Flynn loves zucchini

I’ve just been doing some research to try to improve upon the homemade meals we feed our dogs and I’ve come across some great information. Here’s a link to the specific section “Do Pets Require a Balanced Diet?” in Google Books, which lets you see a preview for free. It starts out with a summary of what’s in commercial dog foods. It’s revolting, in a word. You know how dog food always comes with a warning on the label, “Not for human consumption”? Not that I’d ever be inclined to eat dog food, but if I was, then reading this would certainly put an end to that habit. In fact, after reading this hopefully you don’t want to feed your dog commercial dog food either. But the great thing is that the “Suggested Breakfast” and dinners don’t look that difficult or time consuming to make. In fact, except for the meat and bones a lot of this is what we were already eating ourselves, raw fruit and veges, oat flakes, sprouted wheat, kefir or yogurt and eggs.

A couple other bits of information I gleaned from this:

• Chocolate is toxic to pets (it can kill them)
• Carob is good for dogs (it’s a good chocolate alternative), it’s rich in protein, calcium and phosphorus.
• Sugar is bad (well, we probably all knew that, but did you know it’s often added to commercial pet food and snacks too?)
• Honey is good. Especially raw, unpasteurized honey. It’s nutritious for feeding to your pet in moderation, of course. It’s a nerve tonic and inhibits the harmful bacteria in the digestive tract. If your dog is sick you can add it to their water or put a small ball of honey in their mouth.

Flynn eating zucchini

And, just in case you thought Flynn was just posing with that zucchini for the picture, here’s proof. He actually decided to help himself to a snack and stole this zucchini Not that we minded, it’s healthy for him and we had so much zucchini from the garden this summer we literally had boxes overflowing with it. I didn’t get my dehydrator until towards the end of the season, so we had far more than we knew what to do with. We couldn’t give enough of it away. So this particular zucchini is looking a bit sad because it had been sitting around for a while. But it obviously still tasted good enough to Flynn.

If you have a cat, check out the section “Feeding the Adult House Cat”

[amazonshowcase_b9a38ff2c473ae29c5cbbcba7ad3046d] All this comes from the book, The Encyclopedia Of Natural Pet Care which you can also find at Amazon. The book actually covers all kinds of animals, not just dogs.

Related posts:

1. Healthy Dog Treats These quick and easy to make vegetarian dog biscuit treats got a unanimous paws-up from my panel of 4 expert judges. I tried them too, and they didn’t taste half...

Dog Treats A Winner

These quick and easy to make vegetarian dog biscuit treats got a unanimous paws-up from my panel of 4 expert judges. I tried them too, and they didn’t taste half bad. There’s lots of room for variation and experimentation here, and with the enthusiastic response I got to this basic recipe you can look forward to more healthy dog treat recipes in future. If you’ve tried this recipe, or a variation of it please let me know by leaving a comment.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup milk
1 teas garlic powder
1 teas kelp powder
1 teas dried yeast
1 teas vegetarian stock powder, or 1 stock cube
1 T peanut butter
1/3 cup olive oil
1 egg
1/2 cup cold water

Instructions:

Healthy Vegetarian Dog Treats

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).

In a medium sized mixing bowl combine dry ingredients and mix well.

Stir in the peanut butter, olive oil and egg.

Add cold water a little bit at a time as needed until the dry ingredients stick together and you have a very stiff dough. You may not need all the water.

Knead lightly then roll out onto a floured surface until the dough is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a cookie cutter or knife. I didn’t have a cookie cutter handy so I used the cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels.

Place the treats at least 1/2 inch apart on an un-greased baking sheet, or on a no-stick silicon baking sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until firm and golden. Cool before serving. They keep well for several days in a paper bag.

These are meant as an occasional treat biscuit rather than a meal replacement biscuit.

Related products you might be interested in:

• Healthy Dog Treats
• Healthy, organic dog food

Testimonials from discerning dogs everywhere:

Foxy loves them!