A practical guide to the 13 nutrients most commonly deficient in homemade dog food — and exactly which whole foods provide them. Works for both raw and cooked diets.
The most common objection to homemade dog food is that it can't be nutritionally complete. And in one sense, that objection is right: a bowl of plain chicken and rice, served every day, will develop deficiencies over time. But "homemade food has gaps" and "those gaps can't be filled" are two very different claims. The gaps are real. The inability to fill them is not.
This is a reference page. It lists the 13 nutrients most commonly deficient in homemade diets, maps each one to its best whole-food sources, and explains how to work them into a real meal. It covers both raw and cooked preparation — because the answer to "where does my dog get iodine?" should not depend on whether you cook your food or not.
How to use this page: If you're building a new recipe from scratch, read it all. If you're checking a specific nutrient your vet flagged, jump straight to that section. The quick-reference table at the bottom lets you scan everything at once. Amounts given are approximate and based on NRC 2006 guidelines for an average adult dog — adjust proportionally for your dog's size and activity level.
EPA and DHA are the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids — the ones that actually do the work. They're the reason salmon is good for dogs (and for us). Most homemade diets are naturally high in omega-6 from chicken fat and plant oils, which drives inflammation when omega-3 is too low. The fix is simple once you know where to look.
One important distinction: ALA — the plant version of omega-3 found in flaxseeds and chia — is not a useful source of EPA or DHA for dogs. The conversion rate from ALA to EPA/DHA in dogs is poor. For this, you need fish.
Vitamin D is the nutrient most reliably deficient in homemade meat-based diets. Unlike humans, dogs cannot synthesise meaningful amounts of vitamin D through sun exposure — they need it from food. Muscle meat contains almost none. Without deliberate planning, a homemade diet built around chicken breast, beef mince, and vegetables will likely be vitamin D deficient within weeks.
The best whole-food sources are oily fish and beef liver. Rotating a fish-based meal into the weekly plan 2–3 times is the most practical way to cover this without supplementing.
Iodine is almost entirely absent from standard homemade ingredients. Chicken, beef, pork, rice, sweet potato, carrots — all contain negligible amounts. Without a deliberate source, a homemade diet will be iodine deficient, and hypothyroidism is the long-term consequence. The fix is extremely simple: a small amount of kelp powder added to every meal.
Vitamin E is the main fat-soluble antioxidant protecting cell membranes — and it's one of the first nutrients to go deficient in high-fat homemade diets. This is slightly counterintuitive: the more fat in the diet, the more vitamin E is needed to protect it. Fish-rich or raw diets with lots of oily meat are particularly prone to this gap because polyunsaturated fats oxidise easily and require antioxidant protection.
The richest whole-food source is wheat germ oil, which contains more vitamin E per gram than almost anything. The key rule: always add it cold. Heat destroys vitamin E rapidly.
Zinc deficiency in dogs shows up most visibly in the coat and skin — rough, flaky, or dull fur is a common early sign. Some breeds are more vulnerable than others: Northern breeds like Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes have a known predisposition to zinc-responsive dermatosis, where even a technically adequate dietary intake may not be enough. The absorption point matters too: zinc from plant sources is significantly less bioavailable than zinc from animal tissue, because phytates in plants bind to zinc and reduce uptake.
Manganese is one of the nutrients that muscle meat simply doesn't deliver well. Chicken, beef, and pork muscle are all low in manganese, which means a diet built around those proteins without any shellfish, seeds, or green tripe will often fall short. It's particularly important for growing dogs and joint-health-focused diets, where manganese plays a role in cartilage synthesis.
Magnesium tends to be overlooked because muscle meat provides a reasonable amount — it's not the gaping hole that iodine or vitamin D are. But high-protein, high-fat diets without any seeds, fish, or green vegetables can still fall short. Magnesium is involved in so many metabolic reactions that chronic mild deficiency is hard to pinpoint clinically, which is partly why it gets missed.
This is the one that makes vets most nervous about homemade diets — and with good reason. Meat is naturally high in phosphorus and almost entirely lacking in calcium. Dogs need a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio close to 1.2–1.4:1 in the diet. A plain meat-and-vegetable bowl without any calcium source will have a ratio closer to 1:15 or worse. Over time, the body compensates by pulling calcium from bones.
The practical fix is one of the simplest in homemade dog nutrition: eggshell calcium powder. A quarter teaspoon of dried, ground eggshell provides approximately 400mg of calcium — enough to correct the balance in a medium-sized dog's meal.
Note on cooked bones: Cooked bones splinter and are dangerous. For cooked diets, use eggshell powder or canned fish with soft bones. Raw meaty bones are the standard solution for raw diets.
The critical distinction here is between retinol (true vitamin A, from animal sources) and beta-carotene (the plant precursor found in carrots, pumpkin, and leafy greens). Dogs convert beta-carotene to retinol very inefficiently — far less so than humans. Feeding your dog carrots for vitamin A, as some guides suggest, doesn't reliably work. The only meaningful dietary source of retinol for dogs is animal liver.
The complication is that liver is also extremely rich in vitamin A, so too much too often can cause toxicity over time. The sweet spot is feeding beef or chicken liver 2–3 times per week in small amounts — not daily, and not in large portions.
Vitamin A toxicity is real. It accumulates in fat tissue and is not easily excreted. Feeding liver every single day for months or years can cause hypervitaminosis A — a serious condition. Stick to 10–20g of liver, 2–3 times per week, and you'll be fine.
Most meat-based homemade diets cover iron reasonably well — red meat is a solid source. The issue is typically either a chicken-only diet (chicken is lower in iron than beef or lamb) or over-reliance on plant sources. Plant iron (non-heme iron) is poorly absorbed by dogs. A diet heavy in vegetables and light on red meat or organ meat can end up iron-low despite technically containing iron.
B12 is found almost exclusively in animal products, so any meat-based homemade diet will naturally have some. The issue tends to arise in diets that are very lean and muscle-meat-only — particularly chicken breast without any organ meat or fish. Liver is astronomically high in B12, to the point that adding it 2–3 times per week essentially handles this nutrient entirely.
Copper and iron are deeply linked — copper is required for the body to properly use iron, so a copper deficiency can look a lot like anaemia even when iron intake is adequate. The good news: beef liver solves this one too. The complication: certain breeds — Bedlington Terriers, Doberman Pinschers, West Highland White Terriers, and Labrador Retrievers to some degree — have genetic variants that cause copper to accumulate in the liver rather than being properly excreted. For these breeds, limiting liver and avoiding supplemental copper is important.
Thiamin is usually adequate in balanced meat-based diets, but there's one specific risk worth knowing: raw freshwater fish contains thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys thiamin. If your dog's raw diet includes significant amounts of raw carp, trout, or other freshwater fish fed frequently, thiamin deficiency is a genuine concern over time. Saltwater fish (sardines, salmon, mackerel) are fine. The other risk is high-heat cooking, which degrades thiamin significantly — it's one of the more heat-sensitive B vitamins.
If you want a single view of everything above — the nutrient, the top source, and the practical action — here it is.
| Nutrient | Top whole-food source | What to do | Both raw & cooked? |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPA + DHA | Mackerel, sardines, salmon | Rotate fish 2–3× per week, or add 1 tsp salmon oil cold | Yes |
| Vitamin D | Fresh salmon, mackerel | Weekly fish rotation + liver 2–3× per week | Yes |
| Iodine | Kelp powder, nori | ⅛ tsp kelp per meal — every meal | Yes |
| Vitamin E | Wheat germ oil | 1 tsp stirred in cold after cooking | Yes (cold only) |
| Zinc | Oysters, beef, pumpkin seeds | 1 tsp raw pumpkin seeds daily + beef-based protein | Yes |
| Manganese | Mussels, pumpkin seeds | 1 tsp raw pumpkin seeds covers most of this | Yes |
| Magnesium | Pumpkin seeds, sardines | Covered by pumpkin seeds + fish rotation | Yes |
| Calcium | Eggshell powder, sardines with bones | ¼ tsp eggshell powder per meal (cooked) or raw bones (raw) | Varies by prep |
| Vitamin A | Beef liver | 15–20g beef liver, 2–3× per week — never daily | Yes |
| Iron | Beef spleen, beef liver, red meat | Red meat base protein + liver rotation handles this | Yes |
| Vitamin B12 | Beef liver, clams | Covered by liver rotation — nothing extra needed | Yes |
| Copper | Beef liver, oysters | Covered by liver rotation — check breed predispositions | Yes |
| Thiamin (B1) | Pork, nutritional yeast | Rotate pork into the weekly menu | Yes (avoid raw freshwater fish) |
If you look at the table above, you'll notice that a lot of nutrients get solved by the same few ingredients. Beef liver handles vitamin A, vitamin D, copper, B12, zinc, and iron in one go — and it needs to be fed only 2–3 times per week in small amounts. Pumpkin seeds handle zinc, manganese, and magnesium. Kelp handles iodine. Wheat germ oil handles vitamin E. Eggshell powder handles calcium. That's five deliberate additions that close nearly every gap a homemade diet can have.
At Breed-to-Bowl, these aren't optional extras — they're built into every recipe we publish. Here's what we include in every main-meal recipe:
The one thing this page can't do is tell you whether your specific dog's diet is complete. The nutrients above are the most commonly deficient — but completeness depends on how much you're feeding, which proteins you're rotating, and your dog's individual health status. If you've been feeding homemade food for a long time and haven't had bloodwork done recently, a routine panel is always worth doing.
All our recipes are built to include these five nutrients as standard. Use the generator to get a breed-appropriate recipe your dog will actually eat.
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