Here Come The Holidays -Part 6: Yummy Treats

From your pet's point of view this is probably one of the most important parts of the holiday, second only to being with you. This is a great time to try making home-made treats. It's easy, it's fun and your pet will think you're the smartest, most wonderful person on the planet.


There are various methods just as with human cookies. There are drops and bars, but most popular are the rolled out cookies cut with cookie cutters.


Trust me, your pet won't care what shape the treat comes in, but I think it's fun to use dog shaped cutters for dogs such as bones and hydrants, cat shaped for cats, consider mice, etc. If you'd like to make animal shaped cookies, but you don't have a cutter, try The Cookie Cutter Shop. They have cookie cutters in every shape you can imagine. Yes, I have Portuguese Water Dog shaped cutters.


When I bake cookies, I have lots of helpers in the kitchen waiting for them to come out of the oven. I've done the leg work for you and here are some of the best selections of recipes for pet treats that I could find online. We're are so lucky to have access to the internet. We can find recipes for so many individual pet needs. If your dog is vegetarian, or allergic to wheat there are special recipes for them. If your pet is diabetic or has trouble putting on weight, or has problems with fleas or bad breath, there are recipes just for them. And if Fido has been packing on the pounds this year, there are low fat recipes for him. So we have no excuse.

Bullwrinkle has the longest list of recipes that I found. They're listed alphabetically starting with Apple Cinnamon Drops all the way thru Wacky Wheat Treats. In between you'll find Cheesie Bacon Biscuits and Snickerpoodles.

Gourmet Sleuth has a shorter list, but some interesting choices such as Bread Machine Biscuits, Flea Hater Biscuits and Vegetarian Treats.



Dog Aware has divided their selection into liver treats and non liver treats. My dogs aren't crazy about liver (I 'm not either), but in the non liver section I plan to try the Salmon Cookies. Another interesting choice is Sunflower Cookies. They also have recipes for dogs with allergies and recipes that are low fat/ low protein/ low phosphorus ( for dogs with kidney disease).



Hungry Mutt offers Banana Biscotti and Doggie Heaven (made with sardines), among others. We'll be making the sardine cookies. My dogs love sardines and eat them weekly.

Daily Drool includes Peanut Butter Basset Biscuits ( are you paying attention Sissy?) and Pet Party Mix.
Yummy For Dogs divides their recipes into several categories; biscuits, desserts and entrees. They also have recipes for bird food, wildlife food and rat and mouse food.

Cooks Recipes have some unique recipes. For cats they offer Mackeral Cat Munchies and for dogs you can choose from Beagle Bagels, Fatten'em Ups, Fussy Eater and Microwave Doggy Donuts.



Young Williams Animal Center offers recipes for Wheatfree Salmon Treats, Bad Breath Banishers, Wheatfree Scotty Biscuits and Milk Bone Dog Biscuits among many others.



Dragon Bear has some tasty offerings such as Dog and Cat Cookies, Carob Treats, Pumpkin Patch Biscuits and Bacon Biscuits.

Finally, Sugar Mama Baking has some wonderful choices such as Bacon Grease Doggy Cookies. That may not sound wonderful to you, but bacon grease is great for the coat. Flea Repel Doggy Cookies, and Baby Food Doggy Treats are also there.


This one is called Cheddar Doggy Biscuits. Don't they look good enough to taste? I used to make some similar for Monty and he liked them so much that he stole a whole sheet full, the one and only time he ever stole food.

I can hear you saying, "Is it worth it? I can buy a bag of treats." Yes, you can, but if you bake some treats you'll see responses like these.....


Samba


Norma Jean


Bailey


Fudge

Now isn't it worth a little time to see such happy pups? I have not personally tried any of these recipes, although I plan to. I will be posting a couple of my old favorites on my other blog, The Portuguese Water Blog, in the next couple days. If you decide to make some of these recipes, please let us know how you liked the recipe. Were they easy, did they turn out well and most importantly, did your pet like them? Your experience can help the rest of us choose which ones to try.