There’s a lot of buzz about homemade dog food these days, and at Naked Dog Bistro, we craft our own in-house fresh dog food using the best organic ingredients. While homemade dog food can be more expensive than traditional canned food or kibble, this style of food can be beneficial for dogs for several reasons, including the following.
1. You Control The Ingredients
Fresh dog food, whether you make it yourself and purchase it ready-made, usually contains no preservatives or any types of artificial colors or flavors. When you opt for organic ingredients, you also limit your dog’s exposure to pesticides. With highly processed canned food or dry food, you really have no way to judge the quality of the ingredients, and these foods often contain poor-quality meat and fillers.
With homemade dog food, what you see is what you get. Health experts keep warning us that processed foods are unhealthy for humans, and these foods aren’t healthy for your dog, either. Fresh, whole foods and high-quality meats are the best options for dogs as well as their human friends.
2. It’s Perfect For Picky Eaters
Dogs always want to eat our “human” food, well with homemade dog food, they finally get their chance. If you have a dog on a special diet, but they balk at eating their kibble or canned cuisine, you likely won’t have an issue if you serve them homemade dog food. If your dog is on a special diet, talk with your veterinarian to discuss which foods are the best option for your furry companion.
3. You Can Adjust The Recipe
With canned food or kibble, you kind of get what you get, but with homemade dog food, you can always adjust the recipe based upon your dog’s nutritional needs and personal tastes. If you need to adjust the fat content or calorie content, these are easy adjustments, as you can simply swap out ingredients and create the perfect recipe for your dog.
4. You Don’t Have To Make It Yourself
Many doggie parents want to provide their dogs with nutritious and delicious homemade dog food, but some just don’t have the time to create these culinary masterpieces in their home kitchens. Fortunately, there are many purveyors of fine fresh dog food on the market, including our homemade dog food at the Naked Dog Bistro.
We have six delectable flavors – Bark-B-Que Beef, Paw Lickin’ Chicken, Lean Lickin’ Pork, Beef Pot Roast, Wild Salmon and Herby Turkey. Our chicken, pork and turkey varieties are pancreatitis-safe and contain 5% fat or less. When you place your first order, we can talk about the proper serving sizes as well as the best flavors for your specific dog.
How To Create Your Own Homemade Dog Food
1. Select The Right Mix Of Ingredients
While we are always happy to sell you our gourmet fresh dog food, if you want to make your own, it does take a bit of research. You will need to learn about the number of calories your dog requires to maintain, gain or lose weight, depending on your dog’s dietary needs.
You also will need to have a good balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates, and every dog is unique so what works for one dog might not be the best fit for another. Again, we recommend that you talk with your veterinarian to come up with some ideas for creating your homemade dog food.
2. Avoid Dangerous Ingredients
While we all know that foods such as chocolate are dangerous for dogs (not that you’d add chocolate to dog food anyway), there are quite a few other ingredients that can be toxic for dogs. Onions and garlic, for instance, can cause your dog to become anemic because these foods can destroy your dog’s red blood cells.
Avocadoes contain persin, and while most of this persin is found in the seed, there are trace amounts in the fruit itself. Grapes and raisins also are no-no’s, as these can cause severe kidney issues and even kidney failure. Macadamia nuts are another ingredient to avoid. You also don’t need to add salt or sugar to the fresh dog food, and artificial sweeteners such as xylitol can kill your dog.
We don’t recommend that you add fruits such as peaches and plums to your dog’s food as the seeds contain cyanide and the fruit itself can have trace amounts. Fruits such as apples can be a good choice, but you must dispose of the seeds and core as these contain toxins.
3 Include Healthy Ingredients
You will need to add a high-quality protein and some good choices include lean beef, chicken, turkey and lean pork. Again, talk to your veterinarian to ensure that you are selecting the right meat for your dog. If your dog is prone to pancreatitis, you will need to choose low-fat meats and some dogs are allergic to chicken.
Many fruits and vegetables can be safe, nutritious and delicious ingredients for your dog’s food. For our organic dog food, we love to use carrots, yellow squash, apples (seeds and core removed), fresh green peas, crisp celery, yams, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. These are just a few options to consider, and you might need to try a few different options until you find what your dog loves.
4. Cook The Meat
While many people are feeding their dogs a “raw” diet, this is not recommended by most veterinarians. Adding raw cuts of beef or raw eggs to homemade dog food can be dangerous as they can be contaminated with listeria, salmonella and other harmful types of bacteria.
To Add Grain or Not To Add Grain? That’s A Complicated Question
At Naked Dog Bistro, we sell gluten-free and grain-free dog food. While most dogs are not allergic to grain or gluten, they tend to serve more as dog food fillers than nutritional ingredients. Often these grains are high in calories and can contribute to canine obesity, which is another reason why we leave them out of our homemade dog food.
Again, consult with your veterinarian before making any changes to your dog’s diet, but typically grain is not a necessary component of a dog’s diet and many of our clients have found that switching to a grain-free diet has lessened issues with allergies and helped their dogs become healthier in general. We certainly discovered that our own beloved dog, Kona, thrived with a gluten-free diet.
How To Purchase Our Homemade Dog Food
If you live in or near our Laguna Beach dog bakery, you can call ahead and place an order for our fresh homemade dog food. We also offer a local dog food delivery service for our clients in Laguna Beach, which makes it easy to switch to homemade dog food.
In addition to our homemade dog food, we create an appetizing array of organic dog treats every day in our Naked Dog Bistro kitchen. You and your furry friend can pop into our store at any time to enjoy homemade dog treats and shop in our boutique. We also create organic, grain-free dog cakes and dog cupcakes for those special occasions, so keep us in mind for your next canine celebration.
