Cooking for dogs – advantages, disadvantages and 3 recipes

Would you like to give your darling a culinary treat?

As well as for humans one can cook for dogs. A typical, nutritious and healthy dog ​​meal consists of Meat, Vegetables and one filling supplement.

But how can you make healthy dog ​​food yourself? What are the Advantages or even the Disadvantages from cooking for dogs? Is cooking yourself cheaper than ready-made food?

And, are there even recipes for dogs and humans?

Of course you will find all the answers to these questions and a lot of important information about cooking for dogs in our article.

Then: Cooking for dogs is not as difficult as it first appears.

Pros and cons of home cooked dog food

Of course, the first question that always arises is: What are the advantages and disadvantages of home-cooked dog food?

In order to make your decision a little easier whether you are in Future If you want to cook for your beloved four-legged friend yourself, I have dealt with this question in detail.

Benefits of Cooking for Dogs

1. You know every single ingredient

The dog is what it eats.

The biggest advantage of home-cooked dog food is clearly that transparency the ingredients.

Since you prepare the food yourself, only you decide what your dog gets to eat.

You don’t have to deal with incomprehensible declarations and inaccurate information from some food manufacturers, but can produce the food specifically according to the needs and preferences of your darling.

2. Meals tailored to YOUR dog’s needs

Regardless of whether your dog is allergic or diabetic, or whether it has dental problems.

Since you prepare the food for your furry friend yourself, you can target diet recipes, senior food or whatever your dog needs, yourself and on him adjusted produce.

3. Better health for your dog

In the long term, home-cooked dog food can have a positive effect on the dog health affect.

Not only because you have control over exactly what your dog regularly eats, but also because you can tailor the food perfectly to your dog.

4. Joy

Dogs love home cooked food. You can also make dog food yourself. I regularly cook for all my dogs and through my experience I can say: they not only prefer to eat home-cooked food, but also recognize when it is for them by the smell of the food. 🙂

5. Sustainability

Cooking for dogs is very easy good with cooking for people combine. Many filling supplements that we regularly serve can also be used for the dogs.

That’s why I’ve gotten into the habit of cooking sparingly with salt.

If the individual parts of the dog food are cooked for us in regular cooking, not only can electricity be saved, but also too much cooked food is used and nothing has to be thrown away.

My tip: leftover vegetables

If you chop vegetables for yourself, there is often something left over. Collect everything that is dog-friendly in a bag, put it in the freezer and use it for food if necessary.

6. Encourages creativity and cooking skills

As soon as you realize how much the dogs love the cooked food, you will be bursting with creativity and trying new things again and again. Cooking for dogs is just fun.

Disadvantages

Of course, cooking for dogs also has some disadvantages:

1. Time Expense

If you cook separately for the dogs, it can be a big one expenditure of time mean. This should be well planned, especially if some meals have to be prepared in advance or if large dogs are being cooked for.

However, even cooked dog food can be boiled down very well and thus preserved for a long time.

2. costs

A dog meal consists of Meat vegetables and garnish. Especially fresh vegetables and meat, such as minced meat, can be quite in the wallet go.

Initially, cooking your own food for your dog will cost you more than ready-made food. Also because many oils or additives are bought and you want to try a lot of new things.

However, over time and especially with your experience, this will level off.

3. Nutrient Deficiency

If you only want to offer your dog food that you have cooked yourself in the future, it is important that you read up on the nutrient intake of your dog. That’s the only way you can prevent future shortages.

Needs-based cooking: what do I have to pay attention to?

First of all: a meal that is completely balanced in terms of vitamins and minerals is almost impossible to produce from “normal” foods.

Many important vitamins and vital substances are reduced during the cooking process, which is why it makes sense to use food supplements for long-term cooking for the dog. Otherwise, there will be an undersupply of vitamins and minerals.

Many dog ​​owners use feed supplements from the BARF range and also work with various oils such as salmon oil or linseed oil.

If you would like to cook for your dog for a longer period of time, I recommend contacting one nutritional advice.

puppies

If you want to cook the food for your puppy yourself, it is important that you ensure that you get enough minerals, vitamins and nutrients.

Puppies have completely different nutritional needs than adult dogs.

young dog

Young dogs should not be fed too many calories. Potatoes and oatmeal are real calorie bombs and cause your young dog to gain weight relatively quickly.

However, since young dogs are still growing and their tendons, ligaments, joints and bones are not yet fully developed overweight extremely harmful to the dog’s musculoskeletal system and can lead to long-term effects.

Senior

Dogs from the age of about 8 belong in the “Senior” category. They become calmer and more relaxed, the energy level drops and the dog’s body no longer needs as much energy from food intake.

However, if the senior dog continues to be fed as before, but moves less, are overweight and the resulting ones joint problems often consequences of incorrect feeding that is not appropriate for seniors.

Reading tip: Are you wondering when your senior food is suitable for the dog? Find out all about it in our article on the topic «When should senior dog food start?» and get valuable information for the optimal nutrition of your faithful companion. Read the article with us now!

breed specific

Depending on the breed and disposition, a dog needs one increased or decreased energy intake.

What are the components of the ideal recipe?

The ideal recipe consists of 3 components

  • Meat
  • Vegetables
  • filling supplement

What is my dog ​​not allowed to eat?

Probably the most common question dog owners ask themselves is: Can my dog ​​eat this?

And that’s exactly why we’ve dedicated a whole page to this question. Here you will find the answer to almost every food: nutrition

Absolute taboo in the dog bowl are:

3 great easy-to-follow recipes

I have … you 3 of my recipeswhich your dog is guaranteed to like and which you can simply try out if you even want to deal with the subject of cooking for dogs.

You can add nutritional supplements to all recipes according to the manufacturer’s instructions. However, if you just want to try cooking for your dog once or twice, you don’t need any additives

normal fare

Sweet potato mince recipe

400g minced meat (beef, poultry, lamb)

200g sweet potatoes

1 zucchini

300ml of water

1 tbsp olive oil

  1. Mince and oil in a pan, fry mince at low temperature for about 20 minutes.
  2. Cut the sweet potatoes and courgettes into small pieces and add to the minced meat
  3. Add approx. 300ml water, simmer gently until the vegetables are soft

Let everything cool down together, refine with a little quark if necessary.

Tuna with scrambled eggs for dogs and masters

4 eggs

1 shot of milk

1 can of tuna in its own juice

Parsely

1 tbsp oil

Whisk everything together in a bowl. Heat the oil in the pan, add the mixture and cook well in the pan.

Divide into 2 portions. Decorate both portions with parsley. Season as you like for the master’s portion.

light food

Chicken with millet

200 g chicken breast

100 grams of millet

1 carrot

  1. Boil the chicken breast in water for about 20 minutes
  2. Take the chicken breast out of the water and cut into small pieces
  3. Boil the millet and grated carrot in the water from the chicken breast and let it swell for about 25 minutes
  4. let cool, mix and serve

There are almost no limits to your own creativity when cooking for the dog. There are hundreds of recipes online, if you cook with a Thermomix, you can use it to cook your own dog food even more easily.

Experiences of dog owners with home-cooked food

Of course, since I’m also interested in the opinions of other dog owners on the subject of cooking for dogs, I browsed a bit on social media. I don’t want to withhold from you what I think are the most meaningful opinions:

“Lack of proteins leads to developmental disorders, susceptibility to infection and anaemia.

Extreme protein overfeeding leads to skin diseases, overloading of the liver and kidneys, calcium deficiency

Too much carbohydrate leads to obesity

A lot of crude fiber leads to weight reduction

Too little crude fiber leads to problems with defecation

Too much vitamin A leads to bone calcification and too much vitamin D to vascular calcification

The dog’s body can produce vitamin C itself

Long soaking and boiling destroys vitamins

observe the correct calcium/phosphorus ratio

Always add calcium, iodised salt and fat-soluble vitamins.

little liver (vitamin A poisoning)

Bread and pasta have no nutritional value other than energy

Well, I don’t know if I want to do that to myself and then I have to clean the stove as well.»

«I’ll describe how I do it:

First the meat comes into the pot, with a little water and salt and is cooked through. Then I take the meat out and then the vegetables go into the meat broth. This is boiled up and then simply left on the switched off, still hot stove. When it cools, I go through it with the immersion blender. Complete.

I don’t eat pasta and rice regularly. I can’t say why, but I wouldn’t cook this with the other veggies. I would probably split the broth and cook the grains and vegetables separately.

Since I can never feed the usual packages at once, I always cook in advance. This is then portioned and frozen.”

Conclusion

Cooking for dogs is a great way to gain complete control over your own dog’s diet.

Every dog ​​loves homemade food. However, it should be carefully considered what is best for your dog in terms of nutrient intake, as many ingredients lose some of their vitamins and minerals during the cooking process.

But if you want to make your dog happy every now and then by cooking his favorite food, then…