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What should I add to my dog's homemade food for complete nutrition?
Updated on September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Small (up to 22lb) | Female | spayed | 1 year and 7 months old | 11 lbs
I have decided to prepare Nala's food at home as opposed to store bought dog food. What would I need to add to a recipe containing following: Beef Liver 3lbs Lamb Hearts 2lbs Beef Tripe 1lb Ground Chicken 5 lbs Water - as need to incorporate beef stew bones 3lbs Brussel Sprouts .5 lb Butternut Squash 1lb Pink Himalayan Salt- 1 tbl I did cook all of this, although I know that raw is better, and then ground it all together.
1 Answer
Most Helpful Answer
Answered By Kevin Sanada, DVM
Veterinarian
Published on May 21st, 2018
The best option for feeding homemade food is to have a diet formulated by a veterinary nutritionist. This is important, because if Nala does not get adequate nutrients, then she can develop nutritional disorders. I usually recommend feeding the formulated dog food that you can buy at the pet store. These have all the nutrients and there would no need to add any supplements.
Unfortunately, we cannot formulate a homemade diet for your dogs through this service, but I put a link below to a veterinary nutritionist who can do this for you. What I can say is that variety is good when formulating a homemade diet. It's definitely good to feed the ingredients you have suggested as part of the diet, but you will likely need other nutritional sources in the diet to make up some deficiencies. There are some foods you want to avoid like garlic and onion. It is also not recommended to feed raw food, as this will increase the risk of getting infectious diseases and parasites for you and your dog. Below is also a link to a list of toxic foods and more information about homemade diets.
https://www.petcoach.co/article/10-common-foods-that-are-toxic-to-dogs-and-cats/
https://petdiets.com/Ask-the-Nutritionist
http://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2016/07/should-you-make-your-own-pet-food-at-home/
I hope that helps and all is well with Nala.
Unfortunately, we cannot formulate a homemade diet for your dogs through this service, but I put a link below to a veterinary nutritionist who can do this for you. What I can say is that variety is good when formulating a homemade diet. It's definitely good to feed the ingredients you have suggested as part of the diet, but you will likely need other nutritional sources in the diet to make up some deficiencies. There are some foods you want to avoid like garlic and onion. It is also not recommended to feed raw food, as this will increase the risk of getting infectious diseases and parasites for you and your dog. Below is also a link to a list of toxic foods and more information about homemade diets.
https://www.petcoach.co/article/10-common-foods-that-are-toxic-to-dogs-and-cats/
https://petdiets.com/Ask-the-Nutritionist
http://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2016/07/should-you-make-your-own-pet-food-at-home/
I hope that helps and all is well with Nala.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful