Is It Safe To Feed Your Dog Chicken And Rice Every Day? The Complete Guide To Your Dog’s Diet

If your pooch has ever fallen sick, chances are that your vet has recommended feeding them a diet of chicken and rice until they get better. This is undoubtedly a healthy diet for your dog.

It can also be a great way to wheedle out any potential allergens from their diet and allow you to slowly reintroduce foods.

But if giving your dog chicken and rice every day is considered to be a healthy thing for them, this may lead you to wonder if you can feed your dog this diet for a longer period of time.

So, can you feed your dog chicken and rice every day?

While this may seem like a good idea, it’s not recommended that you feed your dog just chicken and rice every day for extended periods of time.

This is because it doesn’t contain all of the nutrients your dog needs to live a happy and healthy life. These nutrients will need to be added from red meats and vegetables.

Another factor to bear in mind is that dogs have a tendency to develop allergies to foods that they eat for the majority of the time.

So if you give your dog chicken and rice on a more consistent basis, this could cause them to develop an allergy to chicken. Which will mean you have to change their diet even more drastically to avoid this food.

If you’re in doubt as to how long you should be feeding your dog chicken and rice for, you should always consult with your vet.

If they have recommended this as an intermediate diet, then chances are your vet will also be able to tell you when to gradually introduce your dog’s normal diet again.

This will usually be as soon as your dog starts to show an improvement in their health.

So now that you know this should be a temporary diet, you may be wondering how you can prepare this healthy dish for your dog.

How To Prepare Chicken And Rice For Your Dog

Firstly, it will be important to make sure that you have bought the right ingredients for your dog.

You don’t want to feed them the wrong type of chicken or rice in case it actually harms them.

If you feed your dog the wrong type of food, it could cause them more health issues, and not actually help them at all.

You should select chicken breasts that are skinless and boneless.

This will make the chicken more easily digestible for your dog, and won’t have the choking hazard of bones, which could also splinter and tear your dog’s intestines. 

When it comes to choosing the right rice, you should avoid brown rice. This will have too much fiber for your dog’s system to be able to process properly.

Instead, you should opt for white rice, which will be gentle enough on your dog’s stomach. Remember to opt for standard cooking rice.

Don’t use anything to try and flavor the food as you would do for human consumption.

Anything like butter and oil should be avoided. Don’t add any extra salt or pepper, and definitely don’t add any onions or garlic, as these two ingredients are highly toxic to dogs.

Now that you’ve got everything ready, you will need to boil the chicken breasts.

You can do this with 2 to 3 chicken breasts at a time in water, until they are all fully cooked. Remove the chicken breasts from the water and set to one side, allowing them to cool. 

Next, you should add 1 cup of the uncooked rice to the leftover chicken broth. Boil the rice until it is fully cooked, as per the packet instructions. Drain the water, and allow the rice to cool.

Once the chicken breasts have cooled, you can start to shred them into smaller, more manageable pieces. Once the rice has cooled, you can then mix in the shredded chicken breast.

The ideal blend will be ⅓ of meat ⅔ of the rice. When you’ve got it all mixed up, you can then add the mixture straight to your dog’s bowl.

It will be important to give your dog no more than they would usually eat during the day. 

So if you have a larger dog that tends to eat around 4 cups of food a day, you should aim to give them 1 cup of this chicken and rice mixture.

You can then give them an additional cup of food later on in the day, and continue until your dog is eating the same amount of food they usually do.

Don’t be surprised if your dog is reluctant to eat too much of this food if they’re suffering from an upset tummy.

Smaller dogs who usually eat 1 cup of food a day will ideally need to start with ¼ or ⅓ of a cup of this chicken and rice mixture.

You should then follow the same rules as above, giving them a second amount later in the day, and continuing this method until they are eating their usual amount of food.

Your dog should only need to be on this diet for a couple of days. When you notice them starting to eat in a more normal manner again, you can gradually start to reintroduce their regular food.

In Summary

And there you have it! Even though chicken and rice is the recommended diet for unwell pooches, it’s not a good idea to only feed your dog this diet for an extended period of time.

This is because they will need to consume a range of other vitamins and minerals which they get from red meat and vegetables. 

Typically your vet will suggest the chicken and rice diet for only a couple of days until your dog’s stomach has settled again.

So feeding them this diet for anything more than this could be detrimental to their health.

It will also be important to gradually reintroduce their usual diet to prevent any issues.