OT- found recipes for making your own cat& kitten and dog treats

Never made my own dog food but I have made these type of treats before - using my dog bone cookie cutters :) Basically just like making cookies.

I don't make them too often as my dogs (Labradors) love to eat - LOL - and don't really need too many treats!

MelissaD

I haven't, but intend to browse the cat ones. I don't care much for the smell of the cat canned food and might study those and see if one could make a quantity and freeze it or something. My cat only eats a teaspoon or so of wet food, I could probably leave her with just dry food. However she only weighs about 3lbs so I figure I should keep her eating.

Am just thinking, if I froze stuff in ice cube trays, I could put one out to thaw for the evening each day. Something like I used to do with grandchildren lol

When we lived in Sutherland, Scotland the local shepherds fed their dogs on porridge oats.

Porridge is the very best way in the whole wide world to put weight on an ailing animal! Years ago, my Ugly Sister had a pair of blue merle collies, both of whom suffered from pancreatitis. She was advised to give them a mostly vegetable diet for a time and she tried boiled rice, puffed wheat etc etc etc. Good old rolled oats did the trick and both dogs recovered beautifully!

Later, we tried the same thing with horses that did poorly on hard feed and, you beaut, the rolled oats did the trick again! You can feed it dry, but for a sickly animal with a dicky digestive system, it works best when you've boiled it for at least five minutes in plenty of water and serve it warm, just as you would a bran mash. A pinch of salt adds flavour and a great glob of molasses or treacle adds even more (horses can't resist molasses).

The two huge successes I recall were a grey mare called Foxtrot and a young dun colt called Chocolate Buddy. Both were abuse cases and Foxy was especially skinny: she looked like a coathanger when we got her! Her digestion was so out of whack, she couldn't tolerate ordinary food (grass, hay, bran etc). Just a few days of good old porridge got her appetite back, though, and when we sold her she was in excellent nick! Buddy was lousy and thin and suffering from sand colic (he'd been eating damp soil in an effort to slake his thirst). Again, porridge saved the day and put him on the right track in just days.

Now, if I could only convince the kids to eat the darned stuff instead of the feelthy, sugar-laden, cardboard-based stuff they say they prefer. You simply can't beat a bowl of steaming, creamy porridge with a massive shovelful of brown sugar on top! ;-D

Yumm - both the DH and I have porridge on a regular basis. He makes his oatmeal with milk, and adds more milk and brown sugar on top. I prefer Red River Cereal which I make in the microwave and top with yoghurt, dried cranberries and on occasion, pecans.

margW

I remember educating a North American family when they were reprimanding the waitress in an hotel in Inverness because their breakfast porridge was "salty". I explained that the custom in the Highlands was to use salt and not sugar.

IAP!!!! And then GAG! I simply cannot eat hot cereal of any kind. A few years back they were advertising eating Grape Nuts heated. I like Grape Nuts, so I thought I'd try it. No way, no how could I get it down.

Joan

You wimpy prairie folk - porridge sticks your ribs together for the cold weather !

Try oats with cold, extremely rich, full-cream milk. The Danish Air Force served that every morning when I was at DAFB Skrydstrup for a few weeks in the late 1960s.

My ribs are stuck together very well, thankyouverymuch! I'll take hot chocolate, instead.

Joan

Oh, I can eat them cold, just not hot!

Joan

Hee! I heat up my weetbix or muesli for one minute in the microwave every morning. I've gotten so partial to it, I can't eat them cold any more! DS has just used up the rice left over from last night's tea by heating it up with milk and shovelling some brown sugar on top of it. Mind you, it's blessed winter coming over here, so getting pretty nippy in the mornings. I've been crocheting with smoke coming out of my hook!

You know how you get a bit of a yen to do something a bit different? I've been fiddling with Irish crochet lately and then managed to come by some utterly beeootiful polished 4ply crochet cotton on ebay. I'm making a lacy little jacket for DD out of it. Each morning, as the sun streams through my window, I park in my comfy chair and let the warmth melt my frozen muscles. It's good for about three hours and so I hurry to get my bog-work done and then reward myself with a pleasant time crocheting and listening to music in the sun. Ah, the small pleasures in life are often the best, I find!

For anyone who enjoys crocheting and fine needlework, Irish crochet is

*great* fun! It's a lot more complicated and sort of free-form, but is done with exactly the same stitches, only performed in rather more creative ways. I really like the three-dimensional aspect of it and the lovely way you can use cordonnet to build up strong, flowing lines in your work. I'm only a beginner at the moment, but I've already made a rose-encrusted baby bonnet (which a dear friend has suggested is reminiscent of a tea-cosy! ;-> ) If you google 'Irish crochet', you'll see some amazing pictures of the ravishing laces produced by women of yesteryear.