Unlock the Secret to Perfect Homemade Pet Diets for Ultimate Health and Nutrition!

As pet owners, we constantly seek the best ways to nurture and care for our furry companions. One aspect of pet care that has gained traction in recent years is the preparation of homemade pet diets. This article explores the motivations behind this trend, provides guidelines for creating nutritionally balanced homemade diets, and weighs the benefits against the challenges.

Why Choose a Homemade Diet? Necessity vs. Preference

The decision to prepare homemade pet diets typically stems from two main motivations: necessity and preference.

Necessity

Necessity often arises from specific health conditions or dietary requirements. For instance, a short-term "bland" diet consisting of easily digestible ingredients may be indicated in cases of acute gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea. Pets with chronic health conditions such as food allergies or multiple health problems may require long-term homemade diets to manage their conditions effectively. Additionally, homemade diets are often chosen for pets that have picky eating habits.

Preference

Some pet caregivers opt to cook for their pets out of personal preference, driven by a desire to mimic their own dietary habits or a mistrust of commercially prepared pet foods. Others may have philosophical, ethical, or religious beliefs that influence their ingredient choices, sourcing preferences, or food preparation methods.

Understanding Nutritional Needs

Like all animals, the nutritional needs of dogs and cats vary at different stages of life. Nutrient needs are high early because of the rapid growth that occurs during the first few months of life, whereas senior pets typically have a slower metabolism and are less active. They may need less energy, but often not other nutrient, intake. More detailed information is available for both dog and cat life stage needs.

Generally speaking, "puppies" and "kittens" are less than 1 year old. Defining the age ranges for adult and elderly pets is more difficult, due to variation by species, and breed (in dogs). For cats, the Feline Advisory Bureau in the United Kingdom classifies cats as "mature or middle aged" at 7-10, "senior" from 11-14, and "geriatric" at 15+ years of age.

Essential Nutrients for Dogs and Cats

A balanced homemade diet for dogs and cats should include the following essential nutrients:

Protein: Dogs must have protein in their diets that contain 10 specific essential amino acids their bodies can’t produce. This is necessary for the creation of glucose, which transforms into energy. Adult dogs generally need at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, while adult cats need at least 2 grams per pound. Younger and geriatric pets may need more; young pets for growth, and old pets because they appear to be less able to utilize dietary protein than are younger animals.
Fats and Fatty Acids: The most concentrated sources of fats in a dog’s diet come from animal fats and plant seed oils. A healthy diet supplies the fatty acids the dog’s body doesn’t manufacture. Fatty acids support the function and structure of cells, keep skin and coat healthy, and enhance the taste of the food.
Carbohydrates: Dogs get some of their energy from carbohydrates, which include sugars, starches, and dietary fibers. In reality, corn provides a nutritious, affordable source of carbohydrate for energy, essential amino and fatty acids for healthy skin, coat and immune system function, and a variety of other nutrients. These nutrients are released during the manufacturing process, and are easily absorbed and utilized when included in complete diets.
Fiber: Dogs need fiber in their diet to keep their gastrointestinal (GI) system functioning and to help them from becoming overweight.
Vitamins: Vitamins are required for growth and maintenance.
Minerals: Minerals are essential for various bodily functions.
Water: We sometimes overlook this important ingredient of a healthy dog’s diet, but there really is no dog food that contains enough water for your dog.

Guidelines for Creating Homemade Diets

Choosing an appropriate, satisfactory, economical diet for your pet may feel daunting, with so many choices and so many different opinions on pet foods. By appropriate we mean one matched to your pet’s species, lifestage, and activity. Satisfactory means a diet that is:

Complete - contains all required nutrients.
Balanced -all nutrients are present in the proper proportions.
Palatable - will be eaten in sufficient amounts to keep the pet in moderate body condition.
Digestible - can be absorbed into the pet’s body for use.
Safe - is free of deficiencies, excesses, toxins, etc.

And economical means that the food is available at a price per Calorie that fits your budget.

Consulting a Veterinary Nutritionist

If you’ve decided to transition your dog to a homemade diet, your first step should be to consult a veterinarian or veterinary nutritionist. The American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN) warns that your dog’s unique nutritional requirements will depend on the age, size, health, and breed. Also, there are dogs for whom a homemade diet may not be appropriate or might even be damaging. “We generally don’t recommend homemade diets for a dog less than one-year-old. If young dogs don’t receive the appropriate amount of calcium and phosphorus, significant bone abnormalities may result,” says Dr. Jerry Klein, AKC chief veterinarian.

Read also: Intestinal Health with Royal Canin

A common task of a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist® is to design custom homemade diet recipes for pets that have health issues or for pet owners who prefer not to use commercial foods.

In order to obtain a homemade diet, it is recommended to contact a boarded veterinary nutrition specialist. In the US, the specialists are part of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (www.acvn.org), whereas in Europe they are part of the European College of Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition (www.esvcn.eu/college/animal-owners). Other countries can have their own veterinary nutrition specialization organization, and the veterinary schools or the veterinary licensing bodies can also be contacted for information.

A good resource to help find a veterinary nutritionist for a homemade diet consultation is the Diplomate directory at www.acvn.org.

Transitioning to a Homemade Diet

Whenever you change your dog’s food, whether to a homemade diet or a new commercial food, a gradual switch is best to avoid upsetting your dog’s GI system.

Following the Recipe

Be sure to follow the recipe. Tufts Cummings Veterinary Medical Center Clinical Nutrition Service published a study to determine how well owners adhered to homecooked diet recipes a median of one year later.

Clear instructions about preparation and quantities are important. The way you cook the ingredients - for example, steam, roast, or boil - can impact the nutrition of the diet. Substituting or adding ingredients can also cause nutritional deficiencies.

Monitoring Your Pet's Health

Once you’ve made the transition, pay attention to any digestive changes your dog may have. If his stool softens, he vomits, or has diarrhea, check in with the veterinarian. Whenever you change your dog’s diet, you also need to monitor his weight.

Patients eating homemade diets should be visited at least twice yearly (or even more, depending on the health status of the patient) to undergo a complete nutritional evaluation assessing the pet, the diet (in detail), and the environment, to ensure the homemade diet is being used properly and to assess if adjustments are needed.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Equating volume of food with calories: Homemade diets are formulated to provide the amount of calories that the nutritionist feels is appropriate for the pet, either based on the pet’s diet history, or on published equations. Nutritionists are trained to think in terms of calories, not volume, and so the volume of the food rarely comes into consideration during the formulation process unless it seems particularly high. Pet owners, on the other hand, tend to think about food in terms of volume, not calories.
Expecting more meat: Dog foods for healthy dogs are typically 20-28% of calories from protein while cat foods are typically 28-38% of calories from protein (remember, though, that these percentages are not the same as the ones you see on pet food labels, which are based on percent of weight not percent of calories). For high protein meats, this means that the amount (volume) of protein is often quite less than the amount of carbohydrate in the diet, especially for dog diets.
Assuming that a nutritionally balanced diet can be made without using any concentrated supplements: Providing a consistent amount of all essential nutrients in a recipe that is not time- and cost-prohibitive to make requires the use of concentrated supplements to fill in the gaps between the main ingredients.
Changing the cooking method or substituting ingredients: Different cooking methods result in differing nutrient amounts. So, changing cooking methods - boiling instead of baking, using a crockpot to cook all ingredients together instead of cooking them separately as stated in a recipe - or swapping ingredients can have big effects on the nutrient profile of a diet.
Not adjusting all ingredients in a recipe when adjusting calories: If a recipe needs to be increased or decreased in calories and a nutritionist isn’t available to help, the best option is to take the recipe and mathematically increase or decrease the amount of EVERY ingredient proportionally.

Advantages of Homemade Diets

Increased Customizability

One of the primary advantages of homemade pet food is its tailored approach to nutrition, allowing for the accommodation of an individual pet's unique dietary needs or the preferences of the pet parent. This level of control is particularly beneficial for pets with food sensitivities or allergies, as specific food ingredients, additives, or preservatives can be omitted or substituted.

Customizing pet nutrition for animals with multiple health problems is essential because various diseases can involve diverse and potentially conflicting nutritional needs. For instance, pets with kidney disease and pancreatitis might need a diet that limits both protein (or phosphorus derived from protein) and fat intake. However, these macronutrients are crucial for providing energy and enhancing palatability. Therefore, a carefully crafted, customized diet strategy is required to address these dietary restrictions effectively.

By utilizing sophisticated nutrition software and carefully selecting ingredients, including nutrient supplements, a board certified veterinary nutritionist can help ensure that the pet’s unique nutritional needs are met while maintaining the palatability of the diet.

Palatability and Digestibility

Fresh homemade diets may be more palatable due to increased moisture content and are generally more digestible

Disadvantages of Homemade Diets

Increased Cost, Time, and Effort

Homemade pet diets can be more costly than commercial options, particularly when rare or specialized ingredients are used, along with the added expenses of supplements and professional consultation fees. Crafting homemade pet diets also requires significant time and effort, from acquiring ingredients and meal preparation, to ensuring quality control and meeting hygiene standards.

Nutritional Imbalance Risks

Dogs and cats have unique nutritional requirements compared to those of humans. Simply combining common human food ingredients will not provide adequate nutrition and could pose a risk of nutritional imbalances if not properly formulated. Typically, multiple nutrient supplement products containing essential minerals, vitamins, fatty acids +/- amino acids are added to formulate a complete and balanced dog or cat diet. A previous study evaluating over 200 homemade pet recipes found online or in books revealed that the majority of them lacked clarity and specificity, resulting in deficiencies or excesses of many essential nutrients.

Monitoring for Harmful Effects and Dietary Sufficiency

Commercially prepared pet diets are typically formulated by experts in pet nutrition and undergo rigorous testing to ensure safety and adequacy. This includes testing raw materials, semi-finished, and final products for impurities or toxins, and conducting feeding trials and/or laboratory analysis to confirm that the diets provide adequate levels of essential nutrients. Additionally, commercially prepared pet diets are widely fed to a larger population of pets, allowing for early detection and addressing of any issues.

In contrast, homemade diets are tailored to individual pets and may not undergo the same level of testing, monitoring, and quality control as commercially prepared diets. This can increase the risk of nutritional deficiencies, imbalances, and other health issues if the diet is not properly formulated and if the pet is not monitored.

Dispelling Common Myths and Misconceptions

There are many myths/misconceptions surrounding pet foods. The information provided below may help answer some common questions.

It bears mentioning that no objective scientific evidence has yet demonstrated that feeding Grain Free, Natural, Holistic, Organic, or Raw diets to otherwise healthy pets, when compared to conventional diets, leads to a better outcome for the pet.

Holistic: Essentially, holistic means considering the needs of the whole animal, not just certain systems or particular aspects of nutritional needs.
Organic: Organic refers to the way ingredients are grown, harvested, and processed. The USDA has yet to define “organic” as it applies to pet foods. In the interim, pet foods meeting the human standard may display the organic seal with the following restrictions:“Organic” - If 100% organic“Organic” - If at least 95% of the content is organic by weight (excluding salt and water).“Made with Organic” - If at least 70% of the content is organic. Can cite up to three specific ingredients or classes of ingredients on the front panel.
Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods / Bones And Raw Foods diets: These diets are produced to provide a diet thought to mimic what cats and dogs eat “in the wild”. These diets generally consist of variable combinations of raw meats, grains, vegetables, and bones. Like grain-free diets, there is no scientific evidence that feeding a raw vs. a conventional diet is any more beneficial to an animal’s health. However, there is ample evidence that it is not. Moreover, these diets also have generated controversy due to their increased risk for microbial contamination. Exposure of pets and their owners to dangerous bacteria have the potential to cause serious illness. Careful cleaning of all food handling surfaces must be practiced to prevent microbes from contaminated foods to humans and pets. There is also risk of gastrointestinal problems and/or injury from bones in the diet, and the possibility of an unbalanced raw diet causing nutritional deficiencies and directly resulting in illness.
Meat Meal vs. Whole Meat: Many people have been led to believe that whole meat is better than meat meal, just based on the name. This is simply not true. As with all ingredients, the origin determines the quality. Meat meal is just like whole meat in that when it comes from a well-known provider and is of good quality, it can be an excellent source of protein. Meat meal is actually a more concentrated source of protein due to the fact that it does not contain the water content of whole meat, and therefore can be added in greater quantities to dry foods to achieve a higher protein content than whole meat because of the limitations of manufacturing machinery in their ability to include water beyond certain amounts.
Corn as a Low-Quality Filler: In recent years corn has been described as a low quality “filler” in pet foods, and implicated as the culprit in pets with food allergies (typically by competitor food companies). In reality, corn provides a nutritious, affordable source of carbohydrate for energy, essential amino and fatty acids for healthy skin, coat and immune system function, and a variety of other nutrients. With regard to corn as an allergen, few veterinarians or veterinary nutritionists believe that corn is a highly allergic food. They often cite the fact that other common ingredients, like wheat, dairy, soy, and beef, are much more frequently associated with food allergies. Moreover, we must remember that the problem in patients with allergies is with the immune system of the individual rather than with any external substance, which has no effect on those with healthy immune systems.

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