Making dog food yourself: This is important
No matter for what reason you want to prepare the food for your four-legged friend yourself: If you want to make dog food yourself, you should follow a few important rules and tips. Because not every food is also well tolerated by your pet.
Your four-legged friend has to fight with food allergies or you want to feed him with dog food without animal testing? A good tip: make dog food yourself. Because this way you can determine yourself what exactly your pet eats – and in what quantities. Low-quality food is often stuffed with cheap fillers that offer no nutritional value for your dog.
Which meat is suitable for homemade dog food?
Basically, you can use all types of meat when you make dog food yourself. Fish is also very healthy for dogs – especially because of the healthy fatty acids. Meat and fish should be the basis for your homemade dog food. Caution. Raw pork is off limits for dogs because it can contain the deadly Aujeszky’s virus. If you cook it well beforehand, it’s not a problem, but if you want to play it safe, you’re better off with beef, lamb or poultry. This is especially true if you want to barf your dog, that is, feed it raw ingredients.
Of course, other healthy foods also belong in the food: eggs are good tips as a source of protein, fruits and vegetables – preferably cooked briefly – provide important vitamins and fiber.
Tips for homemade dog food: What can go in, what can’t?
So if you want to make dog food yourself, the selection and correct quantity distribution of ingredients is the be-all and end-all. Dogs are omnivores – that is, they can tolerate almost all foods that we humans eat. Important: Of course there are exceptions. Therefore, you should not simply give your four-legged friend your leftovers, but cook the dog food extra.
Cow’s milk is rather unsuitable for pets because of the lactose it contains. Dairy products such as curd cheese, cottage cheese or yogurt, however, dogs usually tolerate well. Be careful with cheese: it usually contains far too much salt. In general, strong spices are not good for your dog. Sugar should be avoided if possible.
You should be careful with nuts – they are often incompatible, sometimes even poisonous. Peanut butter is very much enjoyed by most dogs and is often mentioned as an ingredient if you want to make dog food yourself, but it is also often too salty, very high in fat and quite a few four-legged friends are allergic to it. Well tolerated are usually the following fruits and vegetables:
● Carrots
● Fennel
● Boiled potatoes
● Beet
● Zucchini
● Apples
● Bananas
Caution. Apples and bananas contain sugar and should rarely end up in the dog’s bowl in small portions.