Homemade dog food for beginners: a guide with amounts

We started with chicken + rice + carrot – the classic. We only brought in more variety after 2 weeks. Better step by step than 5 ingredients straight away.

To start with, a simple split is enough: about 60% cooked meat, 20% vegetables and 20% cooked carbohydrates, plus a teaspoon of oil per 10 kg of body weight and – without fail – a source of calcium. The amount depends on the calories: a neutered, normally active 15 kg dog needs around 855 kcal – with home-cooked food at about 130 kcal per 100 g, that's around 660 g a day.

Three pans on the hob, chicken in one, rice in another, carrots in the third – that's often what cooking for your dog looks like at the start. If you're reading this article, you probably want to get going, but nobody tells you what really belongs in the bowl. Here's the plan.

For most healthy adult dogs, this works as a starting point:

• about 60% meat (lean muscle meat, occasionally a little offal)
• about 20% vegetables (steamed or puréed)
• about 20% carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, millet, oats – cooked)
• plus: oil (about 1 tsp per 10 kg of body weight) and a source of calcium or a mineral supplement

The percentages refer to the cooked weight. Which ingredients are suitable and which are off limits is shown in the A to Z list of foods.

Which meat is best to start with?

At the beginning, stick to types your dog tolerates well. Chicken, turkey and lean beef are straightforward. Lamb is higher in fat. Pork must always be cooked right through. For a Labrador who tends to carry a bit too much around the ribs, start with turkey; for a slim, very active dog, beef with a little more fat is fine too – but then adjust the amount to the higher energy content.

The daily amount comes from the energy requirement (resting energy requirement 70 × body weight^0.75, times 1.6 for a neutered, normally active dog) divided by the energy density of your recipe. At around 130 kcal per 100 g:

The rule of thumb of “2 to 3% of body weight” from the raw feeding world usually doesn't fit cooked rations like these – it's meant for more energy-dense raw food. You can work out the figure for your dog here: calculate the amount of home-cooked food.

Your dog needs omega-3 fatty acids, and they hardly get any from chicken. Cold-pressed salmon oil provides EPA and DHA directly; linseed oil is the plant-based alternative, but dogs make less good use of it. About a teaspoon per 10 kg of body weight is a common starting value. Important: stir it in only after cooking – don't heat it.

Home-cooked food made from meat, vegetables and rice contains far too little calcium. Over weeks, that leads to real deficiency symptoms, especially in young dogs. In a US study, 200 published recipes for dogs were analysed – 95% were short of at least one essential nutrient.

As a guide, the NRC and FEDIAF give around 1 to 1.25 g of calcium per 1,000 kcal for adult dogs. For a 15 kg dog on 855 kcal, that's just under 1 g of calcium a day – found in about 2 to 2.5 g of calcium carbonate or eggshell powder. If you use a mineral supplement for home-cooked rations, follow its dosage and don't add extra calcium.

At the start, have the plan checked once by a vet who specialises in nutrition. The German Federal Chamber of Veterinarians also stresses that a balanced, home-assembled ration requires specialist knowledge.

A realistic plan for a neutered, normally active 15 kg dog (around 855 kcal, about 660 g):

• 400 g cooked turkey breast (from about 520 g raw)
• 130 g steamed carrot or courgette
• 130 g very soft-cooked rice
• 1.5 tsp salmon oil
• calcium source according to the recipe calculation

For variety, swap types within the groups: turkey, chicken or lean beef; carrot, courgette, pumpkin or broccoli; rice, potato, sweet potato or millet. Fattier meats or salmon have more calories – in that case, reduce the amount of meat a little or leave out the oil.

Many dogs have smaller, firmer stools after the switch. Even so, change over slowly across seven to ten days so the stomach can keep up. If the gut reacts with diarrhoea, put in a few days of a bland diet of chicken and rice and then switch back more slowly – for this, you can calculate the bland diet amount.

Cook for two to three days in advance and freeze the rest in daily portions. The food keeps for two to three days in the fridge and around three months in the freezer. All the details are in our guide to storing dog food properly.

Onions, garlic, grapes and raisins, avocado, raw pork, macadamia nuts. Heavily seasoned leftovers from the day before have no place in your dog's bowl either. Avoid salt, and sugar goes without saying.

If your dog has existing health conditions (kidney, liver, allergies), home cooking can be a good option – but only with a plan. The ratios then need to be adjusted, sometimes considerably. For puppies and pregnant bitches, professional advice is a must too. If you're thinking about feeding raw instead of cooking, the comparison home cooking vs. raw feeding (BARF) will help.

Calculating the daily amount by weight, activity and life stage is the part that really takes maths. Online, the fresh food calculator and the Food Check help you with this before you start cooking for your dog long term.

The DoggoMeal app works it all out for you automatically – food amount, calcium requirement and oil dosage per day, all at a glance. Get the app.