How to make healthy cat treats

[Antonia]

For those of us who don’t want to feed grain to our furries, treats can be a bit of a problem. Most cat treats contain a fair amount of grain, plus flavourings and colourings. Of course there are healthier options commercially available, such as:

• Freeze-dried treats (like Thrive and Cosma). They are 100% meat or fish – nothing added. Most cats adore them, but they are hideously expensive.
• Dried fish and meat in bags. Some cats take to them, but mine don’t. Perhaps because they are rock-hard (which surprises me because my cats are used to crunching bones, but for some reason or other they find these dried treats too tough).

So I decided to make my own treats. I bought this food dryer.

The fish and meat I use must be lean, otherwise it takes ages to dry. So no salmon or pork for instance. I mostly use beef mince, chicken, turkey, shrimps, and lean white fish such as cod.

For nice crunchy treats I grind the meat/fish to a pulp in the Magimix. I then spread the pulp very thinly on the trays of the dryer – don’t worry about the meat sticking to the tray, it will come off very easily once dry. Shrimps I don’t grind… I use shrimps that are rejected because undersized and sold dirt cheap as cat/reptile food. Of course minced beef can be spread onto the trays directly too.

After an hour or three in the dryer the meat pulp has become a thin crunchy cake, which I break up into ‘flakes’. The Coonies love them, it is quite fun to make them, and often much cheaper than treats you buy in the shop.

The attached pics show shrimps before being dried, chicken ‘flakes’, and steak tartare ‘flakes’.
.

[Howlinbob]

Great post.
I love how Monty is helping in pic no 2!
I read somewhere that you can dry food in a similar way in a heated but switched-off oven, although I've not tried it myself.

[Antonia]

I read somewhere that you can dry food in a similar way in a heated but switched-off oven, although I've not tried it myself.

You can with the oven switched to a very low heat and the door slightly ajar. Great for heating your kitchen too. ;)
But not so great with curious Coonies lurking about, intent on knowing what's in the oven - so I opted for the little food dryer which I can safely hide in the pantry.

[Helen & John]

Have you tried venison in it as thats very lean?

[Antonia]

Have you tried venison in it as thats very lean?

Venison... that's deer meat isn't it? I am ordering some deer tongue shortly so I might have a try.

[Helen & John]

It is, I didn't know they sold the tongue my Dad throws that bit away!

[debbie560]

For those of us who don’t want to feed grain to our furries, treats can be a bit of a problem. Most cat treats contain a fair amount of grain, plus flavourings and colourings. Of course there are healthier options commercially available, such as:

• Freeze-dried treats (like Thrive and Cosma). They are 100% meat or fish – nothing added. Most cats adore them, but they are hideously expensive.
• Dried fish and meat in bags. Some cats take to them, but mine don’t. Perhaps because they are rock-hard (which surprises me because my cats are used to crunching bones, but for some reason or other they find these dried treats too tough).

So I decided to make my own treats. I bought this food dryer.

The fish and meat I use must be lean, otherwise it takes ages to dry. So no salmon or pork for instance. I mostly use beef mince, chicken, turkey, shrimps, and lean white fish such as cod.

For nice crunchy treats I grind the meat/fish to a pulp in the Magimix. I then spread the pulp very thinly on the trays of the dryer – don’t worry about the meat sticking to the tray, it will come off very easily once dry. Shrimps I don’t grind… I use shrimps that are rejected because undersized and sold dirt cheap as cat/reptile food. Of course minced beef can be spread onto the trays directly too.

After an hour or three in the dryer the meat pulp has become a thin crunchy cake, which I break up into ‘flakes’. The Coonies love them, it is quite fun to make them, and often much cheaper than treats you buy in the shop.

The attached pics show shrimps before being dried, chicken ‘flakes’, and steak tartare ‘flakes’.
.

Brilliant Idea x

[Antonia]

It is, I didn't know they sold the tongue my Dad throws that bit away!

Yes, I buy them frozen over here. When fed raw it's great chewing material - but first freeze for at least a week to get rid of parasites, especially if it is wild deer.

[Antonia]

Okay, so I finally followed up on Helen & John’s tip and tried venison in the food drier.

This is minced deer tongue before drying. The fluffy thing in the top right corner is El Monto helping (himself).



It took longer to dry than, for instance, chicken. After about 7 hours in the drier I took the meat out and put it on some sheets of kitchen towel, as there was still some fat dripping out. (I thought you said venison is lean, Helen. )

This is the end result… lovely brown “chips” (and some very interested Coonies).



These treats are a huge success. Especially El Monto goes apeshit for them.

[debbie560]

Okay, so I finally followed up on Helen & John’s tip and tried venison in the food drier.

This is minced deer tongue before drying. The fluffy thing in the top right corner is El Monto helping (himself).



It took longer to dry than, for instance, chicken. After about 7 hours in the drier I took the meat out and put it on some sheets of kitchen towel, as there was still some fat dripping out. (I thought you said venison is lean, Helen. )

This is the end result… lovely brown “chips” (and some very interested Coonies).



These treats are a huge success. Especially El Monto goes apeshit for them.

They look really great, I have sent for mine, I can wait to get going...!!