Best Homemade Dog Treats & Food Recipes – Easy and Healthy

Many of the enthusiastic dog owners try to do research on how to make the tastiest and most nutritious foods for their dogs. You perhaps want your dog to be the healthiest and most cute looking pet, especially when they have sensitive issues as discussed here.

However, as one of the well-informed dog owners, you have to know that there were many stories about the selection of wrong dog foods, by the owners.

So, always be careful, when you plan to give your dog something edible. Though homemade dog food seems to be the best idea, you should ensure that there is no dangerous ingredient, added to your pet’s treat.

If you have chosen the most suitable ingredients, then these homemade foods can be considered to be better than commercial treats because of some reasons:

• The homemade meals, prepared for dogs, are completely fresh
• They have no stabilizers or preservatives
• They can be modified according to the breed, species or preference of your dog
• All the ingredients that are combined are known to you, and there is no filler

Just as any other animals, your canine pet also requires lots of nutrients to remain much healthy and to get energy. You possibly do not go for the canine treat all the time because it is seen that every dog owner always wants their pet to try some foods, generally eaten human beings.

Though many of these foods are quite safe, some must be avoided. If you know it before making any food for your pet, you may stay away from the harmful constituents. And your dogs may also be able to avoid any risky condition.

It is essential to know the ingredients, which may develop a nutritious diet. As these homemade dog or puppy treats seem to be wonderful rewards to your pet, they must be filled with all the minerals.

You always have the choice to go for store-bought, just like these best dog food choices from Avoderm.

However, it often happens that the food is merely tasty but is unsafe for pets. So, when you make your own dog food, you have to create the balance of all the nutrients.

Many people tend to choose those recipes, which are preferable depending on the dog’s choice. In addition to it, you can also think of special menu, if your dog has some disorder or is allergic to specific food.

Common Foods, Which May Be Good For Most Dogs

• Bananas
• Beets
• Peanut butter
• All kinds of berries
• Spinach and lettuce leaves
• Apples excluding the seeds
• Eggs in raw or cooked form
• Sweet potato
• Chicken and beef
• Cucumber

If you try to examine the nutrients of the above stated foods, then you will find that they are beneficial not only to your body but to your dog as well.

You may prepare biscuits with spices and various herbs as these items have several healing abilities.  You have to choose those items, which are beneficial for your doggie. In different homemade formulas, you can add these herbal components or spices, like:

• Dill
• Turmeric
• Ginger
• Thyme
• Green tea
• Cinnamon and many more

Use Natural Sweeteners For Your Dog’s Food

Many dog species desire eating sweet foods; however, remember that artificially made sweetener may not be good or your dogs.

So, to bring some sweet flavour to your cute pet’s food, you can depend on the following substances:

• The liquid part of coconut – The sweet liquid, present inside coconut, not only appetizing but also nutritious. This sap is not much glycemic and contains many minerals and other nutrients. Besides, it helps in maintaining digestive fitness.
• Honey – It is another good sweetener for dog, and you can nourish your dog with honey in raw form.
• Stevia – It is a kind of aromatic plant that as leaves of sweet taste. While making any dog treat, you may include stevia as one of the constituents.

Fish Is Best For Most Dogs

Many dogs like the flavour of some fishes, which may be chosen as ingredients of their treat.

The fishes with fatty acids, like tuna and salmon are important for many doggies. However, when you are making any dish with such fishes, you should remove all the bones.

Besides, the fishes can be given only in cooked form because some of them, including salmon, may cause poisoning. To remain completely safe, you have to cook any preferred fish properly.

Your dog will surely get lots of nutrients from the fish-based recipe.

Ingredients harmful for dogs

In addition to knowing the healthy and safe ingredients, it is better to make out the detrimental ones also. When you are planning to make some innovative recipe for dogs, you have to exclude the following risky ingredients-

Grapes – These small sized fruits can be much toxic to your pup or doggie. The dried form i.e., raisin also has the same negative effect. In many cases, the consumption of these fruits has caused nausea, diarrhea and kidney failure to the dogs.

At times, the dogs can die also without showing any symptoms.

Cheese – This is not a food, intended to the digestive system of a dog. In fact, most of mammals do not have the ability to properly digest this item.

However, as a human, we have no problem in eating cheese or drinking milk and that’s why our own stomachs are also designed to split the sugar and fat, present in the cheese.

But, this mechanism is not applicable in case of dogs. Though the cheese may not be toxic for your furry canine pet, it should not be given to avoid negative results.

Onions – We know that all canine and feline animals should not consume the veggies, which have an intense smell. And obviously, onion is one of them.

So, if there are onions left on your kitchen floor, then you have to be careful that your pup hasn’t gulped all of them. Too much consumption of onions may lead to the damage of blood cells.

Dark coloured chocolate – Intake of chocolate is also hazardous to the dogs. The chocolates with mainly the darker shades can be most deadly, while the lighter colored ones contain low caffeine, which is quite poisonous. When your dog has eaten lots of chocolates, he may have fever, dehydration and stomach problem.

Home Dog Treat Recipes

When you want to gain trust of your newly owned dog or puppy, nothing can be better than serving it with yummy, healthy food.

Besides, while you have made a decision to change your dog’s diet from commercial food to homemade ones, you need to know some recipes. Many people feel confused about how to make dog food. However, the easy guides on some unique recipes may be helpful to all.

1. Stew for pups

Ingredients

• Barley of about two cups
• Boneless chicken
• Sliced sweet potato pieces
• Peas that have been frozen
• Chopped carrots
• Parsley
• Chopped tomatoes
• Water and salt solution
• Fish oil or olive oil

Method

• Put all the components into a pot
• Pour water into it
• Boil it at first and then reduce the temperature
• Heat it for almost 2 hour

When you find all the constituents have become soft, you can start stirring it. Besides, you may also add some water in order to prevent the food from becoming dry.

2. Banana Bones

Ingredients

• Milk powder
• Chicken soup
• Vegetable oil
• One egg
• Smashed banana
• Wheat flour

Method

• Make your oven ready by preheating it
• Add the above ingredients to blend it properly and then press it for two minutes
• With a special device, cut it to make the shape of dog cookies
• Let it be baked for half an hour. Serve it in cool condition

2. Carob Cake

Ingredients

• Flour
• Margarine
• Milk with no fat
• Yolks of four eggs
• Yogurt
• Vanilla flavour
• Baking powder
• Carob (melted)
• Cinnamon

Method

• Heated oven is the foremost need
• Add flour and grease in a pan
• Punch the components in a big bowl; keep this in your pan
• Then, bake this for more than one hour
• Let it be chilled with your yogurt

3. Candy Pops

If your pup is extremely hungry and is not giving you much time to prepare food, you can choose this formula. It can be made almost instantly. Two simple things, needed for arranging it, are

• Vegetable soup or broth of one medium size container
• Water (half can)

Blend water with the broth; then pour this into ice trays. When it becomes frozen, you can serve this food happily.

4. Frozen Recipe with Yogurt

Ingredients

• One cup yogurt
• Crushed banana
• Spirulina

Method

• Blend banana and yogurt
• Then put spirulina before mixing it
• Put this in tray and keep in fridge for about three hours

In this recipe, spirulina can be the source of nutrition for all dogs, and the best thing is that it has antioxidants. It also contains protein and is good for dogs, which have loss of hunger.

5. Veggie dog treats

This is one of the natural dog treats, with no use of chicken or any other meat.

Ingredients

• Heated vegetables (like sweet potatoes or zucchini)
• Rice flour (two and half cups)
• Parsley in dried form
• Vegetable soup (must not have high fat)
• Water

Method

The steps for making this food are almost same as that of the other recipes.

You have to create the dough using all the dried elements. Flatten this dough; cut it into pieces and allow it to be baked for complete preparation.

When your pet has some kidney disorder, it must be given those vegetables, which have very low amount of phosphorus. The veggies, like squashes or zucchini may be included in these categories.

Dogs that often suffer from constant liver disease or pancreatic problem may not have restriction on phosphorus. But, it is essential for them to control the intake of fat. T

he treat that is described above is ideal for them because they do not have animal protein. Again, while a dog has wheat allergy, you may look for the flours that are based on corn, rice or almond.

Homemade Crunchy Dog Biscuits

6. Oatmeal and Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

This is a simple biscuit making formula, which may make your dog quite happy.

Ingredients

• wheat flour – Two cups (remember that your flour must not be allergic to your dog)
• peanut butter – Less than one cup
• Oats – One cup
• Some warm water

Method

• Let your oven be heated (350 degree Fahrenheit)
• Add some dry components to blend them
• To create dough, combine water with the butter
• The, crush this in order to make the pieces of biscuits
• Start baking it for about forty minutes. Let this food be completely cooled

You can store these biscuits in any sealed box or inside your refrigerator. As this recipe contains peanut butter, it can give your dog more energy due to the carbohydrate content.

7. Simple Dog Biscuits

Ingredients

• Wheat fibre
• Cornmeal
• Flour, including rye flour
• Tomato sap
• Garlic in powder form
• Salt
• Yeast
• Milk powder
• Hot water

Method

• Heat up your oven at first
• Make your yeast softened in hot water and blend it with tomato sap
• Mix the wheat, flour, cornmeal, milk powder, garlic and salt with the above blend powder, whole wheat flour, rye flour and non-fat dry milk powder. Make this combination stiff
• Cut this into interesting shape size
• One hour-baking is enough for hardening the biscuits

8. No Flea Biscuits

In this kind of biscuits, dietary yeast is applied in order to keep away fleas. This yeast has B-vitamins along with protein and it has quite a cheesy taste.

However, if you see that your dog’s body does not suit yeast, you can avoid this recipe.

Ingredients

• Yeast
• Flour (chickpea type)
• Chicken soup, containing limited sodium
• Little amount of powdered garlic
• An egg

Method

• Like other recipe, heat your oven
• Mix ingredients in a bowl
• Then blend the egg and chicken soup
• Mould it to make dough
• Use saran cover to place it
• Cut it in definite shapes
• Bake or heat in the oven and wait for about twenty five minutes 

Do Your Dogs Have Common Health Problems?

If your dog has any health problem, then you can plan slight differently for homemade dog food. When your dog is taking some medications or having pain due to some reasons, you can try to pamper them with scrumptious food.

You have possibly become concerned because many store-bought items have caused some problems to your dog. That’s why you need to depend on homemade foods for your dogs.

Bad smell from dog’s breath

There may be some problems with this problem. Dental disorder, digestive issues and gum problems can be the main reasons. And in serious cases, it may also be caused due to cancer.

For this problem, you can try homemade dog biscuits that are described above.

Dogs with an allergy to some foods

There’re few items, which usually activate an allergic reaction in many dogs. Some of them are corn, beef, eggs, soy, and dairy items. However, all dogs are not the same. For example, chicken can be good for Rover but not to Fido.

Diabetes

It is also another problem of many dogs, but this problem may be prevented with special cooking formulas for diabetics. You can give ginger biscuits to your dogs as these foods have no gluten.

Cinnamon and oats may be added for these biscuits. You can also prepare another food by adding cinnamon to chicken and then baking them. These ingredients have chromium, which is good for diabetics.

Just keep in mind that these dog treats must never have over ten percent of the daily intake of calories. Besides, it may also be best option if you can provide the pup with some foods after injecting insulin. The everyday routine of taking injection may offer better experience.

Joint Ache & Pain

It is seen mainly in doggies, which have arthritis. Some people make use of specific herbs in order to reduce this aching. The dog’s biscuits, made of alfalfa, may be the better option.

It not only alleviates the arthritic pain but also eases some inflammatory pains. Create a combination of these dry constituents in a bowl and then add honey and egg.

Make dough with them and leave it under normal temperature. Cut them into biscuit shape and move them in your heated oven for baking. Your dog will get vitamin and fibre from this biscuit.

Way of Preserving Dog Treats

Besides knowing the processes of cooking various dog foods, it is important to understand the way of storing them.

Otherwise, your homemade treats will not give the possible results to your dogs. Usually, the pets’ treats can be saved almost in the same manner that you follow for your own food.

Remember that the treats may become spoiled, if there is very hot or humid climate. As you do not apply any preservatives, you should try to keep the foods always dry and crispy.

Soft quality cookies may not stay fresh for a much long period. If you make biscuits, then keep it inside tight can. When the solid cookies are kept in cool condition, it can be preserved for about two weeks.

On the other hand, while they are in fridge, they may last for almost two months. If you think that your dog will not eat all the cookies in a day, you may freeze those treats.

Overall, it may be said that most of the dog treats, made at home, are very simple to follow. And making these foods with your own idea seems to be the smartest way to help your dog in thriving and growing up.

Besides, your dogs will also realize the significant difference of commercial and homemade foods. They will most probably love the latter one, and you can also instantly cook any food with the use of some easily accessible ingredients. If you need labrador-specific commercial food, check our list here.