For any dog that has a sensitive stomach, these homemade dog treats are perfect because it only contains 6 ingredients and it's all natural.
Our furry little ones ask for so little and yet give us an unlimited source of love and companionship. That is why having a good supply of healthy homemade dog treats is a must because it's one of the few things that they absolutely love which is such a small price for what they give us. 🙂
I am a stickler for 0 sugar and low-fat treats. There are no added sugars and added oils and fats besides the peanut butter in this homemade dog treats recipe which is super important to me - especially since sugary treats can flare up infections and fatty treats are just bad for the pancreas, especially for older or overweight dogs.
If your dog is sensitive to grains, I also have a grain-free 3 ingredient dog treat recipe made with chickpea flour as well.
This year, for my little guy's birthday I decided to make him some homemade dog treats. I'm a stickler for limited natural ingredients in his food and snacks, particularly because he has a very sensitive stomach. So for anyone who has pups with the same issue, I hope this recipe finds it's way into your hands and it makes your pup a very happy puppy!
INGREDIENTS
There are only 6 ingredients for this homemade dog treats recipe (not including the water). They should be very easy to find at your local grocery store.
I used spelt flour for the recipe because it creates a dry and tough dough, which results in a more dry crunchy biscuit.
For the rolled oats, make sure the ingredients on the packaging only have oats in it. It should not contain any sugar or flavorings.
For the peanut butter, please use the all-natural peanut butter with no sugar added. The banana already has a natural sweetness.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
Mix the wet ingredients together (the egg, mashed banana and water) and slowly mix in the dry ingredients and then knead away!
When you are making this dough, you will notice that the dough may be a bit dry, you can additional water, 1 teaspoon at a time to make it more pliable and easier to knead but the dough should be very tough and somewhat dry. We want these treats to turn out hard, crunchy and dry.
You can use any type of cookie cutter for this recipe, I prefer smaller ones since they are smaller dogs. If you don't have any cookie cutters, you can cut them up into little squares or rectangles.
We want to also bake this in the oven on a slightly lower temperature because our goal is to dry out the biscuits.
STORAGE & SHELF LIFE
As long as you dry them out really well in the oven they will keep for a month. I even managed to stretch mine to two months. The treats should be hard as a rock after they are cooled, and you should not be able to break them easily by hand. I usually like to keep these in treat jars or metal tin boxes as well out on the shelves. They don't need to be refrigerated as long as they have been dried out properly.
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Homemade Dog Treats (6 Ingredients)
Recipe Notes
- When you are buying peanut butter and oats, make sure there is no sugar and extra flavorings in the ingredient label.
- As long as you dry them out really well in the oven they will keep for a month. I even managed to stretch mine to two months. The treats should be hard as a rock after they are cooled, and you should not be able to break them easily by hand. I usually like to keep these in treat jars or metal tin boxes as well out on the shelves. They don't need to be refrigerated.
- [Optional] If you want to make sure they are dried out properly, once the oven has been turned off, keep the treats in the oven until the are cool. The residual heat in the oven will continue to dry it out even more. 🙂
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats (not instant oatmeal)
- 2 cups spelt flour
- 2 cup all purpose flour
Wet Ingredients
- 2 bananas (mashed)
- ½ cup natural peanut butter (no sugar, or salt)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 325F (162C)
- Combine the wet ingredients into a mixing bowl
- Slowly add in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl
- Knead for approximately 10-15 mins the dough until everything has been incorporated. The dough is supposed to be a little dry and tough. This is because of the spelt flour and it will produce a more crunch and dry biscuit.
- If the dough is hard to knead and doesn't stay together, add water 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together in a dough ball.
- Roll out the dough to approximately ¼ inch thick and cut out biscuits with cookie cutter or cut into squares with a knife
- Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes. The bottoms should be golden brown but not burnt. The biscuits will be slightly soft in the center when you take it out of the oven, but it will harden when it cools down.
- Allow the biscuits to cool for 1-2 hours
- Ta da! Some treats for some happy dogs!
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
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Jenny and Billy says
Wonderful! Thank you for showing us how to make healthy and sensitive treats for our beagles 🙂 I’ll post pictures after I make them today.
Joyce Lee says
Hi Jenny and Billy!
I'm happy to share! Our furry little ones definitely deserve the same quality of food and snacks as we do, so I'm always trying to find new ways to treat them. 😊
Hope they turned out for you and give your beagles a hug for me!
Goretti says
Hi these look great but I have a peanut allergy at home what can I substitute? Any ideas. Thanks.
Joyce says
Hi Goretti,
Hmmm, that's a good question. How about almond butter? If you are not allergic to that, maybe give that a try. Any nut butter (except Macadamias, pistachios, and walnuts which are toxic to dogs) should work for this recipe! Also make sure there is no added xylitol, sugars and salts in the nuts as well if you are grinding your own nut butter. Hope this helps!
Michelle says
Lovely ideas. Will be excellent one to implement at home. Hope my dog will love it also. Thanks for sharing this kinds of awesome ideas.
Lisa @ The Valley Vegan says
I've been looking for a good homemade dog treat recipe, and I think I've found it! I have 3 dogs, and as you can imagine it gets expensive buying treats that everyone can eat -- one "normal" dog, one with a sensitive stomach & all kinds of skin allergies, and an old toothless beagle. This sounds like something even old toothless can gum to death. I'll let you know when I make these! I'm really excited.
Joyce says
haha I can SO relate! Each of my dogs have a different ailment - I have 2 giant bags of dog food at any given time because each has it's own 'unique' ailment and requirement, but you gotta do what you gotta do right? haha! 🙂 These treats are quite hard, so your comment gave me quite the giggle about the toothless one gumming it to death - I can actually imagine that haha! Someone mentioned to me that they didn't need the full 2 cups of all purpose flour for this recipe, so while you are kneading it - definitely add the all purpose flour a little bit at a time until you get a somewhat tough and semi dry dough. The spelt flour will make the dough very tough and dry to work with - it's normal and helps with making the treats harder in texture. Hope the little ones enjoy it! 🙂 Always a joy to see them happy! 😀
Taylor Royal says
As someone who loves trying new holistic dog treat this was great! I had to cut the all purpose flour because the dough wasn’t accepting anymore...but the dogs absolutely love them!!
Joyce says
I am so so so happy about this Taylor. I am the same and am super careful to try to give the pups as much natural ingredients as possible and am very happy there is another pup lover out there that feels the same way! Very happy the dogs love them as well! You just reminded me it is time for me to make a new batch for the dogs here! 🙂
Rachel says
These looks great! I am going to have to try this recipe out for our 3 pups. What is the shelf life of these treats?
Joyce says
Hi Rachel,
Yay for happy puppies! 🙂 Whenever I make these, I usually have no problems keeping them for up to a month. I store them in a cool dry area in a tin. I like to make sure that the treats have dried out very well in the oven during the cooking process. Every oven is slightly different but the end goal is to create very dried nuggets. When you first take them out of the oven the might be very slightly soft but the moment they cool down they should be very hard and crunchy 🙂 Hope your puppies enjoy these like ours do! 🙂 Lucky puppies! 😀
Tina says
Hello, how should these treats be stored. Can they be left on the counter in a container or have to be refrigerated?
Joyce says
Hi Tina,
I left mine in room temperature in a tin and they were fine. As long as they are dried out properly (they should feel like hard, crunchy little treats) they will be fine. 🙂
Hope your pup loves them!