Imagine a cold winter day. You are driving home from a 10-hour work day, shivering as your car is just starting to warm up, squinting through the blizzard. Although you only live 20 minutes away it takes an hour to get home because the roads are also icy. Finally, you get home, turn off your car and run in to your house. As soon as you open the door a wall of warmth hits you and the smell of your favorite meal wafts to your nose. Your spouse just slaved away in the kitchen making your favorite and warm comfort food! It seems that your tough day just melted away as soon as you found out you had a home cooked meal ready to eat.

     Now doesn’t that sound just delightful? I can bet your companion would LOVE but should they have some?

     Home Cooked Diets are just as it sounds a home cooked meal. These diets are very diverse in their applications as well as their ingredients. Fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, grains and vitamin supplements are typically center stage in this type of meal. The food is also typically cooked, steamed or baked unlike the raw food diet. 

     In a survey of 110 participants 8.6% feed their companion home cooked diets. Keep in mind this can include owners that feed home cooked meals in addition to another type of pet food (i.e. raw, freeze-dried etc.) The most popular reasons owners choose to feed their companion a home cooked diet includes recommendations made by their veterinarian as well as family or breeders. The ingredients and quality of the diet also was an important consideration.

     Out of the total participants 51.9% believed this diet was good for their pet. Of those that explained most believed that it was good because they had the control in what they were putting in their companion’s body and that it was good if it is balanced properly. Other explanations included that home-cooked diets had no preservatives or recalls. On the other hand, 11.5% of participants believed this diet was not good for their companion. Of those that explained their answer participants said it was not good because there are not enough nutrients and these diets are too fatty. Other answers that more or less explained why the owner chose not to feed this diet was because they believed too many people couldn’t balance the diet and that they did not have the time to prepare it. Finally, 38.4% of participants were unsure if a home cooked diet was good or not. Reasons included that this diet could be good for the pet if it was balanced and included quality ingredients. Others suggested it wasn’t good for daily meals but rather for sick companions.

     One benefit of this diet is that you are in control of what is going into your companion’s body and you choose the quality of the food. Although this is true of any food that is in the hands of a pet owner you know exactly all the ingredients that are involved!

     While this diet is more controlled by the preparer and contains far more water content than dry pet foods, when it comes to the preparation process, many nutrients are lost to cooking, baking and steaming. Most fats, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and proteins are very sensitive to air, water, light and heat. While some preparation methods can help retain more nutrients than dry, wet and dehydrated foods, the average owner is unable to know really how much nutrients is depleted or not thus requiring the knowledge of using artificial supplementation in the right balance and quantities.

Just like anything there are several myths surrounding a home-cooked meal.

            Myth #1 This type of diet is really expensive

     In many cases just like when cooking for yourself versus eating out, costs are reduced especially with effective couponing 

            In addition, with a higher quality diet this means you will be saving money in veterinary bills. Your companion will be healthier and with a quality diet hopefully some major diseases are more preventable. 

            Myth #2 Human food is bad for my companion

     There are some foods that should never be fed to your cat, dog or ferret companions but there is a much longer list of food that are perfectly healthy for your companion.

 

Cats should not have:

• Caffeine

• Milk

• Onions

• Garlic

• Chocolate

• Chives

• Alcohol

• Yeast dough

 

Dogs shouldn’t have:

• Caffeine

• Cherries

• Avocado

• Fruit Pits and seeds

• Onions

• Grapes

• Chives

• Raisins

• Chocolate

• Alcohol

• Walnuts

• Macadamia Nuts

• Sugar

• Citrus Oils

• Yeast Dough

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Despite popular belief carbohydrates like fruits, veggies and grains are not appropriate for your companions.. Cats, dogs and ferrets are carnivores therefore they are meant to eat meat, organs and bones. Anatomically and physiologically the enzymes they create and the way their digestive systems work, are not designed to effectively break down and utilize nutrients from plant sources. Your companion may willing eat them but that doesn't mean they are utilizing them appropriately.

 

In short the pros of this diet include:​

• Opportunities for variety

• Quality control

• No preservatives, artificial colors or flavors, or additives (depending on your food sources)

• Low risk of recall (there can be recalls in human food)

• Closer to a natural diet (closer but keep in mind it is not their natural diet)

 

The cons:

• Harder to balance

• Can be time consuming to prepare

• Can be expensive (but not more than what you spend cooking for yourself)

• Nutrient quality goes down with cooking process requiring supplementation

• More difficult to get a cat to eat this diet

• Includes ingredients most companions cannot properly utilize even if pureed (fruits, veggies, grains)

• Additional oral hygiene practices is needed