I keep coming back to the role food plays in our dogs’ health. When a dog is well, it may seem that it makes little difference whether the bowl contains complete pet food, meat and vegetables prepared at home, or an occasional leftover from our own plate. Often, we start asking questions only when diarrhoea, a skin problem, a change in weight or a more serious diagnosis appears.<\/p>\n
Yet ‘homemade food’ can mean very different things. Giving a dog an occasional small piece of suitable human food is one situation. Feeding a carefully calculated, nutritionally complete home-prepared diet over the long term is another. Serving yesterday’s dinner or porridge as a dog’s staple food is a third. People often say, ‘But my grandmother’s dog ate porridge all its life.’ The differences between those situations tend to get lost. Preparing food at home does not automatically make a diet good or bad. What matters is what the dog actually receives and how they respond.<\/p>\n
Dogs need energy, essential amino acids and fatty acids, minerals and vitamins in appropriate quantities and proportions. It is not simply a question of having enough meat. Muscle meat usually contains a considerable amount of phosphorus but does not necessarily provide calcium in the right ratio, particularly for a growing dog. A long-term diet based mainly on meat and rice may lack calcium, certain trace elements and other nutrients, even when the bowl looks colourful and generous.<\/p>\n
This is especially critical for puppies. Growing dogs have different energy needs and mineral requirements from adults. In large-breed puppies, significant errors in calcium and phosphorus supply may affect skeletal development. A pregnant or nursing dog, or one with kidney or digestive disease, also needs a diet adapted to their physiology. Fresh ingredients alone are not enough: the whole recipe must meet the individual dog’s needs.<\/p>\n
The European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF) publishes nutritional guidelines for complete foods at different life stages. They can also serve as a reference for assessing home-prepared recipes, but the evaluation must use actual nutrient amounts and energy content, not just the ingredient list. Ingredient quality matters, but even excellent ingredients cannot make up for missing minerals.<\/p>\n
I sometimes hear that dogs simply prefer homemade food. They may well do. But palatability and nutritional balance are two different qualities. If a dog would choose a fatty roast over a vegetable, that does not make roast the wisest everyday diet. The same principle applies to commercial dry food: a familiar brand or the word ‘premium’ on the bag does not prove that it suits every dog.<\/p>\n
A 2025 Dog Aging Project study described 1,726 home-prepared diets reported by dog owners. The researchers estimated that only around 6% of the reported diets met the criteria for a potentially nutritionally complete adult-dog diet. This was an analysis of owners’ ingredient descriptions, not a laboratory analysis of every prepared meal and not evidence that the remaining dogs were ill. Still, it highlights a very practical issue: goodwill and a long list of ingredients do not replace calculating a recipe.<\/p>\n
Veterinary nutrition guidelines therefore recommend working with a veterinarian trained in nutrition to formulate a complete homemade diet and then following the recipe accurately. A recipe may be balanced today but become inadequate when we remove liver, substitute a prescribed mineral supplement with something ‘more natural’ or swap protein sources every week without adjusting the rest of the recipe.<\/p>\n
When I discuss risks of homemade food, I am often thinking specifically of meals prepared for people and regularly given to the dog as leftovers. Sauces, sausages, bacon, fatty ham and heavily salted or seasoned dishes are not suitable everyday staples. Onions and dishes containing them are particularly important to avoid; concentrated quantities of garlic may also be problematic. Fatty table scraps can quietly add a surprising number of extra calories.<\/p>\n
But we should not replace one myth about salt with another. Sodium is an essential nutrient, and we cannot assess a diet simply by quoting a universal ‘salt limit for a 40 kg dog’. The risk depends on the dog’s health, the total sodium content of the diet, access to drinking water and the quantity consumed. Pink salt or salt from a particular region is not automatically healthier. The practical answer is to avoid building a dog’s entire ration from seasoned leftovers and to assess the actual nutrients in the diet. Nor does this mean sprinkling extra salt on every bowl.<\/p>\n
Dogs need fat. It supplies energy, helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins and provides essential fatty acids. We therefore cannot impose one universal fat-percentage limit on all meat given to dogs. Two portions of an ingredient containing 20% fat can contribute very different amounts of daily energy, depending on how much is served and what accompanies it. Wet and dry food cannot be compared on the crude-fat percentage printed on their labels alone, because their water content differs.<\/p>\n
Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. Signs can include vomiting, reduced appetite, abdominal pain, lethargy and sometimes diarrhoea. Many factors may contribute, and a single fatty meal does not explain every case. A high-fat meal may trigger an episode in a susceptible dog, but not every case is caused by ‘the wrong food’. Nor is raw fat automatically harmless or cooked fat inherently dangerous.<\/p>\n
For a dog with diagnosed or recurrent pancreatitis, restricting dietary fat may be important, but the need and degree of restriction are individual. Grams of fat per 100 kilocalories can be a more useful comparison than a single percentage on a label. Total energy, digestibility, meal sizes and whether the dog can eat enough must also be considered. Treatment for acute pancreatitis is not merely choosing ‘the right kibble’: fluid therapy, pain relief, nausea control and a carefully planned return to feeding may all be needed.<\/p>\n
Several years ago, the owner of a dog less than eighteen months old contacted FendaF. The dog had been diagnosed with pancreatitis and refused the food offered by the clinic. By the fourth day the dog was still not eating properly and was losing weight. On their veterinarian’s advice, the family had temporarily tried chicken and rice. That enabled the dog to eat something, but it was not a sufficient long-term menu.<\/p>\n
The owner asked whether our range offered another food the dog might be willing to eat. At the time I suggested trying Winner Plus Light Senior and Ocean, labelled with fat contents of 8% and 10%, respectively. The dog ate both with enthusiasm, to the family’s enormous relief after days of poor appetite. Those are product figures from that particular time and the experience of one dog, not evidence that either food is an appropriate therapeutic diet for every dog with pancreatitis.<\/p>\n
A cat belonging to people we know also had pancreatitis. In that case, even small deviations from the suitable diet quickly brought back problems. This does not mean every animal with pancreatitis must avoid the same ingredients for life. It does illustrate how individual food tolerance can be in digestive disease, and why an owner’s observations are part of good ongoing care.<\/p>\n
An integrative approach does not automatically mean that homemade food is superior to every complete commercial diet. Its real strength is asking what lies beyond a photograph of one food bowl. Is the dog eating enough? What is their body condition? How well do they tolerate fat? What is happening with digestion and stools? Could illnesses or medication affect appetite? Is the overall diet balanced over time? These questions do not replace veterinary nutrition calculations: they help us understand what we need to calculate and monitor.<\/p>\n
I also like the idea of using fresh, dog-appropriate ingredients whenever possible. Carefully chosen meat, vegetables and sources of fibre can bring variety to a diet. But there is a boundary: adding something fresh does not automatically produce a more nutrient-dense complete diet if it displaces an important share of nutritionally balanced food. If you intend to cook every meal, you need a genuinely formulated recipe, including necessary minerals and other nutrients, not simply a plate piled with more different ingredients.<\/p>\n
Integrative veterinarian Dr Judy Morgan provides a useful example. Some of her published homemade dog-food recipes have been formulated using Animal Diet Formulator and compared against FEDIAF nutritional criteria, with necessary supplements included. That common ground matters: preparing fresh food does not require abandoning nutrient calculations. Those particular recipes were developed for specified adult dogs, generally with modest activity levels, and cannot be turned into universal menus for a large-breed puppy or a dog with pancreatitis without adaptation.<\/p>\n
Some integrative approaches also use milk thistle, dandelion root, slippery elm, blueberries or gemmotherapy preparations to support digestion. These recommendations deserve individual examination, not a general ‘natural things cure everything’ slogan. Certain botanical nutrients, fibres or mechanisms involving inflammation may be worth studying, but good clinical evidence for improved outcomes in canine pancreatitis is limited and the preparations differ considerably. Interactions between herbs and medicines are another relevant question.<\/p>\n
FendaF draws a clear line here. With a stable dog, suitable ingredients and supplements can be discussed with a veterinarian. During acute pancreatitis, however, herbal preparations must not replace pain control, fluids or other necessary treatment. Whether a suggestion comes from a conventional or integrative veterinarian, we should be able to explain which problem it aims to address and how its effect and tolerability will be monitored.<\/p>\n
I have had two German Shepherds at home whose health problems have sometimes been very different. With Ossu, diet and other care have helped us achieve significant improvements, while Faddu’s health and tolerance have followed another path. Sharing a breed does not make their bodies or medical histories identical. Equally, different health outcomes in dogs fed the same food do not establish whether that food caused a particular disease.<\/p>\n
I see a similar pattern in FendaF customers’ stories. Some dogs’ ears settle down after a diet change, some have fewer skin problems, while others first need investigation for allergies, parasites or an underlying illness. Those experiences are real and meaningful to their owners, but interpretation requires precision. We should ask not only whether the change seemed to work, but exactly what was altered and what else changed at the same time.<\/p>\n
The first step is not finding the ‘perfect recipe’ online. It is recording your own dog’s needs: weight, body condition, activity level, growth stage or adulthood, any health problems and current daily energy intake. Only then can you evaluate ingredients, portions and the supplements a recipe requires.<\/p>\n
If your dog already eats a suitable complete diet, some appropriate home-prepared food can be a small addition, provided its quantity and calories are counted within the full ration. If home cooking is intended to supply all daily nutrition, the recipe must be designed and checked as a complete diet. ‘It looks sufficient to me’ is not a nutrition plan; it is the beginning of a question we can actually answer.<\/p>\n
I am not saying that every dog must eat one specific food, or that home-prepared diets are a bad choice. I want that choice to be informed. If the dog receives the necessary nutrients, the diet suits their condition and the owner watches the actual results, home cooking can work very well. Without those conditions, even a bowl prepared with love may be incomplete.<\/p>\n
For more information, see FendaF’s articles on combining different dog foods<\/a> and what to feed a dog with diarrhoea.<\/p>\n O’Brien et al. (2025). Dog Aging Project: home-prepared diets, diversity and nutrient completeness.<\/a><\/p>\n AAHA (2021). Nutrition and Weight Management Guidelines.<\/a><\/p>\n FEDIAF (2025). Nutritional Guidelines.<\/a><\/p>\n WSAVA. Global Nutrition Guidelines.<\/a><\/p>\n Purina Institute. Canine acute pancreatitis: therapeutic nutrition.<\/a><\/p>\nSources<\/h3>\n