Dehydrator Recipes: Making Your Own Healthy Treats

[Diane Margetts]

 

After reading some of the comments about making healthy treats with a dehydrator, I couldn't resist and put a dehydrator on my Christmas list!! For Dakota's treats I have sliced chicken breast and lean pork tenderloin to about 1/4". I cooked the meat about half cook and then put it on the dehydrator. It's going to take a few experiments to finally figure out the right timing--if I remember right, I dehydrated the meat for about 6 hours (it would take a lot longer if it was totally raw. The strips shrink down to about the width of a piece of beef jerky so you wind up with about a half of the bulk quantity you started with. The good news is Dakota is completely crazy about it! He thinks it's the best treat ever--don't know if he has a preference for chicken or pork!

I also had a bag of apples and Asian pears that needed to be used so we cored and sliced them to 1/4 inch. They took 6-8 hours to dry. Now I did these for my husband and I to snack on BUT Dakota loves the apples and pears almost as much as the meat!

Looking forward to hearing if any of you have actual dehydrator dog treat recipes!

[Diane Margetts]

That sounds really good--we go  jerkygen so that would be as ideal recipe--except I might need to use cranberry jelly . . .

[Dana]

I've made it with jellied cranberry sauce when i didn't have whole berry & it was just as good!  Diane, what's jerkygen?

 

[Diane Margetts]

It's hitting the keyboard too fast! I meant jerkey gun!

[Dana]

lol! thanks for clearing that up - i still don't know what that is - lol!

[Dana]

just googled it - I didn't know there is an acutal gadget for making jerky.  love when I learn something new! 

[Diane Margetts]

You were too quick for me! But, yes--now you know!

[Diane Margetts]

A jerky gun is a tool used to make jerky from ground meat. You put the ground meat in it, squeeze the "trigger" and if forms jerky-looking strips of the ground meat that you dehydrate. We tried ours once and it works really well . . . When you buy a jerky gun it generally comes with seasoning packets to make jerky.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I had never heard of one either.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Cranberries are good for their urinary tracts, too.

[Dana]

Karen, I haven't been on for awhile - How is Jackdoodle doing?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thanks for asking, Dana! He is doing much better, his weight is up and his B12 levels are back in the normal range, so things are moving in the right direction!

[Dana]

Good news, good news indeed!!!