considering moving our seven year old shepherd lab mix off her stable hydrolyzed prescription diet onto a home cooked diet after ten months of being stable and i need a sanity check on the nutritional adequacy piece and the transition timing from people who have actually walked through this with a sensitive system dog

Hazel is our 7 year old female shepherd lab mix, 58lb, spayed at 14 months, adopted at 11 weeks from a regional rescue, and she has been the most digestively complicated dog i have ever lived with. her food trial history runs from 2 years old to present and includes 4 commercial limited ingredient diets (Acana single protein, Natural Balance LID, Wellness Simple, Zignature), 2 over the counter "sensitive stomach" formulas, a 14 week novel protein trial on rabbit and pea that her dermatologist ran us through, and finally the hydrolyzed soy prescription diet (Royal Canin Hydrolyzed Protein HP) that she has now been stable on for 10 months with zero loose stool episodes, no skin flares, and a coat that her groomer says looks the best it has in 3 years. by every clinical metric this is the dog who has finally landed on a diet that works.

here is the thing. the Rx kibble is $128 a 24lb bag, lasts us about 6 weeks, comes out to roughly $1,100 a year just on her food, and the ingredient list is something i find genuinely uncomfortable to look at every morning when i scoop her breakfast. hydrolyzed soy protein, corn starch, vegetable oil, powdered cellulose, the macros are obviously formulated by ruminating-mammal scientists who know more about Hazel's GI than i do but the gestalt of pouring beige pellets into a bowl twice a day for a dog who is otherwise the picture of health is starting to bother both me and my partner. we have been reading about home cooked diets specifically because we have friends whose senior boxer is on a balance.it formulated home cooked diet and her bloodwork is reportedly excellent, and because we have time and bandwidth (we both work from home, we cook the family meals from scratch most nights anyway) to actually do the prep work consistently.

what we have researched so far. one, balance.it as a recipe formulation service, $30 for a custom recipe, $90 for a consult with the veterinary nutritionist on staff if we need it, the supplements they sell are the proprietary nutrient mix that makes the recipes nutritionally complete to AAFCO standards. two, a board certified veterinary nutritionist (DACVIM-Nutrition) consult through the UC Davis or Tufts referral service, $700-900 for a full custom formulation with case-specific medical considerations, which feels like the right move for a dog with Hazel's GI history. three, the standard "do not DIY without nutritionist input" advice that every credible source on this topic seems to agree on, which we are taking seriously. four, the failure mode literature, which is mostly about calcium-phosphorus imbalance, taurine deficiency, vitamin E and zinc gaps, and the long term implications of incomplete formulations that owners do not see until year 3-4 of the diet.

what i am asking. one, families who have moved a clinically stable Rx-diet dog onto a home cooked formulated diet, what did the transition window actually look like in practice, did your dog's GI hold up through the protein source change or did you see a regression. two, the balance.it vs board certified nutritionist question, is the $700-900 for a custom formulation the right call for our specific case (known sensitive system, multiple food trial history, currently stable) or is balance.it adequate if we are conservative about protein source selection. three, the practical execution piece, batch cooking schedule that real working families have sustained over 18+ months, freezer storage protocols, the realistic time-per-week cost of running a home cooked diet for a 58lb dog. four, the question we have not been able to find an honest answer to, is there a credible case for keeping a clinically stable dog on a working Rx diet specifically because it is working, even if the ingredient list is unappealing, and what is the threshold of evidence that should make us move off it. happy to take pushback on the premise. our vet is supportive but neutral on the home cooked move and has told us she does not have specific nutrition expertise beyond the general practice level and would defer to a nutritionist consult for a case like ours.