Here is the recipe - if you are interested in reading how we came to this decision, along with some additional tips, read more below by scrolling down to the bottom of the post!

Homemade Dog Food Recipe

Ingredients List:

Two- and one-half cups of brown rice (will make 5 cups rice when cooked)

Two heaping tablespoons of coconut oil

One pound of ground turkey (I purchase the rolls of Butterball brand - be sure to get the ones without spices!)

One 12 oz. package frozen carrots

One 12 oz. package frozen sweet potatoes

One 12 oz. package frozen English peas

One 12 oz. package frozen cut green beans

One 14 oz. can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)

1/2 cup of salmon oil

Prepare brown rice according to package instructions. My process is to add two and ½ cups brown rice to a saucepan, then five cups of water. Bring water and rice to a boil then cover saucepan with a lid and turn heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes – check saucepan after 20 minutes to see if you need to add water. If water has cooked out, add more water almost equal to the level of the rice.  Replace lid on saucepan and continue to cook for the full 40 minutes.

While rice is cooking, add two heaping teaspoons of coconut oil to a large saute pan.  Once oil has melted, add the ground turkey, and break it up with a spatula.  Cook on medium to low heat until fully browned.

Once turkey is evenly browned, add the vegetables one package at a time to the pan.  Mix with the turkey.  Once you are sure the vegetables are cooked through, add the can of pumpkin puree to the turkey and vegetables.  Mix thoroughly until the food looks like a thick stew.  Turn heat to low and add the salmon oil.  Turn off the heat and add in the brown rice when it is done and mix well throughout.  Transfer food to a large container and store in refrigerator.

To serve:

Scoop one cup of food into a bowl, add one scoop of vitamin/mineral blend or as directed on the package.  Serve one cup in the morning and one cup in the evening.  We serve at 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

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No way would I ever believe just a year ago that someday I would be making homemade dog food. If you know us, you know that we ADORE our sweet black lab, Charlie. We go out of our way to make sure someone is usually home with her, and she is definitely spoiled, but this is extreme, right?!

Now here is what you need to know – this is simply not who I am.  My only child is grown now, but I never really was a “crunchy/granola” mom.  In his late teens, Gabe decided to go vegetarian, and I basically said, “Good luck with that!”.  He was on his own coming up with foods to eat during that time because I knew my husband and I would not be jumping on board.

We are fairly healthy eaters, though, and do view what we eat as part of good health.  I cook most meals at home.  We go out to eat at most twice per week.  We all work at home, so we eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks here.  Sidenote: Our grocery bill is obnoxious!  I don’t buy much in the way of processed foods and we eat a lot of vegetables.  We love red meat, but we have high cholesterol, so we try to only eat beef once a week.  We also try to eat fish once or twice per week and lots of chicken - so much chicken!

 At her vet visit last year, our Charlie girl was almost 20 pounds overweight.  I knew from experience with our previous dogs that meant she could have trouble with arthritis in her hips as she gets older.  We rescued her six years ago and we estimate her to be about 10 years old now.  We don’t know much about her life prior to rescue except that she had likely just given birth to a litter of pups when we got her.  Our last labrador retriever was a yellow lab named Bessie.  We only had Bessie for about 4 years.  She developed cancer, likely from her time eating trash while she was a stray.  The vet didn’t say so, but I feel certain the bagged kibble dog food we fed her didn’t help matters.  I mean, if that is real meat, how is it possibly shelf stable?  Think about it, it must be full of preservatives and additives. I would really like to keep Charlie around as long as possible, and hopefully keep her from any needless suffering as well.  So, I started thinking that I wanted a better food option for her.  Initially, I thought that would mean a more expensive kibble with fewer, cleaner ingredients.

 Last year, I started seeing commercials on TV and Instagram for the “fresh, refrigerated” dog food brands. You know the ones I am talking about. My curiosity increased and I started researching the cost of buying the fresh food online or in stores.  The more I saw, I began to realize the recipes were pretty basic.  I found a recipe on Pinterest with simple ingredients that I knew our Charlie loved.  This January, I wasn’t working, so with a little time on my hands and New Year’s resolutions on my mind, I thought it would be a good time to give homemade dog food a try.

Oh my word!  The food I make for Charlie is honestly something I would eat.  It is full of veggies, healthy fats, and protein.  I make a batch every six days and she is crazy over it!  We feed her a cup in the morning and a cup at night.  Are you ready for the result?  She was 80 pounds when the vet first told us she needed to lose weight.  From January to June, she lost a total of 18 pounds, so she is now 62 pounds!  Our vet was thrilled at Charlie’s first “Senior Dog” checkup in May. He told us weight loss was the single best thing we could do for her.  He said most people don’t follow through with weight loss efforts for their pets.  I was excited that we exceeded our expectations – I thought we might lose 4 or 5 pounds - max.  She looks great and is so much more playful now!  She was also having very dry skin issues last year, which is common for labs.  On a black lab, dry skin can look like dandruff, but now her coat is super shiny and healthy.

 Our vet also provided a website for us to reference called www.Balance.it  This allows you to build custom recipes for your dog or cat based on gender, weight, spayed, neutered or not.  You can also order supplements directly from this site.

 Cost: I have estimated my weekly cost for homemade dog food prep to be about $9.00.  I get a full six days, with two servings each day, so twelve – thirteen servings per batch.  That comes down to a cost of about $42-45 per month or about .70 cents per serving.  This is a slight increase over what we were spending for kibble every month.

 It has been worth the effort 100%!  I did recently purchase a couple of packages of healthier, store-bought dog food to keep on hand as a backup in case I can’t make her fresh food right away when we are low. 

 I know this idea may not be for everyone.  Like I said, I never thought I would add a weekly task like this to my to-do list.  There are kibbles, shipped foods and store-bought pet foods that are healthy too, so this is definitely not the only way to feed your pet.  I may find at some point that I don’t have the margin to do this anymore, but for now, I am committed to trying.  It takes me a little under an hour to prepare, and it lasts for 6 full days.  I store it in the refrigerator in a 13-cup Rubbermaid container.

 Tips for keeping homemade dog food prep easy:

·      Prepare the food in the morning or at lunchtime.  Prepping it along with a full dinner meal for your humans is a little too much and it made me frustrated about having so much to clean up.

·      Set a reminder on your phone a day before you will run out so that you can thaw frozen ingredients, pick up anything needed at the store, plan when to prep the meal, etc. Think about it before you need it.

·      Pick one recipe and stick with it.  I initially thought I would maybe do chicken one week and turkey the next to give Charlie some variety, but she does not care in the least.  I also don’t want to risk any tummy upset that could result from diet changes.

·      Wean your dog off their existing food slowly.  We formerly gave Charlie one cup of kibble in the morning and one cup at night, per the Vet’s instruction.  When we started the fresh food, we did a half cup of kibble and a half cup of fresh food for several days, gradually decreasing the kibble and increasing the fresh food to allow her to get used to it.

·      Our recipe includes brown rice, which takes 40 minutes to cook completely.  I always start the prep with the rice first because it takes the longest of all ingredients to cook.  I have even made the rice in advance and let it sit for a few hours until I was ready to cook the meat and veggies.

·      I have found frozen veggies to be more affordable and have less preservatives than canned vegetables.

·      I have also found the best prices on all ingredients at Wal-Mart.  I shopped the ingredients at Publix once and I spent double the $$.

·      Remember to thaw the meat and veggies in advance.  It will make the prep go much quicker. 

·      Don’t skip any ingredients in the recipe.  It is ok to substitute a different meat or different veggies, but without the salmon oil, coconut oil and the vitamin/mineral supplement, your recipe will be deficient.

·      Pinterest is a great place to find recipes!  I would recommend taking a recipe from online and entering it in Balance.it to confirm it has what your pet needs.

If you choose to go the homemade food route with your pet, we wish you the very best. Feel free to comment below or email me at: hello@kinshipandvine.com if you have any questions!

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