Wanted: Super pain in the neck non-allergen dog treat needed. Apply Within.

February 6, 2011 9:30 AM

Help! I need an easy inexpensive dog treat/cookie recipe without any common allergens. Is this really as impossible as it seems?

I have a multi-allergy Lab/GSD mixed dog. Her diet excludes poultry, beef, nuts and any grains (wheat, corn, oats, rice, etc.) at all. I've had dozens of dogs throughout my life and she is the first one with any allergies at all, and she came with a boatload! Two ear surgeries and over $1,000 later, we finally at least know what was causing the problem.

That said I simply cannot afford specialized treats (there is nothing left now, after the vet bills) and besides, I don't trust the manufacturers anyway.

I also cannot afford (nor even find) specialized health food flour alternatives. I've heard about soy flour and something about tapioca flour, but try finding that in the swamps of Alabama. You can't. I could buy online, but then my eyes began burning in their sockets when I saw what the prices were. No thanks!

I am aware that I can dehydrate foods like bananas, sweet potatoes and pumpkins, but they either turn out too hard (and she ends up just unsafely swallowing them) or they turn out too moist (and go bad in a day or so).

Refrigeration is out too. She won't eat them cold (yes, she is a princess) and I'm not going to heat each and every treat I ever give her for the rest of her natural born life. I love her so very much, but I won't.

Surely there is a cookie-like recipe out there, with somewhat common ingredients not excluded from her diet, that do not require chef like skills nor the wallet of Bill Gates.

I've Googled this until I'm literally dreaming ingredients. Can someone, anyone, help me?

posted by magnoliasouth to Pets & Animals (17 answers total)

I recently discovered Natural Balance dog foods and my cocker was cured of those horrible allergies in 3 days. However, I realize you don't want to spend that kind of money. I asked the pet food store (Noah's Ark Pet Shops of Sturbridge, MA - to recommend) owner what other options I had. She said to feed him carrots, green beans and cucumbers. He loves carrots anyway. Good luck.
posted by andreap at 9:35 AM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is there a reason why it has to be cookie-like? I was wondering if she'll refuse cold meat or cheese when she's feeling ok. At my grocery store, I can typically get family packs of boneless pork for < $3/lb. You not only know exactly what's going into your dog treats that way (1 ingredient: meat!) but it's cheaper than anything but the nastiest commercial dog treats. It can be cooked up and portioned once a week (longer if you freeze it) with minimal time and effort. Cheese requires less prep, but you can't really keep a bag full of it in your pocket all day.
posted by Gable Oak at 9:59 AM on February 6, 2011

I can also attest that our dogs LOVE carrots. They are small so we usually just keep a bag of baby carrots around for them. Cheapest dog treat I've ever found.
posted by magnetsphere at 10:06 AM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dried cheese (last recipe on the linked page). Easy, affordable, keeps well and my hounds will do handstands for a piece. I usually use mild cheddar.
posted by vers at 10:17 AM on February 6, 2011

Our dogs love carrots too (baby carrots are a good treat size) and even ice cubes are sometimes a treat (but then, they are a sledding breed). Trying to think of what else... our dogs eat anything! I think they've also enjoy piece of clementine in past? Again, our dogs eat anything, but anything we give them seems to be viewed as a treat, a gift from the Dogs On Two Legs.

That said, how on earth do you feed her!? Is there specialized non-beef-poultry food? Like...goat? Pork? Poor dog and poor wallet...
posted by maryr at 10:21 AM on February 6, 2011

Is substituting in chick pea flour or potato flour in typical treat recipes a possiblity? Neither is outrageously expensive...
posted by vers at 10:29 AM on February 6, 2011

Carrots, definitely. My ("allergic little dog") cocker loves them.

What do you feed her? Can you just give her nibbles of her food instead of treats?
posted by galadriel at 10:35 AM on February 6, 2011

Try looking for freeze dried things. Remember, treats for dogs can be tiny if you're using them for training. It also seems to me you don't have to refrigerate most fruit or vegetable chunks if your going to use them up in a day.

Chickpea flour is about two dollars a pound. But then I looked and so is soy and tapioca flour, so maybe that's too much for you.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:42 AM on February 6, 2011

I think you could do a lot without making cookies-- the dried cheese recipe from vers is a great treat and you can give small amounts at a time. You can cut up hot dogs and place them in a low heat oven for awhile to dry them out a little- perfect and dogs love them. Any meat that you can buy that she is not allergic can be cooked up and dried out the same way, cut into little pieces and given as cookie. I also buy liverwurst quite often and dole out little bites to my dogs and they really love it, and it is pretty cheap. Maybe your dog would overlook the cold temp. for something delightful like a bite of pork liverwurst?
posted by catrae at 10:48 AM on February 6, 2011

My pooch is similarly affected, and although I am able to buy her sweet potato and fish limited ingredient treats, her real favorite is dried up cheese, as others have mentioned above. She will go to un-doggy-like lengths for a dried up hunk of Parmesan.
posted by msali at 11:56 AM on February 6, 2011

Response by poster: Great ideas so far! Please keep them coming. I'll be sure to try the carrots.

I forgot to mention an allergy though. Darn it! I knew this would happen. :( No dairy either, so cheese is out too. That's way too bad because that was her go-to treat. ;)
posted by magnoliasouth at 12:07 PM on February 6, 2011

In my experience, dogs mostly like treats for the novelty. My dogs have happily devoured green beans, peas, carrots, etc. One of them just had some tangerine the other day, which was funny since I'd heard dogs don't like citrus.

One of my dogs is also highly allergic. In general I've found that we shouldn't give him fruit - we have squirrels who come through the yard and drop peaches and persimmons, and both have made him ill, as has pumpkin (ill-fated experiment making jack-o'-lanterns with the dogs out...never again). However, he has eaten peas in the pod, green beans, and carrots with no issues.

Bummer about the poultry! Dried chicken is both cheap and easy.
posted by little light-giver at 12:57 PM on February 6, 2011

Oh, also: I bet your dog can't chew rawhide bones either. If you can get your hands on elk (or other) antlers, give them a shot. We still had to take it away after a while so he wouldn't consume too much at once, but they seem a lot more digestible than rawhides.
posted by little light-giver at 1:01 PM on February 6, 2011

I was also coming in to say carrots. My dog loves them, and most other vegetables (he also has a thing for frozen kale stems, but that's just weird). You might also try salmon jerky - it's not cheap, but you could probably make it yourself for less.
posted by judith at 1:02 PM on February 6, 2011

I adopted my dog this summer and had to deal with both food and seasonal allergies. No grains (rice, wheat, oat, corn). No dairy (eggs, cheese). No meats (beef, chicken, pork). After reviewing recipes online and finding nothing, I created the following recipe. My dog doesn’t get a biscuit every day, they are special treats. Most days he gets carrots, green beans, and his fish-based dry food (convenient motivation when training).

===============
Dog Biscuits (makes about one dozen 2-inch biscuits)

1/4 c beans, cooked and mashed (refried beans work but check the ingredients)
1/4 c filler (applesauce, ripe banana; cooked and mashed squash, pumpkin, carrot, or sweet potato)
Optional:
minced fruit/vegetable (carrot, apple, etc)
instant mashed potato flakes (for thickener - amount needed changes for the filler used)

Mix beans and one of the fillers together. Add some minced fruit/vegetable if you want some texture to the biscuit. If the mixture is thin, add instant mashed potato flakes by tbsp until a dough if formed (sometimes helps to microwave the mixture to get it to thicken).

Line a cookie sheet with parchment and form into biscuit (I make cookies with a 1 tbsp scoop, pressing slightly with tines of a fork). Bake 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until the middles are set. Let cool. The biscuits harden overnight (and into small rocks after a week) but freeze well for long-term storage.
================

Check to see if beans agree with your dog before feeding. For mine, it doesn't seem to be a problem in limited doses. I asked my vet about any issues with the ingredients; she suggested limiting the amount of sugary fruits and vegetables (squash and apples). This was to maintain a proper weight and preventing kidney issues than for the allergies.
posted by bCat at 2:06 PM on February 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

If you can get lamb liver (my food co-op always has it in the freezer section), you can make liver treats. You just boil the liver until it turns gray all the way through, cut it into little tiny pieces, then put them on a cookie sheet to dry in a 250-degree oven. It'll take a couple of hours. Make sure they're totally dry, otherwise you'll have to refrigerate them.
posted by HotToddy at 2:40 PM on February 6, 2011

Our dog actually loves his kibble so much that it works as a treat. He does like small pieces of cheese even more, so kibble isn't the highest value treat - but works for most everything.
posted by lab.beetle at 5:56 PM on February 6, 2011