Balanced Dog Food Recipe
This is a veterinarian approved recipe by Dr. Becker &Rodney Habib
Cost: $60-80
Ingredients
- 7 lbs 90% lean ground beef or lean ground turkey or chicken
- 1.5 cup hempseeds or 1/3 cup hempseed oil
- 16 oz canned sardines in water or 4 tsp cod liver oil
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 4 tsp kelp powder
- 8 eggs pasture raised
- 4 egg shells
- 15 oz pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie mix!
- 8 oz beef liver 12 oz if using ground turkey or chicken instead of ground beef
- 8 oz broccoli
- 8 oz spinach omit if your dog has kidney issues
- 8 oz red bell pepper
Instructions
- Begin by mixing together the ground beef, eggs, kelp powder, ground ginger, hempseed, (or hempseed oil), sardines, and pumpkin puree (if using). Drain the water from the sardines before you add them in. Save half (4) of the eggshells and set them aside.
- Break up the sardines as much as you can so that it is evenly distributed when mixed.
- Next, process the veggies, eggshells, and beef liver. You may need to do this separately if your food processor can't fit everything. I process everything separately, except for the bell pepper and eggshells- I process those together. I use a Hamilton Beach food processor. I love this one because it has the side scrapers that can be used while the processor is on!
- Add the blended ingredients to the beef and mix until well combined.
- Portion out the food according to your dog's daily food intake requirements. The dog food will be good in the freezer for weeks, but only for a few days in the fridge. Portion accordingly. I do not like to keep cooked dog food in the fridge for more than 4 days.Reusable freezer bags are the way to go! Let's try to reduce plastic waste :)
- The food is ready to serve raw, or you can gently cook it. Cook without any oil on a nonstick pan on low heat. Do not try to sear the meat over high heat- you want to gently cook it until it is just done. *Note- If using hempseed oil, cooking the food on high heat for a long period of time will make the hempseed oil taste really bad to the dogs, so be really careful about "gently" cooking it!
- Drain the fat and let it cool completely before storing in the fridge, for up to 4 days.
Notes
This will make 11-12 lbs of food, which lasts my two dogs around 3 weeks. My dogs are about 10 lbs each. Please talk to your vet or pet nutritionist about the correct portions for your dog.
*Update: I am no longer supplementing this recipe with kibble. I feed my dogs only this recipe now!