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 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.
Testimonials from discerning dogs everywhere:
Foxy loves them!
Hi, I just made the healthy treat biscuits for my dog and they were a hit!
Woohoo! Great testimonial 🙂 I’ll have to create some more, different recipes for the doggies.
Hi,
First of all, I love your website and I found your instructions for homemade apple cider vinegar very helpful.
To comment on the dog treat recipe; dogs are allergic to many things including garlic and onion (which is an ingredient in almost all vegetable stock). So you might want to keep that in mind. When I make my golden retrievers treats I use peanut butter to favour them. They love the taste, they’re not allergic, and it vegetarian! 🙂
That’s a really good point about the onions and garlic Cassie, thank you! Even if they aren’t allergic to it I’ve read that too much garlic can be really bad for them, but it’s commonly given to them to stop fleas. In my experience it doesn’t really help though.
My dogs love peanut butter too! Most dogs will have reactions to grains, especially wheat (just like humans really). Since I wrote this article I’ve found out much more about species appropriate diets for dogs and cats, I’ve fed them raw meaty bones and it makes a huge difference to their health – their coats look better, their digestion is better (although it can go through a period of them adjusting where they may have a lot of flatulence), their teeth become awesomely white and healthy, no sign of periodontal disease which plagues almost all dogs not on a raw meaty bone diet.
I don’t give my dogs wheat, IMO they weren’t designed to eat it and many of us aren’t either. Any dog tret recipes out there w/o grains?
Hi Lisa, I agree with you, except I would say that none of us where designed to eat wheat, at least not in the quantities and forms that we do. I’ve come to the conclusion since posting this recipe that we need to be aware of and feed our animals species-specific foods. Dr Karen Becker, the vet who writes for the Dr Mercola site talks about this a lot. Unlike cats, dogs are not obligate carnivores and so they would eat foods other than meat and animal products in the wild, but not in great quantities. I think the best treats for dogs then would be jerky or something similar to that. Venison jerky, if it’s wild venison or fed appropriately (i.e. not grain fed venison) would be good. Deer are probably the largest size animal that dogs/wolves would be able to hunt and kill. Or rabbit jerky, although I have never seen any.
I have cooked liver to where it was relatively dry and put them in pieces in a container in the fridge. Your dog will definitely think it is a treat. We no longer do this as he is on a low oxalate diet. Therefore the kale chips are out but they do sound inviting.
Yeah they love those liver treats. I have a friend who does it with very thin sliced meat in the dehydrator. If you’re not on a low oxalate diet you should try the kale chips, just don’t give any to your lab. 🙂
I will do that thank you. Really sound good.
I tried making a biscuit/treat with barley today I used sprouted barley flour, added chia seeds, rosemary with seasalt, butter, baking powder and ice water. unfortunately I couldn’t resist them when they came out of the oven, so I only have half a batch left for my lab.
Good thing I wasn’t there, there would be none left for your poor lab! LOL, they sound delicious. And using the sprouted barley flour is far better than using wheat flour. I didn’t have access to things like that when I made up this recipe. But I’ll have to try some variations like yours now that I have healthier flour choices available. Thank you so much for posting that Linda! Next time you’ll have to make a double batch… ok I think I must have just channeled that request from your lab 😉
So glad I found this recipe, I’ve been having trouble finding vegetarian recipes for my dog. Everybody wants to put meat in their dog treats, but I prefer not to. I must admit that I’m confused though, because your recipe has milk in it. I though milk was non vegetarian. Can I use almond, or coconut milk instead?
Hi James. Usually ‘vegetarian’ is what is more specifically known as lacto-ovo vegetarian which includes dairy products and eggs. You might be confusing vegetarian with vegan. Vegan is no animal products whether or not they harm the animal. However some vegans do choose to consume honey and other bee products. Sometimes these people are also called ‘beegans’. I hope that helps. Just do be aware that dogs and cats are carnivores, they have evolved to eat meat and it’s necessary for their good health. I understand if you don’t cook or eat meat products why you wouldn’t want to be cooking them in your house – I’m the same way. But treats, just for occasional use are fine, as long as they are not being feed vegetarian or vegan as their complete diet. Also many dogs like carrots, and some also love zucchini and I often use those, and also sweet potato chips (raw dehydrated) as treats for my dogs.
garlic is toxic to dogs.
Robross, I have read that it is, and then seen commercial dog food that advertises it contains garlic and kelp to keep away fleas. Not that commercial dog food is the best way to judge what is good for them or not… but there seems to be so much controversy over it. I am now thinking that garlic (and for sure onions) are not the best thing for dogs. So I now try to keep it out of their diet.
I’ve updated the recipe now to remove the garlic powder… better safe than sorry. Thanks Robross.