Tato's Home-made Dog Food

 Yesterday, I posted about a sweetly reflective Sunday afternoon, spent putting together a month's worth of food for Tato. Luscious photos of the ingredients, the cooking. Of course lots of people commented, asking for the recipe. Which I just couldn't do on Facebook, much less Instagram. There's too much to it. It's not a hard recipe to follow; it's just that it's HUGE, and getting everything done to perfection has been a challenge. 

I'll preface this by saying that I've been feeding Tato this food since April 1, 2026. He was five months old when we switched from puppy kibble to home-cooked food. Of course, I'd been told by various parties to keep him on puppy kibble for the first year. I'd had enough of kibble in all its forms, I had researched it, and I disobeyed, and started my five-month-old on home-cooked food anyway. I was emboldened by my friend Stephen Andrew Jones, who started feeding his beautiful Barbie, a border collie x Labrador, home-cooked food when she was quite small. He was nervous enough about it that he had her blood panels done for awhile to make sure she was getting everything she needed. And she certainly was. Barbie is now a healthy, vibrant 13, slender, active and going strong. Honestly, seeing her shiny coat and clear, bright eyes in Stephen's Barbie birthday posts on Instagram was all I needed to decide to go this route with Tato. 

Remember, kibble was an innovation of the 1950's and 60's, the era of modern food convenience, that brought us yummy canned and frozen vegetables and processed meats, when we'd been eating tedious, tiresome FRESH vegetables and meats before. Our dogs had, too! Kibble is cooked at high temperatures, high enough to destroy much of the food value of its ingredients. Then vitamins and minerals are sprayed onto it. Yes, it's convenient to store it at room temperature, dump dry kibble in a bowl and walk away. But is it what our dogs and cats should be eating? I think it's pretty clear that kibble-fed cats fight dehydration and have all kinds of urinary tract issues as a result. I've little doubt that dogs run a moisture deficit as well. And that's not even talking about the nutritional quality of the food. (Sorry, I have no cat recipe, but I bet the Google will help). 

The first thing I noticed after the switch was that Tato virtually stopped farting. Which, for a Boston terrier, is saying something. You'll hear all kinds of stuff about brachycephalic dogs just farting more because they can't chew their food as well...hmmm. OK, but Bostons fed on kibble fart pretty much continously. I doubt it has anything to do with the length of their muzzle. Oh, Tato can still let loose, but I can do a daylong road trip with this dog and not have to roll down the windows but once or twice. With kibble-fed Chet, I kept the windows cracked all the time. Moonroof too.

Second, he loves it. Chases his bowl around the kitchen floor, trying to get every bit of kale and carrot. As a result of eating a lot of vegetables, he is very open to good raw and cooked foods. Loves carrots, apples, sweet raw peppers, melon, all berries, raw green beans and snap peas...he just eats what's good. Dogs evolved to be omnivores, to follow people around and eat whatever they are eating. On the flip side, if you hand Tato a typical dog biscuit or high-end treat or cookie made for dogs, he will look at you like, "And what am I supposed to do with this?" Same goes for strange dried animal part chew treats. He recoils. My delicate little flower.

Third, making his food myself is economically and environmentally sustainable. Do I need to order a frozen food subscription and be left with a ton of packaging (cold packs, Styrofoam) to deal with? Nope. Do I need to pay around $8/day, or $240/month, for fresh food for my 23 pound dog? Nope.  (Pricing can be as low as $2.31/day or as high as $26.77/day, depending on the size of your dog!) I'll price the ingredients I'm about to list here so you can see for yourself. 

Stephen advises that the original recipe came from his friend Connie (@hartwoodroses on Instagram). Credit where credit is due.

Note that I supplement this homemade food with Nutri-Complete, a freeze dried cubed dog food that incorporates muscle and organ meats, to the tune of about $90/month for the subscription. I feed Tato about 1.5 cups of freeze-dried food per day, mixed into his homemade food. Even with that expensive addition, I'm still under $150/month for the highest quality food possible. That's half what I'd be spending with a fresh food subscription plus my freeze-dried subscription. 

Also note that I've waited to share this recipe until I was sure I had figured out the best way for me to cook such a huge amount of food. My first three attempts at this were messy, burnt, partially uncooked, and just BAD. I was trying to cook everything together in a foil covered turkey roasting pans, and the rice never got even close to done, nor did the carrots. I just couldn't make it happen in the oven. The method I'll describe is what works for me. You may have the equipment and capacity to do it better, and differently. Let me know what works for you! But I've found that in order to control the outcome, I have to do it in the way I'll describe.

And I use turkey because it turns out a lot of dogs are sensitive or allergic to chicken. I'm not sure chicken agrees with Tato, so turkey it is. Tato gets an egg fried over easy most mornings for breakfast along with his food. Eggs are a great source of protein.

4.5 cups brown rice  $1.72 cooked with

9 cups water

Two 3-lb. packages ground turkey, 85% lean @ $11.96/pack  ($24) OK to use beef for part. For this recipe I threw in an additional pound of ground turkey for a total of about $28. I think that 7 lb of meat gives the ideal ratio to shoot for. 

One 5 lb. bag of whole carrots  $4.77

Four large sweet potatoes (about 4 lb worth) $3.82

3-4 bunches kale   $4.84

2 red bell peppers (about $2) (I grew mine)

1 12-oz bag frozen sweet peas $1.50

2-4 T olive oil

4 T kosher salt, distributed evenly between pots of ingredients.

1 T finely ground baked eggshell for calcium, sprinkled over the meat and stirred in. I always have baked eggshell around for my birds; I just keep a tin pan in the oven and toss my rinsed eggshells in there. Then the next time I bake, they get baked. Take them out before the edges turn brown. 

This comes to about $47/month for ingredients. As opposed to $240/month for a fresh food subscription for a 23 lb. dog. 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Start brown rice and water in a heavy covered pot over low flame and cook until all water is absorbed.

2. While rice is cooking, chop 5 lb of carrots, 4.5 lb of sweet potatoes (you don't have to peel or pare them) and the red bell peppers and put them in a big turkey roaster, covered, with a few cups of water (VERY IMPORTANT) in the bottom to steam over medium flame. My turkey roaster spans two burners on the stove, and those ten pounds of vegetables get done pretty darn fast with two burners going under them! Steam, covered, until fork tender and easily mashable. I use a potato masher because putting it through the food processor is a pain in the butt. Easy peasy.

While this is cooking, put the olive oil and all the meat in another large covered roaster and cook slowly, covered, over a medium flame, stirring and turning it over to make sure it cooks evenly. 

This is all ground 85% lean turkey. You can also add a 4" filet of salmon, skin on, if you wish. 

When the meat is nearly done, add and steam the frozen peas on top of it.

Chop the kale coarsely and steam separately until wilted and tender. I run it through a small handy chopper to grind up the tough stems and leaves. 

Now spread the rice across the bottom of two large foil turkey roasting pans, and top with the orange vegetables and the kale. This is how I make sure the food is evenly mixed.

Next, layer the cooked turkey and peas on top of that. Don't forget the 4 T kosher salt. I sprinkle it on each layer. 

So from the bottom, you've got a layer of rice, orange vegetables, kale, turkey, and peas. Layering it like this helps me make sure each freezer container has the right proportion of each ingredient. You're done cooking--I put it in these big pans is just to make the packing and freezing easier. 

At this point I was tasting the food...and tasting it again...and it occurred to me that I could easily eat this for dinner, it's that nice. You should be able to eat your dog's food, don't you think?

One 1.4 pound container like this is 2.5 days of food for Tato. I feed him three times a day.

Hard to see the stack in back, but this is three stacks of containers ready for freezing. Red topped container is 1.4 lb food; black containers hold about a pound each, for around 25 lb of food in this batch.  Yes, I'm aware that black food storage containers have a bad rap, so I let the food cool completely before loading them,  freeze immediately, and never reheat food in plastic. They fit in my little downstairs freezer, and that's a big plus. 

I know it's easy for a one-year-old dog to look good, sleek, muscular and shiny. The true test will be how Tato ages, and I think he's going to do very well going forward.

I know this seems like a lot of work, but Tato is well worth four hours of kitchening, once a month. Feeding him right is an investment in our future.