It’s a simple question, but there is no simple answer: What is the best food to feed your Weim? Quality, cost, availability, and time are all factors that play into the decision, and of course the needs of your individual dog.
This topic comes up so often that I wrote a long article on how to read dog food labels to help people make educated decisions on choosing a good brand of dry dog food. There are some great commercial foods out there and the quality improves all the time as people get more educated.
However, as we see more dog food recalls, there is growing interest in making your own dog food. The beauty of cooking yourself is that you know exactly what your dog is eating and it is easy to make changes based on your dogs’ age, activity level and health status.
This article is for those that are considering switching to a home cooked or raw diet and want a general overview.
Basic Principles on Making Your Own Dog Food
One of the biggest hurdles people have when moving away from commercial dog food is overcoming the fear of introducing a nutritional imbalance in their dog’s diet. Over the years I’ve fed a lot of Weimaraners raw or home prepared diets, including a few litters. What I’ve done over the years and with different dogs have changed and evolved, but the basic principles really do not change.
What Should Be in Dog Food
- Animal Protein (Meat and Bones). This should be about 50-75% of your dog’s diet. Eggs, yogurt and cottage cheese also count. The most important thing to remember is that calcium to phosphorous (Ca:P) ratio must be correct.* This means that muscle meat (phosphorous) needs to be balanced with bone or calcium. The calcium:phosphorus ratio should be between 1:1 to 1.3:1; in other words, close to equal parts, or more calcium than phosphorous. Check your ratios here!
- Vegetables. Veggies should be about 25-40% of your dog’s diet. Dogs cannot digest cellulose so veggies need to be cooked or pulped into a mush.
- Grains. 0-10%. I don’t believe grains are necessary but I do personally have a dog that does well on grains.
An Important Note About Calcium
(From Crash Course on Calcium by Mary Strauss. Includes info on calcium sources.)
By and large making your own dog food is easy and there is room for “error,” but you must understand the importance of calcium. Feeding meat only without calcium will eventually cause the body to pull calcium from your dog’s bones.
- If you are combining kibble and fresh foods, supplement with calcium if more than 1/4 of the diet is fresh, and balance the fresh food’s phosphorous.
- Do not add calcium to complete-and-balanced commercial diets.
- Do not over supplement puppies under 6 months old.
- High calcium foods like yogurt only balance themselves out, they will not supplement your dog’s fresh food diet.
- Be wary of doggy multivitamins and supplements as many of them are designed for dogs that are already getting calcium in their diet.
- Ground eggshells are a great source of calcium. Add ½ teaspoon ground eggshell, per pound of fresh food.
What I Feed
…in narrative form, by measurement, and then by cost 🙂
When I first started, I appreciated seeing real recipes so am including them for those that might benefit from seeing an example diet. My way is just one way, and I often throw in this, that, or whatever into my dogs meals. This is not science, and I am not a veterinarian or nutritionist. This is just what I personally do for my dogs. Please remember that every dog is different. The beauty of home cooking is that it can be tailored to your dog.
Personally, I feed a bit of grain. I used to feed the Honest Kitchen products instead of grain, but most of their formulas are about 50% grain or starch anyway, so dropping the Honest Kitchen simply made sense. (It’s also way more economical!)
Before my two seniors passed (at over age 15), I started feeding them bone broth. In my experience it was a very soothing and healing food for them, so I will still occasionally make it for my younger dogs as well. In particular, starting a dog on bone broth when you are transitioning them from kibble is a great way to start a better diet.
To make doggy bone broth, I just throw chicken backs or necks and water in a crock pot. Easy.
Broth is easily made by putting chicken pieces and water in a crock pot and cooking on low for 24 hours. Strain, and skim fat.
I then add vegetables to the broth and cook the veggies down. Dogs cannot digest the cellulose in vegetables so they should be ground to a pulp or cooked.
Veggies cooking in broth
Raw pulverized vegetables have more vitamin and nutrients than cooked vegetables do, so it’s generally better to use raw. If you are in a pinch you can even buy a green vegetable drink (without fruit juice) and pour some in your dog’s food. (Yes I admit, I do this when I’m super lazy or I’ve let my own green juice expire!)
When pulping veggies, I use raw vegetables and pulverize them in a food processor or my new favorite tool/toy, my Vitamix. I use a variety of vegetables such as lettuce, celery, carrots, zucchini, etc. Produce markets or farmers markets will often give you the scraps that they throw away such as the bruised outer lettuce leaves or carrot tops if you ask!
Next up is raw meaty bones. I generally feed chicken necks and backs, and this is the bulk of their diet. Chicken necks and backs have the correct Ca:P ratio, and are way more economical than pieces people eat, so this is a no-brainer.
Chicken backs
For dogs that might have teeth issues or if you are uncomfortable feeding whole bones, you can grind these up bone and all. I usually grind when I am traveling just to make transport easier.
Grinding chicken backs to make traveling with raw easier. Two pounds are in quart sized Ziploc bags, flattened and frozen. This made feeding raw on the road easy!
You can also slow cook the meat and bones. If you are already making broth, then you already have the meat and bones! The bones become mush, and I’m not kidding, this stuff is like crack for dogs!! Unless it’s for a snack or training treat, feed the broth along with mushed up bones. All the good stuff is leached into the broth when you slow cook your meat and bones, so give both. If you are giving these mushy bones to your dog as a snack, your dog will love you for it, and you’ll probably like their firmer poop!
Slow cooked chicken necks are soft and safe to feed. My dogs love this stuff!
Supplements! It’s so easy to go crazy on supplements, and in general my thoughts on supplements is that if they are not getting something from their diet, I will try to get that something naturally in their food first. If that is not possible, then I will use supplements. Getting calcium from bones vs a bottle is a good example of this.
The only supplements I give my dogs on a regular basis is a high quality fish oil and a probiotic/digestive enzyme. Old dogs get a MSM and chondroitin supplement.
Measurements
When my old dogs were active adults in their prime, my male ate about twice what my female did. I say “about” because I never measure so it’s just a guess. I’ve established a habit where I take a good look at the dogs while I am feeding them and I simply adjust up or down depending on how they look. You should be able to feel your Weim’s ribs when you lightly run your fingers down his side. Keeping your Weim lean is one of the best things you can do for his health!
That said, there is a rule of thumb for feeding raw meaty bones. For an adult, start with 2% of your dog’s body weight daily as a starting point. Growing puppies will need about 10% of their body weight.
Here is a sample of what I’m feeding my dogs:
Active adolescent Weimaraner and Weimaraner puppy (split into two meals)
1/4 cup rice (sometimes, depending if I have some and/or remember to make some)
2/3 cup cooked vegetables, or 1/2 cup pulped raw veggies
… or GREEN tripe instead of the veggies
… or GREEN tripe and a little bit of kibble instead of the three ingredients above
4-8 chicken backs (about 1.5 – 2 pounds)
Supplements occasionally
Senior adult Weimaraner (split into two meals)
1/4 rice
2/3 cup cooked vegetables
2/3 cup bone broth plus 8 chicken necks cooked until bones are mush (about 1 – 1.5 pounds)
Supplements
Variety
Variety is important due to the different amino acids in different types of meat (and different vitamins in various vegetables), but I do use poultry as a staple due to cost. For variety, I add red meat, eggs, canned fish, or other types of meat like lamb or even exotic meats like emu. These additions are more expensive but they are not the bulk of the diet but rather supplementing my main protein source. If cost were not an issue, I would advocate as much variety as possible.
Cost
Here’s where it gets interesting! Without my chicken supplier, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. Quality chicken necks are $0.99 cents a pound and backs are $0.79 cents a pound. However because I remove fat and skin, my cost is actually $1.25 and $0.93 cents per pound respectively. I also have a supplier that serves the dog community with pre-ground products at about $2.50 a pound.
6 chicken necks = 1 pound of necks = $1.25; 4-6 chicken backs = 2 pounds of backs = $1.86. Total = $3.11 per day for just the meat portion of their diet. Average $1.55 per dog. That means $46.65 per month per dog. Not bad! A bag of kibble is more. However, I feed some grain, vegetables and quality supplements on top of that. To be completely honest, I haven’t tracked these expenses per meal, but my feeling is that it probably doubles my food cost even though the raw meat is the bulk of their diet. $100 bucks per month per dog. I’m totally okay with this. I know that all the extras are making it way more expensive, but the reality is that it can be done for the same price as a bag of kibble!
References
As far as books go, good places to start include, “New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats” by Richard Pitcairn, “Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats” by Kymythy Schultze, and “Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs: The Definitive Guide to Homemade Meals” by Lew Olson.
Recommended daily allowances can be found in the National Research Councils “Your Dog’s Nutritional Needs – A Science Based Guide” PDF. These guidelines are echoed in this article, as well as at other carefully researched and reputable sites (here, here and here).
There is also more information in our article, “Intro to Raw Feeding” by Debbie Browning. Follow the links in that article to learn more about raw feeding specifically.
Final Thoughts
I’ve done quite a bit of personal research on pet food and have been feeding raw for many, many years now and am very happy with the results. I understand that this way of feeding is not for everyone, and it can be cost and time prohibitive.
But for those that have asked, or are just plain curious, I hope this article helps explain what I feed and why. Questions? Please post them below!
Rana Khairallah
Hi, can the food be made in bulk , how long would it last, can it be frozen?, or does it have to be daily?
Anne Taguchi
Yes it can be made in bulk and frozen. And that is what I do. 🙂
Govind
I want start my own product of dog food in india how to preserve it long time at least 8 months
Anne Taguchi
I’m not sure how to properly preserve commercial dog food for 8 months. The dog food I make is done in batches and I freeze it for a couple months. Best of luck
Georgene Hall Heist
I wouldn’t imagine thyroid hormones are listed in the ingredients????
JustWeimaraners
I can’t imagine that would be good for sales…
Smonkey
“Chicken necks and backs have the correct Ca:P ratio, so this is a no-brainer.” This is not a true statment from what I can determine. A whole animal has the proper Ca:P ratio so the more boney parts are going to be too high in calcium.
From a pet food website, chicken necks: CA-to-P ratio 1.61:1
From feline nutrition foundation (summarized): chicken necks have a bone percentage of about 36% must be balanced with other phosphorus sources.
Ohter sites say a neck has the perfect balance but I don’t believe this is true. I think necks are acceptable and not overly high in Calcium to where it will cause a problem with most dogs (with cats it will cause constipation) but BACKS are very bony (not much cartilage compared to necks) and so they are gong to be a different composition entirely.
Just be careful, you don’t want too much or too little calcium.
Anne Taguchi
Thanks for your comment on this. I agree that necks are much bonier and could use bit of Pa supplementation. The backs I get actually have quite a bit of muscle meat and offal attached, and are less boney than the necks I get, so I do feel it has a better balance. However I didn’t want to complicate the issue too much in my article, and do believe that backs and necks are still a good choice for the majority of dogs.
Veronica
Hi!
I’m so glad I found this. I want to feed my dog raw but he wouldn’t touch it. I guess I can give him chicken necks, but chicken backs are also available. If I cook the chicken back and grind it, will it still have the same nutrition in terms of Calcium to Phosphorous ratio? You did mention that cooked chicken necks are fine.
Veronica
Anne Taguchi
I’ve found that dogs that have been eating processed food for some time can sometimes have a more difficult time transitioning to raw. It might be just that you have to give him a little time to get used to it.
As far as cooking the chicken backs, yes, you can do this, but you should feed the meat bones and broth together. I honestly don’t know “where” the calcium goes but it’s been shown that bone broth doesn’t have a lot of calcium in it. If you are grinding I would try to feed ground (raw) for that reason. You may need to lightly cook it in the beginning, but my guess is it won’t take too long to get your dog to eat it raw.
Veronica
Thanks for your quick reply! I just saw a website, I think it has something to do with cooking for kidney disease … boiling doesn’t alter the protein but it increases calcium and decreases phosphorus. I think I will lightly cook the chicken backs and then grind until he will eat it raw. Thanks!! 🙂
Anne Taguchi
Let us know how it goes!
Veronica
Will do!
Dave Obi
Great step by step instructions! For clarification, when you make the bone broth with the chicken necks and backs, do you discard the meat and bones? Or does it form part of the feed? I sounds like you first make the broth from the backs and necks, and then cook a new batch of raw backs and necks in the broth. Or am I misunderstanding?
Anne Taguchi
I feed the cooked bones and meat after they are mush as a treat. I’ll use the broth to cook veggies but I don’t cook more meat in it.
Ellie
You mentioned slow cooking the necks and backs… how slow? I cannot feed raw because my dog has cancer so his immune system is compromised… oncologist says human-grade cooked is the way to go. Having a hard time figuring out how to do that without RMB…any suggestions you can provide would be great!
Anne Taguchi
I use a crock pot and set it on low for 24 hours and the bones turn to mush. You should feed the broth along with it because all the good stuff is in the broth after you cook it that way. You could also just use regular meat and add eggshell powder to balance the phosphorous with calcium.
Brenda
Hi!
I have read this article endless times! I have a 6 month old Weimy and I am having trouble with his kibble feeding in that he is developing allergies and throwing it up, anyways I am looking to switch to home cooked meals!!
A couple of questions…
After you mush the veggies with the homemade broth… do you feed the veggies along with your raw meat? What do you do with the leftover broth?
Also… It would be helpful to know how much food is yielded in terms of cups or how many cups you would estimate is recommended.
Personally I would like to try to pressure cook the chicken necks and backs, cook veggies in any left over broth (from the pressure cooking) and then mashing it all together. But how many cups should I be feeding?
Thank you so much!
Anne Taguchi
Hi Brenda, I usually feed raw veggies. If I make broth I usually skim the fat and cook veggies in it and often rice too, and put the meat/bones that have become mush from making the broth back in. I freeze and save for those times I may need to feed a bland diet. I’m not sure about yields per se but since I know how much my dogs eat raw (4 chicken backs a day for my typical adults) I just feed the equivalent of that cooked. Plus the other stuff.
The rule of thumb if raw is 2% of adult body weight of raw meaty bones a day so your pup probably needs about what I feed my adults… That would be my guess. Just keep an eye on his weight and adjust accordingly, It will become habit when you feed this way!
AJ
Thank you for the informative article. It was a little overwhelming but I certainly appreciate and respect your commitment.
We have a 4 month old Weimaraner, We feed him a raw diet from Bella and Duke (beef, lamb, turkey, salmon and chicken). We also feed him AATU salmon puppy biscuits.
The issues we’re having is he’s always got soft poo. I read so many conflicting articles about dog foods etc and it’s starting to stress me out as I don’t know what to do.
Could you suggest anything for us? Would greatly appreciate it.
Anne Taguchi
Hello AJ, I’m based in the US, so unfortunately I’m not sure what the brands you mention are. You may want to decrease the variety for the moment to see if there is one particular ingredient he is sensitive to. I would probably start with the biscuits. Or, you may want to try adding a probiotic supplement first to see if that solves the problem before trying to change his diet.
I agree, there is a lot of conflicting information out there about dog foods, and so many opinions that it can be overwhelming and confusing!
Please let me know how it goes!
Soraya
Thanks so much for all this helpful info. I have just a couple questions:
1. is there a specific reason you remove the fat and skin from the chicken neck?
2. based off the recipe and description, it sounds like you are not feeding your Weims any muscle meat at all, or at least not as part of their daily diet. Is that correct? I have been supplementing my Weim’s diet with things like cooked ground beef and chicken breast, but it sounds like it’s better to focus just on chicken neck/back bones instead. Am I understanding that correctly??
Thank you!
Soraya
Anne Taguchi
Hi Soraya,
1. When I was removing fat and skin it was because as one of my Weims got old, she got sensitive to the high fat content.
2. It depends… I do feed muscle meat but I don’t feed JUST muscle meat as the balance would be way off. So if I am feeding something with a lot of bone, I’ll sometimes add some muscle meat. For instance, some turkey necks are really boney so I’ll feed a bit of ground beef or something with it. If I were feeding mostly kibble and just supplementing with raw or cooked food, I wouldn’t worry as much about balance, but in general it’s easier and less expensive to just add meaty bones.
Hope that helps!
Soraya
Thank you so much! That does help. Ok so what I’ve got going here is 5lbs of chicken neck that I am boiling, plus I puréed 3lbs of raw chicken heart and gizzards with 4 raw eggs.
I also cooked a big batch of white rice, and am cooking some vegetables too (carrots, celery, and spinach). I also puréed these same vegetables raw.
My Weim is 13 years old and she recently underwent surgery for bloat. It was very scary and we weren’t sure whether to go through with the surgery because of her age. Luckily she bounced right back though and is acting like a puppy again. I really want to feed her good food because I think it will help keep her healthy and happy for as long as possible. We’ve always fed her well (we’ve bought super expensive kibble made with high quality ingredients), but I agree with you that there is no really “good” dog food out there.
I would really appreciate any tips on how to combine the foods I listed above! Like as far as ratios… I was going to have the chicken necks and gizzards be the bulk of the meals, with a sort of “side” of rice and veggies. But I’ll take any advice from you on this!
Thanks again,
Soraya
Anne Taguchi
Hi Soraya, yes I would feed primarily the meat and bones/eggs along with a “side” of rice and veggies. Exactly as you describe!
Soraya
Hi there, it’s Soraya again. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! This is the first time I’m feeding my dog home-cooked food and I just want to make sure I’m doing it right because she is old and I don’t want to do any damage.
I cooked the chicken necks for 24 hours but the bones were still intact, and solid, so I ended up using my Vitamix to puree the chicken necks. Now it’s like a liquid, but it’s still a bit gritty from the bones. Is this going to be ok?
Every single other resource I read online says to never ever EVER feed cooked bones to dogs. I don’t understand why it is so difficult and confusing to just feed a dog good food!!! Please can you just confirm that these cooked and pureed chicken necks will be ok for my 13-year old Weimaraner?
Thank you so much again!
Anne Taguchi
Yes you should be able to feed the pureed chicken necks. The reason you read that you shouldn’t ever feed cooked chicken bones is because when the bones are whole and cooked, they will splinter when chewed. If the bones are so well cooked that they are mush, or in your case, pureed, they won’t be sharp edges to hurt the dog.