What Is the Best Homemade Food for Dogs?
We all want to give our dogs the best, and if you have a dog that is a picky eater or has a sensitive stomach, you might consider making home made dog food.
Let's take a look at what the best homemade food for dogs is and what you should do to make sure that your dog is getting all the nutrients they need from their diet.
Homemade Dog Food May Not Be Healthy for Your Dog
The first thing you need to know about preparing the best homemade dog food for your dog is that it's not always the best or healthiest option for your dog.
In fact, most experts recommend that dog owners feed a properly formulated commercial dog food that meets WSAVA guidelines.
That usually means choosing dog food from a major manufacturer that has on-staff veterinary nutritionists and conducts feeding trials.
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If you don't want to hire a veterinary nutritionist to help you formulate a home made dog food for your dog, you can still make healthy, tasty home made treats. Veterinarians and other experts recommend that no more than 10% of your dog's diet is not a properly formulated dog food that meets WSAVA guidelines. But that doesn't mean they can't have a home made pupcake, dog biscuits or something else as an occasional treat. |
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Why Do People Want to Make Homemade Dog Food?
There are many reasons why people want to make homemade dog food.
Some don't believe that commercial dog food formulations are healthy for their dogs, even though most studies find the opposite is true for brands that follow WSAVA guidelines and conduct long-term feeding trials.
Some want to save money by cooking dog food at home. Or they might have several dogs, and they need to cut costs for feeding them without compromising on the quality of their diet.
Some simply have very picky dogs who don't like to eat commercial dog foods.
Why Is Homemade Dog Food Usually Not Recommended?
The biggest problem with most homemade dog food is that, like humans, dogs have very specific nutritional needs that need to be met to keep them healthy.
However, those needs are very different from ours, and even if you cook homemade dog food that would be very healthy for humans, it could leave your dog with nutritional deficiencies or even lead to serious, potentially life-threatening conditions like DCM (Dilated cardiomyopathy), long term nutritional deficiencies can lead to many other potentially dangerous conditions too.
How Can You Make Sure Your Homemade Dog Food Is Safe and Healthy?
If you still want to make healthy homemade dog food for your dog or dogs, the only way to do it is to work with a certified veterinary nutritionist.
You can find a certified veterinary nutritionist in your area on VetSpecialists.com. When you work with them, they will consider your dog's age, overall health, special health conditions or nutritional needs, and other factors and formulate their recipes based on all of those things.
This means that if you have more than one dog, you may have to prepare different batches of homemade dog foods based on separate recipes. It also means that if something changes with your dogs' health or even as they age, you will probably have to have their recipe reformulated.
It is possible to cook healthy homemade dog food for your dogs, but there's a lot more to it than most people think. If you want to go this route, be prepared to spend some time, effort, and money to get it right.