How to Make Raw Dog Food

Raw Dog Food for the Health of Your Favorite Pet

Just as people are changing their eating habits to a more healthy diet, dog owners are now looking at what their pet is eating in the store-bought dog food. It is true that processed dog food has guidelines that it must meet such as protein percentage, carbohydrates and crude fat percentages. As the dog food is processed, many of the minerals and nutrients are cooked out of the food; therefore, they are added back in by way of vitamin and mineral supplementation. As humans, we know that getting our nutritional support from natural fruits and vegetable is healthier than taking a vitamin. The same holds true for all dogs.

Most people are unaware of what type of ingredients is in their dog's food. Everyone assumes that it is just meat, vegetables and crude fat, which is cooked and dried for dry dog food or left with moisture for canned dog food.

Dog food is ground meat and bones from any type of animal that is killed or dies from illness or injuries. All dead animals are taken to a processing plant called tallow plants. Although tallow is technically rendered beef or mutton fat, it is processed suet. For commercial usage, it can have other animals included in the tallow. The tallow is then used to produce animal feed and soap.  I don't know about you but, when I find out how commercial dog food is made, then I don't really want to give it to my beloved dog.

Homemade Raw Dog Food

To make your own raw dog food, you just need to know the correct ratio of meat and bones, fruits, vegetables and internal organs called offal. The main source of protein is raw meaty bones, muscle meat from beef, poultry, pork and fish, minus the fish bones. This will include 60-75 percent of the diet. Bones are a very important part of the diet because of the marrow, which has a wealth of nutrients in it. The bones are also good for a dog to chew on for healthy teeth and gums. A mix of mostly leafy greens and fruits should be about 25-40 percent of the diet and the other 10-20 percent of the diet should include offal, dairy and supplements. The supplements should be cod liver oil, vitamin C and vitamin E. If it is too hard to buy raw dog bones in your area, you can supplement the raw dog food with bone meal and calcium found at the pet store. 

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As you can see, making your own raw dog food for your pet is more time-consuming than
buying a bag of dry dog food at the pet store. Another consideration is storage of raw dog food. Most people buy enough meat, vegetables, fruits and supplements to last about a week. Once you chop everything up to a size that is best for your dog, many of the dog owners then divide the food up into storage bags and freeze them individually so that the only thing they have to do is pull out a bag to thaw before each meal. 

If you have freezer space storage problems, you can buy a dehydrator and dehydrate all the different meats fruits and vegetables until all the moisture is removed. At mealtime, simply add about a cup of water to the dehydrated raw dog food about 10 minutes before feeding your pet. You can buy dog bones from the meat department at your local grocery store and freeze them until ready to use. 

Make Your Own Raw Food for Your Dog with a Dehydrator

If you find it too difficult or too time-consuming to make up your own raw food diet for your pet, you can buy dehydrated raw dog food from pet stores or online, who actually care about the health of a pet instead of higher profit margins.