Confused About Which Flour To Use For Dog Treats?
Healthy, homemade dog treats are so much better for your fur baby than store-bought treats. Perhaps you’re wondering which flour to use in dog treats?
Affiliate Disclosure: As an Associate with Amazon and other companies, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Don’t worry, there’s no extra cost to you!
IS FLOUR GOOD FOR DOGS?
‘Flour’ can refer to so many different food products. So, when asking if dogs can eat flour, we need to be specific about which type of flour.
There’s lots of food that really isn’t great for dogs, much of which isn’t great for us either in fact. However, I can make a conscious choice to eat something that’s ‘bad for me’ (chips, nachos, chocolate cake… the list goes on), but I’d rather my dogs didn’t get unhealthy food offered to them.
Certain kinds of flour add nothing nutritionally to a recipe. Some types of flour are potentially bad for your dog. For these reasons, I no longer use wheat flour, for instance. That said, the occasional treat with wheat flour is not going to seriously harm a dog, unless that dog has an allergy to wheat.
However, since there are healthier alternatives to ‘unhealthy’ flours, that work well in my recipes, I prefer to use those.
GLUTEN FREE FLOURS
Many dog treat recipes call for gluten free flour. This is a fantastic option for dogs that have a gluten allergy. However, according to Purina, true gluten intolerance in dogs is pretty rare, with supposedly less than 1% of dogs suffering from a gluten allergy.
From a dog treats point of view, the problem with gluten free flours is that they lack the ‘glue’ that holds ingredients together. Cookies and treats made with gluten free flour are more likely to crumble and break. This may be exactly the kind of treat you want – for instance, a dog with a sore mouth, poor dental health, or perhaps an older dog, may benefit from treats that break easily.
If you don’t want crumbly treats, you need to add more ‘binding’ ingredients to your treats, such as egg. Alternatively, blend gluten free flour with another flour that will help to bind everything together.
GRAIN FREE FLOURS
One of the problems with grains is this: grains, (with the exception of sorghum and millet), are high in lectins. Lectins can damage the stomach lining, which can lead to leaky gut syndrome, causing chronic inflammation.
Legumes, such as peas, beans, soybeans and lentils, are also high in lectins. However, there are ways to prepare and cook food, to reduce lectin levels.
Grain free dog treat recipes will not call for flour made from wheat, barley, rice, oats, or rye. Common grain-free options include almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour.
WHICH FLOUR IS BEST FOR MAKING DOG TREATS?
Different flours react differently from one recipe to another and will give you different results in your treats. If you like the look of a recipe, but don’t like the flour used – or don’t have it in your pantry – you can experiment by replacing the called-for flour with something else.
COMMONLY USED FLOUR FOR DOG TREATS
ALMOND FLOUR
I love using almond flour in my treats. It’s a fairly heavy flour, but it works well in most recipes. It’s calorie-dense, but it’s also nutrient-dense. Plus, the calories come mostly from beneficial, unsaturated fats.
Here are a couple of recipes that use almond flour:
COCONUT FLOUR
Coconut flour adds a coconut flavour to treats: this varies according to the brand and the quality of the flour. It is not as heavy as almond flour, but you can’t simply replace the called-for flour in a recipe with coconut flour.
Coconut flour is very ‘thirsty’, quickly absorbing more liquid than other flours do. If you want to incorporate coconut flour into a recipe that calls for a different flour, you will need to experiment.
Try mixing the coconut flour with another flour, substituting 1 cup of the called for flour with 1/4 cup of coconut flour.
Also increase the amount of eggs, oil or liquid in the recipe to account for coconut flour’s absorbency. Add a little at a time until you get the required consistency.
Coconut flour is also difficult to use in doughs that you intend to roll out. You may find that dog biscuits made with coconut flour are softer than with other types of flour.
Here are a couple of dog treats and dog cake recipes that use coconut flour:
OAT (OATMEAL) FLOUR
You can either buy ready made oat flour (oatmeal), or grind it yourself – I grind oats in my coffee grinder. Don’t overfill it, just do small batches at a time, and you’ll soon be adding it to all your recipes!
A blender you can also use as a grinder is such a useful tool to have for making treats.
As well as using it for your own needs, like making smoothies or grinding coffee beans, it’s perfect for grinding oats, nuts, seeds and even dried fruit for dog treat recipes.
Oat flour mixes well with other flours such as brown rice flour or coconut flour. Oat flour doesn’t absorb as much liquid as coconut flour does, but it retains moisture well. Consequently, treats made with oats may take longer to cook and be more moist after cooking, than treats made with other flours.
Moisture can lead to mold, so making sure that your treats are properly dried is important if you plan to keep them for longer periods of time. Dehydrators are a dog-bakers best friend for making treats with a long shelf life!
Oat flour is higher in carbohydrates than some other flours. However it’s a nutrient dense source of carbs, so if you’re looking to improve on a general, all-purpose wheat flour, then oat flour is a great alternative.
Many of the non-wheat flours are much more expensive than wheat, but that’s not the case with oats, so they make a cost-effective substitute for other flours.
Oats also offer some excellent health benefits too.
Here are a couple of dog treat recipes that use oatmeal flour:
QUINOA FLOUR
Quinoa flour is made from ground quinoa seeds, so not technically a grain. It is very nutritious, and considered a superfood as it contains all nine of the essential amino acids. Find out more about quinoa in this article.
Here are a couple of dog treat recipes that use quinoa flour:
RICE FLOUR
Rice flour won’t add any particular flavour to your dog treats. You can get brown rice flour, and white rice flour.
Brown rice flour is simply ground, unrefined (unhulled) rice, whereas white rice flour is ground hulled rice.
Brown rice flour is more nutritious than white, but it is a heavier flour than the white. Using just brown rice flour can lead to denser doughs. You could try mixing brown rice flour with other flours, such as coconut flour or white rice flour to lighten it.
Mixing rice flour with other flours is a good idea anyway, since dog biscuits and treats made with just rice flour tend to crumble more easily.
TAPIOCA FLOUR
Tapioca flour is a light flour with a slightly nutty flavour. It comes from a root, not a grain.
It is is high in starchy carbs. It is also high in calories, so it’s not a good choice for treats for an overweight dog.
I don’t personally use tapioca flour in my treats. Using tapioca alone, especially in higher proportions, might lead to a sticky, gummy texture. However, I’ve heard other dog treat bakers sing its praises, especially in flour blends. A good blend seems to be 50% tapioca to 50% oatmeal.
CHICKPEA / GARBANZO FLOUR
Chickpeas are nutritious, but they are legumes (beans), so if you are concerned about lectins in your dog’s diet, it’s probably best to avoid chickpea flour.
Used as the only flour in a recipe, it may lead to treats that crumble easily.
WHEAT FLOUR
Wheat flour is available as white, highly refined flour, or, whole wheat.
CAN DOGS HAVE ALL PURPOSE FLOUR?
All purpose, white flour offers absolutely nothing by way of nutrients and is not going to help or maintain your dog’s health.
Whole wheat flour offers a source of fibre. There are gluten free options, but if you use these you’ll need to add something to help bind the ingredients, such as egg.
PROS AND CONS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF FLOUR FOR DOG TREATS
| NAME | PROS | CONS |
| Almond Flour | Gluten free, Can replace wheat flour with almond flour in recipes calling for wheat flour | Higher fat content |
| Coconut flour | Low in carbs, High in fibre | Very ‘thirsty’ – requires more liquid, Not good for rolled dough if used as only flour |
| Oat(meal) Flour | Can easily replace half of called for flour with oat flour, Cost-effective, Good health properties | Higher in carbs |
| Quinoa flour | Super nutritious, gluten-free, grain-free | Needs to be prepared and cooked well |
| Rice Flour | Works well in combination with another flour | Treats crumble easily when used as only flour |
| Tapioca Flour | A root not a grain | High in carbs High in calories |
| Whole wheat Flour | Cheap High in fibre | High in carbs |
I am not a veterinarian: this information is not intended to replace medical advice, but rather, to help you make informed decisions to improve your dog’s health and wellbeing. Please, always seek your vet’s opinion, especially in the case of your dog being ill.
Refs