How to Make Balanced Meals for Your Dog at Home
How To Make A Balanced Meal For Your Dog At Home
Ever wondered what goes into making a truly balanced, home-cooked meal for your dog? From tender baked sweet potatoes to lightly steamed peas and high-quality fish, feeding your dog fresh, nutritious food doesn’t have to be complicated. In my latest guide, I walk you step-by-step through creating meals that are tasty, wholesome, and perfectly portioned, plus I show an easier way to ensure your dog gets all the essential nutrients without the hassle of crushing capsules or measuring dozens of supplements.
And for those looking to take their dog’s health to the next level, I recommend Dr. Jones’ Ultimate Canine Advanced Plus Health Formula—a complete, nose-to-tail supplement designed to:
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Support overall wellness with 95% curcuminoids for a balanced body response
-
Promote radiant skin and a lustrous coat with omega-3 fatty acids
-
Reduce chronic itching, paw chewing, and hair loss
-
Maintain ear health and digestive wellness with probiotics
-
Strengthen the immune system with added colostrum
-
Enhance mobility, comfort, and muscle function
-
Boost brain health, energy, and mental well-being with taurine and specialized probiotics
-
Protect against harmful bacteria and support nutrient absorption
-
Reduce allergic reactions and control strong odors
-
Support heart, brain, eye, and vision health with L-taurine
Choose Ultimate Canine Advanced Plus for complete, hassle-free health support that keeps your dog happy, active, and thriving.
How to Make a Balanced Home-Cooked Dog Food Diet
Hello, everyone! Today, I’m going to show you how to make a balanced, nutritious home-cooked dog food right in your own kitchen. No lab coat, no stethoscope—just me sharing what I do for my dog, Louis.
We’ll be using:
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Fish as the protein source
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Sweet potato for carbohydrates
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Peas for vegetables
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A few supplements to round out the nutrients—or, for an easier option, you can use just one scoop of my Dr. Jones’ Ultimate Canine Advanced Plus Health Formula to replace all the individual supplements.
Preparing the Sweet Potato
Start with a sweet potato. Cut off any parts that don’t look healthy, but keep most of the peel—it contains important nutrients. Chop it into bite-sized pieces.
The sweet potato will provide your dog with a high-quality carbohydrate source, perfect for energy and digestion. Bake the pieces in the oven until tender.
Cooking the Protein and Vegetables
For protein, I use white fish—gentle on the stomach and rich in nutrients.
For vegetables, I lightly steam peas to preserve their vitamins. For a 20-pound dog, one cup of peas is a good serving size. For Louis, who weighs almost 100 pounds, he needs about five cups of food in total:
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1–2 cups of peas
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1.5–2 cups of fish
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2 cups of baked sweet potato
This combination gives your dog half quality carbohydrate and half quality protein, with some vegetables added in for fiber and vitamins.
Adding Supplements (Optional but Recommended)
To make this a truly balanced diet, you can add supplements for essential vitamins and minerals:
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Flax Oil – Provides omega-3 fatty acids for a healthy coat and joints.
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Calcium – Use calcium carbonate capsules to support strong bones. Crush them to mix into the food.
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Multivitamin/Multimineral – I sometimes use a human multivitamin like Centrum, but be aware of all the unnecessary fillers and artificial ingredients. For example, Centrum contains things like BHT, artificial colors, and mineral oil—not ideal for your dog.
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Potassium – A pinch of potassium chloride (no-salt substitute) can help maintain electrolyte balance.
Mix all these into the food until evenly distributed. It can look a bit involved, but the benefits for your dog’s health are worth it.
A Simpler Alternative: Dr. Jones’ Ultimate Canine Advanced Plus Health Formula
If all of this seems too complicated, here’s a much easier option. My Dr. Jones’ Ultimate Canine Advanced Plus Health Formula combines all the essential vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids into one scoop. Just add one to two scoops to your dog’s food, mix, and you’re done. No crushing capsules or measuring dozens of ingredients.
Louis loves his home-cooked meals so much more than dry kibble—it’s tastier, fresher, and much healthier.
Tips for Feeding Your Dog
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Mix up the diet—don’t rely solely on commercial kibble. Add some homemade food or raw food to your dog’s meals.
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Start small—even one meal a day of fresh food can make a big difference.
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Quality supplements matter—they fill in nutritional gaps and support long-term health.
Feeding your dog a simple home-cooked diet with high-quality protein, vegetables, and a proper supplement is probably the single biggest key to keeping your dog healthy and extending their life.
CLICK TO GET A FREE COPY OF MY E-BOOK!
Ready to Simplify Your Dog’s Nutrition?
And for those looking to take their dog’s health to the next level, I recommend Dr. Jones’ Ultimate Canine Advanced Plus Health Formula—a complete, nose-to-tail supplement designed to:
-
Support overall wellness with 95% curcuminoids for a balanced body response
-
Promote radiant skin and a lustrous coat with omega-3 fatty acids
-
Reduce chronic itching, paw chewing, and hair loss
-
Maintain ear health and digestive wellness with probiotics
-
Strengthen the immune system with added colostrum
-
Enhance mobility, comfort, and muscle function
-
Boost brain health, energy, and mental well-being with taurine and specialized probiotics
-
Protect against harmful bacteria and support nutrient absorption
-
Reduce allergic reactions and control strong odors
-
Support heart, brain, eye, and vision health with L-taurine
Choose Ultimate Canine Advanced Plus for complete, hassle-free health support that keeps your dog happy, active, and thriving.
Thanks for making that available.
Was so glad to see at the end the discussion on the quality of the vitamins.
Flax oil too – if it is exposed to air or heat goes rancid quickly and then becomes more harmful than helpful.
If the right foods were being incorporated could one not skip supplementation altogether- Other than needing to target to specific health issues.
Could you give us a discussion/Video on eggshells as a supplement. What about raw – apples and veggies- Thanks:>)
Who would cook for your dog if he lived in the wild???
I feed my two Papillions a raw meat diet.
I start with ground vegetables and ad whatever supliments needed. I have found a butcher who saves chicken backs and necks and he ads my ground veg’s and puts the whole thing through the grinder. He freezes it in flat boxes and when hard he cuts it on his bone saw any size I want. I pop them into zip-lock bags and I have enough for about 4 months. Cost? $25.00
They love it and I believe that it is the healthiest for them.
Raw chicken is not dangerous for dogs only cooked chicken because the bones will splinter and puncture their stomach. A dog in the wild will kill and eat a whole chicken, bones, feathers and all. Do you cook like that every single night? Way too much work.
I feed my dog Lexi, rat terrier mix, raw ground turkey, ground bones and organ meats included. Suplemented with brocolli, carrots, apples, banana, raw eggs including the shells ground up in my blender. I feed her 1 3/4 oz. ground turkey and about a 1 1/2 tablespoons of the veggie mix twice a day to keep the bone moving thru her system. My vet says she is doing well. Do you think she needs anything else in her diet? Occasionally, she gets a chunk of turkey neck, about 2 oz. for a meal, when the weather permits, must eat that outdoors or she drags it all over the house.
Thank you for your help, Terri.
Re the chicken – by poster.
Breaking news is – Chicken contains so many antibiotics – it may be linked to urinary chronic infection.(gosh knows what else)(google headlines yesterday))
Yep- would be nice to be able to feed raw- organic.
Raw. There is the question . We are not feeding RAW wild diet. We are feeding high density animals requiring high amts of antibiotics. This is not going out and bringing down a bird/rabbit/deer. This is animals kept in small areas spreading disease. Ecoli and salmonella and yes the digestion is faster – ergo less time to multiply..but this is not free range non diseased animals.
( and yep i am at times a raw feeder. A HM cooked feeder and a kibble (supposedly high quality – yeh right feeder))
I cant do only organic- At one point between fosters and rescues had over 500 lbs of dog:>)Big dogs weighing in at over 100lbs a piece.
People grade definitely the best way to go. But what has been done to all our food – dogs/cats/ humans- is criminal.
And our supp’s – chemical/synthetics. Likely more harmful than helpful/healthful.
Obviously we need to get back to basics. Which is very hard to do considering the biggest crops are now GMO- just so we can spray roundup on them and they will survive….the chemical bath.
Let alone that the gene splicing has made the food indigestible. Body cant even contend with it.
Think Chrones or IBS and think GMO. Allergies and everything else. Or think selenium and iodine not availble inour soils, so therfor nor our crops.
Obviously the best way to go is homemade. it’s difficult tho.
oh i wish i had a lil foo foo only – and could afford to feed the best.Not reality tho. Nor is it reality for so many of us pet guardians.
~ If ~ If we really did get it together for our dogs or cats – re breeding/ homeless / adoption rescue. To feed a good diet. The world would not have this over pop of unwanted animals. We would recognize that a dog requires more than a bag of kibble and the breeders would not be so prolific because we would realize the cost to care for our pets and it would not be a cheap bag of kibble.
We would not feed our human kids cereal and milk and throw in the vit’s because of diets so poorly lacking. At least one hopes we would not.
Now the newest fad. Peas. Or Beans.
Yeh for sure.; the oh so good ingredients – that are useless at high heat cooking. Exposure to air. (rancid) Healthy !. and it is a fairy tale …and half of it is not helpful in our pets diets but because human diets are moving that way so are our kibbles. Our human diets of salmon oil or flax – or veggies is not what is in that bag of crap dog food or catfood. But the public falls for it – for some reason.
Can u do a raw food diet recipe? Thanks.
You gave Lewis approximately 5 cups of the homemade food– is that only one feeding per day, or two (therefore 10 cups of food per day)?
Thank you.
Love to read your info, thanks so much. Do you have a recipe like for tiny dogs (6#). You had another video (some time ago)for real simple recipe I have used-tuna and couple other things I have used. Dogs are Yorkie girl and 2 maltese-yorkie male. Love homemade food but I want to be sure and have in it all they need so do it only occasional. Thanks! Polly
My dog dachshund in the name of Chucky loves homemade food. He has a bowels problem so that the food suits him.
How about home prepared balanced meal for cats ?
WTF? OK, i understand that some people think dogs need some of the stuff we eat, but please answer me this.
if humans weren’t IMPOSING diets onto dogs, what would they eat NATURALLY? what they can catch, and scavenge would be the answer right? so, how does a dog COOK a sweet potato?
and how would it properly chew it? MOLARS? NOPE, hence the CANINE teeth, for tearing.
was at the vets this morning (31/8/12) having a check up on our lil rescue (another story) and there was a dog in with lots of fur loss, bald patches etc. I KNEW, their answer to the question I asked before I asked it, “DOES HE HAVE DRIED FOOD?” “YES” they said.
CLUE for the future people, DOGS EAT RAW MEAT and RAW BONES (NOT COOKED) they MAY go for little bits of greens if available, and supplements are handy as additional help. (and it is BS about bones not digesting, i have a video of my 10 week old puppy scoffing a salmon that is LONGER than her, 4 years ago)
Well, here in Aus we’re lucky. The mot common pet meat is wild shot kangaroo, low in fat (what fat there is is omega 3 and 6 and as organic as you can get unregulated. I mix up 1kg minced roo with an egg, a puréed carrot and another veg in season, about 120g of ground linseed, sunflower and almond, some extra oil (olive/flax) 2 tsp chamomile flowers, about 50ml colloidal minerals and any other herbs I think might help. This’ll last my 2 cavoodles 4-5 days, together with chicken carcass and bigger bones for brekkie, as this mix lacks bonemeal.