Pig head dog food recipe

by Jamie Shanks | Feb 7, 2012 | 18 comments

Last Updated: August 29, 2025

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THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE REAL DOG FOOD

We often get pig heads.  Sometimes they come cut in half but often a whole head.  If you are not squeamish, then they really are an ideal source of dog meat.  Lets face it, not so many years ago, the components of a pig’s head was thought of as good human food.  I and my sisters certainly grew up eating it and the dogs got what we couldn’t/didn’t eat.  Brawn, tongue, cheeks, homemade haslet etc.  If you haven’t had braised pig cheeks in a thick brown gravy with mash, you have missed a real tasty dish and as a teenager coming home drunk(ish), attacking the brawn and spreading it on toast with brown sauce! Wow, 1970’s kebab lol!

You can buy pig heads online at Broughs.

Ingredients

  • 1 pig head
  • Several large potatoes
  • Some carrots
  • Bag of rice.  But you can instead chuck in any veg trimmings, barley or couscous you may have.

 

Method

One average sized pigs head will give you about 20 portions of meat content.  We pay £1 for a head and once it picked down portion it up and remember this is high quality fat and meat and they don’t need the volume as if you was feeding from a tin…a dog about the size of a lab needs no more than 2  to 3 cooked ounces (about 100g).  Add the veggies etc etc from the stock so now you have say 20 portions of pig head meat and veg/rice/barley/couscous etc.  Add 1mug of cheap whole meal mixer to each dinner. So, 5p for the meat/fat, 5p for the veg, 10p for the rice/barley etc and 10p for the mixer.  That’s just 30p to feed a Labrador size dog, compare that to balls in a bag or tinned meat with 80% water in it.

 

AND THAT SKIN?

How to store

As a general guide if meat protein is present in recipe then it will last around 3 to 5 days stored in a cool place.  If it has second class protein in it eg. cheese, lentils, eggs, etc, then they will store for about 10 days in a cool place. If there is no meat or second class proteins present then it will last around 3 weeks before they go soft like human biscuits.

Buy the book!

These dog treat recipes are now available to buy in book on Amazon.   An ideal gift!

open cook book
raw pig ears

By Jamie Shanks

BDWS is owned and run by me, Jamie Shanks. I’ve been a professional dog walker since 2010. When I’m not walking dogs, I’m usually at home entertaining my three dogs and attending to five hens and my vegetable garden. 

18 Comments

  1. Hey,
    I’m trying this for my 8 months old shepsky and was wondering if I have to add a mixer to this? And what is the mixer for really?

    • You can or not if you want to… The mixer is to bulk it out for cost-saving.

  2. Your recipes are so interesting to read & I can tell just as interesting to make,as well as super-quick & easy too..I’ve been perfecting my chicken liver cake for my puppy and may just try a bite myself…yum!!

    • Thanks for the comment… Yeah lots of people seem to like making the liver cake using chicken livers, might need to try out some recipes with it!