Homemade Dog Food Recipes: Summer Edition

Are you looking for fresh and healthy dog food recipes to stuff in interactive toys? I’ve been experimenting lately, and I found a few cool recipes your dogs will love—just in time for summer. These frozen dog treats will taste fabulous, as they include fresh ingredients. In addition, stuffing these recipes into your favorite interactive dog toy will provide your dog much-needed mental enrichment.

Summer Dog Food Recipes

Sweet Potatoes, Molasses & Pears

Start with oven-roasted sweet potatoes, fresh pears, blackstrap molasses and your dog’s favorite interactive toy. No one likes to eat raw sweet potatoes, so peel and dice sweet potatoes into one-inch chunks. Cook them in the oven at 350 degrees until each chunk is completely soft in the center. Chop fresh pears into thick-cut French fry slivers and set aside.

Now, toss a few sweet potato chunks into the bottom of your dog’s toy. This will prevent other ingredients from leaking out. If your dog solves food puzzles quickly, smash the sweet potato inside the toy with your finger, which will make the food puzzle last a bit longer. Once the potatoes are in, drizzle blackstrap molasses over the potatoes; use it sparingly or it’ll leak out of the bottom. For the final layer, shove two to three slivers of pear inside the toy, so that pear ends stick out for easy snacking. Pop into your freezer overnight and voila—a healthy frozen dog treat!

Watermelon & Honey

At the grocery store, grab a container of rindless, seedless watermelon that’s been cut into large chunks and a bottle of honey. When selecting honey, I choose locally grown raw honey that’s in a squeezable bottle. It’ll make filling dog toys much easier.

Once home, gather your dog’s interactive toys and start filling with watermelon chunks. If your dog solves puzzles quickly, smash the watermelon inside the toy. Smashed watermelon will leak, so plug holes with peanut butter (it’s an excellent edible glue). Once all toys are filled with watermelon, drizzle honey on top.

To make this dog food puzzle even harder to empty, layer smashed watermelon, honey and smashed watermelon until the toy is filled. Freeze overnight, and give as treats throughout the day. Make sure your dog has plenty of potty breaks. Your dog will need to potty about 30 minutes after eating a watermelon stuffed toy. 🙂

RELATED: What Human Foods are Bad for Dogs?

Yogurt, Oatmeal & Blueberries

For this recipe, I recommend using plain low-fat yogurt, cooked oatmeal and fresh blueberries. This is a layered food stuffed toy recipe, which means you can creatively layer many different ways. I recommend placing yogurt at the bottom of the dog toy because you can easily clean up any residue left behind. For my dogs, I start with yogurt as the first layer, add a few blueberries for the second layer and add cooked oatmeal for the final layer with blueberries on top. If your dog’s unable to digest dairy, substitute with smashed bananas or canned pumpkin. Freeze overnight and serve as needed.

Fresh food is healthy for dogs, and you’ll notice it’s low in fat too. For dogs watching their waistlines, simply add less food in each toy. Happy summer!