Coming from a legal background, I’m going to preface my recipe with this…Make sure to talk to your vet before switching your pet’s from their existing food to a homemade type.

Also, my dog and cats still eat their dry food, which is chuck full of vitamins and minerals.  This wet food is given to them at night with their dry food.  My cats both have prescription food and my dog eats Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Sweet Potato and Fish dry food.  I get my cats’ food from their vet (love Dr. Califf and Downtown Pet Hospital) and I get my dog’s food from Chewy.com.  They have the BEST customer service.  Love them!

So, now for the recipe.

Ingredients

Whole chicken or family pack leg quarters
4 cups broth (more or less) from natural cooking
2 cups rice
1/4 cup finely chopped Parsley
2 tbsp bone meal
2 tbsp Brewers yeast
4 Carrots
2 cans Pumpkin
2 tsp salt

Directions

Cook the chicken in a pressure cooker with enough water to cover.  I usually do about 35 minutes at high pressure. If you do not have a pressure cooker, you may want to bake and then use the bones to make stock on the stove.

While the chicken is roasting, cook 2 cups of rice (I use brown) according to directions.  You should also put your carrots in the microwave for 5 minutes covered with wrap and a little bit of water to soften up.  If you have the rice cooker I have with the top steaming basket, I put the carrots up there while the rice is cooking below.

Let the chicken cool until you can handle.  Pull the chicken off the bone into a large bowl.  Chop your parsley. Add the rice, 4 cups of broth, carrots, parsley, brewers yeast, salt, and bone meal.  Do not add the pumpkin.  Mix all of the ingredients together by hand. Then, pulse in batches in the food processor to your desired consistency.  My pets like it to be the consistency of tapioca pudding and not too smooth.  Other pets may like it smoother or more chunky.

Return the pureed mixture to the bowl and add the pumpkin and mix.  Add additional broth if need to obtain the desired moisture level.  Some pets like it more moist.  Others want it more firm like cranberry jelly.  You know your pet and may have to experiment.

If you get the go ahead to switch, you should incorporate this slowly into their existing regime.

For at the house, I store in mason jars.  For daycare, I make individual daily servings in disposable ziplock containers.  They wash and send back to me at the end of the week.  I found that this costs me about $12 per week for all three animals, which I was spending about $5 a day before.  It’s a big cost savings and much fresher.

Whenever Duke gets his wet food at night, he looks like this: