Our current dogs have been on home cooked food all their lives. An additional advantage to homemade diets is that our dogs are rather spoiled and will not eat things they find on the ground or drink out of the toilet. During busy seasons we supplement with human grade dog food or bake meal-sized biscuits.

The thing about cats is that they need more meat in relation to their body weight than dogs, but they are smaller animals and so are not expensive to feed.

Why do you think meat, vegetables, and starch are not human food? These are the basis of a healthy diet for people as well as for dogs. The issue is that most people don’t eat a healthy diet–we tend to eat junk food, and also some of the things we love (such as chocolate, onions & garlic) are toxic to dogs.

I’ve found my dogs are much healthier when fed real food, as opposed to the ickum that comes out of a bag of kibble or a can of offal. Take a look at the ingredients in the stuff, and you’ll see why real food is better. It’s easy to cook dog food for a smaller breed, assuming you also use the kitchen to cook for yourself (if eating out is your thing, you’re not likely to take to cooking for the dog any more than you do cooking yourself). Preparing real food for a large dog is a ton of work. However, when you understand what’s in commercial feed, you may decide it’s worth it.

Feeding real food does not cause your dog to beg at the table–dogs learn to beg when people slip them food from the dinner table. Real food does not make your dog picky; to the contrary, if you give the dog the wide variety of food you should, it makes the dog less picky and eliminates the problem you get with commercial food, which causes gastritis (diarrhea!) every time you switch brands.

Broccoli will not hurt your dog but in fact is good for most dogs. Peas are high in starch and should be used as the vegetable portion only in a pinch; most of the time they should be regarded as starch. In addition to rice and potatoes, you also can feed sweet potatoes (most dogs love sweet potatoes), bread, pasta, or cooked oatmeal. Avoid corn; although it’s a major ingredient in many commercial dog foods, many dogs are allergic to it and for most dogs it’s close to indigestible.

Vegetable offerings should be varied–try not to feed the same veggie all the time. The easiest way to prepare dog veggies I’ve found is to get the bags of frozen “Normandy Style” vegetables from Costco (contains cauliflower, broccoli, & carrots). Zap in the microwave just long enough to warm them (don’t cook them to sogginess). Then pulverize them in a food processor or blender.

If you’re worried about whether your dog is getting balanced nutrition, toss in a doggy vitamin once a day. Trader Joe’s has the cheapest pet vitamins around, when they carry them (which isn’t often). Don’t substitute human vitamins: the proportions and ingredients are different.

Dogfoodproject.com has a lot of information on dog foods in particular; if you prefer to use commercial food, it has a page describing the ingredients to avoid and why. And Entirelypets.com has a page (http://www.entirelypets.com/toxicfoods.html) listing foods that are toxic to dogs.

In parting: it’s important to understand that you should NOT try to feed your cat a diet like this. Cats are not dogs. Their dietary needs are very different from dogs’ and humans: unlike dogs, they are obligatory carnivores and will not thrive on the meat/starch/vegetable routine.

I feed a high quality food (Solid Gold). One recommendation I can make is that whether you make it yourself or buy commercial food you avoid foods which contain corn – which dogs do not digest easily.

There are a number of websites to learn about making dog food and feeding raw.

After they finally let us bring her home, we had to feed her cooked chicken and rice for a few weeks. It wasn’t so bad to do, but she hated it and it was really hard to get her to eat it… especially since we were trying to crush up her medication and get her to eat that with it.

Making your own dog food might be the solution to a picky dog… or a picky dog might make it a nightmare! I’d like to try this again some day, but probably years down the line with a different dog. Hot-dogs-and-bread Dog is too unstable for food experimenting!

Her coat is fluffier and shinier than it ever was with kibble and it is easy to keep her weight stable. Also a bonus, she does much less “business” to clean up after in the back yard.

Also, for “homemade” cheap treats, try canned green beans! Very cheap and dogs go crazy for them! Plus they have almost no calories so you don’t have to worry about the dog getting chubby!

Also, I heard somewhere that it’s recommended that dog owners avoid food with corn as one of the primary ingredients. I thought that there was a nutritional disadvantage to corn (over rice/potatoes/etc) and it may just be worth asking your vet about before trying to make your own puppy chow.