All Natural Homemade Dog Treats

It's been awhile since I've posted. I have been keeping busy with finishing up this semester's finals and preparing for this weekends canoeing and camping trip! I wanted to share this with you before I leave though. I have been making these for the last couple of weeks for the dogs, and they LOVE them! They are a much better alternative to the store bought treats that have been associated with so many recalls lately. I feel so much better giving them something that I made myself, than having that thought in the back of my head questioning the safety of the treats.

I have been trying to find alternatives to store bought items. This weeks experiment involved replacing the dogs treats with an all natural, wholesome alternative. They already LOVE fresh fruits and veggies (carrots, apples, asparagus), but I wanted something crunchy and that would last a little longer than fresh fruit does. Both in storage, and the length of time it takes for them to eat it.

I found a recipe for dried sweet potato chews. You can buy these at pet stores, but you will pay dearly for them. Instead, I got a bag of sweet potatoes and started slicing! While I was working on these, I noticed the pile of apples on the counter that were getting a little old. They love fresh apples, so why not dried? I sliced those, picking out the seeds, and added them to the cookie sheet as well. I put the oven as low as it would go and left them there for about 12 hours.

Here's what came out of the oven! (Please disregard the horrible photo quality...my camera is MIA so instagram photos were substituted.)

Dried sweet potato and apple dog treats.

And what did the dogs think of them?

Chewie and Boomer approved!

This post is linked to:

Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #26

Barn Hop  #62

Simple Living Wednesdays

The Country Homemaker Hop