How To Make Your Dog Your Own Food If The Stores Have Run Out

The recent reports of supermarket pet food shortages are naturally causing widespread concern amongst dog and cat owners – especially those who have only recently become an owner. 

If your local store hasn’t got your dog’s dry or wet food in stock, there’s actually no need to worry. Our dogs are living breathing mammals just like us, that require the same dietary nutrients as we do. So, with that in mind, our nutritionists have developed an easy recipe to feed your dog based on items that are commonly found in your kitchen cupboard or easy to buy from your local shop. 

• Stick to the weight of meat/meals your dog has at home.
• Think of the meat as 100% of that meal, any supplements or plant-based additions are essentially that, additions. Choose meats your dog likes, as varied options as possible.

The Simple Recipe is:

Meat + nutrient additions: bone meat, herbs, berries, supplements

Here Is A Sample Recipe You Can Use At Home:

• 80% Cooked and cooled mince meat/chicken/turkey breast and 20% cooked and cooled liver/kidney/heart. (You can swap out the meat for a tin of tuna/salmon/sardines)
• 1 Carrot
• Small handful of berries/1 egg raw or cooked 
• Small handful chopped parsley 
• Chicken drumstick bones as a snack –  must be uncooked – cooked bones are lethal to your dog

Meat

If your dog doesn’t eat raw food, then buying mince meat or chicken breast is fine, to cook and then allow to cool thoroughly before giving to your dog. 

Shop Bought Additions

Very simple useful additions could be berries, blueberries keep well and are packed with antioxidants and vitamins for your dogs.

Parsley can usually be purchased fresh or even hand-pick dandelions, finely chopped and mixed into your dog’s food. Both of the green leaves are full of vitamins and even a certain level of minerals too. They are also good prebiotics to help balance gut bacteria.

What About Bone, Minerals and Calcium?

It would be wise to include a bone content if you are feeding the cooked, cooled store bought meats. You can buy raw meaty bones from a butchers or some supermarkets and give these to your dog at a different meal in the day, or add a bone meal such as Now Bonemeal (bovine sourced). Unfortunately, eggshell doesn’t provide absorbable, bio-available calcium.

Bone provides additional nutrients aside from calcium, such as magnesium, manganese, boron, vitamin E, K and even iron too, so meaty bones are a good meal for your dog. 

What About Offal?

For 99% of dogs the nutrient that would be missed with no offal would be vitamin D, luckily this is a fat-soluble vitamin that is stored in your dog’s liver exactly for periods of time the vitamin doesn’t get eaten as frequently. However, if you’re concerned your dog isn’t getting enough Vit D, you can buy offal from the supermarket, such as liver, which again you should cook and cool. 

 Other Food Items That Are OK to Feed Your Dog From Your Local Shop:

• Tinned fish (once or twice in the week to avoid too many heavy metals)
• Eggs, can be fed raw or scrambled (no dairy included)
• Raw meaty bones such as chicken drumsticks (absolutely no cooked bones!)

Whilst we can imagine this is a stressful time for a lot of pet owners, especially inexperienced ones, this could be a great opportunity to try something new, and challenge the norm that feeding your dog shop bought kibble and wet food is best for them and you.

Even feeding your dog a natural, unprocessed meal of meat and vegetables, like you would feed yourself or family members, is far better for them than the dry food that is standard in this country. We’re confident that this period of pet food shortages will actually result in many owners switching their dog’s diet to a fresher more whole based one, and that fills us with such happiness because we know that in the long-term this will save so many canine lives.

Raw food is scientifically proven to be superior than any other dog diet, so now is the perfect time to either start or transition your pet from the naff supermarket food to the diet nature intended for your dog.