Cooking for my Dog... Substitue for Flour

[ylwdog]

Hello,
I am searching for a substitue for flour to act as a binder for some treats I am preparing. I do not feed her grains, so I am looking for a non-grain based food source to work as a binder.

Here is the recipe:
2 cans of tuna packed in water, drained
2 eggs
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups of flour (or more as needed to make stiff dough)

Mix together. Press (or roll) flat on a cookie sheet to about 1/4"
thick.
Spraying hands with Pam - very easy to press out that way!

Bake at 250 F for 30 minutes. Cut into 1/4" cubes and refrigerate or
freeze.


thanks,

Doug

[mcnerd]

Is there a medical reason for the non-grain based food? Normally I would suggest oatmeal or cornmeal, but they don't fall in to your criteria.

http://dog-care.suite101.com/article.cfm/homemade_dog_food_recipes

[Semigourmet]

Hello,
I am searching for a substitue for flour to act as a binder for some treats I am preparing. I do not feed her grains, so I am looking for a non-grain based food source to work as a binder.

Here is the recipe:
2 cans of tuna packed in water, drained
2 eggs
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups of flour (or more as needed to make stiff dough)

Mix together. Press (or roll) flat on a cookie sheet to about 1/4"
thick.
Spraying hands with Pam - very easy to press out that way!

Bake at 250 F for 30 minutes. Cut into 1/4" cubes and refrigerate or
freeze.


thanks,

Doug

what are you making?

I too cook for my dog but not to the extent that he doesn't get Dog Food. I cook him an over easy or scrambled egg, he does love an over easy egg mixed with his dry food. He also gets some chicken, boneless skinless chicken breast meat, or ham, steak leftovers. Not a lot, but a bit mixed in with his dry food. he doesn't like carrots, will pick those out and spit them on the floor. sorry going off on my pooch! Good luck I will see what I can find out too. I have a few websites I can reference.

[ylwdog]

Good morning,
Thanks for the responses. Mary, thanks for the extra leg work :-) , I appreciate it very much.

The reason for not feeding grains falls into the raw-meaty bone diet parameters. It has been established through medical research that grains are the direct cause of so many canine allergies, which can/will produce varying degrees of allergic reactions, skin irritations/rashes to ear infections ranging from fairly mild to very severe.

I am looking to increase and enhance the variety of dog treats. I am a professional dog trainer, and with the amount of training I do, training successes rely heavily on the varying degrees of motivation of the doggy treats, i.e. better tasting treats create more desire to work, milder or lower value treats are used for reinforcement or lower demanding training exercises. Combine variety w/ the real life needs of a non-greasy food to aid in split-second treat delivery for desired success and a non-grain food source and waa-laa, Tuna Brownie... :-)
Once the recipe has been perfected, other meats or fishes can be substituted, i.e. salmon.

Thanks for both responses, and keeping my fingers crossed that we can find a substitue ingredient.

[Semigourmet]

ylwdog. I am sorry! I didn't mean to sound like I was trying to debate you. I completely agree with what you are doing. Dogs are Carnivors and their systems run better on their native foods. I was not trying to tell you you were wrong or debate you in any way. I am sorry it came off that way. You go for it! I love my dog but am just not ambitious enough to do what you are doing for him. I have a staffordshire bull terrier. He is a great lovey, as dogs are.

As for the flour issue. I don't see too many alternatives yet. I am sureyou have seen

Rice flour, other than that I don't see much of a binder out there that isn't grain based. Is Rice a Grain? I don't remember.

peanut butter, dry milk powder

have you checked out www.threedogbakery.com

I hope some of this helps![/SIZE]

[ylwdog]

Hi Mary,
Oh no no, I did not interpret it in a debating tone whatsoever. I only offered the commentary for backup information, really for anyone else who might join the thread. I am sorry if it came across that way... I totally did not mean it to... :-) I don't enjoy the debating aspect on forums as they get heated and I don't enjoy at all, ironic that you and I both appear to be extremely cordial and we are dealing w/ this... ha ha.

I would explore the raw diet thing if you like it, it is a little more work but super easy to deliver and after awhile you will wonder how you could ever do it any other way. It is fun to find great resources for meat. After that all it is handing it them or throwing it in a bowl and all done. I am humbled by your remark that you love your dog. It is a wonderful thing everytime someone tells me this. I have a very small dog-treat company-all dehydrated treats, "Maggie's Promise". I started it after the loss of Maggie, my little girl, she is the in the photo of my avatar.

I do believe rice is a grain, and I just Wiki it and it is.
Dry milk, hmmmm that is interesting. I might try that.

What about eggs. Can eggs act as a binder?

Thanks for your response,

[Semigourmet]

I am sorry for your loss! I miss my pets when they go home. I have only had my baby for about 5 months. I am not with him right now and it is killing me. I am in Colorado with my stepdaughter and she doesn't like him so I sent him home with dad so he didn't have to deal with that. Long story for another time. And yes, congeniality is the way to go, no need to be nasty. I comend you for loving your pet enough to go the extra yard, or mile. LOL

And Yes, eggs are a binder. they solidify when cooked.

[ylwdog]

I will try this and post back... thanks
:)

[ylwdog]

I wanted to let everyone know that Mary's suggestion for dry milk as the flour substitue works, yee-haww!
Not only that, but my dog loved the treats.

Super easy to make and healthy and nutritional too.

[Semigourmet]

Cool, Ylwdog! Glad it worked.