Recipes

[goforette]

Since we're all devoted little Cairn owners I'm wondering how many of you cook meals/treats especially for your little furballs.... I'm looking to get some receipes...

What should a balanced meal have in it if I'm cooking dinner...

Any good treat receipes?

I'm ready to play Betty Crocker so load me up...

[Eliz222]

That sounds like fun! There are all kinds of recipes on the internet. I looked at alot of them today. I'm trying to find out how to make sweet potato skin chewies. I can't find ANYTHING on the internet and I really want to make some!

[goforette]

Yes Shoe - I know what you mean - I can't find a way to make the sweet potato chewies either so I broke down and spent $5.50 for 3 of them today so if you find out let me know... yes the girls think they've landed Daddy Warbucks... I'm like one of those mastercard commercials.... $240 for custom gates, $111.93 for UTI infection.... but adorable furballs with big brown eyes... priceless!

[Lei-Quinn]

I had never heard of sweet potato chews so I did some looking of my own. From what I can find out, they are mostly dehydrated sweet potato slices. I don't think that is too hard to make and it may be cheaper than buying ready made ones.

I may give it a try myself. I would like to find an alternative to rawhide.

[mrskti]

Those sound interesting. I just wish I could find something chewie enough to last with Ellie....I swear she's a vacuum. We've sorta spoiled them with getting them scrammbled eggs at McD's to mix in their kibble......they lllllove it!!! Dori the pickie, sniff it first eater gobbles it right down.

[AngusMacDoggal]

I've made sweet potato chewies. All you need is a dehydrator. I got a cheap one I think at Kmart years ago with intentions to do "whatever" and never used it. My sister and I went to 3 Dog Bakery and paid a fortune for them we figured it has to be relatively easy. So we bought some organic sweet potatoes from the market, washed them, sliced them w/the mandolin into thick slices, broke out the dehydrator and let it go for 8 hours. I think we had to rotate the trays a few times. The ones we sliced too thin were crisp like chips, the thicker ones were more like what we bought from 3 Dog Bakery. The dogs LOVED them. I bet you could do it in an oven on very low heat (maybe 200-250.) Try placing the slices on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and flipping them over ever so often. We left the skin on too. Much better than rawhides for the pooches as well.

PS: Keep in airtight container and let them eat them quick, in humid climates they tend to mold and all the effort is wasted.

[Eliz222]

Thanks, Karen! I think I will give these a try. I might buy a dehydrator, but if not, I'll wait until it cools down in the fall.

[JazzMom]

I've been making this "goop" that I use for popsicles and to stuff kongs with.

I soak some puppy kibble for a few minutes, add smashed up unsalted green beans, throw in some plain canned pumpkin, white rice, crumbled up Dick Van Patten meat loaf, some saved liquid from canned dog food and stir it all up. And because I can't just leave it alone I grind up some probiotics and glucosomine tabs and throw that in too.

I spoon it into an ice tray that I've sprayed with pam and use the rest to stuff all the kongs and sterile bones with. Everything into the freezer and I'm all set for the week. Yummy

[goforette]

Well the cooking thing didn't go well..... I thought I'd buy some ground turkey and cook it and add it to their kibble - yep Brystal threw it up in like 10 minutes and Hollie starting rubbing her face all over (worried she had allergic reaction to turkey)..... my first try at it and I failed... maybe I should just stick to the sweet potato? Watch me mess that up too - speaking of sweet potato is it natural for them not to fully digest it - I find lots of orange chunks in the poop - is that okay? Really I can cook....

[bradl]

We get orange poop even when using the commercially prepared sweet potato jerky. It's to be expected, I should think. Vomiting - maybe. Dogs puke for all sorts of reasons. If they eat it back up again promptly, then I don't worry about it. If the puke is foul, then I worry about it.

The face rubbing thing seems normal to me. Our guys occasionally do some carpet surfing on their face after meals.

[AngusMacDoggal]

We get lots of orange pooh from sweet potato and pumpkin. Cook the sweet potato a wee longer and mash it rather than chunk it into their food. Not to worry about the color. Face cleaning on carpets/sofa. I thought all dogs did that!

[Barney's Mom]

Sweet potatoes are THE most nutritious food for people

[Tracy A.]

I'm going to try to make the Sweet Potato chewies, what thickness should I slice at? and should it be lenghth wise? Also, I know that when I dehydrate apples and other fruit I will rinse the fruit in lemon water to keep it from discoloring, do you need to do that with the sweet potatos?

Thanks!

[AngusMacDoggal]

We sliced the sweet potatoe long ways and I used the thickest cut on the mandolin slicer, so I guess they were a good 1/4-1/2" thickness. If they are too thin they get crispy like a potato chip. You want them more leathery like rawhide. I just washed them good, didn't soak in lemon juice. Left on the skin too. I bet Angus would love dehydrated apples too! More ideas for puppy treats!!

[wellygoggles]

Bella's Biscotti for Dogs - I got this from a dog trainer yesterday and I'm going to try the liver version today.

500 gms liver (or 2 x 185g cans of tuna in springwater incl the juice), 3/4 cup of fine ground cornmeal, 2 to 4 eggs, 4 cloves of garlic (optional), & 1/2 cup of grated cheese (optional).

Place liver (or tuna) & garlic in food processor & whiz until very fine (it will go sloppy). Add cornmeal & whiz again. Last add eggs (start with 2 and add more as needed, mixture needs to be very thick batter consistency) & whiz for a few more seconds until well mixed. Spread onto non-stick baking paper about 1cm thick and bake in middle of oven for 45 mins at 180 degsC.

Check after 30 mins to see it doesn

[we-love-izzy]

I borrowed my mom's dehydrator yesterday and sliced up the sweet potatoes.. The thinner ones were ready this morning and were a huge success! Izzy loved it!! I'll be passing sweet potato chewies around to everyone I know with a pup.. I made way too many, hehe. The humidity here is awful so I don't know how long they will stay fresh.

Thanks for bringing these up, great idea!

kasey

[wags]

Now I'm "really" confused. I thought dogs couldn't eat tuna or garlic. And I heard that corn should be way down on the food list. What gives?

I'm also having a hard time about what to use for treats. I think Wes is also allergic to food coloring. I used to get the flavored bones.

[we-love-izzy]

I don't know about tuna? I asked at the vet's office yesterday about garlic, because of a recipe I found with that in it and he says in small amounts it's fine. I think corn is only bad if it's high on the content list in dog foods right?

kasey

[wags]

I just read on the internet that tuna is safe in small amounts. It guess it's okay if it's not going to be used regularly.

[JazzMom]

Has anyone tried freezing the dehydrated sweet potatoe? How long would they last in airtight container? I went to look at the bag of Sam's Yam's to see if they used a preservative but I had tossed it out. Seems like they were all natural....