Homemade Dog Food Recipe | Vet Approved | 100% Balanced #barfdiet #homemadedogfood

One of the top requests we get on our channel is to show you how to prepare a fresh meal that's balanced. So today we'll be taking this one to the kitchen. I'll be showing you how quick, simple, and easy it can be when preparing your pets a fresh meal. I'll also be showing you how you can serve it cooked or 100% raw. One of the things I see over and over when it comes to other YouTube videos preparing fresh meals for your pets that are vet approved is that they are not nutritionally balanced. Most of them are overloaded with rice. Rice has no nutritional value for your pets and is nothing more than a carb overload that will make them fat. Some of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to making your pets a fresh meal, whether that be raw or cooked, is that it's hard or complicated, that you have to buy them a bunch of additional supplements, or that it just takes too long. A lot of people want to do the right thing and provide their pets with the fresh homemade meal. However, they just feel they don't have enough time or they're even intimidated. They're scared they're not going to be providing their pets a nutritionally balanced meal. So today I'm going to show you a simple yet easy recipe that's 100% nutritionally balanced with ingredients you can buy right at your local grocery store. Now we put a lot of time in this video. I'm not going to waste your time with the long intro, but I do ask you take one second right now, hit that like button, and if you're new to the channel, subscribe for our upcoming videos. Stay tuned at the end of the video, I'll show you the percentages you should be feeding your pets based off age, weight, and ideal weight. All right, let's get started. Grab 14 to 16 ounces of ground beef, which you can find really easy at your local grocery store. But it has to be lean ground beef. Dogs have a really high amino acid requirement. Next, grab two teaspoons of hemp seed oil or three tablespoons of hemp seeds. This balances the fats. And now we're going to add half a teaspoon of fish oil or half a can of sardines. That means vitamin D and E requirements. And now we're going to add half a teaspoon of ginger. Ginger is packed with ligaments supporting manganese. And next is half a teaspoon of kelp. This green goddess is packed with iodine most diets are deficient in. And next let's boost it with one whole egg. But save half of that shell. We're going to use that in just a moment. And now we're already halfway done. Keep in mind at the end of the video, I'm going to be showing you the portions you should be feeding your pets based off age, weight, and ideal weight. Now after giving that a good mix through, pull out the blender. Next, grab that eggshell. Half an eggshell meets calcium requirements for adult dogs, but not for puppies. Now we're going to add one ounce of liver. Liver provides copper, zinc, and iron. Next, one ounce of broccoli, one ounce of red bell pepper, and one ounce of fresh spinach. Veggies add antioxidants, phytonutrients, enzymes, and fiber. And now we have a balanced meal. For the beginners out there, this is a super easy recipe. But now here in a moment, I do want to talk about some of the vital nutrients and nutrition that is removed once you cook it. Now I'm going to show you three different ways you can serve it to your pet. The first is leaving it raw. The second is to cook it. And the third is to freeze it in patty form. They love it as a nice cold treat on a hot summer day. And again, for the beginners out there, we wanted to show you how super easy and simple it can be when preparing your pets a fresh meal at home. Now the longer you feed raw, the more you're going to learn about it, such as providing four different proteins, nutrient-rich superfoods, the other food groups, and one of the most important factors, making sure it's balanced. Now I do recommend, whether you're cooking it or feeding it raw, that you go off the BARF diet, which is 70% meat, 10% fruits and veggies, 10% organs, and 10% bone. Later in the video, we're also going to be talking about DCM, which is also known as canine dilated cardiomyopathy. DCM is a horrible cardio disease and killer that has been on the rise in dogs over the last couple years and is directly linked to specific foods such as peas, sweet potatoes, and more. Here in just a moment, we're going to go over that in detail to help your pets avoid having to go through this. When feeding your pets a biologically appropriate meal, similar to their ancestral diet, you're going to see them thrive. There's a huge difference between someone that feeds their pets a bunch of unnecessary fillers, such as rice with carb overloads, and their pup just putting on unnecessary fat, versus someone who's feeding an appropriate balanced meal and their pets putting on nice lean muscle. Okay, now let's talk about what happens to the nutrients when kibble and our fresh meals are cooked at high heats. Keep in mind, fresh homemade food that is cooked is way more nutritional than any dog kibble if prepared right. However, by cooking it, a lot of the nutrients are destroyed when exposed to high heat. This is why I recommend serving it raw, and if your pets are not on a raw diet, a reason to slowly transition. Okay, so let's talk about what exactly happens when food is cooked at high heats. Number one, most vitamins are sensitive to heat, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and the B group vitamins. These vitamins are crucial for your dog's health. Vitamin A, for instance, supports cell growth and promotes healthy skin for cats and dogs. And number two, the high heat levels cause decreased levels of antioxidants, omega-3s, and omega-6s. Number three, commercial pet food requires large amounts of carbs to bind the kibble. This is the reason for unnecessary fillers, such as rice and grains. And number four, by cooking it, it causes structure change in proteins and the fatty acids. High heat results in changes in the molecule structures of the protein. This is called denaturation. Denatured proteins have a looser, more random structure. The protein source in kibble is often made up of animal and vegetable proteins. The reason companies do this is because it's a much cheaper form to include vegetable proteins, such as a pea protein or wheat gluten meal. This does raise the overall protein, but vegetable proteins have a much lower digestibility than if it were from meat. Also, when a high protein source, such as a meat, is denatured, it becomes less digestible to our pets, and the changes in the protein structures can result in food allergies. Research shows the immune system may not recognize the new protein structure and treat it as a foreign invader, therefore leading to food allergies in pets that are more common than any vet will admit. Now again, a lot of other YouTubers I see out there preparing fresh meals for your pets are truly leading you in the wrong direction, and this is exactly why most vets aren't on board with raw or homemade meals, because they're worried you'll be leaving out a lot of what they need or even overdoing something that can have harmful effects. In none of the other YouTube videos do you hear them mention that it's a balanced meal. Quite the opposite. Most are just filled with rice, sweet potatoes, peas, and a bunch of other ingredients that truly aren't the healthiest combinations for your pets. Rice is nothing more than a carb overload. Sure, your pets will gain weight if you feed it to them daily as the majority of their meal, but so do sumo wrestlers. A lot of YouTubers use 80-20 ground beef, and that's just too much fat. Too much fat and not enough meat in the diet can lead to a number of diseases, including fatty liver, and also a number of nutritional deficiencies, such as decreased immunity, depression, fatigue, and even premature death. And now, before talking about the percentages you should be feeding your pets, we're going to discuss DCM. The newest studies are showing that peas, sweet potatoes, lentils, and legumes are having a negative and detrimental effect on our pets. If fed peas over a long period of time, your pet can develop irreversible cardio issues that can kill them. In this graph, you will see the most common characteristics related to DCM. Now keep in mind, these numbers have spiked over the last couple years, and this is due to a lot of the new kibble companies that started making grain-free formulas. Without grains, they still have to bind the ingredients some way, so they started using fillers such as peas and sweet potatoes. I believe these companies thought initially they were doing the right thing, and that they had a superior product. However, with DCM being reported in record numbers, and studies to back it, we're now learning the root of the problem. This graph will show you the companies most commonly reported to the FDA for DCM cases related to their brand. So again, before just watching a YouTube video and thinking, this sounds great, or this looks good, just because they say it's vet approved, make sure you are following someone who truly has a vet approved meal and has done their research. And now, we're going to age, weight, and ideal weight, because it's definitely not the same for puppies and adult dogs. But before we do that, I do want to ask, if you found any value in this video, please hit the like button, and if you're new to the channel, subscribe. Okay, so here we go. If your pup is 7-10 weeks old, they should be getting 10% of their current weight. A pup that's 11-16 weeks old should be getting 8% of their current weight. And at 17-20 weeks old, we drop down to 7%. And from 21-24 weeks old, we drop down to 6%. At 25-36 weeks old, we drop down to 5%. And at 36-56 weeks old, we drop down to 4%. And from here, you'll base your percentages off ideal weight. Usually 3% is a good starter for your pet's ideal weight. Once you hit ideal weight, typically depending on how fast their metabolism is, 2.5% will keep them around their ideal weight. However, if you feel they need to lose a little weight, drop down to 2%. And if you feel they need put more weight on at any time, go back up to 3%. And the longer you do this, the more you will learn your own pet's individual needs. One dog might be good at 2.25%, while your other dog might need 2.75%. Feel free to adjust these numbers accordingly. I would also highly recommend using a scale until you visually know what these numbers look like.