DIY Homemade Dog Food Recipes for Labradors: Nutrition & Health Guide

As large dogs, Labradors require good nutrition to live a long, healthy life. Some Lab owners feed their dogs homemade diets to avoid common fillers found in commercial dog food, including meat byproducts, corn, wheat, artificial colors, and additives. When all these are taken into consideration, fresh foods for dogs sounds like a good idea.

Add good fats to each meal. Your Labrador needs approximately 5 percent fat in his diet, and good sources of fats are omega-3, fish, and wheat germ oils. Flaxseed and walnut oil also provide good fats. However, homemade puppy food should contain a little more fat because puppies burn off more energy than older dogs.

Grains in homemade dog food

Feed your Lab whole grains, such as brown rice and oatmeal, and fresh or frozen vegetables. You can use carrots, cabbage, celery, and asparagus. However, if your Lab experiences gas problems, you might want to rotate the vegetables to see which one causes the problem and then eliminate that ingredient.

Include a spoonful of plain yogurt with one meal a day to provide your Labrador with calcium and the good bacteria needed for a healthy intestinal tract. Also, you can sprinkle one meal per day with a tablespoon of ground flaxseed or break open a fish oil capsule and drip oil into the food to add some extra omega-3.

Homemade food for Labrador retrievers

Combine precooked ingredients for faster meals. A sample recipe for one meal combines 1 cup cooked poultry with no bones, 1/2 cup steamed vegetables, 1/2 cup prepared brown rice, and several tablespoons of no-sodium broth. If you want to cook one meal from scratch, gather 2/3 cup cubed uncooked meat, 3/4 cup raw sweet potato or carrot, 3/4 cup instant brown rice, and 1 cup water. Boil the meat and vegetables in water until tender, add the instant rice, and continue cooking until the rice is done, adding water as needed.

Adding supplements to fresh food for dogs

If you are concerned about vitamins, you can supplement any fresh food for dogs with a vitamin and mineral complex for at least one meal per day after cooking is complete. Pet shops sell a variety of brands, and your veterinarian can recommend the best one for your Labrador.

Calcium is particularly important for healthy Lab teeth and bones. Meats and vegetables are deficient in calcium, so it's necessary to add it. In addition to providing calcium via a supplement, you can also add buttermilk or egg shells to your dog's meals for an extra boost of this mineral.