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Is my dog's homemade rice, chicken, pumpkin diet balanced? How much?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Small (up to 22lb) | Female | unspayed | 7 months and 21 days old | 17 lbs

I have been feeding my dog white rice, chicken and pumpkin boiled together twice a day. Should I continue this diet? If not, what more should I add to make it more balanced? Also how much amount should i feed?

3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Ann Dion, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on August 25th, 2017

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. In terms of diet, a well balanced kibble is best as it will have all of the nutrients needed for a dog. If you need to make a home cooked diet, boiled/boneless/skinless chicken breasts with boiled rice along with added cooked vegetables is a good idea (pumpkin, carrots, broccoli, etc.). You can add in vegetables to make it more balanced. Avoid raw food and bones as they cause many dietary issues. Also, avoid onions, garlic, chocolate, grapes and raisins because these are very toxic to dogs. Best of luck with Jessi!

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47Pet Parents found this answer helpful

Other Answers

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    Answered By Rebecca, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on January 14th, 2019

    Thank you for using Petcoach. This is not a complete diet for Toodie. It is very difficult to get all of the correct vitamins and minerals in a balanced diet doing home cooked meals. I recommend consulting a veterinary nutritionist to develop a diet for Toodie, or using a program such as Balance-It. This will help you develop an approriate diet, using nutritionist developed supplements. Improper nutrition can cause serious health problems, including heart disease and even death. Please consult a nutritionist if you want to continue making Toodie's food, or consider feeding her a high quality, researched dog food such as Pro-plan, Iams or Royal Canin. This is the Balance-It website if you would like to look into it futher. https://secure.balanceit.com/recipegenerator_ver4/index.php?rotator=EZ

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    2Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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    Answered By Dr. Heidi DVM, CVA, CCRT, CVTP, CVSMT, CVCH

    Veterinarian, Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist, Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner

    Published on September 3rd, 2017

    It is important to feed a balanced diet to growing puppies. I recommend using the website Balance It (https://secure.balanceit.com/#) to help create homemade recipes. They have some free recipes for healthy dogs on their website or you can pay to have their nutritionists create a custom recipe for Jessi. I hope that helps!

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