Update: I wrote this when Quijote was on a restricted diet and having a treats he could eat was a game changer! We are now introducing his regular foods back into his diet and will see how he does.
Since we adopted Quijote, he’s had stomach issues on and off that vets couldn’t quite pinpoint the cause of.
After a recent bout, a different vet scanned his history with fresh eyes. She had a theory about acid reflux and pancreatitis and I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but, for the first time, we had a plan.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that said plan involves at least a few months of exclusively feeding him that expensive vet-prescribed food — there’s a kibble (which he’s not that into) and canned food (which seems to mostly be for making the kibble more palatable).
And it means all of his treats are currently off the menu. Which is kind of a big deal for him, as well as us. Because, before this, I think our treat game was on point. We had treats for training, for nightly teeth cleaning (his favorites!), for hiding pills, for stuffing into a Kong to keep him distracted when we went out for coffee or over to my parents’ house for dinner… you get the idea.
A week or two into what he must think of as The Great Treat Famine of 2019, I asked the vet for suggestions. She said there’s a way you can actually bake the canned food to give it a more solid, treat-like texture! She was a little fuzzy on the details of how to do it, but I was like “don’t worry. This is definitely a thing the internet has the answer to.”
It had several answers, actually. A lot of them recommended techniques I couldn’t make sense of until I tried them out myself. I used tips from various recipes, especially one I found on Dog Treat Kitchen – plus some trial-and-error.
DIY Dog Food Treats
Method 1: Freeze
Before I get into how to bake treats, I’ll share a shortcut I stumbled on in the process: freezing them.
How to:
You just dollop some treat-size bits of canned food onto parchment paper or into ice cube trays and put it in the freezer.
That’s it.
Notes:
- Quijote has his own designated ice cube tray.
- Best for at-home treats, since they don’t travel particularly well. (They thaw almost immediately.)
- Not good for hiding pills.
- Takes slightly more time to chew up than the baked treats- which is usually a plus.
- I freeze some in strips that are approximately the size and shape of the dental treats he loves. He doesn’t get as excited, but what we call his “fake dental treats” are still a couple steps above regular food (even though I haven’t added anything).
If you’re looking for something more portable or less cold, read on.
Method 2: Bake
To summarize: yes, you can DIY dog treats from canned dog food.
- Put bits of wet food on a cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350F/180C for 15 minutes or until they’ve reached your desired consistency.
What Recipes Say + What Works
Because making treats is kind of an off-label use for dog food, it’s not as easy to work with as cookie dough or something meant for baking. So there are all kinds of weird tips that go along with the recipes.
1. The Slide
Recipes recommend: Slide all the food out of the can in one solid cylinder (like its cranberry sauce at my great grandma’s house on Thanksgiving).
Things I did:
- Tried unsuccessfully to slide the food out of the top of the can.
- Used a church key can opener on the bottom of the can, in case that helped. (It didn’t.)
- Made a big mess.
What worked?
- Giving up on the sliding-out business!
- Using a butter knife to dig maybe a third (or so) of the food out of the can at once and then pack it together into kind of a rectangular patty before slicing it up.
2. The Slice
Recipes recommend: Slice your cylinder (or patty) of food up with the edge of the lid.
Things I did:
- Sliced with the edge of the lid.
- Sliced with a butter knife.
- Scooped out little dollops with a spoon like it was cookie dough.
What worked?
- Technically, they all work – but not equally well.
- Slicing it into little squares with a butter knife was the quickest, cleanest, and easiest way I tried.
- I didn’t find an advantage to using the lid.
- My first attempt was the little cookie dollops. The wet food doesn’t hold together or shape very well, though, and I think I ended up with as much stuck to my hands as actually on the baking sheet.
3. The Bake
Recipes recommend: Baking for 30 minutes.
Things I did:
- Used the toaster oven set to “bake,” instead of the full oven.
- Various baking times.
- Foil and parchment paper.
- 350F/180C
What worked?
- The toaster oven has worked great for the small batches of treats I make!
- I flip them halfway through with a fork or popsicle stick.
- 30 minutes seemed like an insanely long bake time for such small treats, but it turns out that’s about right – approximately 15 minutes on each side for small (finger tip size) squares.
- Bake time will depend on how large you make your treats and how crispy you want them to end up.
- Using parchment paper for lining the baking sheet. I found the treats would stick to foil, even after being baked.
Some tips:
- Crispy treats seem to last longer outside of the fridge. Softer treats are better to hide pills in.
- The canned food I’ve been experimenting with is Royal Canin GI Low Fat – other types may give you different results. (If so, please comment and tell me about it!) This is in no way an ad/endorsement/recommendation for that brand. Honestly, the jury is still out on how well it’s working. It’s just what Quijote’s vet wants him eating while we try to narrow down the cause of his tummy troubles.
At the end of the day, you just have to figure out what works best for you and your pup.
Hello all,
I too have a dog with belly issues. His Vet cannot find what the problem is. He was an abused free range farm dog so who knows what the poor little guy ate on a daily basis before we rescued him. Needless to say trying to find out what his issues are has been a very expensive ordeal. I swear he has helped to put his Vet into another tax bracket…..LOL…Anyway he is now on HA food only & what a pain in the butt that is!! He loved his treats which he can no longer have. I too bake his treats from canned food. How I do it is take a can of the food and score it into little triangles with a long knife (making sure to scrap down the side of the can). Then take out one section (I use a fork to pry it out). Once one triangle comes out you can dump the rest on a cookie sheet with parchment paper on it. I then slice the long triangles into little ones, bake at 325, turning them every 15 minutes till they dry out (approx. 40-45 min). If you have the option to use a “convection roast” function that works even better because you don’t need to turn them over. They can be kept in the fridge for 3-5 days. Rain (my dog) loves them and gets them throughout the day. I suggest you do 2 cans at once because you can go through them quickly. Enjoy your little angel…..they always leave us way too soon….and we’re left with a hole in our heart.
Can you please provide a picture, I want to try this but I’m not sure I understand how without pictures.
Thank you
i am running out of RC gastro treats after my last bag has lasted for months using one treat a day. Reading all these comments.. i add 3 tbs of water to her kibble in morning. i noticed leftovers re-harden later on. so i wet 4 little kibbles, shaped it into similar cookie and letting it air dry. will see what happens. i will probably refrigerate if it works. not baking it wont change nutrition . i honestly dont know why RC hasnt found suppliers after all this time. last call they told me they wont put product out unless it meets their strict standards.
Fyi i used to feed Hills until big recall 2 yrs ago when hundreds got sick or died. i had a bad case of wet foodvand was about to feed it to our Sadie. id rather shoot myself in the foot than use that company.. they dont care sbout oetd only $$$. i dont know if class action lawsuit was settled either. good luck all.
my vet told me Royal Canin GI is only good in the frig 3 days. I would count the 5-7 a big savings! lol! I am going to try baking some today so I don’t have to throw out half a can of expensive food
Thank you soooo much! My dog , too, has been put on Royal Canin dry and wet Gastrointestinal food for Protein Loss Enteropathy. While he does gobble it down, we have lost our evening greenie and our piece of cheese stick crating treat. Amazingly he takes the dry kibble as his training bait easily. This is a game changer. Thanks! We travel in our trailer a lot and I didn’t want to be cooking for the dog the whole trip.
I’ve been struggling for treats as well. So I’ve tried different recipes. Inseam can of purina HA, then add either peas, carrots, a little brown rice, or occ a little pumpkin or a dash of cinnamon.. I make them into small cookies and place in oven at 350 for 30 minutes or till edges are crispy. He seems to really like them
This is so helpful. My dog gets bladder stones and we’ve already had to have one surgically removed ($1800). So he’s on C/D food. They aren’t making their treats now because of supply chain issues, so he’s not getting any treats. I’ve got some in the oven right now (used a melon baller to make little buttons). I’m going to try the open the can and dump it out, slice and cut into smaller pieces next time. The Hill’s site said to keep refrigerated and toss any leftovers out after 5-7 days.
I would try baking in one large patty until soft-baked, then using a pizza cutter to cut into your desired size pieces, and baking again if you want them crunchy.
McCann Dog Training has a good recipe for tuna treats on their YouTube channel! They use this twice-baking method, and it could be modified for wet food treats. Totally trying this today!
Our breeder had a great idea. Soak dry puppy food in water overnight. Then bake on a cookie sheet. Our puppy loves this! I do it at 450 degrees, and it takes about 40-60 min for a full loaded cookie sheet. I stir about half way through. Break it up after baking, or keep some nice chunks for special treats. Store in air tight container.
One thing…it STINKS! But puppy loves it!
I like this. My shitz zu is going through the same thing. I will try this, she is 13 years old. We have to get an ultrasound soon.
Thank you so much for posting this information, Stephanie! I can’t wait to try your suggestions. My 12 year old Yorkie has been eating Royal Canin GI LF for a few years due to pancreatitis that would cause bad diarrhea. Recently he had some very painful bouts with severe abdominal pain and excessive. vomitting. Had to go to urgent care and follow up with our vet who said no more treats (😳 This is a HUUUUUGE problem for us!)). She did say veggies and fruit and these homemade treats I make with oatmeal, pumpkin or applesauce and banana are ok, but after a couple of days just on the LF and slowly adding in watermelon, banana and homemade treats, he has decided he does not want these treats, and seems so confused why he isn’t getting his favorite commercial treats anymore. So I thought about trying to use his LF to make him some treats, and your post on how to do so is going to help me so much! Thank you! I so hope your pup is doing well!
I never saw the answer to the question of how long the cooked food will last outside the fridge.
My dogs been having a lot of GI issues and he’s on Purina HA right now. It’s great for the baking process. It’s got a much thicker consistency than the RC GI food. Bakes really well at 200° for 15 min per side. I just don’t know if I have to keep refrigerated or not. It gets wet when I keep it cold then take it to agility class for training treats.
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to join in. Thank you SO much for posting this because we’re about to try it. We’re desperate! Our furbaby is fighting diabetes, obesity & arthritis. I asked the vet about doing this and she said absolutely! Furbaby is on Hill’s prescription w/d.
For those who said it didn’t work, if you’re using Hill’s, they say the baking method DOESN’T work with some of their canned foods, which are:
Prescription Diet® a/d® Canine/Feline food
Prescription Diet® n/d® Canine
Prescription Diet® s/d® Canine foods
For THESE foods, they recommend rolling into balls/freezing them.
They have a recipe to turn their dry food into a flour, add water, and bake into “cookies.” Good luck to everyone and your furbabies! I hope they all get better! I’ll post again after I try this and let you know how it turned out! Well, furbaby gets the last say-so, doesn’t she? Ha!
https://www.hillspet.com/dog-care/nutrition-feeding/healthy-homemade-dog-treats
This is interesting. A few years ago, our vet was told by Royal Canin how to bake dog treats out of Royal Canin HP kibble. Our dog has recently switched to another Royal Canin (HP+ Urinary), and she loves cookies baked out of that just as much, but I thought I should check. To my surprise, Royal Canin says the previous advice was wrong (about baking HP) and that the position now is that none of the Royal Canin vet diets should be cooked, as it can render them ineffective. I explained I wasn’t too concerned about ineffectiveness (as it is a tiny part of the overall diet), more if it can be dangerous. She said that they haven’t studied that as it’s so not recommended, just don’t do it. Now wondering if I should try baking cookies with Hills!
I would think that even if baking that food makes it not as nutritious as right out of the package, it is still more nutritious than most treats! Especially considering most treats are mostly flour and junk carbs!
How long will this keep for, and does it need to be refridgerated? I’m looking at using ADVANCE puppy tin food.
The long story (just for fun)…
A friend recommended this brand. My puppy seems to eat EVERYTHING quite willingly.
So silly me bought the tins in bulk as they were on sale.
We diligently slowly added the new food to his normal wet meal, only to have him reject his food. He will, however, eat it if we FEED IT TO HIM WITH A SPOON!!!
So he either (1) doesn’t like it (unlikely given that he is happy to slurp it up if fed), or (2) is so full from all the training food that he gets that he’s not keen to eat the wet food (hopefully this is it!). Anyway, fingers crossed he gets through the tins of food currently sitting in my laundry shelf :D
Also u can use the same brand of dry kibble as the special diet wet can food to make a flour with also. That way if u wanna only use the special diet food to make treats with ur using 100% of the same products. Ive ground up dry kibble into a flour & used it to make the treats. Also if u don’t know this some of the special diet foods both wet & dry have garlic & onions in some of them look on the bag & cans closely there’s also brands that don’t have it on the packaging itself but if you email the company and ask them for the entire most recent lab report that has every ingredient including the ingredients that are low enough that they don’t have to put them on the labels you would be surprised at what is hiding even in the most expensive brands of all pet foods. I will try to find the link that shows exactly what to ask ,how to word it, etc that way they don’t leave anything out.
Have u tried using a light dusting of any type of flour to help with the stickiness of it when handling it? U can make ur own flour or use a store bought flour thats save for the tummy problems. Use a flour product thats already in the brand of food ur using or if ur baby or babies eat dry food as well se what flour is n the food so ur not adding another ingredient thats not already in the brand of food being used. Just use a human food grade product theres many options in the baking isle as well as in the healthy foods part of the store & use Organic if u can & if making ur own with oats Don’t use instant oats. U can put the oats n a food processor ,blender or anything else that with turn the oats into a flour. U can turn anything into flour. Ive read some have dehydrated corn & other products even veggies & fruits in the oven or toaster oven then turned it into flour after they dried em out. U don’t need a dehydrator to dehydrate whatever it is ur gonna use.
Here’s a tip. The Royal Canin food is quite soft so I keep it in the fridge before trying to slide it out of the can. I open the top of the can with a can opener (not the pull tab lid) and then bang on the bottom and sides of the can with a mallet or a meat tenderizer mallet. I bake my Brinkley’s treat on a low temp for a long time to simulate a dehydrator and keep the treats on the freezer.
My havanese has severe pancreatitis and is extremely limited to what she can eat. On top of that, shes very finicky. So i’ve found making cookies with the wet canned food (per her vets recommendation) has been a lifesaver! I crush some dry kibble and add it into the food with almond flour. I bake at 350 for 20 mins – turning them over half through. I find adding the almond flour and kibble reduces the baking time and adds extra crunchiness.
I called Royal Canin and they cannot endorse this endeavor because they said the food is already cooked and any additional cooking will reduce the efficacy of its nutrition. Given that she can’t and won’t eat much of anything else, I decided this risk was worth taking over her ending up back in the hospital or being extremely hungry. Hope these tips can help someone else!
I’d like to amend my comment please…do not use almond flour! I just learned it can cause gastrointestinal issues in dogs. I threw my latest batch away. Please make sure to use either whole wheat flour, white flour or rice flour! I’ve used white flour and they came out just as good. Trying rice flour next…
If your dog has allergies like mine and is allergic to wheat you can try oatmeal if your dog isn’t allergic to it. I grind down whole old fashioned oats NOT minute ones into flour. I use that to make my dog treats . 3 cups of wheat flour = 4 cups of oats before grinding
Hi Stephanie. Thanks for sharing this. I see you posted this in 2019. I hope your doggie is feeling better. I am curious what his symptoms were/are? And did you ever find out a cause? My girl Opal is on the hydrolyzed protein from Royal canin. They suspected pancreatitis but ultra sound and testing were negative. She’s also on antiacid meds everyday. We’ve done a bunch of testing and so far nothing helpful. Would be grateful to hear anything you could share.
My dog had many issues, we ended up determining she had allergies to certain foods, had her tested, found out she could not have chicken, rice, soy, corn, peanut butter and wheat, once I changed her diet and starting feeding her Merrick limited ingredients and gave her proper treats and give her probiotic every three days, she is doing great
Hey guys, I tried balling the wet food, baked at 400 degrees for 15 minutes…ended up with a cookie sheet of melted dog food, lol. No idea what to do with them now. Just thought I’d let you know that this is not the right combo 😉
Haha! Thanks for letting us know, Cathy! Maybe try the freezer method-? What kind of food were you using?
Hi Stephanie,
I found your blog when looking for baked treats for our 11 year old little dog, who has developed off/on stomach issues too. Looks like we will be trying the same recommended food as you! Anyway, I appreciate all of the information that you posted – the trials and results, etc. I think it will be very helpful and is much appreciated! Your dog, Quijote, is simply adorable. I hope he is feeling better these days! :-)
Thank you so much, Rae! I really appreciate you taking the time to say that and hope that your little dog is feeling better soon! We are still trying to figure out the cause of Quijote’s stomach troubles, but we’ve learned to better treat his symptoms in the meantime. Fingers crossed for both our puppers!