Author: Lisa Maria Stöbich
Humans only have about 5 million olfactory receptors. With 125 - 220 million olfactory cells, our best friends are way ahead of us here. Dogs experience, explore and understand the world much more with their noses than we do.
Whether during training or during the morning walk: If your fluffy nose with its dog look persuades you to spoil it with treats, the little meal break will not only give her pleasure, but you too. But instead of feeding your four-legged friend bought treats where you have no idea what's really in them, you can easily bake dog biscuits yourself.
Find out in this article how easy it is to make dog biscuits yourself, what advantages you and your dog have from them, and how to store the treats correctly. Here you will also discover a few tasty dog treat recipes to try out.
Treats - why make them yourself?
Your four-legged friend could nibble on his favorite snacks all day long? Attention: even your fluffy friend's excellent nose can be fooled by flavor enhancers and attractants. These are just two of the ingredients that are unfortunately hidden in many of the delicacies that are bought. They also often contain artificial flavors, preservatives and colorings as well as sugar: ingredients that your four-legged friend may like, but are certainly not healthy for him.
If you take care of the dog biscuits yourself, you can control exactly what goes in and what doesn't. You can open like this healthy, natural ingredients Pay attention and take into account any intolerances or preferences of your nose. Really let off steam, because you can actually put everything in the treats that tastes good and is good for your four-legged friend. A rainy morning when you have nothing special to do goes by quickly.
What goes in and what doesn't?
Even if there are not too many limits to the variety of ingredients, there are still a few no-gos. Chocolate or cocoa powder might be a good idea for biscuits for mum and dad, theobromine, however, is toxic to dogs. Therefore, these two ingredients are taboo for all treats. Coffee, spices and baking powder are also not tolerated by dogs. Fruit and vegetables are tasty and healthy ingredients when baking treats, but there are a few exceptions here too.
Raw potatoes, onions, leeks, garlic, grapes and raisins do not belong in the treats, because these ingredients are poisonous for our four-legged friends.
However, meat, fish, grains, and other fruits and vegetables are welcome in their most varied forms. You can also conjure up delicious dog biscuits with eggs and dairy products.
4 delicious dog treat recipes
Get out the baking tray: You - and your four-legged friend - will love these recipes.
Here we show you four simple, quick and, above all, tasty dog treat recipes that will make your sniffing nose's mouth water. Feel free to get creative, swap out the ingredients and combine them in new ways.
Savory minced meat biscuits
Ingredients:
- 100g minced meat
- 200g potato flour
- 2 tablespoons olive or flaxseed oil
- 2 Owner
- water as needed
Mix the ingredients well in a bowl to form a firm dough. It is then rolled out to a thickness of approx. 1 cm and cut out with shapes. If you want to devote yourself entirely to dog biscuits, you can get dog or bone-shaped cookie cutters. Now put the biscuits on a baking sheet with baking paper and let them bake for about 30-40 minutes at 160° circulating air or 180° top and bottom heat.
The minced meat can be beef, pork or chicken, but it can also be mixed. Just try out different variations and see what your nose likes best. We also leave the decision up to you when it comes to flour. Potato flour is great if you want to make the cookies grain-free, but you can also use wholemeal flour or tender oatmeal. You can either use them whole or process them into oatmeal with a blender or hand blender.
Healthy Banana Carrot Cookies
With these treats, you are not only doing something good for your darling's taste buds, but also for their health.
Ingredients:
- 1 Banana
- 1 carrot
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds or ground flaxseeds
- 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
- 200g buckwheat flour
- water as needed
The flax or chia seeds are thickened in a little water for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile you can grate the carrot and mash the banana with a fork. Mix the ingredients well in a bowl and roll out the finished dough. Here you can use shapes to cut out or simply roll small balls. They are particularly suitable as training treats because your four-legged friend does not have to chew on them for long.
Finally, place the dog biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking paper in a preheated oven at 160° circulating air or 180° top and bottom heat for 20-25 minutes.
Chewing snack for dental care
With these delicious dog biscuits, your four-legged friend not only gets something tasty, but also a portion of dental care.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons toothpaste flakes
- 200g cottage cheese
- 200g rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 No
- mint
First you chop some mint and puree it with the rest of the ingredients, except for the oatmeal. These are only stirred in after the pureeing. Now fill the dough into the cavities of a silicone baking mat or into a baking pan and bake it at 160° circulating air or 180° top and bottom heat for 20-60 minutes. Baking time depends on the size of the molds.
Simple baby food treats
If you don't feel like preparing a lot, you can save yourself some work and use baby food. This can be cleverly combined with a few other ingredients and turned into dog biscuits.
Ingredients:
- 1 jar of baby food (approx. 200g)
- 350g flour
- 1 No
- 1 teaspoon of olive or linseed oil
Simply mix everything in a bowl and roll out the finished dough to about 1 cm. Here you can use your cookie cutters again or form small balls like in the banana and carrot recipe.
Baby food is available in a wide variety of variations with vegetables, fruit or meat. So you can creatively research your baking talent and test what your fluffy darling likes best.
Now you already have a few ideas on how to spoil your four-legged friend with homemade treats. But it is not only important that the dog biscuits taste good, but also that they last for a while.
How do you store the treats and how long do they last?
So that your four-legged friend can enjoy the treats for as long as possible, it is important to store them correctly. Our first tip is this drying the biscuits, because the wetter they are, the faster they spoil. You can easily dry them by leaving them in the switched off, still warm oven after baking. When doing this, leave the oven door open a little, for example by jamming a wooden cooking spoon between them so that the moisture can escape.
You should have one for storage Tin cookie jar or cloth bag take. Plastic bags are not suitable because the moisture has no way out and mold develops more quickly.
Incidentally, your dog should eat the meaty treats as quickly as possible, as they spoil the quickest. So don't make too much of it, because your four-legged friend should use it up within 5 days. Meatless treats, on the other hand, can be kept for several weeks. If you've had a very rainy day and overdone your baking, you can freeze the treats and they'll keep for up to a year.
Start your dog training healthy with homemade treats
Let's go: Spoil your faithful friend with our recipes.
With our tips and delicious recipes, you are now well equipped to start dog training full of energy. In our dog walking bags with treats compartment or one of ours Bumbags Hanoverr you can store the dog biscuits and set off with your four-legged friend. Maybe you can use the freshly baked treats to test the olfactory cells of your nose with a few hidden object games.
Cover photo by James Lacey. More pictures from okeykat and Tamas Pap.
About inara writes
Hatice Kücükhüseyin is a content expert at inara writes. Words are her favorite tool. With them she brings color and life into every text. When she's not writing, she watches French cinema.
