DIY PET PROJECTS

At home treats for your Pooch or your Kitty

When the fall comes around, most people want to save a buck or two on gourmet treats for their pets to save for the holidays.  Some people also start thinking of good gifts to give to their friends and family for their pets.  At White Oak Animal Safe Haven, we often get a lot of donated homemade food and crafts to sell here at the shelter.  Every week, we have a loyal customer drop off homemade kitty food for our cats and kittens.  On a monthly basis, we have a different “dog” related item that someone has homemade and donated to us.  We figured we would share some of our favorite recipes and ideas with you for your pets to save some money and get a little creative!  We use “Pinterest”  to look up some of our favorite recipes to share with you. 

BARKIN’ BAKON DOG TREATS:  Yields 40

Every dog loves Bacon.. let’s face it, EVERYONE loves bacon.  Bacon makes everything better!  These simple at home dog treats will save you some money, while making your dog extra happy!  You can even kick it up a notch by making your own Treat Jar!

Ingredients:

5 cups Whole wheat flour
1 cup Milk
2 Eggs
10 tablespoon Vegetable oil or bacon fat
1 pinch Onion or garlic powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Cold water
1 tablespoon Vegetable oil to grease pan

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients well. Pinch off pieces of the dough and roll them into two-inch balls. Bake biscuits at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Let them cool, then store in an airtight container.
Originally from the Humane Society of Santa Clare Co., Santa Clara, CA.

You can store these Dog treats in an airtight container.  You can Freeze or refrigerate them to ensure the freshness.

Raw Meat Cat Food

This is a pretty intense recipe, but your cats will adore you if you give it to them.  This is a good treat for your cats when you want to give them a little something extra.  It is not the most "light" food for your cats, but they will enjoy it very much!  Do not use this cat food on a regular basis, but like we said, it is a nice treat for once in a while. 

·        3 pounds raw muscle meat

·         14 ounces raw heart. If you can't get heart, substitute 4000mg Taurine and add an additional 14 ounces raw muscle meat

·        7 ounces raw liver. If you can't get liver, substitute with 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D and add an additional 7 ounces of raw muscle meat

·         2 cups water

·         4 tablespoons bone meal. (The kind made for humans not the kind for your garden)

·        2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin

·         4 raw egg yolks

·         4 capsules raw glandular supplement

·         4000mg salmon oil

·         800 IU Vitamin E

·         200mg Vitamin B

·         1/2 tsp kelp

·         1/2 tsp dulse

·         4 tsp psyllium husk powder OR 8 tsp whole psyllium husks

If freezing the finished cat food recipes for more than a week or two, add an additional 4000mg of Taurine to make up for what may be lost during storage. We add the additional Taurine to each batch of cat food recipes we make regardless of how long it will be frozen just to insure our cats get enough of this vital nutrient.

1.    Remove the skin

2.    Wash the meat. If you will be using the skin, wash it as well (see note)

3.    Chunk a good portion of the meat into bite sized pieces. Donot grind. Place in refrigerator

4.    Grind up the remaining meat, heart, liver and skin (if using). Mix well. Place in refrigerator

5.    Fill a bowl with the two cups of water and whisk together all of the non-meat ingredients except the psyllium and gelatin. It will clump up if the psyllium and gelatin are added too soon. If substituting Vitamin A & D for the liver and Taurine for the heart, add them now

6.    Whisk the psyllium and gelatin into the elixir mix

7.    Combine the elixir, chunked meat and ground meat together. Mix well

8.    Portion into containers and serve or freeze. Be sure to allow room for expansion when portioning into the containers to freeze.

Two or three times a week, sprinkle a few drops of fresh salmon oil onto the food just prior to feeding it to your cats. The essential fatty acids in salmon oil are very fragile. There is no way of knowing if any gets lost during freezing so it's a good idea to put a little on the food just to be sure your cats are getting enough. Most cats love the taste so it's a nice treat for them.

It is also a good idea to sprinkle on a little extra Taurine two or three times a week as well just to be sure your cats get enough of this essential amino acid. As with the salmon oil, it is hard to be sure how much may get lost during freezing.

Skin - if your cats are thin, grind up the skin with the meat. The extra fat in the skin will help put weight back on. If your cats are normal weight or overweight, omit the skin. We don't usually use the skin but will add some if we are a little short on the weight of the meat for the recipe. If we have a skinny cat that needs to put on weight, we just feed him or her more frequently until a good weight is reached.

Don't get too hung up on the weight of the meat for the cat food recipes. There is no need to throw away a piece of thigh meat just because you are a few ounces over. As long as you are close, the cat food recipe will turn out fine.

You may need to experiment with the amount of water a little. If your cats prefer it a little soupy, add more water to the recipe. If they like it a little more solid, put less water in your cat food. Our cats prefer the food a little chewy so we only add 1 1/2 cups of water.

As stated at the beginning, this cat food recipe is inferior to the recipe with bones. Cats need the calcium and minerals found in real bones. Supplemental calcium is simply not as good but this recipe will do in a

Fleece Dog Tuggy

This is a really simple and basic toy that we make often here at the shelter for some of our animals.  The fabric at craft stores is really cheap, and you can often just get it in the scrap section.  Your dog will love this toy if he or she like Tug-O-War, and most dogs do!

Materials:

• Fleece, about 1/2 yard for a large rope toy:  any two colors
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Prep your fabric by washing it and drying it to remove any chemicals from the fabric surface.
2. Cut your fabric into strips going from selvedge edge to selvege edge (the selvedge is the part that is on the sides when the fabric is on the bolt, you will be able to tell because the side where it was cut from the bolt is NOT a selvedge edge). How wide you cut your strips will depend on how big of a bone you want, I have big dogs so I go about 2-3 inches wide....if you have a little dog make them narrower but don't go under 1 inch wide or it won't hold up! You will need 6 strips per rope
3. Don't get too fussy cutting them, it's okay if they aren't perfectly straight or exactly the same width.
4. Take your 6 strips and lay them on top of one another, tie a knot near one end.
5. Begin braiding VERY tightly holding two strips together for each part of the braid, the tighter you braid the longer it will last and the less little pieces of fleece your dog will eat.
6. After 4-5 inches of braiding (2-3 if making a small bone) tie two knots using the middle strips and each side. We're basically just securing our braiding to make sure it stays nice and tight and that the fleece doesn't stretch out as fast if used as a tug toy.
7. Braid another 2 inches or so and then tie another pair of knots as in Step 5. This is creating a nice tight core area where we will make a center knot later.
8. Braid for another 4-5 inches and tie off with a large knot just like you made at the beginning, I sometimes will tie a smaller knot with a couple of strands just to make sure my braiding doesn't loosen up while I'm tying this knot. Pull it as tight as you can get it!
9. Tie a knot in the middle where your two smaller knots are. This adds strength and durability to the finished item and protects your hands a little more when playing tug.
10. Trim both ends to be nice and neat. All done!