Chicken and rice
The most prescribed home meal in veterinary practice, and the most misunderstood. Here is what it does well, and the one thing it canno…
Read the recipe
Recipes
Three bases, one rule
Each one is a starting point with exact proportions and portion tables by body weight. None of them is a complete diet until a veterinarian adds the supplement.
Beef and vegetables
More iron, more fat, more calories per gram. Good for a dog that burns it, dangerous for one that does not.…
Read the recipeTurkey and sweet potato
A grain-free base for dogs that do better without rice. Also the recipe most likely to be chosen for the wrong reason.…
Read the recipeThe rule. Calories decide the amount. A supplement decides whether the diet is safe long term. Skipping the first makes the dog fat. Skipping the second makes the dog sick, slowly, in a way that is easy to miss for months.
Pick the base by the dog, not by the trend
Chicken and rice for a sensitive stomach. Beef and vegetables for a dog that burns energy faster than it takes it in. Turkey and sweet potato for a dog that does better without rice. That is the whole decision tree, and it is shorter than most dog food sites make it.
What the base does not do is decide how much. A dog fed the perfect recipe at 30% over its needs still gets fat, and a dog fed a mediocre recipe at the right amount does better than most. Calculate the portion first, then choose the base.
Swap the protein, keep the math
Every base here uses the same structure: 40% cooked protein, 30% cooked carbohydrate, 20% cooked vegetables, 5% added fat, 5% supplement. If your dog reacts to chicken, replace it with turkey, pork or white fish at the same weight. What you cannot do is replace it with a fattier cut and keep the same grams — the calories go up and the portion has to come down.