Welcome to the Academy Alexa! Homemade diets are a controversial issue and best discussed with your vet. They are indeed very healthy for the dog, but sometimes you have to add things to their diet that are added to commercial foods already. I suppose the analogy I would use is that commercial dog foods are kind of like our fast foods. Processed(a lot) and not as healthy as natural, more organic foods. With natural diets you can easily avoid any allergies your dog has, whereas if you were feeding a commercial diet you would have to spend a lot of time finding a food that met his needs. However, homemade diets can get incredibly pricey. Many, many dog food manufacturers are now creating a line of all natural, non-processed foods, including Eukanuba, Iams, and many manufacturers that only make natural foods. These are a bit higher in price, but if you'd like to feed a natural feed without having to spend the time buying every ingredient and making it, then this may be a better option. It's important that you thoroughly discuss natural diets with your vet, and slowly ease the transition from commercial food to all natural.
To me, I would think that it would be a good idea to combine an all-natural store bought food with a homemade diet, that way you don't have to buy quite as much groceries for your dog, but he's still on a healthy diet. And, combining the two would make the store bought food last longer because you wouldn't have to feed as much of it. Right now I am feeding a store bought food that contains no processed by-products. I would prefer to do as I just mentioned, but I simply can't afford it right now. Hope this helps you. =)
