Homemade meals - pros and cons
Homemade meals became more popular when the food recall happened. One of the main drawbacks to cooking your pets' food is just that - you have to take the time to cook meals. If you have small dogs, it's easy to cook a lot of meals at once but cooking for larger dogs can be a little more time consuming.
Another drawback is meeting the nutritional needs of your pet. Since there are so many different ideas in relation to what a dog or cat needs, you could potentially under-nurish your pet and that could create many problems. With cats, they have very specific nutritional needs (much more than dogs) so you have to be very careful when cooking for them.
On the bright side, cooking meals for your pets have many positives. For instance, the human knows where the food came from, what is in the food and how much. With kibble and commercial foods, you don't have that luxury. Pets usually love homemade food, so if you have a picky eater, a home cooked meal could be just what the doctor ordered.
Home cooked meals are also good for those that want some of the advantages of the raw diet without having to feed actual raw food. It's not the same thing but it is a better substitute than kibble or canned food.
There are many websites that have home made food recipes for people that want to make their pets' food. Here are a few of them:
Remember when feeding your pet a homemade diet, you will have to add supplements to the food so they get the proper nutrition. This diet is probably the most important to talk to your vet about so they can help you determine how much to feed and if your pet is getting the nutrition it needs.
There are dehydrated "homemade" food mixes you can purchase that, in most cases, have supplements added. I have personally eaten Dr Harveys (you add meat and oils). It was almost as time consuming for my mom to make the Dr. Harvey's foods as it was to cook my meals only because you still have to cook (unless you feed raw meats) and create a meal. And, to be honest, I didn't really like it because I am an extremely picky eater.
Next up: Raw food