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Home Cooking for Dogs: Discussing Homemade Diets with Clients
written by Freshpet Vet Team
Many clients are trying or considering home cooking for their pets, driven by safety concerns, FDA recalls, and the desire to mirror their own healthy eating habits. While well-intentioned, some homemade diets can pose nutritional health risks for the pet. Not to mention as a practitioner, you lack credible data on what these patients are eating. This blog aims to help veterinary staff navigate these conversations and recommend safe alternatives like Freshpet.
Why Clients are Choosing to Home Cook
A 2022 study revealed that 24% of U.S. dog owners—16.5 million households—fed their dogs home-cooked meals. Motivated by social media and distrust of processed foods, pet parents want control over their pets' diets. Historically used to address specific health issues, home cooking has now become a trend, even for healthy pets.
Concerns with Homemade Diets
Veterinary staff are rightfully concerned about the nutritional adequacy of homemade diets. Key issues include:
- Incomplete recipes: Many online recipes lack essential nutrients and are not complete and balanced. Research shows most DIY diets are deficient in one or more nutrient, especially those not crafted by professionals.
- Ingredient inconsistencies: Substitutions like ground chicken for chicken breasts or unclear terms like "liver" can disrupt nutrient balance.
- Quality control: Homemade diets lack safety testing for pathogens, bacteria, heavy metals, and other contaminants.
- Health risks: Long-term deficiencies or excess nutrients can lead to serious health problems like bone deformities or organ damage.
- Improper cooking: Inadequate or excessive cooking can fail to eliminate pathogens or reduce nutrient availability.
- Inconsistent from batch to batch: Even the best of preparer’s finished product will vary from meal to meal. Measurements get a little off, cooking times may be a few minutes different and certainly ingredients can vary.
How to Address Client Concerns:
- Acknowledge intentions: Recognize clients’ efforts to prioritize their pet's health while explaining the complexities and risks.
- Educate on challenges: Emphasize the time, cost, and effort required to ensure balanced and safe homemade diets.
- Suggest a hybrid approach: Recommend limiting home-prepared meals to occasional treats, with 80% of the diet coming from commercial options.
- Monitor outcomes: Encourage regular bloodwork to detect potential deficiencies.
- Refer to boarded veterinary nutritionists: While it comes at a cost to pet parents, boarded veterinary nutritionists can assess the patient and develop a specialized diet recipe made exclusively for their dog.
- Offer trusted alternatives: Recommend Freshpet as a safe, consistent, and nutritionally complete option that aligns with their intentions and looks more like what they would cook.
The closest thing to home cooking you can be comfortable with
Freshpet was created nearly 20 years ago to address the motivations of pet parents who want to cook for their pets. With a team of expert researchers and product developers, cooked in our own USDA-approved kitchens, Freshpet offers a fresh, nutritious, and convenient alternative for over 13 million dogs. While home cooking may seem appealing to clients, Freshpet provides the safety and nutritional integrity pet owners seek and provides you with the accurate nutritional data you need to make informed decisions on patient care and feeding.
Search our pet food products by dietary need.
Learn more about Freshpet's feeding trials done in compliance with AAFCO guidelines.
SOURCES:
Stockman J, Fascetti AJ, Kass PH, Larsen JA. Evaluation of recipes of home-prepared maintenance diets for dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 2013;242(11):1500-1505.
https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/242/11/javma.242.11.1500.xml
Pedrinelli V, Gomes M de OS, Carciofi AC. Analysis of recipes of home-prepared diets for dogs and cats published in Portuguese. Journal of Nutritional Science. 2017;6:e33.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-nutritional-science/article/analysis-of-recipes-of-homeprepared-diets-for-dogs-and-cats-published-in-portuguese/2EAE9E097FE78EF0C0B3D6B045147C82
“Feeding Home-Prepared Diets in Dogs & Cats with Dr. Lisa Weeth, DACVIM (Nutrition)” | VETgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts
https://vetgirlontherun.com/podcasts/feeding-home-prepared-diets-in-dogs-cats-with-dr-lisa-weeth-dacvim-nutrition-vetgirl-veterinary-continuing-education-podcasts/
“To Cook or Not to Cook: Raw, Fresh, and Home Prepared Diets.” Dr. Deborah Linder, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Nutrition) gives a talk about raw, fresh, and homemade canine diets at Fetch 2024 in Kansas City. https://www.freshpetvet.com/research-and-education
