Homemade Dog Food For Diabetic Dogs

Everyone knows that diabetes is bad. It’s an increasingly common terminal illness that makes it harder for one to maintain and control their blood sugar levels. This disease is also common amongst dogs. Dogs suffer from diabetes for more or less similar reasons as we humans do. However, controlling a diabetic dog’s condition can prove to be more challenging. Today, we’re going to talk about homemade diabetic dog food. Preparing your pooch’s meals at home by yourself is perhaps one of the best ways to control your dog’s diabetes. This lets you follow the strict dietary regulations that come with treating diabetes more easily.

The Link Between a Dog’s Diet And Diabetes

The root cause of diabetes is the body’s incapability of regulating its insulin levels. This results in the body being unable to transfer vital energy to the body’s cells. Cells need an appropriate amount of insulin in the body to absorb energy. This results in the body being unable to utilize the energy that it gets through food. This is why people/dogs suffering from diabetes tend to suffer from weakness, weight loss, and experience health deterioration.

The trick to keeping the negative effects of diabetes is to make sure that the body manages to properly absorb the energy that it’s provided. This is where diet regulation comes into play. Diabetic dogs are advised to eat foods that don’t upset their blood sugar levels. This means that their diet becomes rather limited. Their feeding times also need to be regulated. A diabetic dog must consume its meals around set times during which its body has the required amount of insulin within it. Their insulin deficiency is dealt with through insulin injections. Any dog owner who has ever had to inject anything into their dog will know how challenging this task can be. Just like humans, dogs don’t like being poked with sharp needles.

How to Spot Diabetic Symptoms in a Dog

Dogs aren’t the most robust creatures when it comes to diseases and health conditions. A majority of dogs become afflicted by some sort of health condition as they grow older. This is why proper health care and frequent medical checkups are recommended. Diabetes is one of the easier to spot health conditions. It manifests a number of symptoms which include:

  • 1
    ​Frequent urination in large quantities
  • 2
    ​Weight loss
  • 3
    ​Increased thirst
  • 4
    ​Increased hunger (in earlier stages)
  • 5
    ​Lethargy
  • 6
    ​Odd smelling breath

f you spot any of these symptoms in your dog, then you should visit a vet as soon as possible. Diabetes can quickly grow out of control and lead to severe health problems. You should act quickly to make sure that you manage to keep it under control.

Taking your dog to a vet will let you devise an action plan to tackle this disease. This action plan will be a combination of diet control and medications. You can discuss the idea of feeding your dog a homemade diet. Your vet will be more than happy to assist you in coming up with a meal plan for your dog. In fact, we would recommend that you make a habit out of consulting your vet before you feed your dog any homemade meal. Since you’ll be preparing meals for a diabetic patient, you’d want to make sure that their food doesn’t harm them.

​​What ​Can ​I ​Feed ​My ​Diabetic ​Dog?

Now before we jump into talking about recipes, let’s go through a few things that you’d want to remember while making diabetic food.

First of all, you want to ensure consistency in your recipes. Consistent recipes mean consistent nutrition intake. This makes it easier for the body to process what energy it is provided. This also lets the body handle sugar peaks with ease. Speaking of sugar, you want to make food that has low simple sugars. This means that you want to get rid of any sweet ingredients. One of the biggest reasons why a homemade diet is recommended for diabetic dogs is because it makes sugar intake more controllable. Packaged dog food often has sugar added in it. You’d be surprised by just how common an ingredient sugar can be in packaged food items.

You should make use of food items that have a high amount of unrefined complex carbs. These type of carbs slow down the body’s sugar intake process. Unrefined complex carbs are present in vegetables, brown rice, oats, and other fiber-rich foods. Fiber is also a great nutrient for diabetic dogs. High amounts of fiber intake help regulate the body’s sugar absorption.

You also want to keep fat intake as low as possible. A diabetic dog has a much higher chance of accumulating extra fat in its blood. Keeping their fat intake to a minimum is therefore important. Otherwise, your dog may become obese and experience worsening symptoms of diabetes.

Meeting all of these requirements isn’t exactly easy. You need to limit the variety of food that you feed your dog and also its quantity. This can make it hard to devise a meal plan that maintains a balanced diet. You can go through our article on canine nutrition to get a better idea of what your dog needs to remain healthy.

The recipes that we are going to go through now are carefully put together. They make use of ingredients that fulfill a dog’s nutritional requirements while also staying diabetic friendly. These recipes also ensure that your dog’s food remains tasty and attractive. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the recipes.

Recipes For Your Diabetic Dog

Diabetic Stew

This recipe produces a simple yet fulfilling meal for your dog. It is loaded with some essential nutrients that will help boost your dog’s health. The batch size for the given recipe is around 3.5 gallons. You can use half the amount of ingredients to produce a smaller batch.

diabetic dog food homemade

Ingredients

  • ​4 Lbs. of rinsed chickpea legumes.
  • ​1 Lb. of rinsed green split peas.
  • ​1 Lb. of rinsed brown lentils.
  • ​1 Lb. of rinsed black-eyed peas.
  • ​28 cups of water.
  • ​5 Lbs. of boneless chicken breasts.
  • ​1 Lb. of pearl barley.
  • ​1 Lb. of ground turkey.
  • ​29 ounces of pure pumpkin (pureed or mashed).
  • ​16 ounces of broccoli, green beans, spinach, and carrots.

Preparation

  • 1
    ​Take a large pot and add 28 cups of water to it and let the water come to a boil.
  • 2
    ​Once the water begins boiling, take all of your lentils, peas, beans, and grains and add them to the water. Let them cook on medium heat and stir now and then.
  • 3
    ​Slice your chicken breasts into manageable cubes and add them to the pot.
  • 4
    ​Add the ground turkey and stir the pot for a bit.
  • 5
    ​Add everything else into the pot and let the mixture cook on medium heat. Remove the mixture when its water has been almost completely reduced.
  • 6
    ​Let it cool down before serving it or before storing it.

Doggy Pasta

This is a simple meal that brings a combination of protein, fiber, and beneficial nutrients to your doggy’s bowl. This recipe will produce a single batch of diabetic dog food for your ​pet. You can increase the quantity of the ingredients if you want. Meals like these can be stored for up to 5 days in a fridge.

Ingredients

  • ​1 cup of any pasta (cooked).
  • ​½ tablespoon of corn oil or coconut oil.
  • ​1 and ¼ cup of chopped/shredded chicken.
  • ​½ teaspoon of quality salt.
  • ​1 teaspoon of dicalcium phosphate (not without consulting your vet).
  • ​½ cup of carrots.

Preparation

  • 1
    ​Add your oil to a pan and put it on medium heat.
  • 2
    ​Add your chicken to the pan and cook it till it’s well done.
  • 3
    ​Boil your pasta and your chopped carrots.
  • 4
    ​Add everything to the pan, mix it on low heat.
  • 5
    ​Bring the meal to room temperature and then serve.

Low Fat Meal

An alternate version of the previous recipe. This version focuses more on providing fiber rather than on protein.

Ingredients

  • ​½ packet of any pasta.
  • ​2 boiled eggs.
  • ​1 cup of brown rice.
  • ​2 cups of broccoli and carrots.

Preparation

  • 1
    ​Boil the pasta and cook the brown rice.
  • 2
    ​Add the rest of the ingredients in and mix.
  • 3
    ​Bring the meal down to room temperature before serving it.

Raw Food Diabetic Diet

A raw food diet is easy to prepare and can bring a refreshing change of pace to your dog’s meals. The exact amount of ingredients for a recipe like this should be discussed with your vet.

Ingredients

  • ​Lean and low-fat red meat or poultry. You can also use fish, chicken eggs, and turkey.
  • ​Raw vegetables such as leafy greens and starchy/non-starchy tubers.
  • ​Fresh fruits and berries.

Preparation

  • 1
    ​Simply chop all the ingredients and mix them before serving them. You can puree the veggies and fruits if your dog doesn’t eat them happily.

Diabetic Doggy Treats

While snacking should be kept to a minimum for a diabetic dog, you should still let your dog enjoy a treat or two now and then. This recipe will produce some delicious treats that are perfectly safe for diabetic dogs.

Ingredients

  • ​½ cup of whole wheat flour.
  • ​2 eggs.
  • ​1 and ½ Lb. of beef liver.

Preparations

  • 1
    ​Begin by preheating your oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
  • 2
    ​Take the beef liver and chop it up in a food processor. You can finely dice it with a knife as well.
  • 3
    ​Mix the chopped up liver with all the other ingredients to form a doughy mixture.
  • 4
    ​Lay out a mixture on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.
  • 5
    ​Let it cool down and cut it into whatever shape you want.

These are some well thought out meals for diabetic dogs. Each meal offers a range of nutrients while carefully excluding harmful ingredients. With a handful of recipes in your recipe book, you can provide your dog with a superb meal plan. One that offers diversity in nourishment as well as in flavors.

4 Comments

    1. It’s better to consult with your veterinarian for specific questions like timing, quantity and frequency of feedings.

  1. I’ve been making my dog ground chicken with spinach carrots & chuck steak with sweet potatoes & peas. Is it ok ? Also can he have turkey or pork?

    1. You should consult with your vet about feeding your dog sweet potatoes as it’s a high glycemic food. It’s okay to feed them turkey.

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