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Home Cooking

Homemade Food for Pugs

You may be thinking about home cooking for your Pug to prepare a special dinner now and then or as an everyday alternative to offering kibble. Either way, homemade dog food can be a healthy choice. 
homemade beef dog food
homemade beef dog food
A flavorful and nourishing dish: Fresh beef with spinach, lima beans, green beans, 
carrots, and baby peas, along with tr-colored quinoa and eggs,
mixed with blueberries and cottage cheese. 
Just one example of the wonderful meals you can cook for your Pug

5 Quick Facts to Know about Home Cooking for a Pug

1. You don’t need to cook every day. While you certainly can prepare fresh daily meals if you’d like, food is often meal-prepped by cooking in bulk once or twice a week and storing portions in the fridge (3 to 5 days) or the freezer (up to 3 months). 

2. You can keep the meals as consistent or varied as you wish. You can try a new recipe each time you prepare homemade food for your Pug or you can stick with one that your puppy or dog seems to really like. 

3. All of the ingredients that you’ll need are usually available at a standard grocery market and can be picked up when you do your own shopping. Home cooked food typically includes fresh or frozen meat (chicken, veal, beef, turkey), fish, vegetables, fruit, cooking oil (flaxseed, olive, etc.), healthy grains (quinoa, brown rice, etc.), and some extras like whole white yogurt and certain cheeses. 

4. Most dogs will also need a daily vitamin and mineral supplement since it’s nearly impossible for food alone to provide what is needed. One of the easiest methods is to use a powder that is sprinkled over meals and mixed in. 

5. You don’t need to be an expert in the kitchen. Many recipes (more details ahead) only require basic cooking skills such as frying meat, steaming vegetables, and cutting up fruit. 

7 Things Home Cooking Helps You Avoid

1. Chemical preservatives.   

Chemical preservatives are found in many (but not all) dog foods. Propyl gallate, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), tert-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), and ethoxyquin are linked to a lot of issues including itching, hives, rash, upset stomach and even serious health conditions such as organ damage and some forms of cancer. 

It’s important to note that these can be present but not listed on the ingredients. When used to preserve meat (not fat), it is considered an ‘incidental additive’. 

2. Artificial coloring. 

Coloring dye Yellow #5 (which comes with a warning label in Europe but not in the US) is linked to aggression and hyperactivity. Yellow #6 is linked to hyperactivity as well as allergies, hives, asthma. And Blue #2 has a suspected link to brain tumors. 

3. Artificial flavor enhancers. 

MSG can cause a range of issues including rapid heartbeat, anxiety, and numbness in the extremities. And animal digest is another common flavoring which as you’ll see next is something you’ll definitely want to avoid. 

4. Generic animal meat, oils, meals, or digest. 

When meat is not specified and simply labeled as ‘animal’, it is derived from a 4-D animal: dead, dying, disabled, or diseased. And, it can be from just about any animal: minks from mink farms, zoo animals, expired meat from butcher shops, roadkill, and more. 

5. Fillers.

Fillers are cheap ingredients added for bulk that offer little to no nutritional value. Corn is common one that is used. Dogs that ingest fillers are often hungry soon afterward and may also be more prone to developing issues like coprophagia (eating feces). 

6. High grain count. 

Not all grains are bad. But, if the grain count is very high and particularly if it contains gluten, this can indeed cause problems including flatulence, upset stomach, and more.  

7. Bland, boring food. 

Even high-quality brands can only do so much; when dog food is mass-produced and has to be bagged or canned, it is limited in both flavor and texture. 

Top 9 Benefits of Homemade Food for Pugs

homemade turkey dog food
homemade turkey dog food
This is a great low-calorie meal for Pugs: Tank’s Turkey Takeover. 
A blend of lean turkey, diced baby carrots, zucchini, and spinach over quinoa,
along with diced strawberries and blackberries.
1. You’ll be offering 100% wholesome fresh food with no chemical preservatives. Once prepared, it will either be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months. 

2. Only natural coloring. Homemade food for Pugs will have plenty of color via its rainbow assortment of vegetables and fruits. 

3. Only natural flavoring. When you have fresh crisp veggies, juicy meats, sweet berries, and other tasty foods there is no need for flavor enhancers. 

4. Complete control over grains. For meals, there are lots of options to add in a bit of healthy gluten-free grains like rice, oatmeal, and quinoa. For baked snacks, alternatives to wheat flour include coconut, rice, flaxseed, and tapioca flour. But you can also prepare completely grain-free dishes if you wish. 

5. Cost-savings. Though it does depend on what you buy (fresh vs frozen meats and veggies) and the type of meat or fish (for example, salmon vs cod), in many cases you can save money by preparing home cooked food for a Pug. 

6. Variation. If your Pug tends to get bored of food quickly, home cooking can be the answer since you can switch to new recipes as needed. 

7. Flexibility. You can carefully select exactly what your Pug eats and tweak recipes as you wish. For example, if your dog doesn’t like peas, you can leave those out of the recipe or substitute for another green veggie. You can swap out proteins, fruits, oils, toppings, anything at all. 

8. Low calorie options. The Pug breed is prone to carrying excess weight and it’s not uncommon for an adult Pug to be placed on a diet at some point. There are fantastic low-calorie options with homemade dog food which includes lean meats like turkey, certain white fish, and lots of low calorie veggies and fruit. 

9. Exceptional taste. There’s no comparison in regard to what’s more appealing: homemade food will win every time. Meals will include fresh cuts of juicy meat, omega-packed fish, crisp greens, ripe fruits, and subtle herbs. Some recipes call out for warm sauces that add an extra burst of yumminess (for example, honey and broth or pumpkin and yogurt). 

Cookbook For Pugs

If you’re looking for a terrific recipe book to prepare homemade food for your Pug, The Healthy Wholesome Cookbook for Small Dogs is ideal. 
The Healthy Wholesome Cookbook for Small Dogs
This is an organized, colorful, and informative 40-recipe cookbook that makes cooking for a dog fun and easy:  

There are 21 recipes for scrumptious meals: 
Examples of home cooked food for dogs
Examples of home cooked food for dogs
  • Echo’s Easy Egg Scramble 
  • Bono’s Berry Breakfast
  • Lollipop’s Liver Bonanza 
  • Max’s 3-Blend Meatloaf 
  • Fargo’s Fish and Eggs 
  • Velvet’s Lip-Smacking Veal & Chicken Medley
  • Banjo’s Beef Mashup 
  • Sammy’s Steak Stew 
  • Blossom’s Beef Berry Quinoa Mix
  • Yolonda’s Yogurt-Marinated Beef Blast 
  •  Scout’s Sunshine Chicken Mix 
  • Yogi’s Yum-Yum Turkey Dinner 
  • Sullivan’s Salmon Dinner 
  • Faith’s Pan-fried Fish Feast 
  • Luca’s Doggo Lo Mein (Chicken or beef)
  • Poppy’s Pasta Supreme 
  • Marley’s Cheesy Meatball
  • Lucy’s Light Lunch (low-calorie meal)
  • Tank’s Turkey Takeover (low-calorie meal)
  • Eddie’s Easy-Does-it Blend (to ease an upset tummy)
  • Samson’s Simple Dinner with Add-ons (an effective at-home method of testing for food allergies) 
And 19 recipes for mouth-watering, tail-wagging snacks: 
examples of home cooked dog snacks
examples of home cooked dog snacks
  • Nutty Cheese Drop Biscuits
  • Frosted Peanut Butter Cookies 
  • Classic Peanut Butter & Coconut Oil Paws
  • Veggie Crunch Bones 
  • Carrot Cheese Squares 
  • Sweet Potato Puffs (soft treat)
  • Frozen Double-Fruit Yogurt 
  • Frozen Yogurt Split Treats 
  • Coconut Berry Macaroons 
  • Frosted Pumpkin Cookies 
  • No-Bake Pumpkin Peanut Butter Balls
  • Mixed Berry Muffins
  • Mini Stuffed Fruit Disks 
  • Berry Crunch Bones 
  • Blueberry Dot Chews (soft treat) 
  • Banana Oat Bites 
  • Chicken Veggie Bites 
  • Liver Crunch Bites 
  • Fun Fruity Birthday Cake
You'll have step-by-step photos throughout the book that makes cooking easy and fun. For each meal, there are full-color photos of ingredients, cooking steps, and final plating. And every snack has full-color photos of baking directions and final goodies. 
sample pages from cookbook for dogs
If you’re a busy on-the-go pet parent, you’ll find that this book’s PDF eBook format is super-convenient. You can keep the book right on your smartphone, tablet, and/or computer… And, it’s formatted for printing; just slip the pages into sheet protectors and a 3-ringer binder and you’ll have a sturdy, spill-proof cookbook that’ll stand up to any cooking session.  
Are you ready to cook for your Pug? 

Whether you want to make a sample dish to see what your Pug thinks, or if you’re ready to fully make the switch to homemade meals and treats, this recipe book is an excellent guide.  

With 40 nutritious meals and snacks, there’s lots of tasty dishes and goodies for your Pug to enjoy. And, we’re happy to say that as one of the few exclusive sties that are offering this book, it is currently just $6.88. Click/tap on the button below and let’s get started! 
Yes, I'd like the cookbook!
Order now to receive a copy that contains helpful bonus lists: Foods a dog can eat, foods a dog can eat once in a while, foods a dog can technically eat but are not a good idea, and foods a dog cannot eat that are toxic or dangerous. 
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