Yum, yum! I think your pooch is going to love these treats! Homemade doggy snacks are super healthy, especially if you put delicious ingredients such as pumpkin in them. Choose a flavor and ingredient that you know your doggy already loves. Then once he eats them all up (in moderation of course), try making new treats too. Soon enough you'll get the hang of it, and you'll be glad that you're ditching those artificial additives once and for all. For more ideas on how to make healthy doggy treats, visit One Green Planet.
Making dog treats at home is a fun and loving thing to do for your furry best friend. Once you start making cute shapes and decorating them with icing, you can make special treats for your dog’s birthday or “gotcha” day. Before you know it, you’ll be giving bags of homemade dog goodies to all your friends and tails will be wagging all around you. Oh, and because they are made with whole foods, your dog might be willing to share one with you. Woof!
Choose a Base
Any flour can be used to make dog biscuits, but why not go for the healthiest choices? Whole-wheat flour and whole-wheat pastry flour are good choices. If your dog needs to avoid wheat, choose gluten-free flours like chickpea, sorghum, or oat flour.
Choose Your Flavors
You can choose any combination of healthy foods to put into your biscuits. Fruits and veggies that are safe include apples, bananas, berries, broccoli, carrots, celery, citrus (without the seeds), eggplant, green beans, kale, melons (without the seeds), potatoes, spinach, squash, tomatoes, watermelon (without the seeds), and zucchini. Peanut butter is a popular choice for dogs.
Sweet or Savory
Dog biscuits can be sweet, savory, or both. Add a small amount of molasses or maple syrup and a hint of pure vanilla extract. Those ingredients complement his favorite flavors of carob and peanut butter.
Lovin’ in the Oven
Just roll the dough out on a flat baking sheet and use a knife to cut it into squares before baking. I bake the biscuits, which are small 2-inch cookies, for 18 minutes at 400 degrees, until they are hardened and crisp.
Decorating With Icing
While the decorations and designs may be for us humans, our dogs do love the taste of the frosting or icing. Of course, we don’t want our dogs to get too many sweets, but a little bit as a treat is fine. Ingredients you can use to make icing include non-dairy yogurt, vegan cream cheese, carob, banana, peanut butter, pureed fruits and veggies and even mashed potatoes. A simple recipe is to mix yogurt with peanut butter or cream cheese.
