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I think it’s safe to say, Tom and Zora both like treats. And I use them a lot in training. Lately our dog treat budget as been looking a bit wonky. Treat prices are increasing significantly! So I decided to go back to what I used to do and make my own.
Without further ado here is my simple recipe for Set ‘Em & Forget ‘Em Dog Treats.
What you need:
- 1 can dog food of you and your dog’s preference. I like to use the ones with minimal ingredients and that are high meat content low carb. Wellness Grain Free Core is one I tend to use when I do this. You could also do it with veggies your dog likes.
- A dehydrator
- 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon
My white dehydrator all set up with 3 trays full of dog food bits and a can of Wellness dog food next to it
How to Make:
- Spoon out 1/4 teaspoon size bits of the canned dog food onto the dehydrator trays
- Set up dehydrator according to the instructions that come with your personal dehydrator
- Plug it in or turn it on
- Come back 6-8 hours later or when dog food bits are dry and crunchy
- Unplug or turn off dehydrator
- Let bits of dehydrated dog food cool, then let your dog’s taste test them to ensure quality control
- Q.A. protocols complete, place treats in an airtight container or ziplock bag, grab the container, go out and train your dog!
Depending on the cost of the can of dog food and the cost of electricity to run your dehydrator for 6-8hours, these can end up being some really inexpensive, really yummy, really simple to make dog treats. I think the can of dog food I used made at least 5-6 dozen treats, each of which I can easily break into even smaller treats when training.
Homemade treats really are the best. Thank you for this post.
I hope you don’t mind if I add another idea…
Instead of spooning out the wet food, you can use a pastry bag–it is faster and less messy, but only works when the food has no lumps.
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Good idea with the pastry bag! Thanks
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I was looking at dog treats on Amazon the other day, and the price of the good ones is honestly quite ridiculous. I haven’t bought treats in ages and I don’t think I will start now. (By which I don’t mean to say that I don’t use treats. I mean I make my treats, always. Which can be a pain, but ohmygosh the PRICES for some of these store bought treats…)
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I used to make them all then found a great source for treats at a major price reduction which made it worth it to purchase there, but that source has been iffy at best lately so back to making treats. The prices are ridiculous I agree.
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If you can find good ones for cheap it is much more convenient though for sure.
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Absolutely, way more convenient. Especially the shelf stable ones.
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I will have to try this out, if I can find a good dehydrator at a thrift store or something (or at least one that works). I also noticed that treats are going up, Zukes at my favorite store have gone up several dollars 😦
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If you have access to an oven or toaster oven you can also make them by cooking at a very low heat but I would want to supervise the baking of them more to ensure they don’t burn.
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