Weekly Feeding Plan for Dogs 2025: Using Natural Foods 🐶✨
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Weekly Feeding Plan for Dogs 2025: Using Natural Foods 🐶✨
By Dr. Duncan Houston BVSc
Feeding your dog naturally doesn’t have to mean cooking every single meal from scratch. With a smart weekly plan, you can mix commercial foods with fresh, home-cooked ingredients—safely, affordably, and without nutrient gaps.
I’m Dr. Duncan Houston, veterinarian and founder of Ask A Vet. Here’s how to create a flexible, vet-approved natural feeding plan that fits your dog, your lifestyle, and your fridge.
📆 Why Plan Weekly, Not Just Daily?
- Balance nutrition over time, not in every single meal
- Easier shopping and prep when you batch ingredients
- Helps rotate proteins and reduce food boredom
- Supports stool consistency and healthy digestion
✅ Start with a Baseline: 70–80% Balanced Food
- Commercial cooked, raw, or premium kibble that meets AAFCO standards
- This ensures calcium, vitamins, and minerals are covered
- The other 20–30% can be fresh, home-cooked add-ons
🥩 Weekly Natural Food Add-Ons You Can Rotate
Proteins (rotate daily or weekly)
- Chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, kangaroo
- Eggs (2–3x/week, cooked or raw yolk only)
- Sardines (1–2x/week, in water, no salt)
Veggies (lightly cooked or pureed)
- Zucchini, broccoli, pumpkin, carrot, spinach, green beans
- Rotate to avoid overloading on oxalates or goitrogens
Healthy Additions
- Plain pumpkin (1–2 tbsp/day)
- Probiotics or kefir (a spoon with dinner)
- Olive oil, flax oil, or salmon oil (a few drops daily)
📋 Sample 7-Day Natural Feeding Plan (For Adult Dogs)
| Day | Base Food | Natural Add-Ons |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Kibble or cooked commercial food | Egg + spinach + pumpkin |
| Tue | Cooked turkey & rice | Zucchini + salmon oil |
| Wed | Commercial base + bone broth | Carrots + flax oil |
| Thu | Kibble or freeze-dried raw | Ground beef + broccoli |
| Fri | Cooked chicken + oats | Green beans + kefir |
| Sat | Commercial cooked food | Sardines + pumpkin |
| Sun | Light kibble day | Boiled egg + carrot + probiotic |
*Always adjust for your dog’s size, energy level, allergies, and weight goals.
🧠 Keep It Simple with Co-Feeding
- Don’t stress about “perfect meals”—focus on consistent quality
- Use leftovers like plain rice, meat, or veggies (no sauce or seasoning)
- Even small add-ons boost nutrition and palatability
🛑 What to Avoid
- Onions, garlic, grapes, raisins, macadamias, cooked bones
- Excess fat from bacon, skin, fried food, or cheese
- Human multivitamins (wrong doses and ingredients)
🔗 Tools from Ask A Vet
- Ask A Vet – Get your weekly feeding plan reviewed by a real vet for free during trial
📋 Summary Excerpt
A weekly plan makes natural feeding simple and safe. A vet shows how to combine commercial food with healthy add-ons like meats, veggies, and oils—for a balanced, real-food diet your dog will love.
❓ FAQs
-
Q: Can I mix kibble with cooked meat and veggies?
A: Yes! Co-feeding is a smart way to enhance your dog’s meals without losing balance. -
Q: How do I know if the diet is working?
A: Watch for firm stools, a shiny coat, steady energy, and healthy weight. -
Q: Should I rotate proteins?
A: Absolutely. Variety reduces food sensitivities and improves micronutrient coverage.
