Homemade Pet Food Recipes

If you are worried about the pet food poison scare, you may want to try preparing some homemade pet food recipes.

While some vets do not recommend a homemade diet for pets due to nutritional concerns, there are guidelines one can follow to ensure their pet's diet meets their nutritional needs.

Nutritional Guidelines

According to Health Recipes Online, making nutritional homemade pet food is simple. They recommend that pet owners add a grain (oatmeal or whole wheat bread, for instance) to meat dinners prepared for pets.

Dogs, who need only one meal a day, should have 75% carbohydrates with 25% meat, according to the guidelines found at Health Recipes Online.

Cats, who need three meals a day, should have meals made up of half carbohydrates and half meat.

Making it Appealing

Pets use their sense of smell to evaluate a food. The appearance of the food isn't as important as the big pet food distributors would have us believe. In fact, the cute shapes that pet food and treats come in are cute for our sakes, not our pets'.

The important thing to remember when preparing homemade pet foods is that the smell must be appetizing. Using savory meats in your homemade pet food recipes will serve well for this.

Meats

Dogs: For dogs, meats like liver, beef, lamb and fish (as well as horsemeat, according to one source) are especially appetizing.

Cats: Cats also like fish, liver and lamb, along with turkey and chicken.

Recipes

Healthy Recipes Online offers the three following pet recipes and more on their site at www.healthrecipes.com/pet_supply.htm.

Sauteed Liver

Heat 1 teaspoon corn oil in a pan.

Add 1/4 pound beef liver and fry on both sides until cooked but not dry inside.

Add 1/2 cup water to the pan and mix it up with all the brown bits.

For dogs, cut the liver into pieces and serve; for cats, grind the liver in a blender, using the pan juices.

Mackerel Dinner

Heat 1 tsp. corn oil in a skillet and fry 1 small mackerel until it flakes apart easily. Remove and cool. Pour 1/2 cup hot water into the pan and scrape the brown bits into it. Remove the bones from the fish and mix with the juice. For dogs, serve in pieces with kibble; for cats, grind with the pan juices.

Dog Morsels

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 cups white flour
1 cup skim milk powder
2 eggs
water

1/2 cup melted beef or pork drippings (or lard)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix ingredients together with enough water to make a stiff dough. Roll out and cut into Christmas shapes. Bake on cookie sheet until hard.

The Bow-Wow Brownie recipe below came from www.cbs2.com in Los Angeles.

Bow-Wow Brownies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup of whole wheat flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup carob chips
1/4 cup of carob powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Blend oil and honey in a bowl.
Mix in remaining ingredients.
Pour into greased 15-by-10-inch baking sheet.
Bake for 30-35 minutes.

From: "Real Food for Dogs: 50 Vet-Approved Recipes to Please the Canine Gastronome"

Dangerous Foods

There are some food items that could be dangerous for your pet. The American Veterinary Medical Association's list of foods not to feed your pet can be found in the resources at the bottom of this page.