Disclosure: I am not a veternarian, nor am I in any way a dog nutritionalist. Also I am not sponsored or do I recieve any advantage from the agencies that I have listed as links on this page. I am a concerned dog owner that needed to make our own dog's food, and do this with confidence, very responsibly and carefully.
Reason: One of our dogs has servere food allergies (veternarian administer allergy panel) that are so broad that there is no commercially avaliable dog food that meets his needs.
There are many people out there that give their dogs whatever they want, but I refrain from giving mine anything that is not recommended on the following AKC websites. If you do nothing else with this page, please at least follow the next two links:
- American Kennel Club Fruits and Vegetables Dogs Can And Can't Eat (VIP)
- American Kennel Club Human Foods Dogs Can and Can't Eat (VIP)
For those of you who want more, I want to say welcome and be encouraged to make your own dogfood!
I was very fearful at first, but with tons and tons of research, time, and experience, found that homemade dogfood is much better for our dogs then commercial dog food, and I can add organic ingrediants without extra cost, thank you Costco! I am sharing the results with you, to use as you please:
Following are: 2 Excel spreadsheets, a very important search tool, and two images of the nutrient composition of common supplements, to start you off.
The first link is an .xlsx example of how a completed plan looks, the second link is an empty sheet with the AAFCO profiles. (The field, at the top of each .xlsx, are the names of all the nutrients that dogs need each day from the AAFCO table for dogs and the amounts are on a separate tab at the bottom of each sheet.)
Note: To view and edit the excel files from your device go to play.google.com-excel
Note: To view and possibly edit the excel files from your Apple IPad Pro, etc. go to apps.apple.com for the Apple version of excel
Note: An alternative platform for data files is Apache Open Office - openoffice.org
Note: Links, in the excel file are to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they are safe:
- EXAMPLE excel file with AAFCO profiles provided in separate tab at bottom of sheet.
To log and calculate your own meal menus food profiles:
- a excel file for you to use with AAFCO profiles provided in separate tab at bottom of sheet.
Use this to find the nutrient profile of the food you want to give your dog, such as peas for example. This is where you will get the data to input into your meal plan excel file, and as you fill out your dog's meal plan, it will get easier as you will already have compiled data for yourself to use and reuse.
- Food nutrients search tool, USDA.
Nutitional yeast powder or brewer's yeast, is a great food but for pups you will want to use only enough that the amount does not exceed the dog's selenium maximum (in AAFCO guide and on spreadsheets). Always notice what unit of measure it is referencing.
Here is a helpful link for converting measurements: Rapid Tables
- image of brewer's yeast nutritional info
If you use any spirolina, for your dogs or yourself, please make sure it is lead free and toxin free, it is a very good source for some nutrients just be careful, and make sure to keep your amounts very low for those puppers. I only give them 1/8th teaspoon in their food, once per week.
The AAFCO guide is the only certified guidline, and it is what the commercial dog and cat food industry must adher to if they are claiming that they are nutritionally approved:
- AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles (standards for commercial dog and cat food acceditation)
- this link is a good resource but recommended Iodine levels way too high
As you check the internet for resources remember that a resource from a dog/cat food company will be biased. To see whether it is a dog/cat food company look at the web address on the search results page, before clicking.
Optional: In everything that I cook for them, and in their water bowl they only recieve distilled water because it is flouride free, among other things.
Important Note: If you do use distilled water, note that they will need chloride, because chloride comes from chlorine which is abscent from distilled water. It is in romain lettuce and fresh or low salt olives (rinse to remove as much salt as possible).
Please remember, that all seafood especially kelp and seaweeds, including Pacific salmon, coming from the Pacific Ocean is probably contaminated to some degree with the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 from the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan. Cesium-137 lodges permanently in your bones and builds up, unlike some other kinds of radioactive particles.
Very important information about commercial dog food, reason enough to make your own:
Note: To view the word files from your device go to play.google.com-word
- Respected Grand Champion dog breeder Pat Bizich's post to UKC in 2019, about iodine in dog food
On a personal note: After making our dogs food for over a year, I have found no need to supplement iodine at all, even though I do have a iodine supplement for them I don't use it. I add lima beans to their food and they are a good source of iodine, all be it not to the levels that the guides are stating, in other words, is very easy to spot iodine deficiency but very difficult to spot iodine toxicity...because it can apear as a deficiency...
Lastly but not leastly, the following link is often recomended by verternarians, but you will find that it is bias and will never give you the option to calculate a diet without buying their supplements, even to lead you to believe that you could never make homemade dog food, without their supplement. I would not and never did use this site at all as a guide or buy their supplement as they're clearly bias.