So I know we all love meal prepping, but I really want to get into meal prepping for my 2 dogs also! I don’t feed them a completely natural diet currently but I would like to start! Can anyone point me in the right direction on figuring out how to meet there nutritional needs ? And maybe some inspirational meal preps for your dogs ? Thanks everyone !!
by Electrical_Cup_1772
22 Comments
I’m not too savvy. I crockpot five pounds of chicken breast with a pound of chicken leg. I save and freeze the chicken for the dogs and save the broth for recipes. Lasts me about two weeks when mixed with kibble and other add fresh add ons.
I’d talk with your vet about best practices before diving in. They can point you towards better resources than the internet probably can.
I personally don’t eat dogs but power to ya!
I do! 3 pounds lean ground turkey, 2 cups cooked rice and carrots or green peas. Mix and freeze portions then add vitamins and / or small amount dry kibble at feeding time. This is for a 20 pound dog and I do this every 2 weeks
I make something I call “dog soup”. It’s just chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, and a bunch of mixed veggies (carrots, broccoli, whatever’s in the fridge). Fill up a crock pot and let it sit until it’s a bunch of mush. Voila, dog soup! scoop my little guys (Maltese) 1 cup a day, my English bulldog gets 2 cups.
In all seriousness tho, I’ve noticed my dogs drink less water after switching to the dog soup diet since all the veggies & whatnot pack a higher water content. It’s cheaper/the same as buying canned or hard food. Dogs love dog soup. All around wins.
I do a semi-raw meal prep for my dog and mix it with kibble. Ground turkey (cooked in coconut oil), diced raw liver/heart or gizzards, pumpkin, oatmeal, peas, carrots, blueberries. Keeps well for ~1 week. Add a dollop of Greek yogurt at serving.
I buy chicken drumsticks when they’re on sale and boil them with carrots. I debone the drumsticks and feed the chicken and carrots to the dog with some kibble (about half each) and keep the stock for me. I dont feed dog an entirely homemade diet because I’m not confident i can get the right nutrients in.
My grandpa buys the skinless rotisserie chicken without the bones at costco and takes it home and grounds it up. Makes a couple pots of rice and adds frozen peas corn carrots and it makes enough for his 2 little ones for like a month.
Turkey, chicken, or hamburger, pumpkin or squash, quinoa, carrots andpeas you got this
Please do extensive research on your dogs’ micronutrients and micronutrients needs, then research the sources you can get those things naturally. Egg shells, bones, seaweed, and other stuff will be necessary for micronutrients goals. Always check if something is toxic to dogs before feeding it to them (like onions). Once you have an idea of what your recipe will look like, talk to your vet about it before the diet change,
Talk with your vet. Your recipe will depend on your pet’s age, weight, health, and goals.
My lovely ol gal gets a huge batch of various meats and whatever organ meat I can find, plus mixed veggies and a bit of rice. We rotate through types of meats and veggies every week. There are lots of veggies that dogs should not eat so definitely do your research.
I wouldn’t go back to kibble, that stuff made her so sick. We tried a lot of different kinds over the years, so many specialty kinds with limited ingredients, etc. we spent a lot of time and money trying to find something that would settle her stomach, but it wasn’t her, it was all the crap they put in kibble
The r/dogs sub will tell you to consult a veterinary nutritionalist and they are absolutely correct. It’s expensive but they will provide you with a meals plans so you can make everything at home. There are books about it too, some even written by veterinary nutritionalists, but it’s important the dogs be seen in person so they can get a meal plan build for them and their needs. And they need to be monitored for a few months to make it’s not negatively impacting their weight or anything like that.
I cook rice, veggies and meat twice per week and mix 50/50 with their dog food.
My parents dog has allergies and they meal prep all her food. It’s a combination of ground pork, sweet potatoes, and boiled carrots/peas. But definitely consult with a vet first!
I borrowed this from another Redditor and make it every two months and stock the freezer:
8 cups Quinoa (steamed)
8 cups cooked brown rice
10lbs chicken leg quarters, roasted, with meat, skin and cartilage removed from the bones and chopped (bones discarded), along with all the drippings
3lbs sweet potatoes, peeled, diced and cooked as cubes
1lb carrots, chopped into bite size pieces and roasted
2 steamable bags spinach (cooked)
4 steamable bags of broccoli and cauliflower, chopped (cooked)
2lb chicken livers, partially cooked and chopped
2lb beef liver, cooked and chopped
additonal gizzards and hearts when I can get them (cooked)
18 eggs (raw)
24oz cottage cheese
a glug or 3 of olive oil over the top, or some unsalted sardines in olive oil, etc.
I roast the chicken on top of the potatoes and carrots and organ meats until everything is cooked through. When it’s cool, I separate the meat, skin and cartilage from the bones.
I use the drippings to make the rice.
When everything is cool to the touch it gets combined evenly with the eggs and cottage cheese in 2 large bussing trays that I keep on hand.
The vet approved this recipe, I started making it after we confirmed no food allergies, and the dogs have trimmed up and held at a steady weight ever since- going on 2 years now. It definitely makes me feel good to be preparing something for them myself, plus it stretches the food costs out quite a bit.
The prep time for making everything takes the better part of 5 hours, by the time I roast, cool, shred, chop, stir, portion out and clean up, but a good amount of that is not active time (cooking and cooling). I just take my time and set aside the day for it.
*I also add pureed pumpkin after reviewing with our vet.
I used to do this but my dog got bored of it. But he is particularly stubborn. When he was dealing with some tummy issues, it was perfect, because I had to keep him on a bland diet of boiled chicken, steamed veggies, and white rice, so I did meal prep and literally just microwave it for him. Really just depends!
I feed kibble but supplement it. I use my instant pot to make doggie soup to add to their dinner. I get whatever is on sale. This time of year I use an acorn squash, celery, a little cinnamon and some parsley. The parsley helps with bad breath, but not enough since they like to eat their own poop. You can add a soup bone, beef marrow bones, chicken or chicken bones. I pull out the bones and use an immersion blender and freeze in quart sized bags.
I use my dehydrator to make beef or chicken jerky, sweet potato fries, berries, carrots, green apples (lower in sugar) and peppers. Do a lot of research so you’re not giving them too much sugar.
The less kibble you use will make it necessary to add a multivitamin for them. You can bake chicken egg shells, grind them into a powder and use them to add calcium to their diet. Mine also like plain Greek yogurt but one dog doesn’t do well with dairy and it’s a literal shit storm. Mine also get either overnight oats or rice made with the dog soup. All of this is a great way to add different textures and variety in their diet but I always still make sure at least 50 percent of their diet is good kibble.
Not really expensive on my end, just depends on how you ration the ingredients out.
Brown Rice (cooked in salt-less broth)
Ground Turkey
Spinach
Diced carrots
Peas
I serve it along side their dry food. Since they are big enough for two scoops of dry food, their second scoop in this instance, is the meal prep food.
I don’t know anything but those dogs are adorable 😍
I smoke unseasoned chicken breasts and then individually vacuum seal and sous vide them. She’s gets a little in each meal.
As someone whose degree is in animal nutrition, none of the recipes I see shared here are nutritionally complete for your dogs.
If you want to feed a homemade diet, please consult a veterinary nutritionist for nutritionally complete recipes.
We meal prep for ours, once a month. Our small doggo’s diet is entirely this homemade food, while our bigger one has a bit of kibble in his. They have been on this for.. 4 years I think, and according to their vet it’s healthy and they don’t see any negative effects. (They are seen routinely throughout the year).
It’s somewhat near the cost of just kibble, but our little one was never able to be on a kibble based diet. Just couldn’t keep it down. Most annoying part is portioning after it’s all cooked. But it’s worth it for healthy and happy dogs!