Homemade Diets for Pets

Laurie Anne Walden, DVM

A recent study of 114 recipes for homemade diets for cats found that all of the diets were nutritionally inadequate in some way.[1] Most of the recipes, which were either posted online or published in books, were deficient in at least 1 nutrient. Some recipes included ingredients (like onions and garlic) that are toxic to cats. Other studies have found similar problems in recipes for home-cooked diets for dogs.[2-4]
 
Some pet owners choose to make their own dog or cat food because of a pet with food allergies, a desire to feed natural products, a distrust of commercial pet food, or another reason. Preparing dog and cat food at home is time-consuming and expensive, and owners who undertake it generally just want to take good care of their pets. Dogs and cats rarely require home-prepared diets, but if you decide to make your pet’s food yourself, check the resources for safe recipes at the end of this article.
 
Potential Problems With Homemade Pet Food
Recipes for home-prepared dog and cat diets are often not nutritionally complete and balanced. Deficiencies in nutrients like iron, taurine, and calcium can lead to anemia, heart disease, and bone disease. Because many recipes are deficient in the same nutrients, rotating among different diets and ingredients won’t necessarily balance the diet.
 
Home-prepared diets must be supplemented with the right mix of vitamins and minerals. General-purpose multivitamins for dogs or cats are usually not sufficient for pets eating homemade diets. Some vitamin supplements are made for pets eating fortified commercial diets, not those eating homemade diets with lower vitamin and mineral levels.
 
Oversupplementation is also a possible problem. Too much vitamin D, for example, can damage the kidneys. The choice and amount of nutrients to include in a supplement depend on the ingredients of the chosen diet.
 
Some homemade diet recipes include potentially unsafe ingredients. Others are based on misconceptions about dog and cat nutrition. Dogs and cats don’t need to eat raw meat, which poses a risk of bacterial contamination for the pet eating it and also for people in the household.[5,6] Bones in the food can damage the digestive tract unless they are ground up. Many recipes (and commercial diets) promote the mistaken idea that there is something wrong with feeding grain to dogs. In fact, grain-free diets might be linked to heart disease in dogs.
 
Where to Find Recipes
The safest homemade diets for dogs and cats are formulated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists. These specialist veterinarians have extensive training in animal nutrition. Veterinary nutritionists develop recipes for healthy animals and can also customize diets for animals with diseases or specific nutritional needs.
 
If you use a recipe from a veterinary nutritionist, be sure to follow the recipe and feeding instructions exactly. Ingredient substitutions can change the nutritional balance of the diet.

• For more information and a list of board-certified veterinary nutritionists, see the American College of Veterinary Nutritionists website: http://www.acvn.org/.
• Customized diet recipes and consultations with veterinary nutritionists are available at https://www.petdiets.com/.
• BalanceIT, also developed by veterinary nutritionists, has an online tool to customize a homemade diet (the company also sells a nutritional supplement): https://secure.balanceit.com/index.php.

 
References
1. Wilson SA, Villaverde C, Fascetti AJ, Larsen JA. Evaluation of the nutritional adequacy of recipes for home-prepared maintenance diets for cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2019;254(10):1172-1179.
2. Heinze CR, Gomez FC, Freeman LM. Assessment of commercial diets and recipes for home-prepared diets recommended for dogs with cancer. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2012;241(11):1453-1460.
3. Larsen JA, Parks EM, Heinze CR, Fascetti AJ. Evaluation of recipes for home-prepared diets for dogs and cats with chronic kidney disease. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2012;240(5):532-538.
4. Stockman J, Fascetti AJ, Kass PH, Larsen JA. Evaluation of recipes of home-prepared maintenance diets for dogs [published correction appears in J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2014;245(2):177]. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2013;242(11):1500-1505.
5. Freeman LM, Chandler ML, Hamper BA, Weeth LP. Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat-based diets for dogs and cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2013;243(11):1549-1558.
6. van Bree FPJ, Bokken GCAM, Mineur R, et al. Zoonotic bacteria and parasites found in raw meat-based diets for cats and dogs. Vet Rec. 2018;182(2):50.
 
Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash

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