Do you cook/bake for your dog?

Sigma Force

I know some people cook daily for their dogs esp. if they have special dietary needs etc. but does anyone cook/bake for them just for the fun of it?
One of our dogs is 2 today and because our other 2 girls are rescues we don't know their exact birthdays so they all have a wee session together.

Made some banana and peanut butter cupcakes, iced with cream cheese and honey topped off with a slice of dentastick and a wee carrot cake as well.
With candles made out of carrot.

Sad yes, bit of fun ..totally

Whispered

A very cute idea. I bet you could nearly go into business with that sort of thing. Healthy dog cakes and bikkies.

I've never baked for my dogs. I am an awful baker. awful.

Leaving your dentastick out, are your cakes edible for people too? Actually sounds very tasty.

ISDW

Wow, must keep my dogs away from the pc, or they'll be feeling deprived:D

Fantastic. I used to make liver and garlic cake for them, but haven't done that for a few years now, would carry it on walks for treats, and in training classes, they would go mad for it.

Sigma Force

I use rice flour so it can make things taste a bit dry but my daughter usually samples the dogs treats the cupcakes..minus the dentastick she said was ok.
Herself and her friend do like the tuna and parsley cookies though I wouldn't eat them myself prefer sugar on everything and the dogs treats are au natural.

Hope to have a stand at the cottage rescue fundraiser this summer profit goes to the rescue I was selling cookies and doggy brownies but have stopped for a bit it's more of a hobby now but will do something eventually.

Baking for dogs is real easy because they don't really mind (unless they're super fussy) about whether their cake is level etc. they just scoff it regardless my collie inhaled hers. The wild birds had some too so everyone's happy.

Keep meaning to make a liver flavoured treat must try drying some in the oven as well.

magentas

Sigma Force wrote: »

my collie inhaled hers.

that's so cool! It'll be Rorys 1st birthday in June and would love to do stuff like that for them. Same as that, don't know birthday for Nell (rescue dog) but shes only a month or two older so we'll have a double celebration!

You should so put up recipies for us!!!;)

LucyBliss

Oh yes, please do post recipes! I love baking but I've had to ease up on baking for myself otherwise I'd be like half a house. But I miss it and I'd get a kick out of making something for the dogs, seeing as how they already assume that everything that comes out of the oven is for them anyway!

jackiedaniels

Ive never baked for him he's not a fan of baked goods...but I have cooked steak for him...he's so spoiled!!!

Wisco

My dog thinks I bake for him, which is why I've had the odd cupcake disappear off the cooling rack that was positioned conveniently close to the table edge. :rolleyes:

barbiegirl

I made cupcakes yesterday and today gave the dogs one each. The joy of his luttle bun turned Fargo into a dancing ballerina. Sindy just munched hers but Fargo danced around with it first. Now he keeps looking at the box. I think i created a monster :-)

Sigma Force

I did the cupcakes kind of off the cuff so here's the gist of it, if using plain flour you probably won't need the milk and may need just one egg as long as you get it the consistency of regular fairy cake batter.

Pre-heat oven to 170 for faster ovens or some fan ovens, or 180 for regular ovens.

Line a bun tray with paper cases, should make 12 - 16 cupcakes.

250g rice flour (sieved)
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder (sieved)
2 eggs..free range
100g Unsalted butter-softened
2 Mashed bananas
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons honey
Milk or water if mixture is too dry.. add slowly and only small bit at a time to get the right consistency.

Sieve the flour and baking powder.
Place all the ingredients..except water/milk into a bowl and mix well.
Add water or ideally milk if your dogs ok with it slowly you could use a little natural yogurt or half and half.

Bake until golden brown on top, using rice flour will give it a more scone appearance esp. on top.

Icing.
1 300g tub of Plain Philidelphia (this will leave you with left over frosting, use a smaller 100g or 200g tub if you don't need the left over icing).
1 Tablespoon Peanut butter (ideally one low in salt or no added salt/sugar)

Mix the philli and peanut butter until soft and pipeable.
Take cooled cupcakes out of their paper wrappers and pipe on the icing..or just blob it on the dogs won't mind.

Choose on of your dogs favourite treats eg. dentastix, crumbled Bonio etc, and place or sprinkle on top of each cupcake and serve.

Asphyxia

My sister got a dog treat recipe book and I robbed it on her the other day, I'm going to make a few things soon

mymo

You have just made my day, its the little dogs birthday tomorrow and my daughter is always asking about doggie cakes and biscuits she could bake for them.
I'd love the carrot cake one, or any biscuits?
Only thing I baked for them was sweet potato chews, although when the bigger fella was too thin I did make him a kind of casserole with meat, veg and rice.
Thanks Sigma Force, gonna have a busy girl here tomorrow;)

ABajaninCork

Would love to see some recipes too.

Only things I cook for my boy are chicken, liver and fish with brown rice. Pretty boring really!:)

djflawless

i do cook for the dog every 3rd night..makes a nice little treat.and the girlfriends mother does bake a lot of cakes/buns which sammy has to get a share off

mymo

Cupcakes were a great success, doggies were delighted, as was daughter (she ate 2;))

here's a pic of the birthday girl eating her cake, in bed as she was too lazy to get up for it
Daughter didn't frost them as it would be too messy and she didn't like the sound of Phili and peanut butter

Sigma Force

@mymo that's so cute!

Was making a stew for us humans the other day and figured not much difference to making one for the dogs so must get around to that.

Stewing beef, carrot, potato, water, parsley or other safe herb think thyme is safe to use, I guess anything you put into a stew yourself except no onions and although garlic is supposed to be ok aparently they say now too much upsets their tums and when stewing if you put enough veg and water in it makes it's own stock so no need to add salty stuff like oxo cubes or packet stocks.

Added a pic of our pooches birthday cake, it was a bit dry though flippin rice flour can be a curse at times, have tried potato flour but that's worse. I think Tapioca is ok to use must double check because you can get that in a flour.

shinikins

Potato can be highly toxic for dogs, they need to be well cooked and mashed. Onions and garlic should be avoided, they both contain [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]thiosulphate, and can develop [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]haemolytic anaemia days after ingesting any onion or onion products. One good reason to avoid giving your dog "human food" is that onion/garlic powder is used as a flavouring and thickener and flavour enhancer in many products.

Foods to avoid giving your dog

Green/uncooked potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Chocolate/cocoa powder
Mushrooms
Raisins
Grapes
Nuts, especially Macadamia
Baby food
Milk
Raw eggs
Raw fish
Fat trimmings from meat
Cat food(you'd be surprised how many people give their dogs cat food as a "treat")
Rhubarb
Nutmeg(hallucinogenic!)
Pips from apples pears plums peaches and apricots contain arsenic
Salt, baking powder, baking soda-can all cause electrolyte imbalance
Avocado
Yeast
Alcohol(obviously)

[/FONT]

ABajaninCork

Foods to avoid giving your dog

Green/uncooked potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Chocolate/cocoa powder
Mushrooms
Raisins
Grapes
Nuts, especially Macadamia
Baby food
Milk
Raw eggs
Raw fish
Fat trimmings from meat
Cat food(you'd be surprised how many people give their dogs cat food as a "treat")
Rhubarb
Nutmeg(hallucinogenic!)
Pips from apples pears plums peaches and apricots contain arsenic
Salt, baking powder, baking soda-can all cause electrolyte imbalance
Avocado
Yeast
Alcohol(obviously)

I'd add tomatoes (too acidic) and cabbage (not easily digested) to that list too...

mymo

Why raw egg on the list? We've been giving dogs raw eggs for years. Same with trimmings of raw meat, I mean not loads but I often give some with meaty bones.
Also cat food is fine for dogs, I have heard of vets recommending it to help a dog loose weight, it has a higher protein content but less fat. I even know someone that the vet has put the dog on cat food permanently, although he did recommend a good quality one. But thats the same with dog food.
But dog food is very bad for cats.

@Sigma force, the stew I made was carrot, turnip, green beans (any other veg I had, mine love broccoli), wholegrain rice, and some chicken thighs and legs, no herbs as I wasn't sure what was ok, and no stock just water. I par boiled the harder veg, then put in casserole dish (water from veg too)and added the chicken and rice, cook as normal and about 15 mins before done add softer veg. When cooled, pick out bones, if you don't stir it the bones are easy to remove.
Mine loved this and it helped put weight on my very skinny dog, he's fine now and back on the normal food, my vet gave me this recipe, he highly recommended it.
I also tried it with mince and stewing steak, it turned out fine, just adjust cooking time.

ISDW

Agree with mymo, don't know why raw egg is on the list, mine get raw eggs, shell included and love it.

shinikins

Why is raw egg on the list? For the same reason you wouldn't eat raw egg-it may contain salmonella bacteria, which might not kill you easily but can kill your dog far quicker than you could imagine. They can also cause vitamin B deficiencies in your dog. Cat food is far too high in protein to be feeding to your dog, but a small amount wont kill him. If a vet prescribes a cat food diet then I'm sure there is a good reason for it, perhaps that dog had extremely low protein levels. Giving your dog the fat trimmings from the table isnt a huge no no, as long as it does not make up more than 10% of his food. Cabbage doesn't cause major problems in small amounts, but I have come across a dog who was given cabbage water daily with his food and it caused him to go bald! Neither is tomato bad, but the green stems from tomatoes can cause ulcers if eaten in large amounts.

Sigma Force

My dogs are fed on Burns dog food, one of the flavours is potato and pork and they do great on it any spuds mine get are boiled don't think they'd like raw spud anyway.
Some on the list are only bad if fed in huge quantities like pips and garlic.
The idea of baking or cooking for your dog though is so you know exactly what's going in to their treats, the list of additives on most shop bought treats is huge so at least if you bake your own..obviously using common sense to check ingredients are ok, is much better.

shinikins

Sigma Force wrote: »

Some on the list are only bad if fed in huge quantities like pips and garlic.

Sorry Sigma Force, I have to pick you up on this.They don't have to be huge quantities-one peach pit contains enough naturally occurring arsenic to kill a small dog. Dogs do not make the enzyme to properly digest garlic, and if eaten regularly can build up to toxic levels, even if its only given in small amounts.

Graces7

We share our soup/stew with the dogs.. even as I type, a good chicken stew is a-cooking in the slow-cooker.... barley and lentils in it and carrots etc. Add some brown bread and happy dogs.

Once was given some bagels; even the dogs refused them. Collie took her's off to bury it even.

Whispered

shinikins wrote: »

Why is raw egg on the list? For the same reason you wouldn't eat raw egg-it may contain salmonella bacteria,

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Green/uncooked potatoes
Mushrooms
Nuts
Milk
Raw eggs
Raw fish
Fat trimmings from meat

I'd add tomatoes (too acidic) and cabbage (not easily digested) to that list too...

I feed small amounts of the above without any problems.

Raw baby potatoes are used as a ball before being crushed and chewed.

If I'm chopping mushrooms (or anything really) I will give a small amount.

If we're eating nuts we will throw one or two down.

Milk, if we're throwing some out I'll mix with water and allow them a drink, sometimes we'll put a bit over their nuts.

I just made and ate a very tasty raw egg choc mousse. We eat raw eggs all the time. I didn't realise salmonella was still a concern :eek: I also have been giving raw eggs to the dogs since Harley was a tiny puppy. Shells and all.

Raw fish?? Seriously they love it. In fact I remember as a kid my dad fishing and throwing the heads down to the dogs. A great treat for them.

Again - fat trimmings? unless the dog has a weight problem I don't see an issue at all. We give meaty fatty bones all the time. It is good for them.

Tomatoes when chopping them and the boys are begging and sometimes we'll play with one in the garden and it's eventually eaten.

Cabbage - if we have it for dinner we'll give scraps and I have on occasion given a leaf raw for the boys to shred out the back.

Part of me is disgusted with myself for being so lax with their food after reading that list, another part of me is thinking that the list must be based on feeding huge quantities. Both of the dogs were sick when I got them and both are absolutely thriving now - despite getting all of the above. I don't know what to think.

Graces7

Whispered wrote: »

I feed small amounts of the above without any problems.

Raw baby potatoes are used as a ball before being crushed and chewed.

If I'm chopping mushrooms (or anything really) I will give a small amount.

If we're eating nuts we will throw one or two down.

Milk, if we're throwing some out I'll mix with water and allow them a drink, sometimes we'll put a bit over their nuts.

I just made and ate a very tasty raw egg choc mousse. We eat raw eggs all the time. I didn't realise salmonella was still a concern :eek: I also have been giving raw eggs to the dogs since Harley was a tiny puppy. Shells and all.

Raw fish?? Seriously they love it. In fact I remember as a kid my dad fishing and throwing the heads down to the dogs. A great treat for them.

Again - fat trimmings? unless the dog has a weight problem I don't see an issue at all. We give meaty fatty bones all the time. It is good for them.

Tomatoes when chopping them and the boys are begging and sometimes we'll play with one in the garden and it's eventually eaten.

Cabbage - if we have it for dinner we'll give scraps and I have on occasion given a leaf raw for the boys to shred out the back.

Part of me is disgusted with myself for being so lax with their food after reading that list, another part of me is thinking that the list must be based on feeding huge quantities. Both of the dogs were sick when I got them and both are absolutely thriving now - despite getting all of the above. I don't know what to think.

Please, do not worry. No idea where these lists come from, either for us or for dogs.

Makes me mad that this worries you; you care for your dogs and they love what you feed them.

To feel accused of?? poisoning?? :rolleyes:

We are like you; our dogs eat a wide variety and still thriving. You are not being lax.

Salmonella is thankfully rare now; it seems that this list is based on a 'worst case" idea which is...Like saying, don;t cross the road in case you are killed.

Our dogs and cats love raw eggs, shells and all. etc etc etc.

Be at peace with your happy and healthy dogs.. If we believed all that is put out we would never eat anything...

Graces7

Whispered wrote: »

I feed small amounts of the above without any problems.

Raw baby potatoes are used as a ball before being crushed and chewed.

If I'm chopping mushrooms (or anything really) I will give a small amount.

If we're eating nuts we will throw one or two down.

Milk, if we're throwing some out I'll mix with water and allow them a drink, sometimes we'll put a bit over their nuts.

I just made and ate a very tasty raw egg choc mousse. We eat raw eggs all the time. I didn't realise salmonella was still a concern :eek: I also have been giving raw eggs to the dogs since Harley was a tiny puppy. Shells and all.

Raw fish?? Seriously they love it. In fact I remember as a kid my dad fishing and throwing the heads down to the dogs. A great treat for them.

Again - fat trimmings? unless the dog has a weight problem I don't see an issue at all. We give meaty fatty bones all the time. It is good for them.

Tomatoes when chopping them and the boys are begging and sometimes we'll play with one in the garden and it's eventually eaten.

Cabbage - if we have it for dinner we'll give scraps and I have on occasion given a leaf raw for the boys to shred out the back.

Part of me is disgusted with myself for being so lax with their food after reading that list, another part of me is thinking that the list must be based on feeding huge quantities. Both of the dogs were sick when I got them and both are absolutely thriving now - despite getting all of the above. I don't know what to think.

Bravo, Whispered! These lists are .. ridiculous. Your ways are great. if we trusted the things said here, we would never eat anything ourselves either.

ppink

I always thought raw potatoes were bad for everyone so I never give them, but I do give them cooked.
not much else on that list i do give them either...except they eat apples, pips included.
I have little human food with additives and nothing that may cause kidney stones (raisens,grapes &rhubarb and tomatoes):eek:

I hard boil their eggs for them too.........
I dont give them fat either.

shinikins

Graces7 wrote: »

Please, do not worry. No idea where these lists come from, either for us or for dogs.....

...To feel accused of?? poisoning?? :rolleyes:

.....Salmonella is thankfully rare now; it seems that this list is based on a 'worst case" idea which is...Like saying, don;t cross the road in case you are killed.

These lists come from Veterinary science, ask your vet to provide you with a list of foodstuffs dangerous to dogs and they will give you the same one you see here.

Who is accusing anyone of poisoning their dog? If your going to be cooking or baking, (which is a fantastic idea) for your dog then you should do the responsible thing and make yourself aware of what they can and cannot eat.


BTW, Salmonella poisoning is the second most common intestinal infection in North America(between 11-13 million cases of food poisoning in Canada per year) Not rare at all.

Whispered

shinikins wrote: »

BTW, Salmonella poisoning is the second most common intestinal infection in North America(between 11-13 million cases of food poisoning in Canada per year) Not rare at all.

In north America and Canada - but Irish Eggs were apparently declared salmonella free in 2007 according to foodqualitynews.com

They examined about 30,000 eggs in total. The survey yielded only two positive samples, with Salmonella infantis and Salmonella montevideo isolated from shells.

No egg contents yielded salmonellas. The prevalence was significantly lower than the findings in a recent major UK survey.

Under the plan all poultry farms in Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark are tested and monitored by regulators. Any flocks with confirmed infections are slaughtered immediately.

I was surprised at the concern considering raw egg desserts are pretty commonly available now. I think it is nothing to worry about here in Ireland.

Ppink - I try not to give food with additives either, although unless raw feeding most dog food contains its fair share, but the foods on that list are all unprocessed. I don't understand why people avoid giving fat - surely it's a very important part of a diet. (assuming the dog is not suffering with weight issues of course). Why do you avoid it? Is it weight or is there another reason?

The only foods I avoid 100% are raisins, dark choc and anything very salty. Perhaps I need to rethink?

ppink

I avoid the fat as I see it going straight to the heart. that could be another one of my little oddities:p
I think there is enough fat in the actual meat they get. Of course I am also watching my 2 like a hawk recently so I am not giving them anything "suspect". My 2 also need to keep lightweight to preserve the joints so I prefer them to have meat.
I did give them raw chicken wings for the first time last week...out on the lawn so I did not have them on my floor:o. All four dogs dumped them on the grass and looked at me like I was crazy......one would not touch it at all!!

I am interested in cooking for them though and may try that rice cake recipe.
does anyone have any recipes for anything that will not be gobbeled whole ie something I might get some milage out of:)