Has your dog undergone some surgery, or has some mild case of diarrhea? Is it refusing to eat anything? Well, you need to put them on a bland diet to ensure that they will get enough energy to recover and get back on track. To help your dog recover quickly from illness, here is our guide on a bland diet for dogs.
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How can a bland diet help your dog to recover from illness?
A bland diet is easy to digest for the dog’s digestive system. Your vet may advise you to feed your dog a bland diet to recover from an illness like diarrhea or vomiting. They may also tell you to limit your dog’s water consumption until the symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea subside substantially.
Basically, a bland diet has less or no fat and low fiber, making it easy to digest for your dog and does not strain its digestive system, yet gives him/her enough energy to recover from the illness.
When to give your dog a bland diet?
You should give your dog a bland diet only when your dog is feeling mild symptoms like diarrhea or vomiting, or your dog has undergone some kind of surgery and is under stress, and it’s recommended to you by your vet.
If you know the cause of diarrhea or vomiting and the symptoms are not severe, you should only give your dog a bland diet.
But if the symptoms are severe and you don’t know the cause, you should immediately visit the vet. Also, make sure that if the symptoms don’t go away after 2 days of a bland diet, you revisit the vet for a thorough inspection of the dog.
How to start a bland diet?
If your dog is sick, chances are they might not feel the urge to eat. Hence you need to tempt them to eat.
For tempting to eat, you can start with a little bit of canned food. If still, it doesn’t work, try to make the food a little bit warm and add a little chicken broth to moisten it. This will surely make your dog tempted to give it a try.
Once started with eating, you can add a little bit of a bland diet. Make sure the quantity is not more than 2 to 3 bites at the beginning. This is because you want the digestive system to process the small amount and not get strained due to the quantity.
Once the dog finishes the small amount of bland diet, then you can increase the quantity gradually. But make sure that you should increase the amount gradually; otherwise, the food would not get digested, and the symptoms can worsen.
Once the stomach settles, then you can give more of a bland diet. Also, consult the doctor for the duration of the bland diet. Usually, the doctor recommends a bland diet for a minimum of 2 days. But you should consult the vet about when you can start the normal diet.
Also, remember that you should not start the normal diet directly. You should incorporate the normal diet with the bland diet in small portions after the doctor suggests and then gradually shift to the regular diet by increasing the amount of normal diet and decreasing the amount of bland diet.
Which foods to include in a bland diet?
This is an essential question to ask your vet, as it has been many times that we consider what is bland for us is bland for the dog.
For example, food without spices or salt is bland for humans, but by default, dogs don’t eat salty or spicy food, neither is it necessary for them. So the question is, what does the bland diet for dogs should consist of?
To answer this question, we should think about the logic behind bland food for dogs. A bland diet is suggested for dogs to get enough energy and yet don’t have to strain their digestive system to digest the food.
Also, the bland food should be tempting enough for the dog to eat, as when dogs are sick, they may lose their appetite.
So the bland diet for dogs can consist of cooked rice, boiled chicken, pumpkin puree, bone broth, sometimes even eggs, etc. You need to make sure that the bland diet is low in fat and has less fiber, making it easily digestible and giving instant energy to the dogs.
5 Bland Diet Recipes for Your Dog
Chicken and Rice
This is a classic bland recipe for dogs and is most suggested by vets all over the world. This recipe requires only 2 ingredients, and the cooking and preparation time is less than 1 hour.
So let’s have a look at how to prepare the chicken and rice for dogs.
Ingredients:
- Chicken
- White rice
- Water for cooking
Preparation:
- First, remove all the fat and skin from the chicken, add it to boiling water, and let it boil for at least 15 minutes on medium to high flame.
- This will ensure that all the bacteria and microbes are killed and won’t enter your dog’s system.
- Now take some white rice and wash it properly.
- Although white rice has fewer nutrients than brown rice, it’s more easily digestible than brown rice. Hence, use white rice.
- Now cook it in a pressure cooker like you usually do it.
- Now let the chicken and rice cool down.
- Make sure you remove all the bones from the chicken. You don’t want your dog to choke on any bones.
- Now make small pieces of the boiled chicken or shred it as it will be easier for the dog to eat it and won’t choke on it.
- Now take around 80% of rice and add 20% of boiled chicken to the rice and mix it well.
- Your chicken and rice for dogs are ready.
- Now give it to your dog in small portions.
Scrambled Eggs
Yes, you read it right. Scrambled eggs are a great bland diet for dogs. If you don’t have white rice or chicken or baby food, don’t worry. Even scrambled eggs can work as a bland diet for your recovering dog.
So what do you need to make scrambled eggs for your dog? The ingredients are eggs and, well, nothing. You don’t need to add salt, pepper, or butter to the scrambled eggs for the dogs as you do for yourself. So how to make scrambled eggs for dogs?
How to Prepare?
- First, crack an egg in a bowl.
- Then beat it with a beater till the egg is blended thoroughly.
- Now heat a non-stick pan and add the egg which you beat earlier in the pan.
- Now fold the egg.
- Make sure no liquid is left in the left, and the eggs are well cooked.
- Also, make sure you don’t continuously stir the mixture.
- Once cooked, let it off the flame and remove it on a plate.
- Now let it cool down for some time.
- Your scrambled egg is ready.
- Serve it to your dog warm, but not hot as it can burn its tongue.
Chicken with Pumpkin
This is a recipe that is not commonly recommended but is undoubtedly useful and bland for your dog’s digestive system.
Ingredients:
- Chicken
- Pumpkin
- Water
How to Prepare?
- First, remove all the fat and skin from the chicken, add it to boiling water, and let it boil for at least 15 minutes on medium to high flame.
- This will ensure that all the bacteria and microbes are killed and won’t enter your dog’s system.
- Now cut the pumpkin into small pieces and peel the skin off.
- Now add the cut pieces of pumpkin to boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove the pieces from boiling water and let them cool down.
- Once the pumpkin cools down, add it to a blender and prepare a pumpkin’s smooth puree.
- Now remove the chicken from the boiling water and remove all the bones and cartilages from the boiled chicken.
- Now chop the chicken into small pieces or shred it finely.
- Now add the shredded chicken to the pumpkin puree and cook it on a low flame for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Let the mixture of the flame.
- Let it cool down at room temperature and serve it to your dog.
- Your chicken and pumpkin are ready.
Boiled Chicken with Rice and Veggies
Dogs love boiled chicken. When you add vegetables to rice and boiled chicken, it becomes an extremely nutritious meal for your canine. It is one of the best bland diet foods your dog will love.
Ingredients:
- Chicken
- Rice
- Vegetables like sweet potato, carrot, and zucchini
How to prepare?
- First, boil water in a deep pot and add white rice to the water.
- Then chop the boneless chicken into small bits and add it to the pot.
- Now chop some sweet potato, carrot, and zucchini into little bits and add it to another boiling water pot.
- Now remove the vegetables after boiling them for 5 minutes.
- Then add them to a blender and grind them into a fine puree.
- Now strain and remove any fiber from the puree as it might be difficult for your dog to digest on an upset stomach.
- Now add the puree to the mixture of chicken and rice.
- Let the whole mixture boil for around 15 minutes on medium to high flame as we don’t want any bacteria are present in the chicken to get into the dog’s system.
- Now let the mixture cool off for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Finally, grind the mixture into a mushy texture and serve some portion to your dog. You can also store it into a deep freeze for a couple of days and later defrost it and serve again.
Fish, Rice and Sweet Potato
Research has shown that a dog can eat white fish and has lean meat, and is easily digestible when having an upset stomach. This recipe will add a variety to your dog’s pallet. We will learn how to cook fish, rice, and sweet potato.
Ingredients:
- White rice
- Sweet potato
- A white fish like salmon
How to Prepare?
- First, wash the fish and remove the skin, scales, and bones of fish.
- Now wash the rice and soak it in water for 30 minutes.
- Now boil water in a pot, add the salmon into the boiling water, and cook for 30 minutes.
- Make sure you don’t give the fish raw as it can contain many parasites that can worsen the upset stomach.
- Now cook the white-soaked rice like you normally do in a pressure cooker.
- Let the rice cool down.
- Once the fish has been cooked, remove it from the flame and cut small fish pieces.
- Now roast the sweet potato on the flame. This will add a nice flavor to the recipe.
- Now boil the sweet potato in water for around 20 minutes.
- Remove the skin of the sweet potato and mash the sweet potato into a smooth texture.
- Sweet potato not only adds flavor to the recipe but also makes it rich in vitamins and minerals.
- Now let the rice cool down.
- Once everything has cooled down, make a mixture of all the ingredients in the following ratio.
- Take 60% of boiled white rice, 20% of mashed sweet potato, and 20% of boiled white fish.
- Mix all the ingredients well and serve it in a small portion to your dog.
- Your fish and rice, and sweet potato recipe are ready.
Final word
These recipes might take a long time to prepare but are so worth it! We hope this guide helped you know about the bland diet for dogs and how you can give it to your cute pooch. Try these bland diet recipes for your dogs, and your dog will surely feel health improvement.
