Homemade dog treats recipe?

mshelsbels

Hello all,

I'm helping to organise a charity walk for our local PDSA, and would like to make a huge batch of dog biscuits / treats to sell in small bags.

Any tried and tested recipes gratefully received!

Thank you

krlyr

Easy peasy microwave recipe
- porridge oats
- egg
- vegetable or olive oil
- some kind of 'flavour' - e.g. cream cheese, tinned tuna, blended liver
- water or stock*

I don't measure strict amounts but generally dump oats in a bowl, add enough eggs for a tacky consistancy, a drizzle of oil, the liver/tuna/whatever and then make up to a moist but not overly runny consistancy with the water/stock. Microwave for a couple of minutes and then 30 seconds/a minute at a time after that until solid. Turn onto a cooling rack then cut into little cubes. It's got a soft, crumbly texture, so not majorly pocket-friendly but dogs go absolutely nuts for it!
You could oven-cook at a low temperature in a flat casserole type dish too.

*regular stock is probably too salty but you can easily make your own with bones by not adding salt etc.

For a drier biscuit I would do similar but instead of oats, use a grain-free flour such as gram flour (regular flour would be fine for most dogs, owners would probably be aware of allergies or intolerances to cereals anyway - I just go grain-free since I raw-feed and it seems silly to avoid grains in their main food only to put them in their treats!). Less stock, more flour, to make a rollable dough. Cook at about 180 for 10-15 minutes, until hard. These type of biscuits tend to last longer as they're less moist. Bone shaped cutters make for a cute factor

Most treat recipes could be made in advance and frozen too. I often freeze the biscuits at the dough stage so I can cook them fresh when needed.

An alternative could be to use pure meat (something like liver is cheap, or check the reduced aisle for chicken, fish, etc.) and dice into small pieces which you cook at a low temperature until dry, for dried meat pieces. They tend to last a fair while if dried out well. I tend to cook them until semi-moist to use as training titbits and freeze the excess. Very pocket-friendly as they don't crumble like biscuits.

If you're doing it before Christmas, I recently saw these dog treat wreaths and they look fantastic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyG4e1KMYBI
http://www.petdiys.com/gallery/diy-dog-treat-wreath/
http://affurmation.com/christmas-countdown-make-a-dog-biscuit-wreath/

Katiehound

Cheap oat biscuits.

use cheapest rolled oats and mix with water to a very stiff dough. I use filtered water (cuts out the chlorine!) and sometimes dissolve a spoonful of marmite in small amount of water, then cool before mixing.
can also add low fat dried milk powder.

I don't weigh anything for these! Just put in a mixing bowl and away you go!
Use a silicone sheet prevents sticking, greasing etc. Press mixture onto baking sheet or baking tin using extra oats on top to prevent the mix sticking to fingers. The thinner the layer the crisper they will be. Mark out into fingers before baking. bake in a moderate to low oven.. this is an unexact science! When biscuits seem cooked turn over and bake for a further? half hour?

I think you could adapt flavours by adding: peanut butter (low salt), grated cheese, maybe doggy choc drops?

littlesnuggy

Liver cake - I've used this recipe before and it comes out well
http://www.k9clickertraining.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47:livercake&catid=43:recipes&Itemid=69

A bit disgusting to make & smells horrible in the oven, but dogs love it. Make sure you don't miss out the garlic as that gives it a good smell the dogs will detect emerging from pockets a mile off!

There_Goes_Trouble

I used to make and sell liver cake for a charity I supported at their open day. It used to sell like hot cakes, mainly because of the smell of cooking it, people were glad to be able to buy it rather than make it themselves!

I'd make some the week before and bag it and freeze it, then some I'd make the day before so it was fresh and suitable to be frozen. The bags were labled 'pre-frozen and thawed, do not re-freeze' or 'freshly cooked, suitable for freezing' and I put them separately on the table and made sure the people buying them knew which was which. Most people bought a couple of bags of thawed to use straight away, and a few bags of fresh to take home and freeze. I never ever had any left over to take home, much to my own dogs disgust!!

I used to bag it up in 100g and I think I sold it for £1 a bag although this was some years ago.

I used a much simpler recipe than the ones you find on the net too which helped keep the cost to me down.

Liver, blended to a sludge.
Add self raising flour and mix well until the mixture is thick and sticky (tends to work out approx equal quantities of liver/flour)
Add a dolop of veg oil
Mix well
Line a couple of loaf tins with baking powder, the liver cake can stick when it cooks (can use any tin but the loaf tin makes a good shape for cutting the cake into bits) Pour the mix in to a depth of about 2-3 inches. Any thicker and the middle won't cook before the outside burns.
Open all windows and doors, cooking it will stink!!
Bake at about 180 degC for about 40-45 minutes or until it looks about done and is springy to the touch.
Turn out of tin and leave to cool completely
Cut the loaf into slices then into cubes about 1cm square.
Bag up ready to sell.
Mop the floor where your own dogs have been sat drooling....