Homemade diets - Good or bad?

Clinicians will often be faced with an owner who wants to feed their pet a homemade diet; this article looks at the potential problems and benefits such an approach can bring.
 

Introduction

The term “homemade” when applied to petfood encompasses any non-commercial diet, and covers the entire spectrum from meat-only recipes to vegetarian or vegan diets, and includes both cooked and raw ingredients. Most owners who decide to prepare their pet’s food wish to provide what they perceive as excellent nutrition for their cat or dog. Whilst they may seek the help of a boardcertified veterinary nutritionist®, they may also – and are perhaps more likely to – source recipes from books, the internet, friends, and others who lack adequate training in small animal nutrition. This article offers an overview of such diets and discusses the risks and potential benefits that they may bring.

The prevalence of homemade diets

It can be difficult to determine an exact figure on how many pets receive a homemade diet. For example, a 2008 survey in the USA and Australia revealed that over 93.2% of dog owners and 98.9% of cat owners reported at least part of their pet’s diet included commercial foodstuffs (1). However, 30.6% of dogs and 13.1% of cats received table scraps, leftovers or homemade foods, and bones or raw food was included in the pet’s main meal in 16.2% of dogs and 9.6% of cats. Over 80% of people who included bones or raw foods in their pet’s diet were residing in Australia. Less than 3% of owners fed exclusively home-prepared diets, but approximately 7% of dogs received at least half their diet as home-prepared foods.

Another study from the same year found that 95.5% of owners fed their cat a commercial diet, with only 2.7% meeting the criterion for offering a non-commercial diet, whilst 86.8% of dog owners were classified as “commercial” feeders and 10.0% as “non-commercial” feeders, with the remaining 3.2% not meeting the criterion for either category (2). A more recent international study reported that 79% of dogs and 90% of cats were fed conventional commercial foods, although only 13% of dogs and 32% of cats were fed such diets exclusively (3). Homemade food was offered to 64% of the dogs and 46% of the cats, with raw food being given to 66% of dogs and 53% of cats. As noted in the study above, feeding homemade and/or raw foods was again more prevalent in Australia, and there are obviously considerable geographical differences when it comes to pet feeding practices. In contrast to the above studies, 42% of dogs in Sri Lanka are reported to be fed home-cooked food, whilst only 18% are fed commercial diets, with the remaining 40% getting a mixture of both options. In addition, the same study showed that 49% of dogs receive milk as a separate meal as well as their normal diet, and 57% receive dietary supplements (4).

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