Fresh Dog Food Recipes, Quick and Easy
Find below some simple fresh dog food recipes because we all know 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. Dogs absolutely need fresh food, same way we do and every other animal on the planet, and 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 10mins which should explain everything. 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 every rough 5:1:1:1 ratio. Tweak where you like, there are many opinions, some use veg, some’s don’t (here’s why we do) but everyone is agreed with lots of meat, not too much excreting organ or bone.
Standard Raw Dog Food Recipe
Energy Content: Medium
Makes: Nearly 10 kilograms
Cost: £22 approx if sourcing your meats for £2.60/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. To this extent, I recommend Paleo Ridge. You can support me and my work by buying it through our new online & local store. This enables folk like me can promote it but not have to mess around with the orders etc.]
Ingredients:
- 7kg fresh 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 pork tripe mince
- 1kg of organic organ (liver, heart, kidney) mix
- 1kg of blitzed veg (I like green stuff like kale or spinach and broccolli, carrots)
- RECOMMENDED EXTRAS: handful of blue or black berries, 4 free range eggs, drop of cod liver oil, ideally a few frozen mussels (magnesium)
Active/Puppy Raw Dog Food Recipe
Energy Content: Med/High
Cost £2.50-£3/kg
Ingredients:
- 4kg fresh organic chicken or turkey pieces or mine with bone in it.
- 2kg of free-range duck carcass mince (with 10% bone)
- 2kg of fatty organic beef or pork mince
- 1kg or organic organ mix
- 1kg bag of frozen veg (green beans, peas, carrots)
- 6 eggs
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 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 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 fillet).
Foods to Add and Not Add
Excellent Additions
- 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)
- 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 or Pumpkin seed oil. Not vegetable oil.
- Sardines: Ideally fresh (but freeze first). If tinned only use those in brine, 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, a process where people stew the marrow and what not out of bones and add herbs etc, whatever works for you but I prefer to simply give them the bone itself.
Foods that should never be fed to a dog
- Wheat: bread, pasta, cereal based food or treats, dental sticks
- Milk
- Onions
- Raisins
- Grapes
- Chocolate
