Homemade Dog Food: What to Know First

Cooking for your dog is not inherently wrong, but the gap between "my dog loves it" and "this is nutritionally complete" is wide, and the deficiencies take months to appear. Studies of home-prepared recipes have repeatedly found the majority fall short on at least one essential nutrient.

What a dog actually needs

Protein and specific amino acids, fat and essential fatty acids, and a long list of vitamins and minerals in the right ratios. Calcium and phosphorus are the classic failure — a meat and rice diet is severely calcium-deficient, and in a growing puppy that causes bone deformities that cannot be undone. Zinc, iodine, vitamin E and vitamin D are the other common gaps.

If you want to do it properly

• Get a recipe formulated for your dog by a veterinary nutritionist, or use a reputable balancing supplement designed for home-cooked diets.
• Follow it exactly. Substituting beef for chicken or leaving out the supplement because it ran out is how diets drift out of balance.
• Have bloods done after six months and annually.
• Never home-cook for a growing large-breed puppy without professional formulation. The margin for error is tiny.

Rough costs in South Africa

Home cooking usually costs more than mid-range commercial food, not less, once you include the supplement, the meat and your time. A medium dog on a properly balanced home-cooked diet often works out similar to a premium kibble. Where it genuinely helps is a dog with multiple food allergies or a specific medical condition, and then it is worth every cent.

Safe additions to a normal diet

If you just want to make kibble more interesting, you do not need to reinvent the meal. Add a spoon of plain cooked mince, a boiled egg, plain yoghurt, cooked pumpkin, green beans, carrots or a sardine in water. Keep additions under about ten percent of daily intake so you do not unbalance the base food.

The absolute no list

Onion, garlic, leeks and chives in any quantity. Grapes and raisins. Chocolate. Xylitol. Macadamias. Cooked bones. Raw dough. Alcohol. Avocado in quantity. Anything mouldy from the compost — mycotoxins cause tremors and seizures and this is a common South African summer poisoning.