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My dog is picky. How to make balanced homemade food with supplements?
Updated on September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | Poodle | Female | spayed | 1 year and 4 months old | 37 lbs
I have a year old standard poodle that is about 37 pounds, and she is a really finicky eater. I have tried everything to get her to eat kibble, and nothing has worked. I am going to start making her food myself and was wondering if she needs to be on a vitamin supplement and if there is anything that I need to know in order to make sure she has a complete healthy balanced diet?
4 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA
Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer
Published on February 25th, 2018
1Pet Parents found this answer helpfulRelated Answers from Veterinarians
Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA
Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer
Published on July 15th, 2018
Hi there. I'm afraid this isn't a quick or simple question to answer, as formulating a correctly balance diet is a fairly complicated thing :) If you want to do a home-cooked diet, I would strongly recommend using the website www.balanceit.com to help you formulate one that's appropriate for your dog.
If you prefer, you could also consult directly with a veterinary nutritionist to put together a diet based on his age, size, and medical needs. You can find more information on this option here: http://www.acvn.org/nutrition-consults/1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Answered By Rebecca, DVM
Veterinarian
Published on June 10th, 2017
It's great that you want to cook for your pups, but it can be very difficult to create a balanced diet at home. If you want to feed a strictly homemade diet I strongly recommend consulting a veterinary nutritionist to help formulate the diet. Or use a service such as Balance It to formulate a Balanced diet. Typically you may need a supplement but a general multivitamin may not cover deficiencies of a homemade diet. If you use a ration balancer you can know what may need to be supplemented. https://secure.balanceit.com/recipegenerator_ver4/index.php
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM
Veterinarian
Published on May 3rd, 2018
If you want to alternate with a homemade diet, I would recommend visiting ( www.balanceit.com ). You should probably add in a vitamin and mineral supplement, which you can find on this website. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please remember to rate this answer as helpful or not. Thank you!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful