Homemade Healthy Dog Food

For a long time, I've felt bad about giving my dog Alaska kibble. The problem is Alaska is a large-breed dog, a Cane Corso, German Shepherd mix who weighs in at 110 lbs. So feeding her commercial fresh food wasn't an option; I'd go broke.

Unlike all the other recipes I've posted, I couldn't just find a recipe and make it because my goal is to switch Alaska over to fresh natural food full time. My journey started with research; luckily, as a college professor, I have mad research skills. I found dozens and dozens of recipes, but I decided on one created by the YouTuber "The Buck Stop."

I liked a few things about this recipe, the first being that he evolved it over 3 years and made improvements and additional updates. Secondly, it's all-natural, budget-friendly ingredients, and third, it's vet-approved. But I couldn't just take his word for it; I also ran this recipe by two separate vets and a dog food nutrition calculator, and all three gave it the green light.

Annotated Cooking Notes: Yes, you can make this without an Instant Pot, but for God's sake, don't do that to yourself. If you don't want to spend all that money, find a good used one on Facebook Marketplace. Bonus: the Instant Pot will open up your kitchen to all kinds of fun recipes.

6 pounds of ground turkey

7.5 ounces of pumpkin puree

1/4 Cup sunflower oil

3 sweet potatoes, chopped

1 1/2 cups Quinoa or Oats or white rice; I used quinoa.

12oz of frozen spinach

4 carrots chopped

12oz green beans

12oz peas

1 pint of fresh blueberries

2C water

optional: 1/3C of beef liver chopped

optional: 2 tsp of turmeric powder & Black Pepper

1 can of cooked chopped clams.

5 tsp of eggshell powder ( see instructions below.)

In a large pot/Instant Pot, add chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and grain. Quinoa may cause issues with the Instant Pot, so you might want to cook that in a separate pot. Add 1 cup of water, close the Instant Pot, and pressure cook for 20 minutes. If using a large pot, cook until veggies are soft. Pour contents into a large mixing bowl and let cool.

Add ground turkey to the Instant Pot, chop up the beef liver, and add that as well. Add 1 cup of water and close the Instant Pot. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.

Combine the veggie and meat components in a large pan (the largest you have). Add 1 pint of blueberries, the tsp of eggshell powder, then add the sunflower oil, and lastly mix the turmeric and pepper in a small bowl, then add the blended spices to the mixture. Then mix all the ingredients together. Let the food cool. I package it up in a large container and a small container. I'm feeding Alaska 2 1/2 cups a day, 1 1/4 cup in the morning, 1 1/4 cup in the evening, and this amount should last about 7-9 days. As I use the small container, I freeze the large container and just refill. If you're a kitchen gadget person, you could seal this in portion-size serving bags.

Recipe for Eggshell Powder

Save your eggshells in a jar or plastic bag.

When you get about a dozen or so, add the shells to a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes.

You can start breaking down the shells a little in the pot. Strain the shells and spread them on a baking sheet and pop them in a 200-degree oven for 30 minutes, then let them dry and cool.

Now that your shells are dry and cool, they should be brittle. Put the shells into your blender and pulverize them into a fine powder.