How to Make Homemade Dog Kibble
Learn how to make dry dog food with this easy homemade dog kibble dish.

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If you’ve ever caught yourself watching Top Chef and thinking, Hey, I bet I could do that, now’s your time to shine. And if you’ve ever caught yourself watching Top Chef and thinking, Whoa, I could never do that — well, now’s your time to shine, too. Henriette Morrison, founder of Lily’s Kitchen, a pet food company in the UK, created a recipe that’ll leave you feeling like an accomplished cook regardless of your level of kitchen expertise. And the best part? It’s all for your dog’s benefit.
Morrison started cooking for her dog Lily because of worsening skin allergies and found cooking homemade food was a real game-changer. “When I first started to cook for Lily, it was really out of desperation. I had tried almost all pet foods on the market, and she would either refuse to eat them, or they just exacerbated her itchy skin.”
As a proponent of healthy and proper foods, Morrison’s first recipes included oat flour, blueberries, squash, and sweet potatoes. She found that her homemade meals radically improved her pup’s itchy, irritated skin. “I was delighted but also furious. I could not believe that I had been feeding her ready-made pet food that was actually making her itchiness worse rather than providing her with the nutrition she needed,” she says.
In addition to removing allergens, homemade dog food can benefit your dog’s health and well-being by ensuring fresh, high-quality, easily digestible ingredients. “In an ideal situation, you would always use locally grown ingredients. What is critical is to...always ensure you are sourcing the best quality you can,” Morrison says.
There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding dog nutrition. For many pet parents, it can be difficult to decipher what the information means on pet food labels and how it impacts their dogs. What you feed your pup has a huge impact on their health, because their gut microbiomes rule their body. Whether you make your dog’s food every day or not, feeding your pup homemade dog food gives you a way to shake things up with them healthy bites — they enjoy variety as much as we do.
Morrison collaborated with several holistic and conventional veterinarians to formulate her recipes while developing her cookbook, Dinner for Dogs. This easy homemade dog kibble dish combines turkey, lentils, carrots and other healthy veggies, rosemary, and more delicious ingredients.
Note: While caution was taken to give safe recommendations and accurate instructions in this article, it is impossible to predict an individual dog’s reaction to any food or ingredient. Readers should consult their vets and use personal judgment when applying this information to their own dogs’ diets.
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Daniela Lopez
Daniela Lopez is a digital media specialist and long-time contributor to The Bark.