Homemade dog and cat treats are super simple to make! Our dog has bad grain allergies. If we let him eat wheat or corn we are ALL up all night long listening to him scratching. These recipes are a great way to make your own pet treats, especially if your pet has allergies!
5 Homemade Treats Recipes for your Dog and Cat
Homemade Dog Bone Treats
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup skim milk
Mix flour and baking powder. In separate bowl, mix peanut butter and milk. Then add to flour mix. Knead until smooth. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes or use a cookie cutter* and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
*You can roll into balls and flatten with a fork.
Homemade Diabetic Dog Treats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup beef liver, chopped
Place everything in a food processor and mix or mix chopped liver, eggs and flour in a bowl (make sure the liver is well chopped). Bake on a parchment paper lined jelly roll pan at 325 degrees for 15 minutes or until the center is set. Cool and cut with a pizza cutter into pieces. It will be sponge like. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.
2 Ingredient Dog Treats
2 cups whole wheat flour (or oats – ground in a food processor to a flour)
2 (4 oz.) jars of baby food – beef, chicken, turkey, sweet potato, carrots, fruit*
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients together and add extra flour or water to make firm dough. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters or a pizza cutter. Place 1/2 inch apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Store in a paper bag. An air tight container will make them soft.
*If you have leftover veggies from your own meal, puree them and use them in place of the baby food.
Fruit and Veggie Dog Treats
1 sweet potato, cooked
1 banana
1 cup carrots, minced
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups white or whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup water
Mash the sweet potato and banana together well. Add the rest of the ingredients. Roll out on a floured board 1/8 inch thick. With a pizza cutter, cut into strips and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Store in a refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Homemade Cat Treats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup tuna, packed in oil
1 egg
1/4 cup water
Mix the flour and milk. In a separate bowl, smash up the chunks of tuna and add the egg. Add this mix to the flour mix. Add water a little at a time until it makes a sticky dough. Drop by spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.
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Thanks for information on Dog and Cat treats.
These are all great for your pets…but remember….unlike store bought treats they don’t have any preservatives (good thing) so, I know from experience they will spoil or mold quicker! Most homemade treats can be frozen.
I need a dog recipe to pour into the tiny bone shaped molds to bake for my little Bichon & havent found a pourable one that can be baked. Anyone???
DEAR JULIA:
I made the treats on a sheet pan and cut them into tiny square sizable for your pet….. chicken liver snacks are good and cats and dogs love them…. 2 cups self rising flour 1/4 cup butter or oil… 2 eggs …..1 tub of chicken livers…
I use a processor…. put it all in the processor at one time…flick a few times to mix and when smooth….pour out on parchment paper on sheet pan, 335F for 20 mins… take out and cut into small pcs about 1in squares…. put back in and cook for 30 more mins…. will look like miniature brownies… AND THEY LOVE THEM…keep in frig… if you need to freeze half… do so… very healthy and they will love you for it.
Do the diabetic treats need to be beef liver or can it be chicken liver?
use vitamin A drops to preserve the treats
how much Vitamin A oil do you use for a recipe? Also where can I find this oil?
Not sure which recipe calls for vitamin A Lori. I may have over looked it.
Fantastic !!! I have LIVERS from Christmas in freezer I’ve been wanting to make my Beagle liver treats .
I like the idea of being able to offer pets a homemade goody, but as Sue says – you need to take heed of the fact that there are no preservatives in these treats
Thanks for the recipes
I’m going to try substituting chicken or beef for the tuna in the cat treats. My EXTREMELY picky cat wont eat anything that has any kind of fish in it!
Every one of your recipes has wheat flour in them and you said your dog is allergic to wheat. Has anyone ever tried substituting rice flour in the recipe?
You probably can. It is after all dog food and I don’t think the texture or taste is going to matter to much to a dog. You could use white flour instead of wheat. It is less expensive and most dogs don’t have a problem with it.
I grind my own oat flour and use that and coconut flour exclusively in my dog treats. I steer clear of whole wheat flour PURPOSELY, BECAUSE of the tendency to an allergy of it, so I’m really surprised that some of the recipes HAVE wheat flour in them. There are other safer alternatives to choose from.
We usually do the recipes for the majority of people and most don’t have a problem with wheat allergies also we are trying to save people money on many things and give delicious and healthy things so this recipe fits the bill. Also I had to chuckle because when we first wrote our book and posted this recipe whole wheat flour was considered the safest and healthiest alternative – no one had even heard of oat or coconut flour let alone try to find it to buy. I have found that if you keep a recipe long enough in about 5 yrs they will change what is “healthy” again. Like at one point they considered butter was really bad for you and margarine was best and now they have changed it again. At one point people were told not to eat anything but wheat flour. Who knows what it is going to be next year.
Thanks so much for your response. I was wondering if you have the nutritional information for this recipe? I love the ingredients in it, but really would like to know the different values of nutrients in them. Can you please email me the information if you have it please? I’m not tech savvy AT ALL and may have a hard time finding your response back to me. Thanks so very much!
Kim sorry we don’t have the nutritional info for any of our pet food recipes.
Exactly!
I heard on TV that rice flour contains arsenic, so you may want to consider this.
We have checked into this and it is fine. Be careful of everything you hear on TV and on the internet. You probably get more bad things in your organic food like e coli, salmonella, tape worms etc than any amount of arsenic in the rice but you never hear about that very often because there is big bucks in keeping things like that quiet. So be very careful on worrying about these things. I remember years ago doctors and everyone was saying don’t eat eggs or fat and everyone jumped on the band wagon not eating any eggs or fat. Fast forward and not it is ok to eat eggs again and they are finding the body needs fat for many different things – like brain development in babies. The thing is my folks and many others I know have now lived to the ripe old age of 91 eating a steady diet of rice(not to mention rice is the main staple in most diets in many countries)so I are not going to worry about it too much.
Thank you I will try these for my cat she loves tuna .
Can I feed her chicken instead she loves that more
Use almond flour or coconut flour .
Coconut I believe is ok. If I am not mistaken, dogs should not have almonds.
LOL I can’t afford coconut or almond for myself let alone my dog even though I do love them.
I’ve used oat, coconut, whole wheat and unbleached flour. The only thing I would say is you may have to add more water depending on the flour you’re working with.
DELIGHTFUL gift for the MAIDEN AUNT, like me who has everything but who LOVES her pet! I would love for someone else to love on my furkid. Ensure you include the recipe so she can recreate it, or determine that it includes wheat flour, which her dog is allergic to and she can pass on to friends.
Jill mentions “you could use “white flour”, less expensive, etc. Wheat is wheat no matter what color or how refined. And these biscuits will not hold up the same without a binding agent. I know this as I am Celiac and have a shepherd that has an issue with “wheat” of any sort. There is a gluten free flour on the market made by Krusteaz, it’s 1 cup equals 1 cup wheat flour.
This is true but the thing is many people have their dogs on special diets when they really don’t have to be or they automatically put them on a wheat free diet when they are itching without having them checked out by a vet. What many people don’t realize is that more dogs have an allergy to certain proteins then they do wheat but because it is so popular for people to be on a wheat free diet they think their pets should be too. For example people who think they have wheat allergies has gone up 15% but only about 3-4% actually have it. They are doing the same with their pets. I just want everyone to make sure their pets really need to be wheat free.
Jill, I got Mickey a couple of months ago from the local shelter here in Las Vegas so I know nothing about his background. He’s a year-old terrier mix. I make all of his own food and his treats but for the past couple of weeks he’s been scratching and has acquired a rash in his groin area. I’m wondering if it could be the wheat flour I am using in his treats. I’ve eliminated the wheat germ from his food recipe and decided to try coconut and rice flour in place of the wheat flour for the treats. I’m not sure what it could be that’s causing the itching and you mentioned proteins. Can you expand on that for me?
Our dog had major itching issues and we had to put him on a lamb, chicken and rice dog food. I buy the 6 dog food by Rachel Ray from Walmart and it works really well. You might try it.
Can I sell a recipe I will make sure to put were I got it from!?
No.
One of our dogs is allergic to chicken and it is very difficult to find food and treats that don’t have some form of chicken so I’ve started to make his treats. Most recipes are for small batches so I don’t worry about them spoiling. I do make double batches of some treats and freeze one batch that way if I’m not up to making them fresh I know he won’t have to suffer as well. Love my fur babies.
These are wonderful, what is the shelf life on them? Also, do you have a recipe for frosting? My dog’s love their cookies with frosting.
The shelf life is the same as would be your own food. For example how long do you usually keep liver or tuna in the fridge. You can half the recipe if you don’t think your pet will eat them fast enough or most of the recipes can be mixed and frozen in small portions then pulled out to bake when you need them.
Last year, on Spring break, I had my two grand kids come for a week. We found a recipe for a hard biscuit type dog treat. The kids and I made them, with their dog and ours in mind. The kids loved packaging up the treats for their dog, and taking them home, and of course they loved indulging our dogs. The biscuits were largely whole wheat flour, a bit of oil, cornmeal and a garlic powder. No refrigeration needed for these when they were done baking. They would have been great with a little bacon grease instead of oil, and we did freeze them, just for good measure. It is a great activity to make dog treats with the grand kids.
Had to laugh Mary Jame – I love all my own “treats” and food cooked in bacon grease instead of oil. Poor bacon grease has gotten a bad rap for some reason and yet it is free and seasons foods like nothing else. If we used it more often we probably wouldn’t have to spend so much time shopping in the expensive exotic foods isle to buy seasonings and sauces for out dishes. As far as being bad or good for you it is no different then using butter in things and oh taste so good in fried potatoes, baked beans, eggs even replacing the oil or butter in cornbread.
Just what I’ve been looking for. I’ve started to make my own pet treats in addition to feeding the cats and dogs more “real food”. It’s harder to find recipes for cats.
I am totally with you on the bacon grease thing, Jill. The trick is to not use anymore than is necessary, and with the flavour and aroma of bacon, a little goes a long way. We have bacon once or twice a month, when we can find it on sale. I save the grease in a little half pint jar in the fridge. That can last the two of us for anywhere from 6 weeks to 2 months. When I was growing up, if we had bacon and eggs for breakfast, my mother would “fry” a slice of bread for toast, in the bacon grease, after the eggs were cooked. Sometimes we just had the toast cooked in the grease; no bacon or eggs. It was always delicious, and we never thought anything of it, until we went to school, and other people thought it was disgusting. Years later, reading how people in Britain survived the lean times during the Second World War, I discovered that this was one of the things they ate. My mother’s foster mom was from Britain.
Yes my grandma use to make bacon grease gravy all the time too. Years ago it was pretty much a staple in most households and no one would dream of throwing it out. Same would go for hamburger grease. It was saved like the bacon grease but many people always used part of it to make hamburger gravy and in the same way we love sausage gravy now they would make hamburger gravy on toast or biscuits.
Looking for treats for cats on renal diet.
what if we dont have tuna lying around our house for the ct treats is there any subs?
I suppose you could try canned chicken maybe but I am not sure your cat would like that as much as tuna
Why not tinned mackerel or sardines. .? Much cheaper than tuna. Can you use frozen fish too….defrosted and cooked? I can get cheap anchovies.
Use what is cheapest in your area. Prices are different in different areas.
The treats are great but let me suggest adding that peanut butter must be xylitol free. And the diabetic treats will raise blood blood glucose since they are made with flour. Best to test your pup to see how how much they raise BG.
These treats and our recipes are written for the average person’s diet and if you have special needs then adapt them as you need.
Would these recipes be alright for a diabetic dog? My dachshund is diabetic and I have been looking for food and treat recipes. I heard that cooking for them is much better than buying anything in the stores.
I don’t know Niki. You may have to check with your vet or if you have a list of things he can or can not eat you could check it.
On the treats with liver, how do you cook it?
Here is the instructions listed under the ingredients – you may have over looked them
Bake on a parchment paper lined jelly roll pan at 325 degrees for 15 minutes or until the center is set. Cool and cut with a pizza cutter into pieces. It will be sponge like.
Where are the cat treats I only saw one
There is only one
We have a food dehydrator, and what we do for our dog is slice sweet potatoes and then dehydrate them into “chips.” Bosco loves them, and his vet said they are healthy for him.
I made these with my 4-H group for small animals. The kids had a blast making them. I told them to store them in the freezer.
Hi, love watching your blogs. Just found these recipes on an old one Of your blogs. Ordered your cookbook, looking forward to trying the recipes. Wishing you a very merry Christmas
Thank you so much Terri. Hope you enjoy the book.
I have never seen a recipe for cat treats before! Thank you. Love your books; Dining on a Dime is my go-to recipe book!
Thanks for sharing! Are they very crumbly?
They are all different but I don’t think they are especially crumbly. If you think they are just add a little extra wet ingredients or take away a little of the dry ingredients if they aren’t the right consistency for your needs.
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
The ones with meat and tuna in the will keep about a week in the fridge. The other ones will keep about 2 wks.
Hi Ellie – I agree with you to use almond flour but would also mix with fava flour to get a better dough to roll out and cut into shapes. When using GF flours, you will need to lower the water needed. I only use GF flours in my diabetic dog bakery so that it will not affect the dog’s blood sugars. Pamela
Hi, I have a question about the cat treats recipe. Is the oil from the tuna put into the mix? And, do these bake hard or semi soft…I don’t think my cat will eat them if they are hard and spoonful sized. I figure I can cut them smaller but I must adjust either cook time or temp…So just want some clarification on whether they bake up hard…
Thanks
You can put the oil and all from the tuna in. Also you can adjust the cooking time if you want them softer. You may have to just experiment a little. I would bake 2-3 at one temp and see how that works then if you need to you can try another 2-3 at a different temp and see which one your cat likes. Also store these in the fridge.
How long do they last in the fridge?
Ana it depends on which recipe you use but think of it as you would people food. The ones with meat (liver, tuna etc.) in them should last about 4-5 days and the ones that have no meat a couple of weeks. If you don’t think your pet will eat them fast enough then just 1/2 the recipe.
they are soft i made them
If I want to ship some to my friends puppy/kitty how would I go about that safely? Freeze them and then ship with dry ice?
I would love to get some recipes for “cookies”, “icing” and pup cakes.
Kelly I am sorry but I really don’t know how you would ship them. Maybe one of our readers would know or you could contact the post office and ask them or UPS