Learning how to cook for your dog is as easy as feeding your family. Find out how we create our own dishes to feed our dogs using these simple reminders. Also, we’ve included some food options for you to try with your dog.

Improving a dog’s health starts with the type of food they consume. Learning how to make food for your pet is quite simple. In fact, less is more when you consider the types of ingredients you will find in store-bought pet food.

Most bags available at the grocery store contain by-product meal, a substance that’s used in place of the real thing. The best source of nutrients for pets is home-cooked meals. These are easy to make and better to digest for pets.

Is It OK To Cook For Your Dog

Animal vets recommend that you cook for your pet whenever possible because, like humans who prefer home-cooked meals, it’s best to know what is in your food.

Dogs are no different. They will notice the taste right away of foods that contain the true ingredient. It’s always easier to prepare meals ahead or while cooking for yourself. This is one of the ways we avoid having to cook several times during the day.

Quick Tips On How To Cook For Your Dog

I often get the question, how do I start cooking for my dog? It’s simple.

All you need is to focus on what your pup currently enjoys eating, and creating dishes that are similar. With time, you’ll notice a change in their taste buds.

One of our go-to dishes is chicken, rice, and vegetables. The chicken we make for our pups is often boiled. Sometimes, we put it on a pan with little water just to let the chicken get a little flavor.

Although creating dishes for a pet as well as family members might seem like additional work. The best approach is to create similar dishes for the pup as you would for the family.

On days we have a chicken dish, we make chicken for the pups. The same goes for days we eat beef and days we eat salmon.

Learning how to cook for your dog is a lot easier than you think. Meat and poultry are simply placed on a pan or a boiling pot (however you prefer).

How Much Home Cooked Food Should I Feed My Dog

Controlled portions are important for your pet. When we got our husky, we fed him lots of different foods — fruits, vegetables, and loaded him on carbs. We did this because he was underweight and needed to go from 33 lbs to normal medium-sized husky weight.

Once our husky reached 80 lbs, we trimmed down his feedings to twice a day. Snacks were mixed in with his meals to help maintain his weight.

How much you feed your dog depends on their needs. If your pup is underweight, then I recommend asking your vet what would be the best option.

For us, it was all about feeding him the right things to quickly get him to the ideal weight. He’s maintained his number since then, and has actually put on muscle from the meat.

A good portion of what to feed your dog depends on several factors, including your pups age, breed, activity level, and health conditions.

This piece by a vet hospital shows you just what you need to make sure you’re feeding your pup and portion sizes.

Food For A Shiny Dog Coat

While you can improve a dog’s coat with external factors like quality grooming you can not get better than a quality diet.

A diet that fulfills your dog’s nutrition needs and provides vital fatty acids will leave your dog’s coat shiny and bright. To do this you want to look for the right pet food.

Salmon is also one of my favorite dishes to feed our pets since it helps with their dog coat. Anything with natural fats is a great source of protein for a shiny dog coat.

When looking for the right food for your dog, it’s best to consider your pup’s breed. Large breed pups need more nutrition than smaller breed pups.

It’s important to pay attention to the nutrition of the food you’re giving your dog. Amino acids are essential to a shiny, bright coat and overall health. From the heart to joints that tend to wear down with age, the right nutrients will help keep your dog feeling and looking their best.

Starting a pup on a diet that is packed with quality amino acids from a quality protein source at an early age can get your pet off to the right start.

Older pups will need even more omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. These can be found in proteins including fish and poultry.

For healthy skin and coat, feed your pup plenty on Vitamin B, including thiamine, biotin, riboflavin, and niacin. Just like with humans, these types of vitamins encourage strong healthy and shiny hair. When choosing meals for your pups, always look for quality meat, fish, and grains that provide your dog with plenty of these vitamins.

Eggs make a great addition to your dog’s diet. By offering your pup eggs once a week, it will help in providing them with enough protein, omega fatty acids, and Vitamin B.

What Is The Best Food To Cook For Your Dog

Knowing what to feed your pup is important. If you’re looking for healthy options, then I recommend looking into what vegetables dogs can eat and those that are not safe. This will help you get a better understanding of the things your dog will like.

Finding what vegetables dogs can eat isn’t always easy. There is plenty of information already on the Internet highlighting dogs eating vegetables, but it depends on your dog’s health. This post shares can a dog eat vegetables and the different types as well as how to prepare vegetables for dogs.

Feeding your dog nutritious food can be beneficial to their health. Not only does it save you time when you’re at the grocery store with kids, but it’s a good idea to learn how to cook for your dog at home.

Trust me, it’s not that difficult!

Benefits Of Dogs Eating Vegetables

There are a variety of vegetables to add to dog food that can help prevent health issues. However, there are a variety of dog-friendly vegetables you can try and others you should refrain from giving your pet.

We love to add vegetables to our pups’ feedings. With time, you learn to be aware of the vegetables that are safe for your dog, and those that are important for their diet. In this post, you’ll find out what vegetable dogs can eat and which ones are beneficial to your pet’s health.

Please note, although eating greens can be helpful to a human’s diet, some vegetables can be dangerous, even deadly for your dog. Most dog owners don’t realize that not only are some vegetables safe for their pet, but they can play an essential role in their pup’s health.

In fact, it’s suggested that a dog’s diet should have a bigger portion of vegetables than anything else.

Other vegetables may not be high in health benefits, but are safe for dogs and make good occasional treats. However, it’s important to be cautious with veggies because some vegetables are not only dangerous to your dog but can even be deadly.

Vegetables Dogs Can Eat

The best vegetables that should be fed to your dog regularly include carrots, green beans, and broccoli. Green beans and broccoli should always be cooked normally before being fed to your dog, this is important for them to be able to properly digest the vegetables.

Carrots can be fed to your dogs cooked or can be cut into slices and fed raw. Peas and corn are two veggies that can be fed to your dog as a treat, as it doesn’t offer much nutrition to your pup.

One of the reasons why it would be best to avoid feeding your dog corn is because many dogs struggle to properly digest it. This is why corn pieces come out whole in dog feces. Since corn is not digested properly, pups do not absorb the nutrients in corn.

Vegetables to add to dog food and why:

• Pumpkin: High in fiber, great for your pup’s digestive system
• Zucchini: Great source of water in their diet and helps nourish their joints
• Parsley: Freshens breath and helps with joints
• Asparagus: Adds just the right nutrients to your pet’s meal
• Kale: With vitamins K, A, and Iron, it’s a great source for bone health and boosts metabolism
• Spinach: Rich in potassium, magnesium, and vitamins such as folic acid, iron, and calcium
• Carrots: Filled with vitamin K, potassium, and biotin, it helps with your pet’s coat and vision
• Broccoli Florets: Improves bone density and helps combat health diseases and assists with heart health
• Green Beans: Rich in fiber and a low-calorie healthy treat that helps increase energy
• Celery: Include vitamins A and C and works as an antioxidant for dogs
• Beets: Rich in fiber, potassium, and other nutrients that your pup can benefit like providing healthy skin and coat
• Cucumber: Contains antioxidants and has anti-flammatory agents that makes it great for older dogs
• Sweet Potatoes: Great for digestive health and high in fiber
• Green Peas: Considered the main ingredient in dog food, sugar snap peas are a great source of vitamin A, K, and various B vitamins

Vegetables That Are Dangerous For Dogs

Now that you understand what vegetables dogs can eat, it’s important to highlight a couple that aren’t safe for your pet. Onion is the worst vegetable that can be given to dogs. Onion (as well as garlic) contains a chemical that is known as thiosulphate. This chemical is known for being toxic to dogs.

Dogs that eat this chemical can develop hemolytic anemia, a condition where the blood cells circulating in the bloodstream will burst. This results in a reduction in the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

Mushrooms are also particularly dangerous to dogs and have been shown to cause many dangerous, even deadly, side effects.

How To Prepare Vegetables For Dogs

Although it’s not always a question as to what veggies dogs can eat, sometimes it’s whether or not your pet will actually eat it.

Some pups will eat anything, while others are picky eaters. Understanding what dog eat on a daily basis is a key indicator of what foods are will help improve dog health, especially their immune system as they grow older.

If you struggle introducing vegetables to your dog, there are ways to help ease them into their appreciation for vegetables. Much like introducing babies to solid food, it takes patience to get your new pet to try new foods.

For younger dogs, adding a spoonful of organic baby food in flavors like sweet potato or carrot to their dog food can help get them to adjust to the flavor. Baby food not only can be used with wet food but works great with dry food. It’s always important to check the ingredients in baby food, just to be safe. This is also a good way to get dogs to enjoy dry food more since most dogs prefer moist dog food.

You can also add cooked veggies to dog food by mashing it up or chopping it into small pieces before stirring into wet dog food. Eventually, it’s a good idea to try and give your pup raw carrots, since raw carrots also help to clean the teeth.

Most dogs will eat baby carrots, but for those that won’t you can try adding peanut butter until they’ll eat the carrots by themselves.

Although some pets prefer dog food, it’s important that you mix in other bite size treats. Learning about how to prepare vegetables for dogs is simple.

There are a handful of ways you can prepare your dog’s vegetables. Freezing, blanching, steaming, pureeing are common ways to do so.

Freezing

When you’re planning in advance, it’s best to cook food for your dog in batches. After cooking large amounts of food, you can preserve it for a later date by freezing it in the fridge.

Blanching

Blanching vegetables means cooking it in boiling water and then submerging them in cold water. This helps cleanse the vegetables of dirt without removing its nutrients.

Steaming

One of my favorite methods of cooking for dogs is steaming the vegetables. This involves submerging them in boiling water, it helps with preserving its nutrients as well.

Pureeing

Pureeing vegetables in a blender or steaming/blanching the vegetables dogs can eat and then mashing them with a fork is a great option for smaller pups or older ones who may not have all their teeth. This is a great option to avoid choking on larger pieces.

Can Dogs Eat Rice?

Many new dog owners ask the question: “Is rice good for dogs?” It’s often followed by the question, “Can dogs eat white rice?”

The answer for both is simply YES. Your dog can eat rice in general, and already does if they’ve eaten dog food. It’s one of the key ingredients found in store-bought options.

Rice for your dog should be cooked without salt, as seasoning is a poisonous for your pet. It’s rich in vitamin D and calcium. It is also a good source of carbs and help fuels your pet’s energy.

White rice is an excellent source of fiber for your pet and can help with their digestive issues like diarrhea. Brown rice is a great healthy alternative to white rice for dogs because it’s more fibrous.

The difference is brown rice has an outer coat that contains nutrients and isn’t processed like white rice. However, brown rice isn’t as easy to digest and can spoil faster in the fridge.

Despite their differences, there are benefits to feeding brown rice to your dog. Brown rice can be used to prevent high blood pressure and cancer in dogs.

Brown rice is full of natural oils and can help with decreasing cholesterol levels in the body. It has been noted that brown rice can increase your pet’s appetite as well.

Simple Dishes To Cook For Your Dog

The vegetables to add to dog food mentioned above can be helpful, but not all pet owners prefer to feed their dog store-bought options.

For us, cooking for your dog means creating dishes that help their metabolism and assist with improving their digestive system. We have older, rescued pups with sensitive stomachs. Below are food options we feed our dogs throughout the week for you try at home.

Option 1: Rice, chicken, and veggies

Rice
Boil rice in water with only olive oil.
Skip the salt and other seasonings you typically add to rice recipes.

Chicken
Choose to boil a chicken breast or sautee it on a hot pan.
No seasoning necessary.
If you’re looking to naturally add flavor to the chicken, simply sautee it in little water until the chicken begins to brown.

Vegetables
Whether you choose to boil the veggies with the chicken or separately, it’s up to you.
You can go with chopped raw vegetables as well.
Our choice of veggies is carrots and peas.

Option 2: Salmon with potatoes

Salmon
Just as you’d sautee the chicken on a pan, you can do the same with salmon. For added flavor, you can sprinkle a little olive oil on top.

Potatoes
Remove the skin from two or three potatoes.
Similar to boiling the chicken, you’ll need to boil the potatoes in a pot of water.

Option 3: Steak and eggs

Steak
Often cooked on the grill, the steak can put in aluminum foil and place on an outdoor grill. The aluminum foil helps contain the juices of the meat and adds flavor.

Eggs
Boiled in a pot of water and served without seasoning.

These options are a great starting point for how to cook for your dog. Here’s a video on how we cook for our pups and ourselves daily: