Healthy Homemade Dog Treats

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Homemade dog treats with coconut oil
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I’ve always been an animal person. I begged for years to get my first dog, Holly, when I was five. We named her Holly because she was born right before Christmas and she was the best Christmas present ever!

Holly passed away years ago, but now I get to watch my own children enjoy our Golden Pyrenees (a yellow lab/great Pyrenees mix). Daisy faithfully watches over the children when they play in the yard and lets the one-year-old sit on her and “pet” her.

One day, my older kids asked if we could make “cookies for Daisy” with ingredients she would like. I’d been mulling over the idea of a dog treat recipe for a while, and that was my motivation to finally try some easy, homemade treats.

Homemade Dog Treats with Coconut Oil

We already give Daisy (and our cats Penelope & Tiger) coconut oil daily but I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate it into this easy recipe.

I stuck to vet-approved ingredients for dogs: sweet potato, coconut oil/coconut, eggs, coconut flour, and gelatin.

Really, any combination of those ingredients would work, but we found a particular ratio that Daisy seems to love. We also figured out a cat treat recipe for Penelope and Tiger.

My favorite part of this DIY recipe is that it is a convenient way to give Daisy her daily coconut oil and a fun treat for her. I also know exactly what is going into her dog biscuits.

Why Coconut Oil?

Many homemade treat recipes contain peanut butter, rice flour, all-purpose flour, or whole wheat flour. After we talked to our vet, we decided we wanted our biscuits to be grain-free and nut-free, but packed with healthy fats and veggies.

I built my recipe around coconut oil. According to the American Kennel Club, coconut oil is beneficial to dogs. It is over 90% saturated fat and is an antioxidant that helps with mineral absorption. It has Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFAs), which can provide energy and help create a glossy coat for your pet.

MCFAs also contain lauric acid, which has antimicrobial, antibacterial, and antifungal properties. While coconut oil is full of health benefits for dogs (and dog lovers too!), consult with your vet before using large quantities especially if your pet has specific health problems.

One caution: Too much coconut oil can cause doggie diarrhea or an upset stomach. We found that one treat a day was the perfect amount.

Homemade dog treats with coconut oil

Homemade Dog Treats

Whip up a batch of healthy, inexpensive homemade dog treats with healthy fats for Fido!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Author Katie Wells

Servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Combine all ingredients and mix until well incorporated. If needed, add a little extra coconut flour to get a dough that is slightly thinner than Play Dough.
  • Form into 1-inch balls and flatten with hand.
  • We made “paw print” shapes with our fingers to make them cute (totally optional). You can also use a rolling pin to flatten the doggie dough to create a cutout shape with a cookie cutter if you have extra prep time.
  • Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes until slightly browned on the edges.
  • Remove from the oven and let cool completely before removing.

Notes

Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for several weeks or freeze for several months.

Tips for Keeping Dog Treats Fresh

The last thing you want to see after spending time creating healthy snacks for your fur baby is mold growing on your yummy treats.

Since these treats are homemade, they do not contain preservatives. They will need to be stored in a cool, dry place to avoid spoiling or encouraging mold growth.

Here are some tips to keep treats dry, fresh, and ready to go:

  • Serve or store these doggie treats immediately after they cool. Give your pup a sample and then put the rest of them away.
  • I prefer to store a handful in a mason jar in the refrigerator. They will stay fresh for up to two weeks, but they usually don’t last that long!
  • I stack the majority of these biscuits in an air-tight container, with a little natural parchment paper in between layers, and store them in the freezer. They will keep in the freezer for several months. I avoid plastic containers and prefer to use glass, silicone, or metal options.

We give our dog one of these per day and she seems to approve!

If you are short on time and are looking for a pet treat that is natural and an easy alternative to homemade, we’ve given Chippin to our dog as a treat.

Do you have any pets? What do you give them for treats?

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

57 responses to “Healthy Homemade Dog Treats”

  1. Daria Litvin Avatar
    Daria Litvin

    I made these for my dog as I want him on the coconut for his digestion. I tried it with the bacon grease (as I was having BLTs for lunch – a win-win situation as far as grease disposal) and coconut. I skipped the gelatin. He enjoys these treats and I am amused as his poo has a slight orange tinge to it.

  2. Patricia Avatar
    Patricia

    5 stars
    My Precious is soo picky and she absolutely loves these!!! They are extremely easy to make and they make the house smell great too! Thank you!

  3. Jennifer Avatar
    Jennifer

    4 stars
    This looks like a good treat for my little yorkshire terriers so thank you! I am going to try it with pumpkin puree has someone suggested in the comments and see how it turns out.

  4. kati Avatar

    I love your recipes but only recently started thinking about how far away coconut oil come from. The eco footprint of using coconut oil for everything is quite disturbing to me so I am doing my best to use less of it even though we like it around our house too.

  5. JenP Avatar

    I would love to hear from anyone who is feeding pet rats a non-commercial diet. I can’t find any good info on the web – every homemade recipe says to feed the homemade food IN ADDITION to a commercial “lab block” to “make sure they get a balanced diet.” (These lab blocks are basically animal by-products and low-grade soy; they are only “balanced” because they have a multivitamin/mineral mix ADDED.)
    I’m sure I can feed my girls well on the same good local, organic, grass fed eggs and meat and bones and veggies that we eat, but I don’t want to re-invent the wheel, so chatting to anyone who’s BTDT would be great, thanks!

  6. Melissa Avatar

    How much bacon grease goes into this?? It’s listed as an ingredient but it’s not in the recipe.

  7. Paola Avatar

    I just made these and my dog went crazy!

    Paleo Coconut Banana Dog Cookies

    Ingredients

    1 banana
    1/4 cup coconut oil
    1/2 cup coconut flour
    1 egg

    Procedure

    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper
    Mash the banana with a spoon, potato masher, or you hands ( do not purée it otherwise the mixture will become to runny) NOTE: the banana should be slightly lumpy
    Stir in the coconut oil
    Add the coconut flour
    Whisk the egg in a separate bowl and then stir it in with the rest of the mixture
    Use a cookie scooper to scoop equal portions onto your baking sheet
    Bake for 10 minutes ( the cookies should still be slightly soft and crumbly.)

  8. Trina Avatar

    5 stars
    I have been cooking for my chocolate lab mix, Nugget, for a little over a year! Your recipe helped to inspire me to start my own business making and selling homemade, Grain free, natural dog and cat treats. Being a stay at home mom of two children under 4 I can not afford to go back to work. This has allowed me to earn an income doing something I am passionate about. While my recipe is slightly different I was able to learn about the wonders of coconut flour through you and a few other bloggers! Then I realized a lot of people would love to cook for their pets but simply don’t have the time. Being home, I do!

    Thank you for your inspiration!!
    Trina

  9. Edie Avatar

    Hi Sherri,
    I have made these numerous times now, and I’ve found that if you turn off your oven after the 20 minutes or so that they take to cook, and leave them in the oven overnight (with the oven off) , they’ll be perfectly hard and dry the next morning just like store-bought treats. Also, if they’re not hard and dry, keep them in the frig or they’ll get moldy quickly. Hope this helps!

  10. Sherri Avatar

    I made these for the first time today, and even the tiny training treats didn’t get hard. We don’t have a dehydrator, so I guess the only alternative is low temperature and very long cooking time. Any advice?
    I gave our puppy a few of these as a hunting exercise and they’ve all disappeared, so I guess she likes them! 🙂

  11. Kira Avatar

    Hi, I am interested in making these dog treats but I have extreme allergies to dairy and though I am getting over my egg allergy (yay!) I would rather not get near it if I have to. Do you have any ideas of an egg subsitute for this dog treat?

    Thanks!
    K

  12. maria Avatar

    Hi,
    I made a batch of these for our schnauzer/yorkie and she loves them but out of the 5 or 6 I’ve given her over this last week, she has thrown up several hours after eating one twice now. Has anyone else experienced this? Any guesses as to what is causing this reaction?

    Thank you,
    Maria

  13. christine Avatar

    Thank you for this recipe! I have made it and my dogs loved it! I did blend some eggshells and added 1 Ts powdered shell to the biscuits as well as 1 Ts brewers yeast and 1/2 cup of dry meat powder. Next time I will try the beef liver instead.

  14. YVONNE Avatar

    Hi Katie! LOVE your blog. I’ve been DIY’ing for about 4 months now and I’ve used several of your recipes. They’re FANTASTIC and easy to follow for a newbie such as myself lol Thank you so much for that.

    One of the (optional) ingredients you list is bacon grease. I’m not sure if you know this, but bacon AND it’s grease are terrible for dogs (it can cause pancreatitis: inflammation of the pancreas) and they should NEVER have it. Here are a couple sources where I found this information. Thx again for all the great info you provide. :)))

    https://canigivemydog.com/bacon
    https://www.foodbeast.com/2014/05/15/12-human-foods-that-could-kill-your-dog/

    I followed your recipe without using the optional gelatin or bacon grease. I also did not increase my coconut oil because I wasn’t sure how much to use. The same 1/4 cup as if I had used bacon grease??? The dough consistency seemed ok without it so I went ahead and baked them. My treats came out very crumbly. Is that possibly because of the lack of gelatin? Is it’s purpose to help hold them together? I tried making some of them a little thicker thinking perhaps they were too flat and those came out too soft. I even cooked them a little longer to make up for the thickness. They wouldn’t hold their shape when I picked them up. They just fall apart. What am I doing wrong???

  15. Edie Avatar

    I’ve made this recipe numerous times now, and it’s wonderfully adaptable. I’ve made it with only one mashed sweet potato, but added peanut butter (enough to equal what I thought would be another sweet potato), and they came out great. I’ve also used half sweet potato, half pumpkin puree, added a little extra coconut flour, and they also turned out wonderfully. I roll out the dough really thin and cut out circles with a 2 inch cookie cutter to make the treats go further. After baking them, I put them in my dehydrator on about 115 until they’re completely dry. That way they’re nice and crunchy like regular treats, and they can be stored longer.

  16. Kelsey Avatar

    Love this! We never buy dog treats because most of them have such yucky ingredients, so we give our lab fruit and veggie scraps as treats (which he loves), but it would be nice to have some treats to bring on walks and hikes and stuff! Definitely trying these!

  17. Lilly Avatar

    5 stars
    I love your web site. I want to change from a 5 star store dog food to a home made Cooked one so I can use all Non GMO Organic ingredients.

    I would love to know your advice on what to make, a recipe maybe in a crock pot, unless you know of a dog food I can buy that is safe to feed them that you recommend.

    I have a 3 adult dogs: a 67 lb. dog, a 31 lb. dog and a 21 lb.

    If you know of how much to give each of them to make their full daily amount.

    Also what other supplements besides organic extra virgin coconut oil do you give your adult dog and why?
    (Our dogs also love organic extra virgin coconut oil).

    Thank you for all your wonderful recipes and sharing your preferences on ingredients and products. My husband and I are so very grateful!!!

    Sincerely,
    Lilly

    1. Edie Avatar

      Hi Lilly,
      I just read your comment and wanted to share my vet’s homemade dog food recipe. It’s at this link: https://drruthroberts.com/ I started taking my dogs to her (a holistic vet), and she recommends making this food. My dogs have been on it for about 7 months, and they’ve lost weight (which they needed to do), have glossy coats, and love, love this food. I feel so much butter knowing they’re getting real nutrition. There’s also a YouTube video of her making it. It’s really not hard, and depending on how many dogs/cats you have, you can double or triple the recipe.

  18. Kirsten Avatar

    4 stars
    Just made these for my dog. I used pumpkin puree instead of sweet potato, I just used a little over 1 15oz. can worth, because I had it sitting in the freezer. I didn’t have any gelatin, so I skipped it, but I think that would have helped them hold together better, as they were very fragile. Either that or they needed to cook a bit longer to dry out a bit. Either way, my dog gobbled them up.

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