Posted by Ethne~
As I discussed here, I thought it would be a good idea to make Sweet Baby T-Rex some homemade cat treats. Given his kidney disease, he’s not supposed to have a lot of wheat and corn, but more lean protein like turkey and enriched white rice. He is on prescription kidney formula (low protein so his kidneys don’t have to work extra hard) from Dr. M.
But I like to give him treats too, so I thought that it would be a good idea to make some even if they have a few ingredients that aren’t ideal for his kidneys (ie wheat). Even if they have some wheat, it’s not like he’s going to subsist on them, and I can also be sure that he is eating wholesome ingredients rather than by-products, fillers and ash (yeah, you read right – a lot of pet foods have ash in them – WHAT THE F**K?).
Anyway, I did some internet research and found a few cat and dog treat recipes (remember, Lori’s beloved dog Roger and Neen’s new sweetpea Bella need treats too) that would be worth trying (and possibly THRIFTIER?)
This recipe was mish-mashed from a couple of recipes I found, based upon ingredients I already had.
You’ll need:
One 4.5 oz. jar of Gerber turkey & rice baby food - $0.51 at Target
2/3 cup wheat germ
¼ cup water
2/3 cup flour plus more till a dough forms
Instructions:
Heat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together with your hands till a dough forms that isn’t sticking to your hands. I added flour as necessary till the dough was able to be rolled out with my rolling pin.
I rolled the dough flat with my rolling pin till it was ¼ inch thick. Then I cut it into little bite-size bits with my pizza cutter. Be careful not to cut too hard – or I’d have scratched my island’s counter top.
The girls thought this was great, and since we were only making cat treats that cost us $0.51 out of pocket (I had the rest of the ingredients so the remaining cost was nominal), I didn’t get too excited about them “messing” anything up, nor did I freak about them touching the stuff because nothing was raw. They thought it was fun to put the little squares on the cookie sheet.
We placed the little cat bite-size pieces on a greased cookie sheet and baked them for 20-24 minutes until they were slightly browned. They weren’t crispy, but they weren’t raw dough either.
Take out, cool and place in an airtight container or Ziploc bag. Some of the recipes I found indicate you can store in your fridge or freezer. I put my treats in the freezer for good measure, though in my opinion they really aren’t going to go bad.
The test: Theodore ate 1 treat straight up. Then that’s it. He hasn’t eaten any more than that. He has no teeth (not kidding), but that hasn’t stopped him from eating cat treats or dry crackers in the past, even though his primary meals are soft cat food. I suppose time will tell if he likes them any more. Or I’m stuck with about 100 cat treats – perhaps I can pawn them off on Roger and Bella if he doesn’t?
THRIFTY comparison: You can get around 30-40 cat treats for a couple bucks at the grocery store. Hard to say what’s all in them. OR you can make 100 treats for about $0.50. The math tells the tale, Friends.
I’ll check back again with whether he likes these treats in the long run. If not, I’ll tell you if Bella will eat them. My girls never ate any store-bought baby food, and I only once tried to make meat baby food, which they didn’t eat. If T-Rex won’t eat these made out of baby food, I’d say we have a sign: meat baby food is icky. (I found another recipe with tuna, and I’m pretty sure that’ll work.)
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