Home Diet for Dogs
People make home diets for their dogs for a multitude of reasons--to address health concerns, because they believe a minimally processed diet is better than a commercial one, or to provide specialized nutrition for working or performance dogs. There is no one correct diet for all dogs; there are many ways to feed a home prepared diet, whether raw, cooked or a combination.
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Types
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Recipes for home-cooked diets typically use vegetables, carbohydrates such as grains or pasta, and meat in roughly equal proportions, with added supplements. Raw diets rely primarily on raw meat, bones and organs, sometimes with cooked or pureed vegetables added. Some dog food companies have formulated grain-based dry dog food to which you add raw or cooked meat to make it a complete meal.
Function
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The American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition lists several resources to help dog owners formulate diets to address canine health concerns, from allergies to cancer. For instance, Dr. Clemmons, professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, notes that a home-cooked, high-fat, low carbohydrate diet may slow some cancer growth in dogs. Owners of dogs determined to have food allergies may opt for a customized home-cooked "elimination diet," according to Michigan State's College of Veterinary Medicine.
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Considerations
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A home-prepared diet does take a little more work and usually costs more, compared to a commercial diet. This depends on how cheaply you can find meats and other ingredients. Some dog owners claim that the savings in veterinary bills and the ability to nutritionally manage health problems offset the higher food cost. Make cooked food in large batches, and freeze it for convenience. You have several options when feeding a raw diet to your dog--commercially prepared raw diets are available at some pet stores and through distributors, or you may simply choose to feed inexpensive cuts of meat from the grocery store or a butcher.
Supplementing a Home Diet
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It's critical to supplement a home-cooked diet with calcium, available in a bone meal formula for pets, or as a human supplement. Those feeding a raw diet feed either whole or ground raw bones, which supply dietary calcium. Other useful supplements include B-vitamins, vitamin C and fish oil capsules for omega-3 fatty acids.
Warning
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Work with a veterinary nutritionist, or follow the recipes and guidance in one of the books written by veterinarians, when formulating a home diet for your dog. It is not complicated to do it correctly, but feeding an unbalanced home diet to your dog can cause serious health problems.
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References
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- Photo Credit meat 2 image by Susan Rae Tannenbaum from Fotolia.com
