Making your own dog treats can have great benefits for your dogs:
So my dog Archie is the worlds fussiest dog when it comes to treats! They must tick all the categories of being soft, chewy and very tasty at the very least...... oh he's a fussy devil!
Usually on the weekend I would pop to pets at home or a department store like wilko's/ home bargains to bulk buy some tasty goodies for him. But the other day it made me think, whats actually in these strong meaty smelling treats?
Archie's favourite treats are the beef meaty chews. Now when I looked at the back of the pack I was taken back by the amount of ingredients and even some I never knew existed - various flavourings, additives, antioxidants, sugars and extracts. The packet actually only contained 53% of beef/chicken, so what's in the remaining 47%?
This spurred me on to try some homemade baking, leading to my Tasty Apple and Carrot Bites:
1 Apple (grated)
1 Carrot (grated)
3 Small sweet potatoes
Sprinkle of grated cheese for flavour
2 eggs
390g Wholemeal flour
1) Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees
2) Cut the sweet potatoes in half and place them facedown on a baking tray. Bake for around 30-40 minutes until soft. Leave to cool and peel off the skin. Using a fork mash the peeled sweet potato.
3) Reduce the oven temperature to 190 degrees.
4) Combine the mashed sweet potato, apple, carrot, flour, eggs and grated cheese until the mixture forms a dough.
5) This is the bit where you can get creative with your shapes! I made little square size chunks as they are easy to take with me dog walking.
6) Place the dough onto a baking sheet and bake for around 20-30 minutes - I only put mine in for 20 minutes as Archie prefers his treats a bit softer. Transfer onto a cooling rack to cool.
7) Once cooled store in an airtight container for around 2-3 weeks and enjoy!!
Comments