DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a vet or an animal nutritionist. Please consult with one or both before cooking for your dogs. This is just how I make my dogs’ food, based on Dr. Judy Morgan’s and other professionals recommendations.
I decided the best way to support the health and longevity of my sweet girls, Jynx and Miss Violet, is to make their food. After trying out countless high-quality kibble, they were both struggling with digestive upset on a regular basis. It got to a point where one bag of dog food was costing over $100 and that was just for ONE of my girls, and still, her GI issues persisted.
I waited until they were about a year old (one was 9 months and the other 15 months) to begin this journey. I have a background in nutrition, health coaching, and fitness so I have a lot of experience with calculating calories and macros for humans, so I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to transition over to canines. Though, I will say I never had to break out the Scientific Calculator when working with people!
At first I focused on calories, and that just got to be so complicated. There was just no way for me to correctly figure out how many calories were in the meat I was buying from the local butcher. It came pre-ground and unlabeled. So, really it didn’t matter if I knew how to calculate out their resting energy requirement, body condition score, and (here comes that scientific calculator) how to figure out their daily energy expenditure.
So, now what?
I went the simplest route which was using 2-3% of each dog’s ideal, adult body weight as a starting point. (This is an estimate. I recommend you weigh your dogs before you begin feeding homemade food, and reassess every 2 weeks to 30 days or so until you know they are maintaining their correct weight. Keep in mind, the amount you feed your dog(s) will change as your dog(s) get older, and could even change throughout the year as they are more or less active.)
So, I estimated Miss Violet would be around 50 pounds and Jynx was already full grown at 60 pounds. This meant Violet would get around 1-1.5 pounds of food per day, and Jynx would get between 1.2 and 1.8 pounds of food per day.
How did I figure that out? I took 50 pounds X .2 and then X .3 for Violet, and 60 pounds X .2 and then .3 for Jynx.
Next I had to figure out how much would be animal protein, and how much would be plants.
After much research, buying books, looking at websites, and buying a course from Dr. Judy Morgan, I settled on 80-ish% meat (of which 10% would be organs in a ratio of 50% liver and the the rest mixed organs) and 20-ish% plants. Easy enough!
Here’s the math. (And trust me, MATH is my least favorite subject!!)
80% animal protein is Xpounds of protein times .8 then converted into ounces if needed by multiplying by 16, since there are 16 ounces in one pound. Let me show you how it’s done:
Miss Violet was estimated to be 50 pounds full grown (which turned out to be correct. She is one now, and 51 pounds!) So, remember that I took 50 pounds X .02 and 50 pounds X .03 to get a range of 1 to 1.5 pounds of total food, as I already stated.
In order to figure out what 80% of that range is I needed to do more math. First I took the lower number which in this case is 1 (pound) and multiply that by .8, which gives me .8 (pounds.) Then I took .8 X 16 to get the ounces, which is 12.8. (Since we are starting with one pound, in this case I could have simplified it and just took 16 ounces, which is one pound, and multiplied it by .8 to get the 12.8 ounces.)
Then I took the higher number, which for Violet is 1.5 (pounds) and did the same thing. I multiplied 1.5 by .8 which is 1.2 (pounds.) In order to figure out how many ounces that is, I multiplied 1.2 by 16 (ounces) which is 19.2 (ounces.) So Violet needs about 13-19 ounces of meat per day.
Then I did the same for Jynx, using 60 pounds for her weight.
Moving on to the organ meat which is vital, more math is needed, but it’s really simple to calculate. The organs should make up 10% of the total meat, and that’s easy to figure out. For Violet, of the 12.8 ounces (rounded up to 13) about 1.3 ounces is organ meat and of the 19 ounces, about 1.9 (round up to 2) ounces is organ meat. All I needed to do was take the total amount of meat times .1 which is 10%.
For the organ meat, only half of it should be liver. The other half can be a mixture of whatever organs you can get. (I use poultry liver, heart, and gizzards.)
So, for both my dogs, I calculated they need a total of 52 ounces meat and organs per day, which is 3.25 lbs. (52 divided by 16) As time went on, and as I weighed my dogs, I needed to raise Violet up a little bit and lower Jynx a little bit. But, based on the 52 ounces, here’s how I got everything together.
To place my order for the butcher, I ask them for 3.25 pounds X 30 days which is 97.5 pounds meat, of which about 10 pounds (9.75 rounded up) is the mixed organ meat, and the rest is muscle meat.
This looks like this:
88 pounds muscle meat, which for my dogs means 44 pounds chicken breast and 44 pounds turkey thigh, everything boneless and skinless, ground together and placed in 2 lb tubes and frozen. ( I am fortunate to be able to get hormone and antibiotic free chicken!) I use half breast and half thigh because thigh meat is too fatty to feed on its own.
10 pounds organs consisting of 5 pounds liver and 5 pounds mixed organs, ground together and frozen in 1 lb tubes.
When it is time to make the big batch of food, I follow this simple formula of FOR EVERY POUND OF MUSCLE MEAT ADD:
(You can use any protein that works for your dog(s))
10% or approximately 1.6 ounces organ meat (of which only 50% max is liver)
5 ounces plants (not including grains) Mostly low-starch veg with some higher starch veg plus fruit
1/2-1 TBSP oil (not fish oil) depending on how fatty your meat is
1/4-1/2 tsp real salt (Celtic or Himalayan)
That’s really it.
If you want to add grains, 1/4-1/2 Cup cooked is plenty
Then when I serve their meals, I top them off with their bone meal for calcium, their multi-vitamin/mineral/enzyme/probiotic/kelp supplement, and their Omega-3’s. All of these are essential!
Do not add their Omega-3’s when cooking. Always top their meals with it.
What this looks like for my dogs:
Since my girls are pretty large, I only have enough big bowls and baking pans to mix up about 11 pounds meat and 55 oz plant mixture, and this lasts about 5 days. I thaw out 10 pounds or 5 tubes (approximately 2 pounds each) of the muscle meat, and one tube (approximately 1 pound) of mixed organ meat.
I take all the meat, nicely thawed, and put it in two bowls, dividing it evenly by using a kitchen scale. (The tubes from the butcher are not exactly 2 pounds each, so I weigh everything…) I zero out the bowl(s) and add about 5.5 pounds of muscle meat and 1/2 pound of organ meat to each bowl.
Then I zero out another bowl and take all the produce I ground up in a food processor and place it in the bowl until I reach around 55 ounces. That’s 11 X 5, according to the formula above; 5 ounces plants per pound of muscle meat. ( I just use all raw produce, since I am going to bake the meatloaves anyway.)
What plants do I grind up? A combination that changes from week to week. Usually there’s leafy greens like kale and/or spinach, or I use broccoli and cauliflower. My dogs eat colorful bell peppers, squashes, carrots, red beets, green beans, berries (including cranberry for bladder health,) apples, pumpkin, and mushrooms. I also mix in the salt and the oils (a combination of coconut, olive, hemp, sunflower seed, and/or flax, all expeller pressed and organic, choosing 1-3 in each batch.) Some weeks in addition to this I add some hemp seeds, soaked chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and/or a small amount of cooked grains like sorghum, quinoa, millet, or oats. Rarely do I use rice because brown rice uptakes a lot of arsenic from the soil and white rice is too high in starch. I also avoid potato and rarely use sweet potato. I never feed corn.
Then I take half the plant mixture and mix it in with half the meat/organ mixture, just like when you make a meatloaf. I do the same with the other half. (If you have large enough bowls, you don’t have to go to all this trouble of dividing things up!) I often add 6 or so eggs, too, since we have chickens. Eggs help bind the meatloaf together, but this in not necessary.
I then grease up 2 9X13 glass pans and 2 glass pie pans with coconut oil (because those are the pans I have) divide up the mixture amongst them all and bake in a 325 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes for the pie pans and about 35 minutes for the larger pans. You want the centers to still be pink and very juicy. You do not want to overbake their food.
Dogs have way more stomach acid than humans, so they can safely handle undercooked proteins without much risk of pathogens.
Once everything is cooked, I like to divide up as many meals as possible to make breakfast and dinner preparations easy. I know Jynx gets 12 oz per meal, and Violet (because she is younger and more active) gets 14 oz per meal. I zero out each storage container on the scale, then put the correct amount of food into them, label for each dog, and store in the refrigerator. Or you can store everything in a couple large containers and at each meal just zero out their bowl (s) and add the right amount of food per meal if you don’t have a lot of smaller storage containers. I use glass containers for all their food. And if you want, you can always make more food and freeze for later. Only keep 3-5 days worth on hand in your fridge.
When it’s time to eat, I know which container is for which dog and I simply dump the contents into their bowl, top with Omega 3 oil like cod liver or ahiflower, their bone meal for calcium, and their vitamin/mineral supplement. I also started adding ground flax seeds and will be trying out some psyllium because Jynx has anal gland issues and it seems she needs more fiber.
You may add fish or top the meal with sardines in water for more Omega-3’s. I use Carlson’s cod liver oil since my girls don’t do well on actual fish.
You MUST make sure you add calcium. (I don’t feed my girls any bones.) I use Kal brand bone meal powder according to directions on the container.
Add on their vitamin/mineral/probiotic/enzymes. I use Wholistic Pet Organics Canine Complete enhanced multivitamin, pumpkin formula, which does contain a good amount of Omega-3’s. For added Omega-3’s you can use their whitefish (original) formula. This kelp-based formula is also supposed to help prevent plaque on their teeth.
You can serve their food cold, or if that upsets their belly, you can get it out an hour or two before to get it to room temperature. I don’t reheat their food since I want it to stay slightly pink/undercooked. I would advise against microwaving it.
What I have found is my dogs’ coats are incredibly soft and shiny, their eyes are brighter, they are WAAAAY less gassy, and their poop is much smaller and less, um…aromatic. They tend to drink less water since their food is no longer dry kibble, so don’t be alarmed if yours do that, too.
Both girls are doing incredibly well so it’s worth the time and effort, and expense, to feed them this way. I can’t say it’s saving me any money compared to the expensive kibble. Honestly, I am sure it’s more expensive to feed them this way, but my hope is that they will live longer, healthier lives which means not only more time with them, but less vet bills!
Anyway, I hope this all made sense. I know it seems like A LOT. But seriously, once I started weighing everything out, grinding the produce raw in the food processor, mixing everything together, and baking it up like meatloaves in the pans, it now only takes an hour or so to make 5 days worth at a time!
I can not emphasize enough that unless you have recipes that are guaranteed by a nutritionist to be complete, you MUST add on the calcium, the Omega-3’s, and the multivitamin/mineral/probiotic/enzyme formula. Kelp is needed for iodine.
If you make your own food, comment below. If you have questions, please ask and I will do my best to answer!
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