Bake treats for your pets
SOME human food is not meant for pets. But they won’t even want a bite off your plate if you make them their own tasty treats.
Lina Bauer, author of a cookbook for dogs, says homemade dog biscuits will ensure your pooch stays your best friend.
Mix together 250g flour, 100g rice flour, 125g of liverwurst sold specifically for dogs, an egg and 150ml of any vegetable juice you’d like (though Bauer suggests carrot or beet juice to give the biscuits a nice hue). Roll out dough, cut out biscuits and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 20 to 25 minutes.
Cats are a bit pickier than dogs when it comes to their chow, with some refusing to eat anything different. Blogger Miriam Knischewski has several cats and regularly makes treats for them with as little grain product as possible. “Cats are carnivores, you can’t forget that,” she says. Her cats’ favourite is “meat drops”.
Knischewski mixes together 500g of either ground turkey or beef, two eggs and 2-4 tablespoons beer yeast, either as flakes or powder. She puts the mix in a freezer bag, seals it, then cuts one of the bottom corners off to squeeze out little drops on a baking sheet. Then she sticks them in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 75°C. She leaves the oven door slightly open to let the moisture evaporate.
Feathered pets will also be pleased with homemade treats, says Gaby Schulemann-Maier, who works for a magazine dedicated to birds. She uses normal grain feed as a base, which gets baked with eggs or other various ingredients. However, she avoids putting anything with processed sugar or lactose in them, going so far as to use lactose-free milk or butter just to be sure.
The one disadvantage to making your own treats, she says, is that birds will reject anything storebought afterwards. “Parrots especially are real gourmets,” says Schulemann-Maier.