If you have pets (I have a zoo!), you know that providing healthy food and snacks for them can be quite costly. While snacks are not necessarily important for dogs & cats, they provide much needed vitamins and minerals for rodents such as rabbits and guinea pigs whose diet includes pellet food, roughage (timothy hay) and a variety of fruits & vegetables.
Princess Socko & Mr. Chalkie Bunny |
Veggies and fruits are considered snacks to most rodents and is something they crave more than anything. Princess Socko can hear a carrot bag rattle from a mile away and she'll let you know it promptly. Fruits are given less often as the sugar is not needed (very much accepted) and can be harmful if given too much. While store bought snacks claim to provide a source of vegetables & fruits, they also use honey as a means to bind the treat together.
Honey is not good for rodents and I wouldn't recommend feeding it to them. Aside from honey, most store bought treats contain nuts & seeds, while both piggies and rabbits enjoy those types of treats they are quite fattening. What's even worse is that seeds and nuts are a common choking hazard for guinea pigs and smaller rodents.
With all that said ( I tend to ramble alot...) I have researched various ways to prepare homemade snacks for my rodent babies and found this simple recipe makes for the perfect amount of healthly & sweet.
Chalko Tasties
- 2 mashed bananas*
- 2 carrots shredded
- 3 tbs oats
- 1/2 cup oat flour (made myself by grinding up some oats)**
**In place of the "oat flour" you can use grinded pellet food for that particular pet. (It is not recommended to feed guinea pigs, rabbit food or vice versa.)
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix banana, carrots & oats, then add in oat flour and mix well.
Using a cookie dough scoop, form the "dough" into little balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Cook for 15-20 minutes or until firm. Let cool completely and serve. Store in an airtight container or ziplock bag in the refrigerator.
Freezing Tip: After the cooling process place the cookie sheet of snacks into your deep freeze and chill until completely frozen. Then remove the snacks and seal them in a plastic bag. This method (props to my mother in law on this one!) ensures that each snack is individually frozen thus allowing them not to stick together when stored in one container.
Storage Tip: You can also use your food dehydrator for these instead of serving them fresh. While Chalkie Bunny enjoys them both ways, The Princess prefers the dried version.
Enjoying their tasties. |
That holds true for Mr. Chalkie Bunny, who was the last baby rabbit being sold as a feeder rabbit. The naive non hunter in myself had no clue what that meant until my dear husband explained that the sweet innocent baby bunny was going to be someone's dinner. Thankfully he was the only one left or I would have had my hands full today.
Moving along.....
As I said it is not necessary to give snacks to dogs or cats, (mine would disagree) snacks are useful for praising good behavior or overall making for a much loved mommy. I will not lie and say that my furries (and others, told you I had a zoo!) are not spoiled beyond reason. In my home they are not pets, they are furry (some scaly) family members and you can't tell them otherwise.
In addition to our rodent furries, we also house two dogs, Casper (a boxer/pointer mix, rescue) and Fluff (a bischon frise/cocker spaniel purebred mutt of fluffiness) as well as two cats, The Bob (a stray that never left) and Princess Tink. (a precious girl in need of a safe home.)
Now what dog doesnt love dog biscuits of any kind? I know my two really love those peanut butter biscuits, but I decided why buy them when I could make them and know exactly what was going into them. I searched for homemade peanut butter dog treats and found a wonderful blog called Come On, ilene! that had just the recipe I was looking for. Peanut Buttery & healthy.
- 1 cup of oats
- 1/3 cup margarine
- 1 cup boiling beef broth
- 3/4 cup cornmeal
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 beef bouillon cube, mashed into granules
- 1/2 cup skim milk
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 egg, beaten (2 for a softer treat)
- 3 cups whole wheat flour.
Pour the oats, margarine & boiling broth into a mixing bowl and let it soften, about 10 minutes. Stir in the other ingredients, except the flour. Mix well, then add the flour one cup at a time until a soft dough forms. I used the dough hook on my kitchen aid (aka The Ice Queen) so there was no need to "knead".
Roll the dough out about 1/2 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Using any shaped cookie cut, make several cuts into your dough. I was able to reknead and reroll several times and ended up with 120+ dog bones.
Taste Tested & Doggie Approved |
Frozen Dog Treats
- 32 oz plain yogurt
- 1 mashed ripe banana
- 2 tbs of peanut butter
- 2 tbs of honey
Mix all ingredients together. Pour some of the batter into a ziplock bag and snip the end. (just a little snip will do.) Squeeze filling into ice cube trays (you can also use egg cartons), I used two full size ice trays and one mini cube tray.
I had a tiny bit of batter left so I gave it to The Fluff for a bit of taste testing.
100% Fluff approved. |
Put your trays in the freezer and chill until firm. I let mine set overnight to ensure they were well frozen before moving them to a gallon ziplock to store in the deep freeze.
Now for the kitties. I dont know about your cats but mine LOVE cheese, but really who doesnt love cheese? The Bob has been known on several occasions to snatch some cheese cubes off the counter! With that said I went in search of some cheesy cat treats and came across Pet Place. They have several different variations of cat treats, but I chose to make the Savory Cheese Treats for my cheesy kitties. (Or as my BFF would say Quesoy Gatos!)
Ultimate Cat Stars (as named by Mason, age 3 )
- 3/4 cup wheat flour
- 3/4 cup shredded cheese
- 5 Tbs grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- chicken broth
Mix the first 5 ingredients in your mixer. Add chicken broth until a dough ball forms. (Again using The Ice Queen's dough hook) Roll the dough out on a heavily floured surface, as it is quite sticky, about 1/4 of an inch.
Bob just knew. |
Grease a baking sheet, I used foil and cooking spray, this makes the treats slide right off the pan into a bowl when finished.
Using a tiny cookie cutter, cut out desired shapes. You can also use a pizza cutter and make tiny squares. This makes alot of treats, I stopped counting after 200 tiny stars.
Some of the treats stuck in the cutter, so I used the stopper part of a medicine dropper to push it free right onto the cookie sheet. Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes, watch carefully as they may burn.
Tink thought they smelled divine. |
The cheesy treats were the biggest hit, loved by both the dogs & the cats. It takes alot to make Bob beg!
I hope your furry friends enjoy these recipes as much as mine have! If you have no pets of your own these treats would be a wonderful gift for a pet loving friend. Just bag or bottle them up and add a festive bow!
Please leave a comment and let me know what they think!