If Fido is having stomach problems and a specialized pet food isn’t helping, there is another option: Make your pet’s food at home.

Several pet owners have turned to cooking, dicing or grinding meat for pet food and as a result, have some very happy dogs.Kimberly Gossy of Lehighton said she started preparing pet food, because her dachshund and Italian greyhound mix, Skoopy, would get a hard lump in her stomach. She would drag her belly across the floor trying to relieve the pain.Searching for a reason for the illness, Gossy and her husband spent upward of $2,000 on ultrasounds, blood work and tests, only to find nothing wrong.Gossy said that since her mother used to make pet food for her show dogs, and they lived long, healthy lives. She decided to give it a try and researched online for some tips.Based on what she found, Gossy developed her own recipe of cooked chicken, without any seasoning, cooked rice and finely diced vegetables. A couple of times she’s had family members comment on how good it looks. It even fooled her brother-in-law at Thanksgiving, when he asked why he didn’t get any of it. He didn’t know it was pet food.Gossy said she cooks three skinless, boneless chicken breasts in a slow cooker. When it’s done, she rinses it and finely dices it. Then she adds a little less than a quarter cup of cooked rice and a three-quarter cup of finely diced vegetables. She stirs it and spoons it into 4-ounce single serving containers and freezes them.She feeds one serving to Skoopy twice a day, so her recipe makes enough for a week. Her other dog Zeba, a chiweenie or chihuahua and dachshund mix, prefers the variety of flavors she gets in the Cesar Variety pack.“Everyone says I spoil the dogs. It’s healthier for her and that’s what matters,” said Gossy.Like Gossy, Alexis Zettlemoyer of Northampton prepares her dog’s food. Minnie is a 4-year-old American Bull Dog mix. When she and her husband got her from the shelter, the pup wouldn’t eat much of anything, so Zettlemoyer decide to prepare her food. Like Gossy, it consists of chicken breasts and thighs, rice and vegetables.“She’s very spoiled,” Zettlemoyer said. “Sometimes I make her scrambled eggs in the morning.”Zettlemoyer said she has seen supplement powders in the store that can be added to homemade pet food, but she hasn’t tried them yet. Instead, she mixes in a little commercial dry dog food into the homemade food.Minnie loves the vegetables, because the peas and sweet potatoes give it a little sweetness.“She prances around when I’m making it,” she said.Rose Brue of Saylorsburg said her 8-year-old boxer, Hinata, also developed stomach problems and would eat grass to ease it, only to throw it up a little later. Brue turned to the more expensive, grain-free dog foods, but her dog still got sick. Now that Brue started making the food, Hinata doesn’t want grass and doesn’t toss her dinner anymore.“She’s been so much better on it,” Brue said.She feeds her 44-pound dog twice a day.“She begs for it.”Brue makes enough to freeze for 12 days. She mixes together 4 pounds of cooked ground turkey or chicken; six bags of thawed, chopped frozen vegetables; six cups of beans and three bags of boil-in-the-bag rice.The vegetables include zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potatoes and carrots, as well as red and black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, chia seed, flaxseed, a little olive or vegetable oil and some Tums for calcium. And of course, no seasonings.“It freezes well and it doesn’t take up too much space,” Brue said. She uses plastic freezer bags for storage.As for cost, all three pet owners said making the food is more expensive than cheaper brands of dog food, but comparable to brands like Blue Buffalo.