Is it safe to feed my puppy homemade food instead of kibble?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | Shih Tzu | Male | unneutered | 4 months and 25 days old | 4.4 lbs
What are some home foods I should feed my puppy?
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on March 27th, 2020
It is difficult to make and feed a balanced home made diet. More often that not, the dog will develop a nutritional deficiency. This is especially true for puppies. Ideally, Murphy should be fed a good quality commercial puppy diet. Brands include ProPlan, Orijen, Canidae and Acana.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on April 25th, 2019
Thank you for submitting your question regarding Dolly. I do not recommend home cooking unless you have the diet formulated by a veterinary nutritionist. I recommend www.balanceit.com if you are interested. Otherwise, I would continue with Royal Canin as it is a high quality and well balanced puppy food. Puppies grow at a rapid rate. Nutritional deficiencies can be very problematic at this age. I hope this information helps!
2Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Food & Nutrition
My dog is Labrador retriever... It is 50 days old we are giving royal canine ...so can we replace it with home food like curd rice or anything
Thank you for submitting your question regarding Dolly. I do not recommend home cooking unless you have the diet formulated by a veterinary nutritionist. I recommend www.balanceit.com if you are interested. Otherwise, I would continue with Royal Canin as it is a high quality and well balanced puppy food. Puppies grow at a rapid rate. Nutritional deficiencies can be very problematic at this age. I hope this information helps!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
What are the best homemade dog foods? that I can feed to my puppy as I can't feed commercial dog food as it is not available near me.
Homemade foods are tough because they are almost always deficient in vitamins and minerals without a supplement. It is not impossible, however. I like the website balance it.com. You can set up an account, look for recipes, and they can even analyze the nutrients in your current recipe. The key is a meat+ grain+ fruits and veggies for nutrients. Good luck!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Food & Nutrition
Am switching my coco from Royalcanin to homely food. Is it ok to give like rice, vegetables, chicken, fish all boiled. Currently she is consuming 500 gms daily twice as per RC chart. How much should be the quantity for her daily now for homely food (
Hello. By homely, do you mean a homemade diet? If so, it is very difficult to prepare a diet that has all the vitamins, minerals, amino acids & proper balance of protein, carbohydrates & fats that meets a dogs nutritional needs. Royal Canin is an excellent food, so I would really try to maintain this. If you truly want to do a homemade diet, then I encourage you to visit this site that will help you to develop a nutritionally sound diet plan. Thanks for using Boop by Petco. https://securebalanceit.com/
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
What kind of home cooked meal do I give my 2 months/ 3 months old puppy?
I would not recommend trying to feed a home-cooked diet to a growing large breed puppy like Buddy - this is because nutritional balance is extremely important at this age for proper growth and development. It's extremely difficult to properly balance a home-cooked diet for a growing puppy like this - not as simple as just following a recipe and adding some supplements, I'm afraid. Nutritional imbalances in young puppies can cause severe orthopedic issues later in life such as hip dysplasia, growth plate abnormalities, and other types of joint problems. For this reason, I would strongly recommend feeding a good quality puppy food for large breed puppies - my favorites are Purina Pro Plan and Royal Canin, but there are many options available. Once your dog is fully grown, you can revisit the idea of a home-cooked diet if you wish, since it's much easier to balance this type of diet for an adult dog :)
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hi, I took my 2 month old pitbull to the vet in Mexico since it is way cheaper than California vets and he told me something that got me thinking. He said to not give dog food to my puppy. That giving them dog food is like is eating McDonald's everyd
A balanced diet for a puppy has many key nutrients which are vital to their health, and which are available in good quality commercial puppy food. A homemade diet that is not balanced can have severe consequences for your pet’s health, as it can lead to nutritional deficiencies or malnutrition. There are many types of prepared pet food out there, some of them better than others. A good quality food with veterinarians and nutritionists developing the food and lab data showing that it is providing necessary nutrients is a good bet to make sure your pup is getting what he needs out of his meals. Because puppies have different nutritional needs than adult dogs, and large breeds have different needs than small breeds, your puppy should be on a large breed puppy food until he reaches a year old, then slowly transitioned over to a large breed adult dog food. That being said, many people now choose to cook for their pets at home, and this can be a good alternative to commercial pet foods if
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
I just got an 8 week old puppy. She is an English bulldog and Boston terrier. I want to know the best food to feed her. I was thinking of a raw food diet. Can puppies eat raw meat and digest it normally? What else do they need in their diet besides
Congratulations your new addition! Truthfully, I never recommend raw diets to any dog of any age. Just like humans, dogs can become ill from bacteria (such as Listeria or Salmonella) present in raw meats, and can infect people that they lick after eating raw meats. Puppies in particular have more specific nutritional requirements to maintain optimal growth. For this reason, I encourage feeding a commercial dog food formulated either for puppies or all life stages. Royal Canin, Science Diet and Purina ProPlan are all good quality brands of food with a significant amount of research and clinical testing behind them. The bag of dog food generally has a chart that depicts how much Maggie should eat given her current age and body weight. Each food has a different caloric density, so continue to follow the recommendations on the food as she grows. After 1 year of age, you can switch to an adult diet, but anytime you change Maggie's food, be sure to do so by gradually mixing old and new foods
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
I have a 6 month old toy poodle. When he was 4 months old, I switched him to homemade foods thinking it would be better for him (chicken, beef, rice, broccali, pumpkin, no spices or salt or artificial flavoring added) recently added mozzarella cheese
Thank you for contacting Boop by Petco with your question about Mio. No, homemade diets are not recommended for puppies. It's very hard to get the correct balance of nutrients. You should feed him a commercial diet like Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, Purina Pro Plan, or Iams. He needs a puppy food. Vomiting blood is a medical emergency, so he needs to see a vet now. Best of luck.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
my puppy is currently 3 months old and i wanted to know when can i start cooking him fresh food only in water
You can give Lukas some fresh food as an occasional treat, but not as a daily diet. Puppies need higher amounts of protein, calories, and calcium than adult dogs, and he should only be fed a puppy formulated food to meet his nutritional requirements. It's very hard to do that with a home diet. I will put a list below of fruits and veggies that are safe to feed him as a treat. He can also have boiled white meat chicken (no bones), boiled lean meat, and boiled eggs as an occasional treat. I hope this helps! http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/people-foods-avoid-feeding-your-pets http://www.akc.org/content/health/articles/fruits-vegetables-dogs-can-and-cant-eat/
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Food & Nutrition
Hi, I was wondering if it is safe to feed my dog just cooked meat? If not what can I add to feed him a fresh cooked meal? Thank you
No, meat is not a balanced diet. Even raw meat is not balanced. Balancing a home made diet is difficult and is not recommended unless you work with a veterinary nutritionist. When online, home made recipes where tested, 97% were found to be unbalanced and lacking in 1 or more essential nutrients. Unless you plan on working with a nutritionist, I recommend to feed a normal commercial diet that is AAFCO certified. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Food & Nutrition
Hi, good evening... I’m wondering when it’s okay to start feeding my puppies(almost 5month old) a home cooked food? Chicken breasts ,beef and veggies? of course besides there dry food as a tow meals dry food and the therd is one of what I mentioned..
Hi there. It should be fine to start feeding Blacky a home-cooked diet now, if you want to - you'll just need to make sure that it's nutritionally complete and balanced for growing puppies. I would recommend using either www.balanceit.com or www.petdiets.com to put together appropriate recipes for him.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
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