- Intro Paragraph
- Summary Of Benefits
- Cooking Instructions #1
- Cooking Instructions #2
- Ingredient Benefits
- Optimal Meal Prep with ChefPaw Recipes
- Safe Food Handling Warnings
Intro Paragraph:
If you have never created meals for your dog at home and they tend to live an active lifestyle, #1c - Active Dog w/ Chunky Chicken + Sweet Potato & Brown Rice (The Freshest Pet) is a great place to start.
This is a high-protein meal made up of staple ingredients like chicken and honey, making it very easy to get started making meals for your dog at home. Don’t let the recipe's slightly fewer ingredients concern you as it still provides your dog with everything they need. This also makes the recipe very easy to pair with another, which we always recommend as diversified meals help discourage food allergies.
Summary Of Benefits
Supports Energy And Recovery
Chicken, eggs, and rice are the holy trinity for driving through grueling workouts while recovering from them. And it’s no different for the dog that’s always on the go. By including honey for energy on-demand and yogurt for strong digestive health that promotes greater nutrient absorption, this is one meal that truly supports the active dog’s lifestyle.
Great For Fast Eaters
Between gagging on their food and throwing the whole thing up, there are dire consequences for dogs that eat their food too fast. Like all of ChefPaw’s “Chunky” meals, this recipe has been formulated so that the final product comes out chunkier so your dog spends more time chewing their food. This is great for many dogs, but active dogs, in particular, will do well as their hyperactive nature and big appetites can cause them to eat their food too fast.
Discourages Bloating And Gastrointestinal Issues
While consuming their food too fast is associated with several concerning health issues, bloating is without a doubt the most dire concern. Bloating occurs when the stomach fills with air, food, or fluid, causing it to twist on itself. Eating too much too fast is the most common culprit behind bloating.
Bloating is life-threatening and can kill a dog in a matter of hours if left untreated. As such, the cause behind it must be addressed immediately. To get started, we recommend any of ChefPaw’s chunky-style recipes. Additionally, we discourage the use of elevated dog food bowls, exercising right after eating, and feeding when your dog is feeling stressed or acting too excitable.
Some dogs additionally benefit more from chunky dog food because it requires more chewing, which can aid in digestion. The larger pieces of food may also help promote regular bowel movements and reduce the risk of gastrointestinal issues.
A More Exciting Meal
With their food taking longer to consume, which gets their teeth and muscles more into the action, your dogs get to spend more time eating and experiencing their food. And for most dogs, food times are some of the most satisfying parts of their day. Additionally, the chunky texture creates a much more palpable meal appearance and flavor-wise, making this recipe great for picky eaters.
Unique Probiotic Support
Many of our recipes provide probiotics in the form of sweet potato and canned pumpkin, which you’ll still find in this recipe. However, unlike our traditional ChefPaw recipes, this one goes a step further by including Greek yogurt. Not only is this a unique source of extra probiotic support, like the chicken included in this recipe, but Greek yogurt is a complete high-protein and low-calorie ingredient.
While most dogs can use some extra probiotic support for better digestion, due to their greater nutritional demands and the nature of their work, there is a greater need for optimal digestion when caring for an active dog.
Greater Nutrient Retention
Chunky cooked food may slightly retain more nutrients than recipes that finely ground up the meat. This is because nutrients can be lost due to increased surface area and exposure to oxygen when grinding up tissue and blood capillaries within the meat. Additionally, some nutrients may be lost during the grinding process itself, especially if heat is generated. This makes a chunky-style meal perfect for the active dog that needs all the nutrients they’re food can provide.
Support A Healthy Weight
Chunky dog food can support a healthier weight by promoting the feeling of fullness (satiety) through its requirement for more chewing, which encourages slower eating habits. The larger, more substantial pieces of food visually make the meals look larger than normal, making portion control easier, which allows for better regulation of food intake. By extending their eating time, you’ll bring the end of their meal closer to the release of leptin, the protein hormone that signals to the body it’s full.
Additionally, the increased chewing time and enhanced nutrient absorption from whole pieces of meat, vegetables, and grains — that contribute to a satisfying meal experience — can also potentially reduce the likelihood of overeating.
Cooking Instructions #1:
Start by pulling up the ChefPaw app on your phone. The app contains all of ChefPaw’s pre-programmed recipes and will guide you through every step of the process, from which ingredients to load first to how to operate ChefPaw. We recommend weighing each of the ingredients on its built-in scale to ensure an accurate nutritional breakdown and complete meals.
Using ChefPaw is as easy as 1, 2,3. Just load in the ingredients, set ChefPaw to the recipe's mixing setting, then allow ChefPaw to prepare and cook your dog’s food for you. If you’re planning on incorporating supplements, which we recommend, please add them after the cooking process.
Cooking Instructions #2:
Time-consuming. Incredibly demanding. Requires constant attention. Multiple dishes that need cleaning. Incomplete and unbalanced meals. This is what all happens when trying to create homemade dog food WITHOUT ChefPaw’s help.
We are huge fans of cooking our dog's food at home, but we do not recommend doing it without help. When cooking with ChefPaw, you’re backed by a team of experts who meticulously crafted ChefPaw to create complete and authentic meals made with whole foods and select supplements.
Ingredient Benefits:
- Brown Rice: By providing a longer and controlled release of energy that refills glycogen storage and builds muscle, brown rice is a go-to carbohydrate compared to white rice. Speaking of, brown rice will deliver extra fiber that supports healthy digestion.
- Green Beans: High in alpha-carotene, an antioxidant with potential anti-carcinogenic properties, that’s associated with improving muscle strength in older individuals, green beans are one of our favorite ingredients when creating meals for active dogs.
- Chicken Eggs: Rich in linoleic acid for improving skin & coat health, and essential amino acids that strengthen bones and joints along with growing muscles, eggs are a big reason this recipe can go so far in supporting energy and muscle health.
- Boneless Chicken Breast: Incredibly lean but packed with tons of protein, chicken breast is a great option for active dogs that tend to gain undesired weight with fattier cuts like ground beef.
- Greek Yogurt: High in calcium — the most common deficiency seen in homemade dog foods — and a great source of protein that offers probiotic advantages not seen with other high-protein sources such as eggs and chicken, this recipe's unique inclusion of yogurt offers greater muscle and digestive support than our traditional recipes.
- Canned Pumpkin: Nothing takes away energy like poor digestion, but thanks to canned pumpkin, a staple food to give our dogs when experiencing an upset stomach, this recipe helps your dog feel their best, so they can give their best.
- Sweet Potato: By including sweet potato along with Greek yogurt and canned pumpkin, your dog is getting a trinity of pre and probiotic support.
- Honey: Honey is a fast-absorbing source of energy and by feeding your dog local honey, you can slowly introduce them to pollen, which can potentially discourage them from developing allergies to it.
Supplement Section:
Most pet parents are surprised when they hear that creating complete and balanced meals at home almost always requires a few supplements. While it is possible, it's a never-ending game trying to keep all 25 essential vitamins and minerals in their various ratios that avoid toxicities and deficiencies.
For example, when aiming to satisfy calcium levels with natural sources such as eggshells, pet parents can accidentally give their dogs too much selenium, especially when including organ meats and seafood in their meals. This is why ChefPaw’s nutrient analyzer, which provides a complete breakdown of the recipes, is such a great feature!
Due to an active dog’s greater nutritional demands, while we always recommend the following supplements for creating homemade meals, we highly recommend them for fully supporting these athletic champions.
ChefPaw Dietary Supplement Powder (40g):
ChefPaw’s dietary supplement features all 25 essential vitamins and minerals with additional amounts of three highly-soluble calcium in optimal ratios that pair perfectly with all of ChefPaw’s recipes.
Innovet Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil With Hemp (5g):
Omega-6s abundantly found in land-raised meats and plants have a lot of benefits and are essential for a reason. However, some need to be combated with omega-3 fatty acids, as they will counteract their proinflammatory nature. Active dogs need greater levels of protein, but that means more omega-6s unless relying on seafood sources. Because seafood sources can be more expensive and harder to find/store, many pet parents will find an omega-3 supplement preferable.
Wild Alaskan salmon is one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids. This is why many experts find their high DPH/EPA levels make Wild Alaskan salmon the best source for omega-3 supplements.
Optimal Meal Prep with ChefPaw Recipes:
If your dog is loving the chunky nature of their meal, they will be delighted to hear we have a few other Chucky-style recipes that can be replaced and paired with #1c.
#1d - Easy Clean with Chunky Beef is an excellent option when looking for a meal with higher levels of fat, which is perfect for supporting endurance.
#1e - Chunky Turkey & White Rice is similar to our Chunky Chicken but replaces a traditional protein source with a novel source of protein that can help avoid common food allergies. Together, beef and chicken make up nearly 50% of the total food allergies seen in dogs.
Safe Food Handling Warnings:
By gently cooking your dog’s food, ChefPaw helps eliminate many of the contamination concerns veterinarians have regarding raw food diets. To extend food safety even further, we recommend washing your hands with warm soapy water for 20 seconds before handling ingredients and after handling raw meats. Additionally, we recommend washing vegetables and fruits with just warm water to remove any chemical residue they may have collected — meats and eggs do not need to be washed beforehand.