Homemade Dog Food Recipes, Cook Dog Food with Me

I am so excited you're here and want to learn more about cooking meals for your dogs. With all the commercial dog food recalls, it sometimes feels unsettling to think what you're feeding your dog can be unhealthy, harmful, or even life-threatening. I started cooking and baking for my dogs about 13 years ago. My dog Bobby, who is turning 16, suffered from so many health issues. After about a year of trying to figure out why he was so sick all the time, I decided to look into his food and what I was putting into his body. I just had this inkling feeling that something wasn't right. My boss at the time informed me about UC Davis's Veterinary Medicine Pet Nutrition Program. She had taken her dogs up to UC Davis, which is a city in California, to get a consultation and it changed her dog's life. My work didn't allow me to take the time off to visit UC Davis, but I did give them a call. The person I spoke with was so informative and the conversation blew my mind. I did not know you could feed your dogs real food. I mean, why wouldn't they be able to eat real food, right? I also didn't know that dogs can be allergic to wheat, poultry, potatoes, and other everyday ingredients. Keep in mind, this was over a decade ago and information back then was non-existent. The nutritionist I spoke to recommended the supplement Balance It to create balanced, healthy, home-cooked meals. The transformation in both my dogs by simply feeding them fresh, home-cooked food was so amazing to see. All of Bobby's health issues cleared up in a short amount of time. I'm just so grateful he's here. Not only did I notice transformations in my dogs, but also in dogs we've fostered and rescued over the years. And also, family and friends that once made fun of me for cooking and baking for my dogs now are all believers and I know you will be too. I want to be real here. In the beginning, it will feel like a lot of effort because you are going to be cooking and chopping and all the things. But once you start getting into the group and see how happy and healthy your dog is, you will not miss the convenience of simply scooping commercial dog food into your dog's bowl. The best part is you know exactly what's going into your pet's food and treats. And that, my friend, is priceless. Before we get into talking about Balance-It supplements, I just want to mention this disclaimer right here. This is not an ad, I am not sponsored, paid to talk about Balance-It or affiliated with Balance-It. I am a dog parent and just love cooking for my dogs and I'm just happy to pass this information along to you. I would recommend for you to do your own research, talk to your veterinarian or work with a pet nutritionist. What worked for me may not work for you. I am not a veterinarian or a certified pet nutritionist, so if you have any questions regarding your pet's health, it should be directly discussed with a veterinary professional. Before trying any of these recipes, please have your dogs go through a proper exam and blood work before introducing your dogs to new food and supplements. You may also reach out to the team at Balance-It and ask any questions you may have. And also, home cooked meals is not the only way to feed your dog an optimal diet. Now we have all of that out of the way, now back to talking about Balance-It supplements. What's great about Balance-It is that you can visit their site and have access to millions of free and custom recipes instantly. The recipes on their site were created over the years by veterinarians who are board certified specialists in nutrition. This, my friend, is so important because when a veterinarian is board certified and holds graduate degrees specifically in nutrition, they understand how nutrition affects our pet's health. All of Balance-It's products are human grade and not feed grade, which means the standards are much higher. There are no animal origin ingredients in the supplements. They use green energy and recycle packaging. The team at Balance-It generally care about your dog's nutrition and health. You can contact them anytime with questions. If your dog is experiencing any health issues like kidney stones, diarrhea, heart disease, etc, the Balance-It team will work with your veterinarian to come up with a perfect home cooked solution for your dog. Are you getting excited? I know your dogs are. I'll be showing you how to use Balance-It's recipe formulator to generate free Balance recipes. In this video, I'll be showing you three ways how to use Balance-It's recipe formulator. Let's get started. First, visit Balance-It's website. I'll include a link below. Once you land on the homepage, on the left sidebar, you'll find the menu bar. The first one is user info, and this is where you can sign up for a free account to save recipes, add in your information, and retrieve order information. The second is where you can watch Balance-It's informational videos. The third is help and how to contact them. The fourth is homemade food. This is where we'll be going in a moment to generate a custom recipe. The fifth is buy. This is where you can purchase Balance-It's supplements. You can check out the different kinds of supplements they offer and see which one is best suited for your dog. The first two are the most common. The main difference is that the K9 Plus can be reheated. Now let's formulate a recipe together. Click the homemade food button in the menu bar and select free auto balancer easy. Here we have the recipe generator. Each column is separated by ingredient types such as protein, carbohydrate, oil slash fats, vegetables, and fruits. Any ingredient that is not shown on these tables can be located in the search bar. Now I'm going to select my dog Lucy's favorite ingredients in each column. You can feel free to choose a few ingredients for a simpler meal or as many as you like. I've chosen nine food ingredients and fish oil for the fat. When you're ready, hit the create dog recipe button. Now the recipe generator gives you four options. I'm choosing the mid-range for a balanced meal of proteins and carbs. The recipe generator automatically formulates a recipe for a 35 pound dog for one meal. To change this, click edit on the recipe of your choice. Slide the slider for the body weight and the feeding frequency batch. In my case, every Monday night, I cook a batch for one week. You can reach out to the team at balance it and ask what caloric distribution is best for your pup. I'm just going to leave it as is. Then click the green arrow and the edited version of the recipe will appear on the far right column. Right here. Click view and the recipe card with directions will be generated for you. How cool is this? You can find the unit of measure for each ingredient. I personally like to measure by grams with a digital weight scale, but measuring cups and spoons work fine as well. When you scroll down, balance it will provide cooking instructions, servings, storage instructions, and how to introduce and serve home-cooked food for your dog, and so much more. For serving amount, I'll go more into depth in the recipe demo. Now you can save this recipe report for next time in your account or print it out. If you just want a quick already made recipe, you can also find popular recipes and already formulated recipes by type like grain-free, a certain protein base, no cooking required, and so much more. I'll show you an example of one of the popular recipes on the site. I do want to mention here a lot of these recipes do recommend using corn oil as the fat slash oil. Corn oil has gotten a bad rap because of the GMO content. If you do not want to give your dog corn oil, you can also use walnut oil as an alternative, which is recommended by Balance It. Now I'm going to show you how to find a recipe for specific conditions your dog may have. These recipes do need your veterinarian's approval. And the great thing is that Balance It will contact your vet for you and discuss the best recipe option for your dog. Now when you go to the homepage and click on homemade food, click on free auto-balancer easy for vet patients. From there you will see this page. Choose the health condition. I'm going to be choosing urinary crystals and stones. Here I'm going to choose calcium oxalate. And now click done. Here you can request approval and Balance It will contact your veterinarian. And that my friends are the three ways you can create a balance recipe for your dog.