The switch from kibble to a home bowl is made in one go. On day 1 the kibble stops and a simple bowl starts: boiled boneless chicken and kani (broken) rice, with no treats and no biscuits. After about 7 days you look at your dog's stool and body, adjust the amount, and move to the full week the kitchen plans. Plan your dog there first and keep this page for everything around it.
Why the switch is made in one go
A slow ramp keeps the kibble in the bowl for weeks, and the kibble is the food you are trying to stop. Chicken and rice is two foods, easy to cook and easy to read in the stool. The rest of the week comes in one food at a time, so if the stool changes, you know which food did it.
How to change a dog's food sets out the same switch, and how to tell a first-week upset from a real intolerance.
What to set up before day one
- A digital kitchen scale that reads to 1 g and holds at least 5 kg. Every number in the plan is in grams, and a katori or a cup varies too much between fillings to stand in for one.
- A pan with a lid. The meat is soft boiled: boil the water, add the meat, lid on, gas off, and leave it 30 to 45 minutes. The water goes in the bowl. Nothing to fry and no thermometer to buy.
- Lidded containers, one per day. Steel dabbas or glass boxes for the fridge, freezer bags or boxes for the rest. Cooked food keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge and 3 to 4 months frozen for best quality (USDA FSIS). Batch cooking and storage covers the routine.
- Masking tape and a marker to write the day and date on each box.
- A real bone to chew, raw or dehydrated, never cooked. Ask the butcher for a big piece, and stay with your dog while he chews it. This is where the calcium comes from.
For the first week you only need boneless chicken and kani rice. Buy the chicken fresh and freeze it yourself in day-sized bags; frozen meat ordered online is not the same thing. Keep the kitchen's shopping list for week two.
Day 1 to day 7: chicken and rice
How much. Give about 2 to 3% of his body weight a day in total, most of it chicken and a small share rice. A 20 kg dog gets 400 to 600 g. The food calculator gives his day in kcal if you want to be exact.
How to cook it. Soft boil the chicken as above and chop it once it cools. Pressure cook the kani rice until it mashes. Pour the chicken's cooking water over the bowl.
What stays out. No treats, no biscuits, no roti, no gravy, nothing from the family pot, and no new chews or supplements. If you need training rewards, set aside a few pieces of the day's chicken before the meal.
Meal times. An adult eats one meal, finished by 4 to 6 pm. A puppy keeps his meal count. Meal timing has both.
If he refuses it. Mix a little of the old kibble in for the first few meals, then take it out completely. Don't top the bowl up with something tastier to get it eaten.
After about 7 days: adjust, then the week
Look at his body and his stool, not just the scale. You should feel his ribs easily under your fingertips, and his belly should tuck up behind them. To put on weight, add a little more rice. To build muscle, add a little more meat. If he is getting heavy, the bowl comes down a little.
Then move to the week the kitchen prints. Bring its other foods in one at a time, a day or two apart, and watch the stool after each: the egg, the organ, the vegetables, the oil. If the stool changes, the last food you added is the one to look at.
Calcium: bones, not a scale
A balanced bowl with real bones to chew, raw or dehydrated and never cooked, gives a dog enough calcium. Eggshell powder is optional, a pinch on top, never weighed and never a rule. To make it, rinse the shells, dry them in a low oven for about 10 minutes, and grind them fine in a mixer jar. A growing puppy gets no calcium supplement, and a dog with a history of stones gets no eggshell.
What a normal first week looks like
Stool. Firm, formed, and easy to pick up is what you want. It will look different from kibble stool, and there is usually less of it. A slightly softer stool for a day or two can happen. Keep the bowl simple and add nothing new until it firms up. Check it every day, and write down anything other than normal.
Appetite. Eating with interest at the usual time is normal. A dog who picks at a meal in a hot week and then eats well is not a concern. Steady refusal is.
Weight. Weigh your dog on day one and then every two weeks, on the same scale at the same time of day, before a meal. For a dog too big to lift onto a kitchen scale, stand on a bathroom scale holding your dog, then stand on it alone and take the difference. One reading means little. Two in a row moving the same way is a trend, and how much to feed a dog sets out what to change.
When to see a vet
Call your vet the same day if you see:
- vomiting more than once, or vomiting with loose stool
- loose stool that runs past 48 hours
- refusing food for a full day
- itching, scratching at the ears, or red patches that started after the switch (see swaps for allergies once a vet has looked)
- your dog drinking far more than usual, or weight falling across two weigh-ins while eating the full plan
Go now, without waiting to call, for blood in quantity in the stool, pale gums, a dog who can't keep water down, or collapse. Loose stools or diarrhoea has the full sorting. A swollen, hard belly with retching that brings nothing up is bloat, and that means driving to the nearest clinic.
And before day one: the kitchen is for healthy dogs. A pregnant or nursing dog, or a dog with kidney, liver or pancreas disease, needs a diet planned with a vet. Nobody on this site is a veterinary nutritionist, and the recipes haven't been reviewed by one. If anything in the first weeks leaves you unsure, take the printed plan to your vet. It lists every gram, which makes their job easier.