Has anyone here had any success making your own dog food at home? I have a very active 1 year old Labrador retriever and she is just fine on the 30/20 Purina Pro Plan Active Sport but at almost $100 per 30lb bag I feel like I could make her better quality food myself for cheaper. The Farmers Dog is outrageously expensive for what it is. I am considering shooting a few pigs and grinding them up so the protein cost would be the cost of a 30-30 round. Any thoughts on this? Does anyone have a recipe that has worked well for their lab?

Would DIY pork food meet the breadth of nutrients a working Labrador needs?

Started this not too long ago but haven't written anything down or portioned it out. Usually use the cheapest chicken cuts I can find and boil them down. Chop it all up and add back to the pot and add carrots, potatoes, celery, and frozen green beans, brown rice, quinoa, and oatmeal. Any other available protein that might be leftovers go in also. I usually make about 10 lbs when it is finished off and freeze it in tupperware containers. Cost can't be more than 8-10 bucks tops.

I am thinking along the same lines as Tony Franklin. I asked ChatGPT for a recipe and this is what I got using 30 lbs of ground pork meat as a baseline:

Ground pork
30 lbs
Cooked brown rice
20 cups (about 10 cups uncooked)
Carrots (chopped)
10 cups
Spinach (chopped/steamed)
10 cups
Pumpkin pure
10 cups (about six 15-oz cans)
Eggs (with crushed shell)
20 large eggs
Fish oil
10 tablespoons (or 67 tsp flaxseed)
Turmeric (optional)
3 tablespoons
Dog-safe multivitamin
Per vet/label dosageadd per serving

I am going to add in a pack of beef liver that I will grind up with the pork and cook. I am going to keep giving her the regular multivitamin and Cosequin that I have always given her. Since the protien is essentially free, this recipe should last around 2 months and cost around $20 all in.

Defiantly would like to get a vets opinion as well (I dont trust my vet for opinions on working dogs health at all).

Be careful with home cooked diets as most recipes, even in veterinary textbooks, are not balanced. Would be best to consult with a nutritionist. There are some that can do online. There is also one in the Austin area.

From what I understand, canine nutrition is still a relative unknown, so homemade diets, which I agree with in theory, are not yet well established or proven.

Retriever brand high protein from Tractor Supply works great for our labs and is $28 for 50 lbs.
My Dad is a vet and fed this to all his hunting dogs.
Throw in your table scraps for variety.

1 lb ground turkey (frozen HEB is cheapest)
1/2 lb chopped chicken livers or gizzards
4 cups water
1 tbsp chicken bone broth powder
2 cups brown rice
1 tsp rosemary
8 oz frozen Normandy blend vegetables (must be chopped up in a food processor)

Add everything except the veggies to a pot and bring to a boil. Boil approx 20-30 mins or until the liquid is fairly absorbed by the rice. Add veggies and cook 5 mins more.


* I do add a little topper of dry dog food just in case any essential nutrients are missed in this recipe, but I assure you this will come out cheaper as the homemade ingredients cost less than $10 a batch

No recipe and I agree the farmers dog/fresh pet is insane. We feed raw and have had good success but it's not for everyone.

Here is where we get ours , just keep it frozen until a day before you need it. We buy it in bulk.

https://texastripe.com

Not sure where you buy your dog food, but you're getting ripped off. I get a 37.5# bag of Purina Pro Plan for $70 from Chewy delivered. John Wayne is almost 8 and that's all he's had his whole life excluding the occasional scraps off the floor.

I buy it because a dog trainer friend of mine recommended it and only feeds it to the 25 or so field trial dogs he's training at any given time. Keep in mind dogs often eat rotting animals and crap out of a pasture that's way worse than these better quality dry dog foods.

We use various colors or Val-Pak from our local supplier. It's good. Definitely not 100 per bag.