Homemade Puppy Food Guide: Nutrition, Tips, and Recipes for Your Pup

Homemade puppy food can save money and let you custom-design a diet that meets your puppy's needs. Before making your own puppy food, it's crucial to understand the nutritional requirements of your growing pup, such as the daily calories, vitamins, and minerals essential for development.

Feeding your puppy home-prepared food requires a commitment. You need the time to prepare food properly and consistently. Here's what you need to know before starting homemade puppy food.

Is Homemade Puppy Food Healthy?

Like humans, dogs have specific caloric needs and require certain vitamins and minerals for health. Puppies need even more specific nutrients to grow at an appropriate rate and thrive. Their food must be complete, balanced, and support growth.

A common mistake pet owners make with home-prepared diets is not following accurate recipes or not using any recipe at all. Preparing a homemade diet involves more than just providing enough calories. It must include the right balance of protein, fat, and calories for a growing puppy. It should also have the correct amounts of vitamins and minerals.

When developing a homemade diet, ensure your puppy gets everything needed to keep it as healthy as possible and grow. Consult your veterinarian for guidance and consider asking for a referral to a veterinary nutritionist.

Working with a vet, you can design a diet that meets all of your puppy's nutritional needs. Your vet may have recipes for you to use or may guide you to a website like BalanceIT.com or PetDiets.com. These websites have recipes developed by veterinary nutritionists. They can help you choose a diet that is complete and balanced but also meets other needs. In many cases, you can choose your preferred ingredients or find formulas designed for puppies with specific needs (like large breeds) or health issues (like allergies). 

How to Prepare Homemade Puppy Food

In general, puppies need about twice as many calories per day than their adult counterparts. According to the Committee on Nutrient Requirements of Cats and Dogs of the National Academy of Science, a 10-pound puppy that is expected to weigh 33 pounds at adulthood needs to eat about 990 calories per day. In addition, puppies need more protein, fat, vitamins and minerals than adult dogs.

A homemade puppy diet should contain the proper balance of:

• Protein, such as chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef
• Carbohydrates, like rice, pasta, potatoes
• Vegetables, such as peas, green beans, carrots
• Fat, often in the form of vegetable oil
• Vitamin/mineral supplements (purchased from a reputable company)

Once you have chosen a recipe, it's time to prepare it for your dog. Many owners who feed home-prepared diets set up a regular schedule, setting aside time weekly or monthly to prepare and portion the diet. The food can be prepared in bulk and portioned into containers (one container per meal makes it extra-easy). You can keep meals frozen for several months or refrigerated for about 5 days. When the supply of pre-prepared meals runs low, it's time to make a new batch. If you like to feed a variety of foods, you can make multiple batches and color code by ingredients, rotating out the different meals.

Remember to increase portions appropriately as your puppy grows. It's best to weigh your puppy every week or two to make sure you are feeding the proper amount of calories

Homemade Puppy Food: Cooked vs. Raw Diet

There's no doubt that homemade puppy food can be healthy when done correctly, but what about raw food? There is much controversy over raw food for dogs. The AVMA and other agencies warn of the risks of dangerous pathogens in raw pet food. Some other experts see the potential benefits of raw food for healthy adult dogs. However, puppies are a different story. Raw food may contain dangerous pathogens that can lead to illness in people and some dogs. Like children, young animals may not have the immune systems to fight off pathogens found in raw food.

If you feel you can safely handle raw food and are willing to assume the risks, talk to your veterinarian about transitioning to raw food when your puppy gets older. In the beginning, you might choose to offer a combination of cooked and raw foods to see how it works out.   

Raw diets should never be fed to dogs coming into contact with immunocompromised humans. In addition, raw diets are not recommended for dogs with immune system issues.