Looking for an easy way to make your dog's food at home? Your dog will definitely love your home-cooked meals. We have a good recipe for you and some tips on how to keep your dog healthy and happy using your pressure cooker or Instant Pot. (Works for slow cookers, too.)

Lots of dog lovers have concerns about feeding kibble and canned pet foods. If you would like to make your dog's food yourself but you think that a raw diet is messy or that you don't have time to prepare cooked meals, maybe using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot would work for you. These appliances cook food much faster than stove top or oven preparation. They're easy to use, popular, and the recipes are simple. Plus, you can cook as much – or as little – food as you like so you can prepare several meals at one time if you like. Just put the extra food in a ziplock bag and freeze it until you want to give it to your dog.

Check out our 30-minute pressure cooker dog food recipe and see what you think. It's easy to improvise with other ingredients if you don't have some of these items or if you want to change things up for your dog. And, if you have a slow cooker or crock pot, this recipe works just as well.

Before changing your dog's diet in a radical way, we suggest that you consult with your veterinarian. Any changes that you make to your dog's diet should be done slowly. If you don't want to make a complete switch to cooking for your dog, you can try this recipe as a food topper to make your dog's regular food more appealing.

Ingredients

We recommend the following ingredients in this 30-minute recipe for a pressure cooker or Instant Pot:

  • 3 pounds ground meat beef, chicken, or turkey
  • 1 pound beef or chicken livers (optional)
  • 3 cups water
  • 36 ounces various fresh or frozen veggies
  • 3 cups white basmati rice
  • 1 1/2 cups bananas or blueberries (optional)

We have adapted and simplified this recipe from an Instant Pot recipe online but it can be used for cooking in a pressure cooker, crock pot, or even on the stove top.

We have used ground meat in this recipe because 30 minutes is not always long enough to soften bones in a pressure cooker. If you want to give your dog bones with his food (such as cooking a whole chicken), you will probably need to let the food cook longer. Crock pots are very good for letting food cook slowly. Bones will come out as soft as mush and they won't be any risk for your dog.

There are other meats you can use for this recipe but unless your dog has been diagnosed by a veterinarian with a food allergy, it's usually best to stick with meat proteins that you are familiar with.

Most dogs are able to eat these ingredients without any problems. There is concern at this time about the effects that peas, lentils, and legumes (members of the pea family), along with potatoes and sweet potatoes in dog foods might be having on taurine levels in dogs. For this reason, we suggest that you avoid using these vegetables when you make this recipe, at least for now.

You can easily buy a frozen California Medley that contains carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower to use in the recipe. These frozen bags of vegetables are found in most grocery stores.

If you would rather cut up fresh vegetables, you can use some of the following veggies, equaling about five (5) cups:

  • broccoli
  • cabbage
  • carrots
  • cauliflower
  • celery
  • cucumbers
  • pumpkin
  • squash
  • zucchini

You can also add some fruit to the mixture. Fruits are a good source of antioxidants and fiber for dogs. You can add about 1 ½ cups combined of some of the following:

  • apple
  • banana
  • blueberries
  • cantaloupe
  • mango
  • peaches
  • raspberries
  • strawberries
  • watermelon

If you use some of these fruits in your recipe, be sure to remove the pits from fruits such as peaches. It's a good idea to remove the seeds from apples, too. Your dog would have to eat lots and lots of seeds to be affected by them, but there's no sense taking any chances.

Directions

  1. Soak the basmati rice in water several hours before you are ready to cook.
  2. Strain the rice to remove the liquid. Keep the liquid and set it aside.
  3. Cook the meat and liver (if you are using the liver) in your pot until they are about half-brown.
  4. Add the rice and the liquid you removed from it to the meat in the pot. Stir them all together.
  5. Add your vegetables to the top of the rice and meat but do not mix them in with the other food.
  6. Put the lid on your pressure cooker or Instant Pot. Make sure that it's locked and the vent is sealed.
  7. Put the setting on Manual and set the time to 12 minutes.
  8. When 12 minutes is up, or the Instant Pot beeps, carefully turn the vent to release the pressure. You may need to use a towel to protect yourself from the steam.
  9. If you are using fruit in the recipe, open the lid and add the fruit at this time.
  10. Stir everything together and mix completely.

Makes 16 cups of food.

This food will keep in the refrigerator for several days in airtight containers; or in the freezer for up to three (3) months.

Conclusion

We think your dog will love this recipe. Remember that you can play with it and make changes to it as much as you want. Just be careful not to use any food items that dogs should avoid such as garlic or onions.