Most Homemade Dog Food Fails to Meet Nutritional Standards

Dog owners choosing to provide a fresh-food diet sometimes go the homemade route. However, a recent study revealed that only 6% of those meals were potentially nutritionally complete.

The study, published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research, was conducted by the Dog Aging Project in collaboration with Texas A&M University.

Researchers analyzed more than 1,700 homemade diet recipes submitted by pet owners. The recipes were entered into Balance It, an online tool designed by board-certified veterinary nutritionists to help pet owners create nutritionally complete homemade meals. Only those diets that met or exceeded Association of American Feed Control Officials minimum nutrient standards for adult dog maintenance diets were judged “potentially complete.”

The diets analyzed were composed of a variety of ingredients, including meats, organs, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds and oils. The most prevalent ingredients were meat, used in 90% of the diets, and vegetables, used in 65%. Almost half of the pet owners reported adding a commercially prepared food or topper to their home-prepared diets. Only 6% of the diets met criteria to be considered potentially nutritionally complete.

“Since our study didn’t include exact ingredient amounts, it’s possible that a smaller percentage than 6% were nutritionally complete,” said one of the researchers, Dr. Janice O’Brien, who works at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

Insufficient nutrition can have serious health consequences. Deficiencies in calcium, phosphorus, vitamins or trace minerals may lead to systemic problems such as bone disorders, poor growth and insufficient immune function. The research team, which included board-certified nutrition experts, stressed that even small changes to a nutritionally complete recipe, such as swapping out an oil source, can derail a diet’s balance.

Given these findings, veterinarians should carefully counsel pet owners who want to prepare homemade diets. Tips include:

• Ask pet owners for a detailed diet history, including ingredients, amounts and supplements, instead of general descriptions.
• Use reliable tools or ask a board-certified veterinary nutritionist to evaluate homemade recipes.
• Encourage clients who want to feed fresh diets to consider commercially formulated or nutritionist-formulated diets, especially for long-term feeding or for dogs with special needs.
• Periodically monitor dogs on homemade diets with regular physical exams and, when indicated, blood work to identify potential nutrient deficiencies early.

Homemade diets will likely remain popular because they allow owners to tailor meals to their dogs’ preferences, so educating pet owners about how to prepare food correctly is important.