Dog Community

Homemade chew treats?

Posted : 5/4/2006 1:58:35 PM

Does anyone have any recipes or know of anywhere that would, for dog treats that take a long time to chew and are relatively easy to make? We have a 15 month old who has to be sedentary due to heartworm treatment, and I'd like to make some treats that will take a long time for him to go through. We won't use raw bones with him, although we give them to our other dog who is fine. We put veggies in kongs and freeze them, but we'd like to supply a little bit more variety.

Any suggestions or hints would be great!

Thanks,
Samantha

glenmar

Posted : 5/4/2006 2:06:18 PM

You could do homemade liver treats and just cut them to larger sizes. Mine I cut to the size of my little fingernail since I use them for training.

I use chicken lives since they don't smell as bad, and I never make A batch at a time...usually several

Puree a lb of liver and a few cloves of garlic in the food processor. Pour that into 2 c of whole wheat flour, stir well. Glop onto a foil covered baking sheet, spread to an even consistency and bake at 325 for 20 minutes for chewy, 25 minutes for crunchy. When they're cool pull the foil from the sheet..and here's where you'd vary....I cut them into tiny pieces with the pizza wheel, then put them back on the baking sheet to freeze before bagging them.

Samantha

Posted : 5/4/2006 2:58:12 PM

Do they last a long time if they are bigger? I'm wondering if they will last like 45 minutes.

glenmar

Posted : 5/4/2006 3:02:07 PM

Not likely...and you wouldn't want to give him THAT much or you might have explosive poop to deal with. Maybe cut them tiny and put some in the kong with yogart? Then freeze?

Samantha

Posted : 5/4/2006 3:03:45 PM

Yikes - that wouldn't be good. What a visual.

sooner

Posted : 5/4/2006 3:07:12 PM

I can't imagine that they'd last that long - no matter how big they are. There's other recipes here [linkhttp://forum.dog.com/asp/tt.asp?forumid=57]http://forum.dog.com/asp/tt.asp?forumid=57[/link] but I don't know if any of them will last like you need them to.

Frozen Kongs are great, for variety you can do the veggies like you are already doing, or canned dog food, or raw or cooked meat with yogurt or peanut butter or broth. Basically anything that will fit in a Kong and freeze.

Some other things would be frozen carrots, a whole, cored frozen apple (not often though), or -not homemade- the Nylabone Healthy Edibles fruit bones. They're just potato and flavoring, my dogs love them and they don't contain plastic or rawhide like some of the other Nylabones do.

Why can you not give him raw bones? Does it have something to do with the treatment?

Samantha

Posted : 5/4/2006 3:15:02 PM

Basically because right now Hogie has a compromised immune system, we're not giving him the raw bones. As much as I know he'd absolutely adore them (when Emma is done eating one, Hogan will lick and obsessively sniff Emma's jowls because he can smell it on her), the vet said he didn't recommend giving him them since his immune system is compromised. Even though we freeze 'em, it's still not recommended, so I'm heeding the vet's advice and as soon as he's all clear and better, he can have a raw bone.

willowchow

Posted : 5/4/2006 7:08:59 PM

How about a bully stick?? Willow will chew on one of those for close to an hour.