Doggy Meatloaf with Vegetables

It’s a decent topper for kibble, but this CANNOT be fed as a primary meal. It is in no way balanced, especially if you cook it, it has no calcium or any other minerals, no vitamins except maybe vitamin K and C (neither of which dogs need in their diet), it doesn’t have enough omega-3’s or anything else a dog needs to live. If you feed this for any extended time you will do irreparable damage to your dog’s skeletal and nervous systems. I left the meat raw. I steamed and pureed the veggies, and left out the potatoes, bread, and apples (none of which is good for dogs). I used it as a topper for a friend’s picky dog and he ate it all up.

Good enough for humans! Our 2 rescue dogs, with liver disease, can’t eat regular dog food. They LOVED this! Try ground turkey & whole wheat bread. Just add a sprinkle of parsley, basil & thyme.

Popped the mix into mini loaf tins and cooked for 60 minutes, may have been a little long next time will try 45 minutes.

I didn’t cook the extra veggies. added brown rice + Oats. no bread. My puppies love it on top of their Kibbles.

It’s been about six months since we started using this recipe..we run all the ingredients, except the meat, through a food processor. Mix it all together and throw it in a 9X13 dish for an hour. Because we have such a little dog (4lbs) this amount lasts quite a long time. I cut it up into portion sizes and freeze it to use as needed. We switch things up a little depending on what’s in the house. I have used cooked quinoa or brown rice sometimes and added a little pumpkin puree once. He seems to prefer ground turkey to ground beef. His health is wonderful, his coat soft and shiny. I will never feed any dog canned food again. Thanks for a great base recipe! P.S. be sure to oil your pan esp if doing ground turkey, it is so lean it sticks!

I would never use white bread. Dogs need to eat healthy too.The recipe is mine only it has an apple and I use navy beans in mine with brown rice and/or sweet potatoes, and turkey and spinach as well as the carrots other listed ingredients. I make one giant meatloaf and freeze portions until I’m done with the one in the fridge. I have big dogs and little dogs and they all love the meatloaf. BTW, to the person who said to use garlic, it’s not good for dogs at all. Onion and Garlic are toxic to dogs.

I didn’t add the bread and substituted sweet potatoes for the white ones. I double the recipe to 3lbs of lean chicken/beef then shred my veggies and fruit to 1 lb total for a 3-1 ratio. Then I add 1 cup of cooked whole grain brown rice and 1 cup of uncooked quick oats. I weigh each ‘cupcake’ to 4.5-4.8 oz each then press into the muffin tin. I feed half a cupcake at each meal, with regular kibble. This real food is easily digested, will not upset puppy’s tummy at all and will greatly enhance their eating experience. My dog Princess LOVES IT. She doesn’t shed as much, has great energy and is maintaining a healthy weight. Exercise, as always, is important:)

I have made this recipe for years as my old dog got quite fussy before the end. She couldn’t smell her food anymore so the addition of garlic helped and she just had to have her tomatoes or tomato sauce. I also pureed the veggies as she was picky and pushed them aside if it was one of her fussy days. I froze the leftovers and left a few in the fridge for a few days. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND LABELLING THIS IN SEVERAL LANGUAGES ”’ FOR THE DOG ”’ There is nothing in here that is harmful to people. Good thing. The significant other packed it for lunch with some left over pasta….. Didn’t come home barking (at least not more than usual) so it was okay. Never mentioned that it was for the dog…….

I also uses over cooked brown rice instead of bread and wheat germ. Also I have to cook and mash the veggies before i add to the meat or the dog will pick them out. and then I bake in loaf pans. oh i forgot I use chopped cheerios insteat of rolled oats. My poodle loves it. I don’t add any other dog food to it.

I’ve made this twice for my two dogs. They love it!!

This is nice but you don’t have to cook it….I have been feeding our dogs a raw diet for years at the advice of our vet. They do just fine, smell great, have beautiful coats and tons of energy. Thanks for sharing!

good recipe..changed the oats and white bread to brown rice, ground beef to ground turkey and pureed the vegies before adding to muffin tins….cheaper than canned food and so much better for them…I have three weims…1 needs to gain and 2 need to lose weight….works both ways with the proper kibble…

As always, so happy to see dog-oriented recipes. My dog was not crazy about the vegetables that were cooked on the side.

I think this is a great recipe although I would prefer something not as time consuming, and I have no problem adding a slice of white bread – it’s not that bad considering the other ingredients; and when I look at the list of ingredients on the dog food label white bread is OK to me: however, my pup doesnt seem to like wheat germ or anything connected to tomatoes – so next time I wont put in the tomato flavouring. (too bad I didnt know til after I made it) She loves boiled beets – go figure!! 🙂 ps I wouldnt put the veggies around the loaves either

This is a great recipe, has all of my dog’s favorite things in it!! Thanks for sharing.

My dog really loves this. I started cooking all his food, except for the kibble. I feel a lot better about what kind of care he is getting now. The changes I made to the recipe were to use 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground pork. I just went ahead and grated the apple too, and instead of using potatoes, I used turnips, and instead of cubing them, I grated them too. I did not do the last step and add the big pieces of celery and carrot. I thought that was a little too much. All in all, it’s not too much work, and the results are well worth it. Give the recipe a try, you will like it!

Going by my dogs’ reactions, this was a 5 star recipe! The only changes I made after reading other reviews was I boiled and mashed the potato and added it in the mix and I added cooked brown rice instead of the oats and wheat germ. I didn’t cook the pieces of potato, carrots and celery around the sides. Also, I did mine in two regular-sized muffin tins sprayed with cooking spray for about 50 min. I’ll be freezing all the extras. The dogs sure loved it!

I changed the preparation method of this recipe, but did not tamper with the ingredients, which my dog loved. I found that if i served the vegetables on the side as stated in the recipe, that my dog either picked them out, or ate them and did not digest them fully (ask me how I know…). So I just put all the vegetables called for in the food processor and chopped them very finely, then mixed with the rest of the ingredients and proceeded as directed in the recipe. Nothing picked out this time! My dog ate up the whole thing. My dog is old…15 years old…so maybe some of those vegetables were too hard to chew, maybe her digestion isn’t as efficient as it used to be, but whatever the reason, changing the preparation as I did worked for us. If you have an older or picky dog I recommend you try this. Also, I always add some flaxseed oil and some ground flaxseed to this before I serve it. It’s great for the coat, and helps dogs with arthritis.

My dogs love this and lap it up in seconds! I do change a few things to their liking, but nothing important enough to mention. 🙂 I always make this when I make meatloaf for my family (seperate recipes, obviously). I also freeze the leftovers and give it to them a week or so later. Thanks for the great recipe! My dogs thank you, too!

Thank you emnd1204 for reviewing my recipe. The original recipe called for 2 pieces of bread. I did not specify “white” bread. I left this up to the cook. Personally I haven’t eaten white bread since I was a child. I prefer whole wheat myself. If you consider the recipe ingredients you will see that it contains 1 cup of rolled oats and 1 cup of wheat germ. Also in the original recipe, the vegetables that surrounded the loaves were mashed prior to placing in the storage containers to allow for easier digestion. My dogs always picked at these and often left them uneaten. The recipe was changed by the editors when they reviewed it.