Home-Cooked Dog Food, Done Safely

The short answer: home-cooked food can be a healthy diet, but only if the recipe is complete and balanced, and most recipes aren't. In a UC Davis study of 200 home-cooked dog food recipes, 95% were missing at least one essential nutrient. For most owners, a commercial fresh, gently cooked dog food delivers what they're looking for in home cooking, with a diet that's already complete and balanced. If you still want to cook, use a recipe formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, or a service that provides balanced recipes with the right supplement, and follow it exactly.

Why people cook for their dogs

Owners choose home cooking for good reasons: control over every ingredient, avoiding specific ingredients for a dog with food sensitivities, fresh whole foods, or simply the satisfaction of making meals themselves. Many dogs love it.

The problem: most recipes are incomplete

Dogs need more than meat, rice, and vegetables. A complete diet has to supply the right amounts of calcium, phosphorus, zinc, vitamins D and E, choline, and other nutrients that are hard to get from a short list of whole foods.

In a 2013 UC Davis study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, researchers evaluated 200 recipes from veterinary textbooks, pet care books, and websites:

• 95% were deficient in at least one essential nutrient, and more than 83% had multiple deficiencies.
• Only 9 of 200 met AAFCO's minimums for adult dogs, and 8 of those 9 were written by veterinarians.
• Commonly missing nutrients included choline, vitamin D, zinc, and vitamin E.

(UC Davis summary)

Deficiencies like these often don't show up right away. They can develop slowly over months, which is why a dog can seem fine on an unbalanced diet until problems appear.

Consider fresh food first

Most of what draws people to home cooking is available in a commercial fresh dog food, without the work or the risk of getting the balance wrong:

• Whole, recognizable ingredients: real meat and vegetables you can see in the bowl
• Gentle cooking: lightly cooked rather than extruded at high heat
• Complete and balanced: formulated to meet AAFCO standards, often with board-certified veterinary nutritionists, so there's no recipe to balance and no supplement to remember
• Human-grade ingredients: for most fresh food manufacturers, every ingredient and the finished food meet human food standards
• Consistency: the same balanced meal every day, with no recipe drift
• Convenience: pre-portioned and delivered, with no shopping, cooking, or weighing

For owners who want control over ingredients because of food sensitivities, many fresh food companies offer several single-protein recipes to choose from. See our fresh food guide for more, including what the research shows.

If you do want to cook yourself, the rest of this guide covers how to do it safely.

Recipe drift

Even a balanced recipe can become unbalanced over time. Owners often swap ingredients, skip the supplement, change portions, or add extras. Small changes add up, so follow a balanced recipe exactly, and check with the recipe's source before changing it.

Doing it safely

• Get a recipe from a board-certified veterinary nutritionist. Look for the credential DACVIM (Nutrition) or DECVCN. The veterinary schools at UC Davis and Tufts offer nutrition consultations, and some nutritionists consult remotely.
• Or use a service built for this. BalanceIT, created by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, generates recipes paired with a supplement that fills the gaps. JustFoodForDogs offers DIY kits with a nutrient blend.
• Always use the supplement. In balanced home-cooked recipes, the supplement isn't optional; it's what makes the diet complete.
• Measure ingredients by weight with a kitchen scale rather than by volume.
• Keep it simple and consistent. Rotate recipes only if each one is balanced on its own.
• Practice food safety. Cook meats thoroughly, refrigerate portions, and freeze anything you won't use within a few days.

Who should be especially careful

• Puppies, whose growth depends on precise calcium and phosphorus levels. We don't recommend home-cooked diets for puppies without a nutritionist's formulation designed for growth.
• Dogs with health conditions such as kidney disease, pancreatitis, or diabetes, which need diets designed with your vet.
• Dogs on a home-cooked diet long term, who benefit from regular vet checkups to catch problems early.

A middle path

If you enjoy cooking for your dog but don't want to take on a fully home-cooked diet, feed a complete diet such as fresh food or kibble and add a small amount of plain home-cooked food as a topper. See our toppers guide.

When to talk to your vet

Talk to your vet before starting a home-cooked diet, and schedule a checkup a few months in. Call sooner if your dog loses or gains weight, develops a dull coat or skin problems, has ongoing digestive upset, or seems less energetic than usual.

Tools for balanced home cooking

These services provide recipes and supplements designed to make home-cooked meals complete and balanced.