Easy "Hypoallergenic' Homemade Dog Biscuit Bites

Greetings! 
     We're on the last day of our countdown to Cinder's arrival-she comes home tomorrow! 

     Yesterday a friend asked me to post my easy to make, homemade "biscuit bites" recipe and process used to make them for my dogs. I call them biscuit bites because I don't make a large dog biscuit or cookie, I make small, single bite sized treats. They're bite sized for several reasons: smaller size is easier for use during training and smaller sizes mean fewer calories-Cinder is a girl & we need to watch her girly figure. Gilley and Buzz need to stay svelte to be healthy and active too.

     Gilley, my tri colored Border Collie, has food allergies which cause him discomfort. His skin becomes dry and itchy; his coat thin and dull; he develops patchy red areas; and he develops a bad odor.  We removed most grains from his diet and his symptoms almost instantly cleared up.  Additionally, we noticed that Buzz also seemed improved in his overall appearance, energy and his belching ceased so we suspect he also has problems with grains in food, though his weren't obvious until we changed to no grain food. Rice is the only grain they seem to be okay eating.

    Now that we have dogs with food allergies, it's more important to control what they get for treats so homemade it is.  Here's the way we make our dog biscuit bites:

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups oat or rice flour (we use brown rice flour) *If your dog isn't allergic to grains, use regular flour.
• 1 Cups oatmeal or rolled oats
• 1 & 1/4 Cups hot water  *If you opt NOT to use Peanut Butter, you can use meat stock/broth instead of water or substitute equal portions of water and meat stock.
• 1/2 Cup Peanut Butter  * This can be omitted or exchanged for finely shredded cheese or cheese sauce (if the cheese sauce contains no grain or flour). 

Instructions:

• Set oven temperature to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit)
• Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl
• If using peanut butter, melt in a microwave to a thick syrup consistency
• Mix melted peanut butter and hot water; then add to the dry ingredients
• Blend all the ingredients until they form a thick dough
• Roll dough (as for cookies) to about 1/8" thickness. *We use oatmeal on the counter to

  

  Rolled dough being cut into squares

  roll out the dough instead of rice flour and it seems to work fine.
• Using a knife, cut the dough into 1/2" to 3/4" squares. * If you have dogs larger than Border Collies, you may want a larger bite size so adjust to an easy bite size for your bigger dog. *You could cut dough using regular cookie cutters or a pizza cutter.
• Place cut biscuits on baking pans and place in 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. *These will not rise or spread like other cookies so you can place them close together on the baking pan.
  

• Remove from oven and allow them to air cool and dry about 8 - 12 hours. Do not hurry this part-it's important they are completely cool and dry before packaging.
• Package biscuit bites in baggies or containers.  * Biscuits should be stored in a cool environment or refrigerator and should safely last two weeks.  Freezing biscuits for later works very well, but do NOT give frozen biscuits to your dogs because they could cause your dog to break teeth-serve them completely thawed.
  

I tend to make the biscuit bites in double batches because they go pretty quickly.  My boys literally turn circles and do the doggie dance of joy for the peanut butter version!  I certainly hope Cinder likes them too!

Cheers!

Chris