lasting between a week to a couple of months before she refused to eat it.

Turns out she would stop eating when she was in pain from a uti. But for some strange reason she won’t eat those other foods now.

So here we are…I’ve happily begun making her food last week and surprisingly she’s gobbling it up - EVERY DAY! I did the standard ground turkey or chopped chicken, rice or pasta, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, and cranberries for the uti. She loves it and I’m ecstatic!

QUESTIONS:

I know she NEEDS more nutrition. I’ve purchased a bag of Just Food For Dogs supplement powder and I’ll be adding organ meat. Is that enough? What else would you recommend? Is that brand ok?

Due to her recent medical condition, she’s lost about 5 pounds. Vet always said she should be at about 30 which is where she’s at now. However she is pretty bony imo. Is it normal to feel her spine? Given this info, I want to make sure she’s eating the right amount. How do you all figure out portions with home made food?

Pfew! If you got to the end, thank you all for reading/commenting! Attached is a pic of my baby sweet potato, Lulu 💜

I previously asked for help on another sub Reddit but kinda felt shamed and ended up with no help.

I currently give my 14 year old Lab/Rhodesian Ridgeback (plus mutt lol) mixed dog, 2cups Kindful Lamb dog food (it’s the only dog food I’ve gotten her to eat), 1/2 cup of Rice with Ground turkey, and about a cup ish of water to top. I’ve done some research and found a more in depth recipe to help add some vitamins to her diet (without breaking the bank) but wanted to know others opinions who have done homemade food longer.

Ground Turkey, Chicken Liver, rice, Spinach, Green Beans, Peas, Blueberries, Sweet potato, Carrots, and pumpkin. I would still do the 2 cups of dog food and do 1/2cup of this mixture and add water for hydration. Please tell me what I should add or keep out to make this okay.

Hello,

I bought last year in February a pack of 10-pouches of Balance It powder. They sent me packs with the expiration date of late October 2024. The issue is that my dog is 4 pounds, so as you can guess, I’m far from having finished my packs.

At what point would you discontinue the usage ? I believe it’s fully lab-made, so appart from making it less effective, do you think it would be bad for my dog to keep giving him for a bit longer?

Thanks!

Hey y’all, I’ve been making my dogs food for a couple years now and was wondering about preservatives I could add to make a batch last longer. My recipe, for reference, is simple: 2lbs ground Turkey 2 cans carrots 2 carrot cans of instant rice 2 carrot cans of beef broth Mix all together in crockpot and set on low until it’s cooked through

A batch will last around a week for my 2 dogs, but sometimes it’ll start to smell off towards the end of the week. I hate wasting food. Any suggestions for preserving it?

Hello, just looking for some insight. I'll try to make this short and sweet. I have a severely allergy prone pitbull. She is plagued by ear infections, itchy skin, and excessive paw licking. I was feeding her Natural Balance limited ingredient dog food along side a daily 16mg Apoquel pill. It worked well enough but she is still prone to ear infections. We just had her at the vet not even 10 days ago and she's already back to itching like crazy. So I've been making her meals. Usually a meat, veggie, fruit, rice or eggs as a "filler" and a dollop of plain yogurt. The entire "diet" consist of:

1. Meats: Ground hamburger/turkey
2. Veggies: broccoli,cauliflower,green beans, sweet potatoes,
3. Fruit: blueberries,strawberries,apples,bananas.

I have since cut out the rice because she is still itching so I cut out the grain.

I pick 1 from each category, sometime 2 from the Veggies or fruit and then cook the meat.

How much goes in the bowl: 1/2 C meat 1/2 C veggie. 1/2 C rice or scrambled eggs 1/2 banana/apple if blueberries 6-8/strawberries 4.

I could probably feed them less but I want to make sure their getting everything they need. I think I need to include some kind of bone for their teeth and an oil for omega stuff.

Any advice is appreciated. 😊

We travel a lot so sometimes this makes it easier and just having it around. Anyone used their products? Currently got my guy on the chicken one.

https://www.meetmaev.com/products/raw-food

I recently switched my pet to homemade food, and her acne has been getting worse. Previously, it would come and go, but now it is more severe than ever. Our vet prescribed Apoquel, and I use a stainless steel bowl, which I wash three times a day. For the past 2–3 days, I’ve been cleaning the affected area with Chlorhexidine, but there hasn’t been much improvement. Her allergy test, conducted about a year ago, came back negative for any food allergies. Do you have any suggestions or additional steps I could take to help her?

This is for my four days fo a five year old labradoodle. One cup in the morning and one cup at night with one vitamin(left)in each meal

It was processed professionally but I’m not sure if it’s good? Anyone feed your dog frozen meat like this?

Hiya.

I have access to a lot of different organ meats beyond beef/chicken hearts and livers. Readily available are beef spleen & kidneys, pork hearts & kidneys, chicken gizzards, and beef tripe.

Are any of those more worthwhile than others?

Homemade so healthy so easy🥰

My dog is 75 lbs. I mix 1tsp ground flax seed with her food once a day. Do I still need to add fish oil for omega 3? Thank you.

Been cooking at home for about 4years now. Feels like I learn something new every time (good vs bad methods). I've got it down to cooking once every 5-6 weeks. About 16 64oz containers. Takes about 2-3 hours of actual work, but total cook time has varied depending on the method used. I typically use a very large 20+ quart Oster electric roster for cooking the protein. Mixing in a large storage container makes evenly distributing ingredients and portioning out really easy compared to using the roasting pan. I freeze the containers and pull them out to thaw as needed. I'm curious if anyone else out there cooks in bulk. What's your method? What equipment do you use?

They recommend 2.5 cups of sweet potato for my dog but I have read you shouldn't feed your dog more than .25 of a cup a day. He is 80 pounds.

I am seeking people to read and review the Advance Reader copy of my book “The Pet Parent’s Guide to Homemade Dog Food.” If interested contact info@queensgrovepress.com with name and contact info. TIA

First time poster, sorry! I make treats with blended rolled oats and one ingredient baby food and was wondering if anyone had an idea on how long they would last in the freezer? I usually only make about a weeks worth but have some that have been in the freezer for about a month and haven’t given them to my dogs. Do you think they are still okay to give them, Thank you!

I have been feeding my dog a kibble diet. First it was prescription hills, then rawbble until he got colitis. He has always had a sensitive stomach and the colitis wasn't getting resolved so I ordered an allergy test. He is allergic to so many things, but luckily protein sources chicken, beef, and duck are okay. I want to transition him to a homemade diet, but I wanted to see if it is safe to rotate protein sources and your transitioning process?

Hi, We currently have a v big baby on our hands and we are switching him to a mix of real food and kibble. Does anyone know how much protein is in purina true instinct? He is getting about 35g of protein from the turkey, rice, and carrot mix we are giving him. But I know he needs more protein, so we have been giving him 2 cups of Purina true instinct as well. Also, is the rice not a great idea? The internet is failing me and I’m overwhelmed trying to make sure he’s not going to get fat. He’s already a little too thicc, we’re trying to lean him out (and solve some minor skin issues). Sorry this sounds so amateur, any advice is helpful. Thank you!!

Hi! My dog is a mix of literally 23 different breeds, with Australian Cattle Dog (18%) and Chow Chow (18%) being the biggest pieces to the puzzle. She is 40lbs, healthy, and doesn’t have any allergies. I currently feed her Stella and chewys raw coated kibble but I want to switch to making her food at home. The biggest thing I’m struggling with is figuring out the right ratio of proteins and stuff she needs daily. I’ve looked through the thread a bit and tbh I’m overwhelmed. Is anybody able to give me some guidance? Helpful websites and stuff? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

Been trying to scour internet for Lyka dupe recipes. Currently feeding my 18-20kg Kelpie, a mix of their Kangaroo, Chicken Meatball, Beef ball, Turkey and Duck meals.

I feed her half serving of Kibble and half Lyka.

Lyka is way too expensive and want to start making it myself. Any directions would be awesome !

I have a papillon with a sensitive stomach. She was one royal cabin gastrointestinal and then one day decided to stop eating it completely and fights me for meals, my other dog has a lot of health issues so I though this would be a good time to switch to homemade.

I made a simple recipe from the forever dog recipe book and followed it to a T. She’s eaten it three times already and loves it, it’s mixed with her kibble but now she has a lot of diarrhea which is what usually happens when I introduce something new to her like a treat but usually I would stop giving her said treat if it gave her diarrhea. I don’t know if I should switch her homemade dog food or just stop or will she adjust to it? My other dog is perfectly fine and he tends to have a sensitive stomach too but not as bad as her.

I want to save people the trouble of going to a vet nutritionist because I feel that the information I gained was largely unhelpful and should be FREE.

1. The vet nutritionist told me to use Balance It. We all know about Balance It. I told her for the price I paid, I hoped that I would learn much more.

2. She then told me to try animal diet Formulator. ADF is an app that allows you to plug your dog’s ingredients to determine if the meal is complete and balanced.

ADF is very helpful, but very expensive! ADF is the same tool that pet nutritionists use to build good recipes.

They offer a 2-week $10 trial. I highly recommend using this trial to develop a bunch of recipes and then cancel before the 2 weeks are up.

I used ADF on Balance It’s recipes and none of the ones I tested were balanced or complete.

It doesn’t seem possible to get a single balanced and complete meal, which is the reason why many people advise to give your dogs balanced and complete DIETS.

Please save your hundreds of dollars on a nutritionist consultation and just use ADF for the 2 week trial.

I still have access to ADF and am open to testing any of your recipes for free! I’ll need exact measurements of the ingredients, your dog’s current weight, and their goal weight. Let me know if you’re interested!

I feed my dogs a kibble based diet because it’s “easiest”/safest and I travel a lot, so I like to be able to go to all kibble on the road — but I really like to supplement with fresh food.

I used to feed them partial balanced raw but the zoonotic disease risk became too much for me to stomach. But I DID genuinely think they did better on it. Easier to keep weight, better coat, etc. So after around 4 months all kibble, I’m looking to supplement with about half homemade.

Does anyone have books they recommend that goes into detail about formulation? I believe I saw reference to a book here once that explained how to make some vitamin supplements from scratch as the commercial ones are prohibitively expensive for me.

Thanks so much for your time!

I have a 15 month old Belgian Malinois and a 3 year old miniature Aussiedoodle (who is deaf). I like to make sure that their food is high quality which means I want their treats to be the same. I spend plenty on food but I struggle on paying $20+ for a bad of treats. So I’ve started buying beef hearts and chicken hearts and drying them for treats.

I don’t want them to be over dried and the last few batches seem to be that. Does anyone have any guidance on how they dry theirs and what to look for on when they are done vs over done?

Hi all! I'm new here...

After a bit of a stomach upset at the kennel, our vet recommended a chicken/turkey-rice diet for a week for my pup. Took care of his upset stomach like a charm, but I also noticed that his stool was finally perfectly firm.

We've been on a prescription kibble diet due to anal gland issues - and the vet has always said he thinks his stool isn't firm enough to naturally express his glands, and that some dogs are just like that.

It used to be worse but after 4 foods, 3 of which were prescription (+ trying pumpkin and psyllium husk) we gave up and listened to the vet ("some dogs just have gland issues")

It'd be one thing if regular gland expression took care of the issue, but we get his glands expressed every 3-4 weeks and there are still times that he's scooting or leaking days after the vet expresses them.

A light bulb went off while he was on the turkey-rice diet, so I want to try home cooked - or at least 50-50.

Has anyone else had success in a similar situation?