HOMEMADE DOG FOOD: PREPARING YOUR DOG'S MEALS YOURSELF

HOMEMADE DOG FOOD: PREPARING YOUR DOG'S MEALS YOURSELF

Preparing balanced meals for your dog as part of the so-called "household ration" is not something you can improvise. What are the advantages and disadvantages? What should you actually feed your dog? How and with what to compose his ration? In what quantities of food? And how often should you feed your dog with a household food?

Things to know before you start feeding your dog household food

A "homemade" diet for your dog does not mean giving him a diet modeled on that of the human members of the family and even less so giving him table scraps. In fact, dogs are carnivores with an omnivorous tendency whose nutritional needs are different from ours. A "homemade" diet must be adapted to his specific needs and meet the few rules that are detailed in the rest of this article. Otherwise, an unbalanced homemade diet will expose your pet to deficiencies that will irremediably deteriorate its state of health in the medium or long term.

Choosing to feed your dog with a household ration implies being very rigorous in the preparation of your pet's meals in order to offer him a balanced ration in terms of both quantity and quality. In order to ensure a sufficient quantitative intake of the nutrients that make up the household ration, it is essential to weigh the different foods that make up the ration. As for the quality of the components of the ration, it must be ensured by a rigorous selection of the food that will make up the ration, and by cooking and storage methods that respect the nutritional and sanitary qualities of the food.

This also means that preparing homemade rations requires a little more organization than feeding the animal with industrial ready-to-use products such as kibbles. Preparing a household ration requires anticipating the supply needs for fresh or frozen products, having enough space to store these products (space in the fridge and/or freezer!), a little more time to cook the food and assemble the rations. To make things easier, it is possible to prepare several meals in advance in portions ready to be given to the dog and kept cool. It is even possible to freeze these portions and thaw them as needed.

The cost of homemade food varies depending on the quality of the food chosen but is almost always a little higher than a high-end kibble-based diet without a suitable meat supply solution. There are meat supply solutions that can make it possible to prepare household rations at a lower cost: the recuperation of unsold or unsaleable pieces of meat from butchers, slaughterhouses or markets, "BARF" associations or sites offering the delivery of meat for animals.

The household rations - when they are balanced - have several advantages. In particular, they make it possible to:

• To control the quality of the ingredients and to propose to the animal a feed free (or almost) of additives,
• Closely control the fat and carbohydrate intake of the diet and thus better control the animal's weight,
• To make "tailor-made", i.e. to adapt recipes to nutritional constraints specific to a particular animal. For example, a homemade feed is particularly suitable for animals with urinary stones because it provides little minerals and a lot of water.

Balanced meals for dogs: which ingredients to choose?

Classic household ration must be composed of:

• Meat, fish, offal and/or eggs,
• Vegetables,
• Starches,
• Vegetable oil,
• Mineral-vitamin dietary supplement.

The ingredients of the ration detailed below should preferably be cut into pieces and then mixed and served cold (but not iced) or warm to the dog. Mixing the ingredients usually avoids sorting by the animal.

The meat

The first ingredient in a household ration for a carnivore such as a dog is obviously meat, offal, fish or eggs. This is the main source of animal protein in the dog's diet.

Almost all sources of meat and offal are suitable for dogs: rabbit, duck, beef, lamb, chicken, white or fatty fish such as mackerel or herring. Fresh pork or wild game meat given raw to the dog should be avoided because of the parasite risk, they pose to the animal (this risk can be avoided by freezing the meat for at least a week).

Avoid gelatinous or tendinous meats that are too rich in collagen, a protein of poor nutritional value.

The quantity of meat, offal, fish or eggs to be added to the household ration should be weighed raw, without bones.

Meat and offal can be given to the dog raw or steamed. It is in these forms that these foods are the richest in vitamins and their proteins are the most digestible. The freshness and healthiness of the meat or offal must be impeccable to avoid any risk of intoxication if given raw to the dog.

Fresh fish, pork and game meat that has not been frozen must be given cooked. The cooking must be gentle, preferably steamed, with no added salt or fat.

Vegetables

Vegetables are the source of fiber and vitamins in the household ration. They should preferably be fed to the dog:

• Cooked,
• No added salt if canned or with a single pinch of salt if fresh,
• No added fat,
• And cooled.

Starchy foods

Starchy foods (rice, pasta, semolina, cereals, cooked potatoes, etc.) provide energy in the household ration, mainly in the form of starch. To facilitate digestion by the dog, it is essential to cook them well, always without salt or fat, before feeding them to the animal.

Vegetable oil

Vegetable oil brings energy to the household ration and important fatty acids: the famous omega 3.

Rapeseed oil can, for example, be used for basic rations because it has a balanced ratio of omega 3/omega 6 with high percentages of these fatty acids.

Vegetable oil must be added "raw" to the household ration, without cooking which would alter its precious fatty acids.

Mineral vitamin food supplement

The choice of this food supplement should be made by discussing it with your veterinarian and according to the particular nutritional needs of the dog which evolve during his life and/or according to his state of health.

How many "homemade" meals a day?

If it is possible to offer only one meal per day to small to medium breed dogs, it is nevertheless advisable to divide the rations into 2 bowls per day to limit the animal's feelings of hunger and facilitate digestion.

In large dogs (from around 30kg), the ration must be divided into 2 to 3 meals per day in the case of a household ration to limit the volume of the food bowl and the risk of stomach torsion/dilation.