Can my 2-month-old puppy eat home-cooked food for proper growth?

Hi there. It should be fine to start feeding Blacky a home-cooked diet now, if you want to - you'll just need to make sure that it's nutritionally complete and balanced for growing puppies. I would recommend using either www.balanceit.com or www.petdiets.com to put together appropriate recipes for him.

It is difficult to make and feed a balanced home made diet. More often that not, the dog will develop a nutritional deficiency. This is especially true for puppies. Ideally, Murphy should be fed a good quality commercial puppy diet. Brands include ProPlan, Orijen, Canidae and Acana.

Buddy is so cute! I'm not sure if the Pro Pac kibbles is a puppy formulated food, and if it's not, he needs to be on one. Puppies need higher amounts of protein, calcium, and calories than an adult dog and a puppy formulated food will provide one. Brands of puppy food I personally recommend include Royal Canin, Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. It's fine to add in canned dog food, just make sure it's puppy formulated. The brands I mentioned above have puppy canned food as well as the dry kibble. I hope this helps :-)

Raw diets are really not recommended. There is an extremely high chance he could get salmonella or E. coli poisoning just like if we ate raw meat. Despite what TV commercials would lead you to believe, your dog is not a wolf. Dogs have been domesticated a very long time now and their GI tracts have evolved to reflect that. If you want to feed a homemade diet you can do that but the food must be cooked an you need to have a veterinary nutritionist formulate the diet so that is properly balanced with all the vitamins and minerals a dog needs - especially a large breed puppy. I just recommend you feed him a large breed puppy food that is already formulated with everything he needs. A premium brand (not boutique) that is within your budget. Stay away from grain free diets unless he has a DOCUMENTED grain allergy that is proven with testing later on down the line. https://www.chewy.com/royal-canin-large-puppy-dry-dog-food/dp/115775

Homemade foods are tough because they are almost always deficient in vitamins and minerals without a supplement. It is not impossible, however. I like the website balance it.com. You can set up an account, look for recipes, and they can even analyze the nutrients in your current recipe. The key is a meat+ grain+ fruits and veggies for nutrients. Good luck!

A balanced diet for a puppy has many key nutrients which are vital to their health, and which are available in good quality commercial puppy food. A homemade diet that is not balanced can have severe consequences for your pet’s health, as it can lead to nutritional deficiencies or malnutrition. There are many types of prepared pet food out there, some of them better than others. A good quality food with veterinarians and nutritionists developing the food and lab data showing that it is providing necessary nutrients is a good bet to make sure your pup is getting what he needs out of his meals. Because puppies have different nutritional needs than adult dogs, and large breeds have different needs than small breeds, your puppy should be on a large breed puppy food until he reaches a year old, then slowly transitioned over to a large breed adult dog food. That being said, many people now choose to cook for their pets at home, and this can be a good alternative to commercial pet foods if done right. If you wish to prepare your puppy’s food at home, I recommend booking an appointment with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist who can give you recipes for a nutritionally balanced homemade diet tailored to the needs of your puppy. If you are in the U.S., you can visit www.acvn.org to find a board certified veterinary nutritionist in your area. If this is not possible, you can check https://secure.balanceit.com for free recipes for meals for your puppy that will provide him with the nutrition he needs.

Hello. By homely, do you mean a homemade diet? If so, it is very difficult to prepare a diet that has all the vitamins, minerals, amino acids & proper balance of protein, carbohydrates & fats that meets a dogs nutritional needs. Royal Canin is an excellent food, so I would really try to maintain this. If you truly want to do a homemade diet, then I encourage you to visit this site that will help you to develop a nutritionally sound diet plan. Thanks for using PetCoach. https://securebalanceit.com/