Homemade Puppy FoodWhen you want the best for your new puppy, homemade puppy food may seem like the obvious choice. After all, aren't we all told to eat more fresh whole foods and less processed foods? Wouldn't the same apply to puppy food? Advantages and Disadvantages of Cooking Puppy Food YourselfHomemade puppy food does have several advantages over commercial dog foods: Total control over the ingredients. Given the pet food recalls of recent years, the importance of this factor probably can't be overstated. Option to feed a more species-appropriate diet with higher levels of quality animal protein and lower levels of carbohydrate than most commercial puppy foods. Ability to modify or fine-tune the diet for a puppy with food allergies or sensitivities. This type of puppy food is usually highly palatable, resulting in greater enjoyment and satisfaction for your puppy. Fresh whole foods can provide excellent health and vitality if fed as part of a complete and balanced diet. This last point brings us to the disadvantages of homemade puppy food: Difficulty getting the balance right. Puppies--especially large and giant breed puppies--have very specific nutrient needs. Failing to meet these needs can have disastrous consequences for the long-term health of your puppy. Feeding a homemade puppy food can be time-consuming. You need to set aside time to shop for the different ingredients and measure, prepare, and store the food. I am not going to list expense as a disadvantage. While it's true that feeding a homemade puppy food can be expensive, the same is true for a high quality commercial diet. No, the part that concerns me most is the first point. There are a lot of recipes for homemade puppy food and dog food floating around the Internet that are grossly unbalanced. And it's not just the Internet. I have seen entire "doggie cookbooks" full of dangerously unbalanced and nutritionally incomplete recipes. To BARF or Not to BARF: Raw Diets for PuppiesThe acronym stands for "Bones and Raw Food" or "Biologically Appropriate Raw Food," depending on who you ask. I have already discussed BARF diets for dogs, but there are special considerations concerning the feeding of BARF as a homemade puppy food. A small study published in the Journal of American Veterinary Medicine analyzed the nutritional content of three popular raw diets--Billinghurst, Schultze, and Volhard. The result: All three diets provide inadequate nutrient profiles even for adult dogs, let alone for growth. Of the three, the Volhard diet (which is not a BARF diet) came closest to providing complete and balanced nutrition for puppies, but calcium levels were too high, while potassium, sodium, iron, and zinc levels were too low. While this study had several flaws (for one, the researchers--who had a clear bias against raw diets--made no attempts to determine if the three individuals whose homemade puppy foods and dog foods they analyzed were actually following these diets as written), BARF diets for puppies also receive criticism from breeders who are proponents of raw diets for dogs. These breeders have come to the conclusion--often based on their own experience--that the typical BARF diet is too high in bone and provides insufficient nutrients for growth and reproduction. While they continue to feed a diet based on raw meat and bones to their adult dogs, when it comes to homemade puppy food, they follow a recipe closer to the one found below. Homemade Puppy Food for Large Breed Puppies?Large and giant breed puppies have such specific nutrient requirements due to the increased risk of skeletal disease that I do not recommend feeding a homemade food to puppies larger breeds. Studies show that too much and too little calcium both has the ability to cause irreparable joint damage. And it's not just calcium itself that must be considered. A host of other minerals, vitamins, and assorted nutrients can increase or decrease calcium absorption. Nutrient levels must be high enough to support healthy growth, but low enough to maintain a slow, steady growth rate. All these factors need to be taken into account when developing a homemade puppy food recipe for large breeds. These days there are many excellent commercial puppy foods that use 100% human-grade ingredients and high quality meats raised without hormones and antibiotics. With formulas like the ones from the Canadian brand Orijen, it is no longer necessary to feed a homemade puppy food to ensure that your puppy is getting top quality ingredients and species-appropriate nutrition. For large and giant breed puppies, I feel a commercial super premium kibble providing high protein, moderate fat, and reduced calcium levels (preferably no more than 1.5%) is the best option. If you have your heart set on feeding a homemade puppy food to your large or giant breed puppy, I recommend hiring an animal nutritionist to create a diet plan based on the latest National Research Council (NRC) guidelines. A qualified nutritionist can create a homemade puppy food recipe tailored to your puppy's optimal growth rate. Your puppy's diet should come with a comprehensive nutrient analysis, so you can see for yourself how the recipe compares to the latest NRC recommendations. The risks to your large breed puppy's joint health are simply too great to feed a diet that may or may not be complete and balanced. Sample Homemade Food Recipe for Smaller Breeds PuppiesThe following is a very nutrient rich, low carbohydrate, grain free homemade puppy food recipe that's perfect for small, medium, and toy breeds. Sweet potatoes are used as the carbohydrate source because they are an excellent source of antioxidants and fiber, contain no nightshade alkaloids, and have a lower glycemic index than white potatoes. This recipe provides excellent fatty acid and amino acid profiles. The calcium to phosphorous ratio is 1.2:1, which is ideal.
Cook the muscle meat, liver, eggs, and sweet potatoes, then cut them into pieces (or briefly toss them in a food processor). Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. This homemade puppy food will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Anything you will not be using within that timeframe should be spooned into meal-size containers and frozen right away. You can vary the primary meat source, but make sure you use a "red" meat such as beef, bison, lamb, or venison at least half the time, because poultry is too low in zinc to be fed as the sole meat source without a supplement. And don't leave anything out, especially not the bone meal, which constitutes the prime calcium source! Puppy Dog Food Relevant Pages
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