Adventures With Vegan Dog Food

I never had a dog until my dad’s dog came to live with us a couple months ago. When I talked with a friend who is a vegan chef with three healthy, lively dogs, he told me he makes their food. Yes, homemade vegan dog food! He whispered to me “the dogs don’t know they’re vegan.”

It’s easy to pick up bags of highly processed dog foods. But if I don’t feed processed foods like that to my family, why would I feed it to the dog? After all, she’s one of the family too. A little research gave me some basic information about doggy nutrition, and we started experimenting. Guess what? Amitu loves her homemade vegan dog food!

Concerned about the health effects of your dog’s vegan diet? Here is some great information about dogs and vegan diets at Vegans First…check it out!

Amitu is a little dog (supposedly toy fox terrier, but there’s clearly chihuahua in there) who weighs only about seven pounds. She doesn’t eat a lot, so it’s easy to make her food. I make a big batch and freeze individual portions in silicone muffin pans, then pop out them out and store them in bags in the freezer. Every couple of days I pull out a few portions and keep them in the fridge so they’re ready for her meals.

I vary the recipe every time for some variety, though many experts say dogs don’t need variety. Like most things, I suppose it depends on your pet.

A few things to consider:

• Homemade dog food is not fortified, so you may need to add doggy vitamins appropriate to your dog’s size and breed.
• Give your dog some variety if she likes it, but some dogs thrive on the same food all the time.
• Some ingredients you should never include in your dog’s food are:
  • onions or garlic
  • chocolate
  • avocado
  • grapes or raisins
  • macadamia nuts
  • salt

Here’s the basic recipe…

Did you make this recipe? Please rate and review, which helps others find the recipe.

Post your photo to Instagram and tag @singingvegan and hashtag #singingvegan.

Share this post!