If you know me at all or follow me on Snapchat, you know that I love our little pooches like they are my babies. I do my best to use the best quality ingredients when it comes to cooking and eating at home, and the same goes for our dogs. I have posted before about how we feed our dogs a raw meat diet, and while I believe this is still the ideal diet, this has changed because C and I love to travel so much and it was too much of a hassle to worry about while we were away. Also, it wasn’t working great for Sally, our shih tzu, so we have switched it up to high quality grain-free dehydrated raw kibble while still supplementing with eggs, bones, liver, and raw meat occasionally.
When it comes to treats, I’ve found that there are also many great quality products that we can buy but they are quite expensive if you want the ones with just 1 ingredient in them (high quality meat) without any kind of fillers and grains. I realized that making them at home is a much better option that’s both healthy and economical. Luckily for us, our local farmers market has a meat vendor that sells ground up grass fed raw food for dogs which includes beef meat, bones and various organs like hearts, livers, and kidneys. I’ve bought them previously to supplement their food, but I realized I could use them to make homemade beef jerky for them!
If you can’t find a mixture like this one, you can just use ground beef or make your own mix after buying the parts separately. All these various parts contain different nutrients that are so beneficial and the dogs go crazy for them. Just like humans, it’s important for the dogs to eat all parts of the animal for the maximum nutrient profile. You don’t always need to get grass fed, but if you have the option and the means, I think it’s worth getting. After all, the dogs give us so much happiness in our lives, why wouldn’t we want to give them the best stuff so they can be healthy even as they get older?
Ingredients
- 1 lb mixture of ground beef, organ meats, and bones (you can use just ground beef as well)
Instructions
- Preheat oven 130 degrees F or to its lowest setting.
- Place the meat mixture on a parchment paper and use your hands or a greased rolling pin to flatten out the meat to about 1/8 inch thick.
- Use a blunt knife to score the meat into a checkerboard pattern so you can later break them into bite sized pieces.
- Place the entire thing on a baking sheet, and dehydrate in the oven for 8 hours.
- Take out of the oven and tilt the baking sheet carefully over the sink to drain out any grease that seeped out.
- Break the beef into pieces along the previously scored lines, then place them in a single layer on a cooling rack on top of a fresh baking sheet.
- Place back in the oven for 4-5 more hours. There may be more drippings that fall into the baking sheet.
- Store at room temperature for 3 weeks, or keep in the fridge if planning to keep longer than that.
We have a puggle. We like to make homemade dog food for her. We like to get her off the dog food that buy in the stores and we have three cats that like to make homemade cat food for.them too. How can we keep homemade pet food without the food being to bad and keep without getting freezer burn..
Is the homemade food pre-cooked? Dogs can eat raw meat and it’s actually a preferred way for them to eat, supplementing them with fruits, veggies, organ meats, and raw bones. You can read my thoughts on a raw food diet for dogs here: https://whatgreatgrandmaate.com/benefits-raw-food-dogs/
If you are freezing their food, I would wrap them in individualized portions in a plastic wrap and keep them in an airtight zip lock bag. You can take out 2-3 portions and thaw them in the refrigerator twice a week. Hope this helps!
Get a bag sealer so that you don’t get freezer burn. They have them that suck all the air out and then seal.
I had a Bouvier that scratched non-stop when given any kind of kibble. I started making her homemade dogfood from a recipe I received from a certified canine nutritionist. By weigh it was 40% whole chicken (actual meat weighs after cooked) 25% organ meat (heart, liver, gizzards, 35% vegetables. 1 tab. seaweed calcium per 3lbs meat. I would cook up 2 whole chickens and debone. If the dogs were a healthy weight I included in some of the skin, if not I removed it. I cook up a 20 oz. chicken liver and usually about 3 lbs gizzards. I save all the broth and it gets mixed back into the dogfood after chopping up in the food processor. For veggies I use butternut squash, chopped carrots, frozen spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, blueberries, grated apples avoiding peas, green beans, corn, onions, peppers. My Bouvier lived on this and my 3 dogs now are on this as well. I freeze in 15 oz chinese restaurant soup containers.
The lowest setting on my oven is 170. How would I adjust the cooking time?
I would check it after 5 hours for the first baking time before you break it up. And then keep an eye on it for the next baking time every hour so you can take it out when it’s done.
Kim,
Prop the oven door open with the handle of a wooden spoon. It is thin enough to allow only a small amount of the heat to escape. It will also allow for moisture to escape also.
Hi Jean, is it possible to use dehydrator instead of oven? And I was thinking to mix turmeric powder with the meat… would that be ok?
I believe you can use the dehydrator. I’ve never used one before so you would have to determine the length. And yes! You can definitely mix in turmeric powder. Hope it turns out well.
I just replaced my plastic type dehydrator with a better one. It has a digital display and you can set temperature and cooking time. Around $140 on Amazon. Yesterday I made a batch of chicken jerky. it turned out wonderful. Came with 6 trays, 3 trays for making roll ups and a drip tray. So glad I invested in this. Also, there are tons of recipes on line.
That’s actually a brilliant idea, Sasha, that was, dogs with any kinda inflammation will feel tons better after eating a few of these.
Yay! I hope it helps because it did for my dog who used to have a ton of food allergies.
Can you tell me if you did do them in the dehydrator, and how you did them? I realize this is an old post, and I understand if you don’t answer. Thank you.
CAN YOU ADD SOME LOW SODIUM SOY SAUCE TO THE CHOP MEAT FOR FLAVOR?
You can, but I don’t like to add any kind of extra sodium to my dogs food or treats. Their kidney isn’t built for it.
1 lb mixture of ground beef, organ meats, and bones (you can use just ground beef as well
DOES ANY STORE SELL THIS MIXTURE?
I have 3 dogs that all have allergies…(feet chewing, itching) and would love to help them…i make chicken jerky (chicken breast sliced thin and dehydrated) which they love but I wonder if this is the cause of their allergies.
I used a combination of this, and this.
Pam, Chicken is one of the leading allergies in some dog breeds. I have a German Shepherd and he is allergic to chicken. I would try switching your homemade jerky to another form of meat and see if that helps.
Will the jerky be hard or soft. My dog has lost some of his teeth.
It’ll be stiff but not chewy. I think it’ll be fine for your dog. It’s made with ground meat so it break down easily.
Could you use ground venison for this?
Sure! I don’t see why not. Any ground meat would work.
can you add garlic for fleas
Sure! That’s a great idea. I would be mindful of the amount you put in since too much can be harmful for dogs, but a little bit should be okay.
I love this!! How would you grind the bones into the mixture? Sorry for asking g a noobish question i just don’t do meats. I’m already going to have to get a gas mask to make this already lol.
I don’t think you can grind it at home unless you have a powerful equipment. You can ask your local butcher, or we have a raw food dog store that sells them pre-ground.
How much turmeric?
I’m new at this but recently i was just given an Excalibur Dehydrator that has 9 trays inside it from a neighbor who never used it, so now its mine. i want to start making my own dehydrated food and jerky for my 4 Chihuahuas who i love dearly/. i do feed them raw meat occasionally like raw steak chicken livers and hearts and a couple of other things. i agree with you raw meats is better for a dog much better by far than the garbage that stores sell..since i am new at making food for my 4 best buddies any help would be great.. so if you have any ideas for a novice newbie please let me know and thank you so much for enlightening me..I’m excited about this because i love my dogs so much and i want them to have a long healthy life..ill do whatever it takes to make sure they all live long healthy lives.. im in this for the long haul i have raised dogs for the past 30 years and my little buddies are everything to me..i wish i could post a photo of them here on this site..i do have a question though that has been bugging me for a while..is it alright to give chihuahuas raw chicken meat? and what about the chicken skin. i have never given them either.. some people say yes and some say no.. your take in this matter, please.
Hi there! That’s so great that you want to give your dogs the best nutrition possible! Unfortunately, I cannot tell what to give your dogs since I don’t know their health history at all, I’m not a vet, and I don’t know much about chihuahuas. I would advise against giving chicken skin because too much fat can give them loose stool. If you are curious about how we feed our dogs, however, you can read this blog post that I’ve written in the past: https://whatgreatgrandmaate.com/raw-feeding-for-our-dogs/
Hope that helps!
This sounds wonderful. My only question is “bones”??? What bone would be used? I will probably not but I am curious.
Thank you new to your site.
I buy them pre-ground like this: https://grasslandbeef.com/ground-chicken-backs?affId=216411
We feed raw but I definitely will these this weekend. We buy ground bone from https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/
As long as the bones are raw, they are fine for dogs. I don’t know about ground bones
Here’s a silly question (maybe). I want to make this with a food dehydrator. Does the parchment paper go in the food dehydrator? Thanks.
I would use it just in case the meat sticks to the bottom.
I’ve got this in the oven right now. I made it with ground beef, beef kidney and chicken liver. I put everything through the Kitchen Aid with grinder attachment. It came out really wet because of the liver so I couldn’t really flatten it out to 1/8″. The thinnest I could get it is about 1/3″. Which will probably work out because my oven won’t go lower than 170°. I’m rotating the pans every 2 hours and switching upper and lower racks every 4 hours. I’m very hopeful this will come out great.
By the way, one tip in passing. Don’t put saturated fat down the drain unless you someday want to have a major blockage on your hands. Most renters will do it without a second thought but most landlords and homeowners know better. Don’t ask me how I know. Put the drippings in a sealable container and put it in the trash. For those concerned about the environment, it doesn’t matter whether you put it down the sink or put it in the trash, it will all be broken down in the soil and may get into the water table.