Homemade Treats For Fido

When your dog or cat gets tired of eating those boxed treats from the store, you need to jazz things up with snacks made from scratch. The Early Show resident veterinarian Debbye Turner has some ideas for homemade animal treats that most dogs or cats could take a liking to.

Click onto the World Wide Web for animal treats and you'll likely find a endless list of sites that offer foods for dogs, cats and other pets. Look a little closer and you'll see more than half those sites are for businesses that specifically offer nutritious pet treats made from human ingredients, without preservatives or hard-to-digest fillers.

Holistic pet treats are a growing commercial industry, it appears. Still, many pet owners have taken to making pet foods and pet treats for their animals at home.

The basic benefits of homemade pet foods are obvious: fewer preservatives than is found in processed animal foods; food and treats are fresher and richer in nutritional value for the animal; and it's a great way to teach a child responsibility for his or her pet.

As with any type of food, fresh ingredients are a must and care should be taken in preparation. Also let's be clear: A pet, no matter how dear to the family, should not be allowed to eat whatever it wants.

A look at The Humane Society's Web page shows any number of food items that are dangerous to most pets - some are quite obvious but still worth mentioning: alcoholic beverages; apple seeds; apricot pits; avocados; coffee; chocolate covered espresso beans; Macadamia nuts; moldy foods; mushroom plants; onions; potato leaves; rhubarb leaves; salt; tea or caffeinated items; walnuts; yeast dough.

The recipes below are designed for the family dog or cat. All treats are made with pantry food items and occasionally a little meat, cheese and eggs. Some of the recipes called for sugar. In moderation, sugar is not harmful to the diet of a pet. Just don't confuse these recipes for human health food treats - it's unreal how close some of these recipes come.

Doggy Cookies

Combine the following:

1 cup hot water (or use hot broth)
1 envelope dry milk
2 teaspoons bouillon

Add the following to the bouillon mixture:

3/4 cup oil
2 eggs
2 tablespoons brown sugar
5 cups whole-wheat flour

Stir to form a very stiff dough. Roll out and cut into shapes. Cover a cookie sheet with foil and place cookies on it to bake. Bake at 300-degrees for 40-minutes, turning cookies over after 20 minutes.

Liver Brownies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup wheat germ
1 lb liver
1 1/2 cup corn meal
3-4 eggs
2-3 cloves minced garlic

Add in order to the food processor and puree for 4-minutes. Put in well-greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-minutes.

If any dogs out there are on special diets, use their canned food, add flour and garlic, mix and bake the same way.

Ham & Swiss on Rye for Beardies

You will need:

2 1/4 cups Rye flour
1 cup of grated Swiss cheese
1 cup of grated ham
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the flour, cheese, ham and salt in a bowl. Then add the egg and the oil, mixing thoroughly. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch and cut biscuits with a dog-bone cookie cutter or use any other shape. Place biscuits onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-25 minutes, depending on the size of the biscuits. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Tuna Puff

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1cup all purpose flour
1 package unflavored gelatin
1 package dry-yeast (about 2 1/2 teaspoons)
1 cup powdered dry milk
1/4 cup very warm water
1/4 cup corn oil
1 egg
1 6-ounce can liver (or tuna) cat food
1/4 cup water

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add yeast, oil, egg, cat food and water. Mix well (dough will be very stiff). Drop 1/2 teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 25 minutes at 300-degrees.

Yield 13 dozen. Store in refrigerator.

Salmon Snacks

1/2 cup canned salmon, drained
1 cup whole-grain bread crumbs
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoons Brewer's yeast, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-sized bowl, mash the salmon with a fork into tiny pieces. Combine it with the remaining ingredients and mix well. Drop mixture by 1/4 teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-minutes. Cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Savory Cheese Treats

3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
1/4 cup cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Combine cheeses and yogurt. Add flour and cornmeal. Knead dough into a ball and roll to 1/4 inch. Cut into one inch sized pieces and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes.

Makes 2 dozen.

Chick N' Biscuits

1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon soft margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine chicken, broth and margarine and blend well. Add flour and cornmeal. Knead dough into a ball and roll to 1/4 inch. Cut into one-inch sized pieces and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake to 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Makes 18 cookies.