What foods are safe or harmful when cooking homemade dog food?

The problem with home cooked meals is that they are often unbalanced nutritionally. There are two websites that offer recipes for home cooked diets that are made by veterinary nutritionists. I would check out these sites to get recipes to cook for Pali. https://secure.balanceit.com https://www.petdiets.com

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/

No, meat is not a balanced diet. Even raw meat is not balanced. Balancing a home made diet is difficult and is not recommended unless you work with a veterinary nutritionist. When online, home made recipes where tested, 97% were found to be unbalanced and lacking in 1 or more essential nutrients. Unless you plan on working with a nutritionist, I recommend to feed a normal commercial diet that is AAFCO certified. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I think it is great that you want to cook for your dogs. I would recommend reaching out to a veterinary nutritionist (such as the University of Tennessee's veterinary nutrition program) or online resource (such as balanceit.com) to help you determine the appropriate recipes and any supplements your dogs may need. As you are dogs of differing ages, they do have different metabolic demands that may necessitate two separate diets for the time being. Good luck!

Yes it is, but make sure that: - you don't give anything toxic (onions and garlic for example!!) - do not give bones (gastrointestinal perforations or occlusions are very common). - home diet in my opinion should be given together with commercial diets (more balanced and complete).

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your pets. Home cooking pet food can be very satisfying as most pets love it. However, it is extremely difficult to make the meals nutritionally balanced. For this reason, I recommend using a recipe provided by a veterinary nutritionist. I have several clients using this and have been so pleased with the results. I recommend www.balanceit.com. The nutritional requirements for a kitten will be different from an adult dog. Kittens need more protein and fat for growth and development. They also require an amino acid known as taurine in their diet. I hope this information helps!

Hello, Veterinarians generally do not recommend feeding raw diets. Raw diets are associated with serious food borne illness (food poisoning) and the nutritional imbalances are associated with heart and bone disease. I would not recommend feeding any raw meat or bones to any pet, at any time, due to risk of illness. If you would like to feed a home cooked diet, I would recommend using the website balance.it which is formulated by veterinary nutritionists at the University of California-Davis. This website can direct you on making a homemade diet that is safe and nutritionally complete for Molly. If you're looking to purchase any complete diet, I recommend feeding one that is formulated to AAFCO requirements for canine nutrition. These requirements are based off of evidence based canine nutritional studies and the diets are regularly tested to ensure they are meeting every essential dietary need. Most popular brands are formulated like this- Purina, Iams, Royal Canin, Hill's, for example. I hope this is helpful! Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!