Healthy, Easy To Make Frozen Dog Treats To Keep Your Pooch Cool This Summer!
During the summer months I love to give my dogs frozen treats. They usually have some fruit in them and they make for fantastic, healthy snacks to supplement my dogs’ diets. These particular treats contain fruit and veg and they are very pretty. They are super easy to make and your dog will love you for them!
Rainbow frozen dog treats
These scrummy-looking snacks take slightly longer to prepare than a simple 2-ingredient treat, since there’s a little more that goes into them. To get a good range of colours, you will need at least 4 different coloured fruits or veg to represent the colours red – orange/yellow – green – blue.
In these treats, the ingredients I used were: strawberries – steamed sweet potato – banana – chopped spinach – blueberries
Ingredients
- Suitable red ingredients: strawberries, raspberries, watermelon or red meat
- Suitable orange ingredients: sweet potato or orange peppers
- Suitable yellow ingredients: banana or yellow peppers
- Suitable green ingredients: chopped broccoli, kale or spinach
- Suitable blue ingredients: blackcurrants
- Suitable indigo/violet ingredients: blueberries
- Dog-safe liquid: water or bone broth
In theory you can use any dog-safe liquid as the base for these treats. Options include water, bone broth or even milk. Bear in mind that anything other than water will obscure the colours of the ingredients a little. I chose to use rabbit bone broth, as I had just prepared some. As you can see in the photo, it does indeed cloud the colours a little.
However, this compromise is necessary for my girl who is very fussy and will refuse food that has no meat in it! Next time I will make them with water and add meat as the red ingredient.
Instructions
Chop up the ingredients quite small and lay them on the bottom of your ice-pop molds in the order of the rainbow colours. Top up with whatever liquid you’re using and freeze. That’s it! Pretty simple preparation for pretty treats!
I think these treats would be better in long ice cube molds, so you can really appreciate the different colours. However, even after pulling everything out of the cupboard I couldn’t find mine, so they ended up round…
Homemade frozen dog treats – 2 ingredients
For simple, healthy recipes containing just 2 ingredients, try these:
What frozen treats can I give my dog?
As well as the above recipes, you could just give your dog frozen veg as treats – some dogs will eat fruit and veg with no meat (mine won’t, unfortunately).
If you are lucky enough to have a pup that will happily munch down an apple, then why not try making watermelon puree and freezing it in ice cube trays, or simply give him green beans / broccoli florets / sliced carrots, straight from the freezer?
What NOT to put into frozen dog treats
There are many common ingredients that are NOT safe for dogs to eat, however. You can see a detailed list here.
Another ingredient to avoid is peanut butter. Yes, you may have seen it in lots of dog treats and in many dog treat recipes. However, if you love your dog, you will ban peanut butter from his bowl. It’s full of lots of nasties – even the so-called dog-friendly varieties.
There are so many healthy options that we can feed our dogs, so why risk giving them something that may harm them? Here’s a very quick video (2 minutes), summarising why you should not give your dog peanut butter.
Tap twice to load then open Video...
Also, a note about dairy products. I use cream and yogurt in treats for my dogs. They do not have any allergic reactions to dairy products, and like me, they are cheese monsters. However, some dogs, just like some people, ARE allergic to dairy products.
Conclusion
Frozen treats for dogs are really easy to prepare. Not only do they make great doggy snacks, they are also healthy options for keeping your pup cool in the heat of summer.
Final note: Tragically, every year dogs die from heatstroke. Follow these tips to avoid your fur-baby suffering in the sun.
This is especially true in the case of older dogs, who need special care and consideration in warmer months. Have you thought about how to protect your dog this summer?