Turkey, Cod & Veggie Recipe for a 35 lb Dog

Now that we've covered how to calculate your dog's metabolic weight, needed nutrients for your dog's diet, and other key information for your dog's nutritional profile, it's time to share some of my favorite balanced homemade dog food recipes!

(In case you'd like a refresher, you can see our previous guide on how to translate what your dog weighs in pounds into metabolic weight for your dog's needed nutrient profile here.)

Let's start with my ground turkey, cod, veggie homemade dog food recipe (which you can access at the link below)...

Basics to know for this ground turkey dog food recipe:

• I've formulated it to be complete and balanced for a generally young, active, 35 lb, healthy adult dog.
• It meets NRC nutritional standards as well as AAFCO & FEDIAF nutritional requirements* for balanced, healthy dog food.
• This specifically formulated recipe shouldn't be used for other animals or changed, since ingredient changes throw off the nutritional balance.
• You can make this daily and split into two meals OR you can make it in batches. I've shown amounts for one day, 2 week and 4 week batches so you can choose what works for you for your own dog food.

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How to prepare your foods to be healthier for your dog and make life easier for you

As a nutritionist who has formulated and prepared food for more meals than I can count, I've put together a few guidelines that I've found make life easier and deliver the food ingredients in a healthful, digestible form for dogs. (These will apply to your recipes overall, and not all the ingredients noted in these guidelines are in this particular recipe.)

Grains (quinoa, white/brown rice, buckwheat, oats, etc)

Cook per the instructions on the package, but for dogs grains need to be overcooked. Make sure they are almost mushy for your dog to eat. Sometimes soaking the grain overnight is helpful for this.

Meats/fish

Cook the meat according to the recipe description. If ground meat says baked, bake it in the oven on 400 degrees until fully cooked and crumbled. Get rid of the leftover "juice" or fat from the ground meat - don't add to the batch of food. Pan fry means cooked in a pan. Dry heat means baking in the oven.

If baking fish, once that is cooked you can use the juices from the cooked fish in the batch.

Organ meats

Trim the raw organs down to easier pieces to work with for cooking. Remove any white parts of the organs. Using some water, simmer the organs in a pan and if needed add water to continue cooking thoroughly. It usually takes about 10-15 minutes to cook completely. Cook them on low-medium heat, slowly turning them over throughout. When the organs are a light pink inside they are usually cooked.

Veggies

Cook the veggies as instructed per in the recipe, either steamed on the stove in boiled water or in the microwave. Puree them in a blender together so they are easier to digest and set them aside. They can be pureed raw but some dogs do not digest them as well as if they've been cooked.

Set veggies to the side - you don't want to add them to your batch of food until the very end. If you are using sweet potatoes, set those aside once cooked.

Eggs

If the recipe calls for eggs - one egg in its raw weight weighs about 50 grams or 1.7oz, follow the ingredient description for how to prepare whether raw, scrambled, or hard boiled eggs.

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Mixing ingredients & adding your supplements

As you are cooking you can assemble the cooked meat, any eggs, canned food, and grain into a batch of food and mix together. You are going to use the pureed veggies or cooked sweet potatoes as the "carrier" to add and mix in your batch supplements.

• Using a mortar and pestle (or a clean coffee grinder), crush any tablet batch supplements and empty any capsules into a supplement mix. You are not adding in ANY daily supplements to this mix, only the ones listed as batch supplements.

• Make a mixture of any liquid batch supplements. You want to then take your powdered and/or liquid batch supplements and mix them in the veggie mix or sweet potatoes and evenly distribute the supplements as best as you can. The veggie mix is the easiest way to evenly distribute the supplements in your homemade food.

• Once you've done this you can then mix in the veggie or sweet potato and supplement mix to the rest of the batch of food. I find it best to put on some gloves and hand mix the food thoroughly!

Why batch vs. daily supplements?

You can feed all the supplements daily if you'd like but some can be mixed in and frozen - see the minerals listed in the batch supplement column in the recipe. Those that are listed in the daily supplements column cannot be frozen since studies proved these supplements can degrade and be destroyed in freezing.

3 pro tips from a nutritionist's experience

1. All food measurements are listed as cooked or dry weights. You don't want to swap the two, since the dry weight of a food is different from a cooked weight.
2. The first time you purchase recipe ingredients, it's a good idea to buy 25% more than you think you need in case you run short. You can always freeze any leftovers!
3. Use a mortar and pestle or a clean coffee grinder to crush tablets, empty capsules, and grind batch supplements together (not daily supplements). So much easier and makes for more even, safe distribution.

Bonus tip - start your prep with a clean and organized kitchen (emptied dishwasher) which I always find somehow helps immensely!

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The recipe with ingredients & supplements designated for 1 day, 2 week batch, and 4 week batch.

A few helpful notes on your ingredients & supplies...

For this ground turkey dog food recipe, you're using cooked ground turkey, 7% fat which is lean ground turkey to keep your calories on target.

You can add additional fresh veggies your dog likes for some variety, just be mindful this will increase calorie intake. You'll want to make sure all veggies are prepared correctly since dogs cannot digest raw vegetable.

You can also add fruits which most dogs love: blueberries, blackberries, raspberries - just make sure they're mashed or tossed in the food processor before adding to your dog's food.

What's the Nutritional Analysis for this recipe?

Looking at our macronutrient distribution of calories, we have a nice balance of protein at 50.9%, fat at 36.2%, and carbohydrates at 12.9%, and a total of 995.45 daily calories. Just what we were shooting for in our formulation.

You can see the full nutritional breakout in the recipe link below with amounts of each nutrient within amino acids, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins detailed for the recipe designed for your 35 lb, young, active, adult dog.

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And there you have it - a super healthy homemade dog food recipe you can easily prepare and have on hand.

Access it in the recipe box above!

Your dog will love it and you can feel confident you're giving your dog only the best ingredients, completely balanced so your dog can thrive!

Next up in the Home Cooking Channel on Dogly

Now that you have a ground turkey homemade dog food recipe for a 35 lb dog, continue to the next guide for a raw recipe for a 65 lb dog here.

Or hop over to the Home Cooking Channel if you'd like to ask a question in the Community discussion and start any of the other step-by-step guides in Home Cooking Basics or Recipes.

If you ever need more personalized nutrition guidance, please reach out!