Homemade chews

[Sue Jordan]

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Hi .. I was in Pets at home today and saw some sweet potato chews.. I thought the price was a bit hefty for sweet potatoes so I'm going to have a go at making them myself . Has anyone made these ?..how did you do it and did your puppers like them. I was thinking of just slicing them and putting in oven for couple of hours.Thanks in advance

 

[JudyN]

I've never tried this, though I used to make chicken strips in a dehydrator. There's loads of recipes on the internet: make sweet potato chews for dogs - Google Search

Let us know how you get on!

 

[Sue Jordan]

Thanks Judy I'll take a look at those..the dehydrator sounds a great idea..could save myself a small fortune on treats

 

[Sue Jordan]

Dehydrator ordered...I'll keep you posted

 

[Flobo]

I have to say I love my dehydrator!

 

[RGC]

What a great idea. I’ll have a go this week but will use the oven rather than a dehydrator as we’ve got loads of kitchen gadgets already. For how long would you need using a dehydrator as compared with the 3 hrs in a fan oven at 120?
Thanks for the tip, JudyN. I liked the YouTube Garden Fork presentation.

 

[Flobo]

If I'm doing chicken, rabbit or turkey strips I usually keep them in the dehydrator for probably 6-8 hours @ 75C, depending on how thin I cut them.. never done fruit or veg as my ferrets can't eat them! And can't find the instruction booklet that gives you all the timings for all manner of goodies...apologies...

 

[RGC]

“…..And can't find the instruction booklet that gives you all the timings for all……”.

It’s not just me then.

 

[Grack]

We have been doing dried treats for our girls since they were very young. We first did sweet potatoes and when those were a great hit we moved on to other things. We tried carrots and green beans, they love these, too. We have done chicken and liver. The liver is a constant and on Monday I’m doing some chicken hearts. We have done them all in the low oven of our Aga but if we didn’t have the Aga I’d definitely get a dehydrator. The idea of giving them bought treats is not a pleasant option for us as they’d be packed with undesirable ingredients or so expensive that they’d be rare treats indeed. I will load a photo of the potatoes going in the oven.

 

[RGC]

We have been doing dried treats for our girls since they were very young. We first did sweet potatoes and when those were a great hit we moved on to other things. We tried carrots and green beans, they love these, too. We have done chicken and liver. The liver is a constant and on Monday I’m doing some chicken hearts. We have done them all in the low oven of our Aga but if we didn’t have the Aga I’d definitely get a dehydrator. The idea of giving them bought treats is not a pleasant option for us as they’d be packed with undesirable ingredients or so expensive that they’d be rare treats indeed. I will load a photo of the potatoes going in the oven.View attachment 111980403

Wow! And for how long in the Aga?

 

[Grack]

Well, that was hit and miss at first but usually we get it pretty good now with very few failures and even fewer that weren’t edible. We’ve now started putting very thinly sliced sweet potatoes in either first thing and taking them out evening time or overnight. Trial and error but do the first ones in the day and you can easily check on them. They’re quite tasty for humans as well and we often have a nice munch together! The girls seem to enjoy that idea. The beef/ox liver we scissor into little finger-size strips and put on a Pyrex baking tray, ungreased, first thing in the morning and take them out in the evening, again checking and I take them out before they are totally absolutely dry as they continue to dry after. If in doubt, i put them on the warming plate on top and that does the trick. It’s a very satisfying thing to do. I break the liver into small pieces.

 

[JudyN]

I found that dehydrating liver, and even chicken, did make the house smell pretty revolting though

 

[Grack]

We have found that food in the oven doesn’t smell in our house but it does go out the vent into the garden. That’s not always a good thing as many a time part of our evening meal is discovered within the Aga the next evening as blackened remains!

 

[RGC]

Thank you, Grack. We’re not as fortunate to have an Aga so will give it a go at 150 for three hours in a conventional fan oven. Weighing the cost of electricity against money saved on homemade isn’t easy. per aspera ad astra.

 

[JudyN]

Given the cost of high-quality dog treats, I reckon that if you make a batch big enough to fill the oven and freeze them, you'll be quids in.

 

[Grack]

Thank you, Grack. We’re not as fortunate to have an Aga so will give it a go at 150 for three hours in a conventional fan oven. Weighing the cost of electricity against money saved on homemade isn’t easy. per aspera ad astra.

We will put a thermometer in the low oven we use and let you know as my husband and I both feel that 150 fan could be a good bit higher than ours and obviously lower temperature would use less electricity.

 

[Grack]

Given the cost of high-quality dog treats, I reckon that if you make a batch big enough to fill the oven and freeze them, you'll be quids in.

I agree with you totally Judy!

 

[Grack]

We will put a thermometer in the low oven we use and let you know as my husband and I both feel that 150 fan could be a good bit higher than ours and obviously lower temperature would use less electricity.

We’ve just tested and reckon it’s 70C and we left the very thin sweet potatoes in today for about 6-8 hours. This results in a lovely crisp and crunchy snack.

 

[Flobo]

We’ve just tested and reckon it’s 70C

That sounds about right, my dehydrator runs at 75C, low and slow does the trick!

 

[Grack]

Today’s batch, fresh from the oven! I encourage all to try them as the doggos love them!