In this article, I’ll share with you my preferred homemade and natural raw dog food recipes. You’ll find 4 different raw dog food recipes that are tailored to specific dog conditions.
In short, I’ll share:
Why Raw Dog Food?
A life spent eating dry dog food is no life at all. If anyone is under any illusion that dry food is anything but money making junk food then you need to sit back and have a think and possibly look at the ingredients. Dogs absolutely need fresh species appropriate food, the same way we do and every other animal on the planet, and in your dog’s case, this means lots of fresh meat.
Note 1: If you’re new to the whole raw dog food idea, please check out our extensive article Everything About Raw Dog Food in 10 mins. Once you understand the basics and you’ve picked a suitable recipe to start your dog off on below, take yourself over to our article on how to make your own raw dog food for the actual process of mixing, storing, introducing etc.
Note 2: As per the articles above, we formulate raw dog food recipes to the very rough 7:1:1:1 ratio. Tweak where you like, there are many opinions, some use veg and fruit, some don’t (here’s why we do) but everyone is agreed with lots of meat, not too much excreting organ or bone.
Note 3: Make sure the bone content is not too high, we recommend around 10-15% but every dog is different and our dog menu ideas can be tweaked to suit your pup.
- Chicken bones are softer and less dense as these birds are killed at a young age.
- Turkey bones can be more dense as they are older birds when killed.
- Lamb and beef are larger animals so again the density of bone is greater.
- Weight bearing bones are for recreational use and dental health so bones like ribs and necks are ideal to add into your homemade dog food recipes as they are not weight bearing.
Raw Dog Food Recipe for Adult Dogs
- Energy Content: Medium
- Makes: Approximately 10 kilograms
- Prep time: 20-40 mins
- Cost: £36 approx if sourcing your meats for £3.60/kg, which is roughly the price of the minces below.
You can find raw dog food minces etc a bit cheaper than this but I urge you to go as ethical and organic as possible.
Ingredients
- 7kg fresh ideally organic chicken or turkey (meaty pieces on the bone from your supermarket, half priced stuff, fine, or good chunky organic pet minces with bone in it, which are easier to mix)
- 1kg fresh organic beef, or lamb tripe mince – must be green tripe and not washed
- 1kg of organic organ (liver, heart, kidney) mix
- 1kg of blitzed veg (I like green stuff like kale or spinach and broccoli, in season veg is great)
- RECOMMENDED EXTRAS: handful of blue or black berries, 4 organic eggs, drop of cod liver oil, ideally a few frozen mussels (magnesium)
Instructions
Mix all ingredients together, stirring until all are blended well. Portion into 500 grams or kilos to suit your needs. Ideally tupperware boxes are the most convenient way to store this food. Freeze and remove from the freezer approximately 5-6 hours before needed. This food will stay fresh for approx 3-4 days when defrosted and kept in the fridge.
Active/Puppy Raw Dog Food Recipe
- Energy Content: Med/High
- Makes: Approximately 10 kilograms
- Prep time: 20-40 minutes
- Cost: £36 – £43 approx if sourcing your meats for £3.60/£4.30 per kg, which is roughly the price of the minces below.
Ingredients
- 4kg fresh organic chicken or turkey pieces or mince with bone in it.
- 2kg of free-range duck carcass mince (with 10% bone)
- 2kg of fatty beef , lamb or pork mince
- 1kg of organ mix (heart, liver, kidney) mix
- 1kg bag of fresh or frozen veg (green beans, broccoli, kale etc)
- 6 organic eggs
Instructions
Mix all ingredients together, stirring until all are blended well. Portion into 500 grams or kilos to suit your needs. Ideally tupperware boxes are the most convenient way to store this food. Freeze and remove from the freezer approximately 5-6 hours before needed. This food will stay fresh for approx 3-4 days when defrosted and kept in the fridge.
Working Dog Food Recipe: Higher Calories
Reduce the chicken out of the above “Active Recipe” and use a bit more duck mince (fatty) and increase the beef/pork/lamb option, increasing the calorie content of the meal further.
If you have multiple dogs and need to send a few pennies, another option is to add in a kilo of cooked organic porridge.
Overweight Dog Food Recipe: Lower Calories
I’m not an advocate for feeding overweight dogs less food per se. I prefer to give them the same size meal but lower in calories. More on fat dogs here.
First, check our dog food calculator and make sure you’re not over-feeding him. Next, use the “Standard Mix” but remove the red meat. Only use white meats such as chicken, turkey or fish mince in the mix as they’re much lower in calories.
Also, watch the treats for at least a month (make your own based on lean meats such as chicken/ turkey breast). Also consider buying a dehydrator and dehydrate lung which is low in fat but still healthy.
Foods to Add and Not to Add
Excellent Additions for a healthy diet for dogs
- Use as big a variety of organ meats as you can find (fish heads provide a smart way of getting brains and eyes in there, and they’re free, feed from frozen) liver, kidney, spleen, pizzles etc are all great additions in a healthy diet for dogs.
- Kelp: An excellent antioxidant and multivitamin addition
- Raw eggs: whole, raw, no need for shell
- Cloves of crushed raw garlic: Add now and again for parasite control. 1/3 clove per 25kg of dog. And yes, small doses of garlic for dogs is perfectly fine.
- Oils: Cod liver oil tablets, 1000mg tablet per 30kg of body weight is average dose, Coconut oil (MCT is best), Flaxseed oil, Pumpkin seed oil or wild salmon oil. No vegetable oil, rapeseed or any seed oils.
- Sardines: Ideally fresh (but freeze first). If tinned only use those in brine or olive oil, not vegetable oil, and pour off the excess brine.
- Probiotic yoghurt: Add a scoop now and again, especially after antibiotics.
- Fish: Recommended to freeze fresh fish for two days as fish can have worms. Fish heads are great – and free.
- Bone broth – very cool lately and great for gut health and unwell pups, a process where people stew the marrow and all the goodness out of bones in a slow cooker and add herbs, garlic, ACV etc, whatever works for you but I prefer to simply give them the bone itself. Freezes well in ice cubes.
Foods that should never be fed to a dog
These foods are completely inappropriate and most are poisonous for your pup, so please always avoid folks. Always worth having a list made that can be stuck on your fridge for all to see.
We’ve described the topic in detail in What Not to Feed Dogs. Here’s a quick summary:
- Wheat: bread, pasta, cereal based food or treats, dental sticks
- White rice
- Milk from cows
- Onions
- Raisins
- Sultanas
- Grapes
- Chocolate
- Peach, apricot, plum pits
- Macadamia nuts
Conclusion on Homemade Dog Food Recipes
As mentioned earlier, every dog is different and has individual requirements. So these dog menu ideas can get you started and you can change and tweak where necessary.
We believe in balancing over time rather than worrying about the nutritional value in each and every food.
There is no such thing as ‘complete’ food and studies show that dry/processed food companies miserably fail to attain this anyway. We guess that you don’t know exactly what goes into your own diet every day in terms of the exact vitamins, minerals, zinc, magnesium but that most people have a balanced diet and the same goes for our dogs.
