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You may have read that sourdough can be dangerous for your dog to consume, but these sourdough dog treats are both safe and delicious for your precious pooch.
With uncooked sourdough bread being very dangerous for your dog and cooked sourdough, while being delicious, not providing them with required nutrients, these sourdough dog treats are an easy way to share the sourdough love with your dog.
Did you know that you can also feed your sourdough discard to your backyard chickens? And use it to fertilise your indoor plants and gardens?
They also make a thoughtful gift for friends with dogs.
Why Can’t Dogs Eat Sourdough?
Dogs cannot eat sourdough because it’s a fermented product.
Giving dogs uncooked sourdough starter or uncooked sourdough can be fatal at worst, and at best make your dog very, very sick.
Check out my guide on what to do if your dog has eaten uncooked sourdough or sourdough bread. You’ll also find the symptoms to look for.
Can Dogs Eat Sourdough Treats?
Yes, sourdough treats are a much better option than giving them sourdough bread itself. Sourdough bread provides dogs with no nutritional value.
Sourdough treats however contain added nutrients from egg, peanut butter, pumpkin and oats.
They are a much better way to share the sourdough love with your dog.
You should not give your dog sourdough treats if they have allergies or sensitivities to wheat as this is the main ingredient.
Like anything “treat”, sourdough dog treats should be given occasionally and should not form part of their regular diet.
How To Make Sourdough Dog Treats
Sourdough dog treats are very easy to make. They use a few simple pantry staples to create a delicious sourdough dog biscuit.
You can choose whether you use canned or homemade pumpkin puree.
Here’s how to make sourdough dog biscuits:
- Add the wet ingredients to a large bowl and whisk together to form a smooth batter.
- Add rolled oats and mix through until thoroughly coated.
- Add the whole wheat flour and bring together into a rough dough.
- Turn onto a floured surface and press out into a rough rectangle.
- Roll out to around 1/4″ thick.
- Dust the dough with flour.
- Using a cookie cutter, cut shapes from the dough.
- Place the dough shapes onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Spray lightly with olive oil.
- Bake in a moderate oven until golden brown.
- Allow to cool on a rack before sharing one with your dog.
Tips for the Best Sourdough Dog Treats
While this recipe is super simple to make, there are a few things you can do to make sure you get the best treats for your pampered pooch.
- Make sure you use natural peanut butter with no added sugar or salt. You could even make your own peanut butter if you have a powerful food processor.
- Try to add some of the oil from the peanut butter into the mixture for extra goodness.
- You can use sourdough discard if you have some to use up or active sourdough starter – whatever is easy for you.
- If the dough is too sticky, just add some extra whole wheat flour and bring it together. Depending on the consistency of your pumpkin puree and sourdough starter, you may need up to 100g extra flour to form the dough.
- Spray with a little olive oil before baking to give them a nice golden color once baked.
- The treats will crisp up as they cool so don’t worry if they seem a little soft in the middle. You can turn them over and bake for an extra 5 minutes if you feel they need them.
What Flour Is Best For Dog Treats?
It’s best to use whole wheat flour when making sourdough dog treats. This ensures that you’re giving your pooch the most nutrient dense food you can.
You can really use any type of flour, however, if you are wanting to give your dog the best, you should choose the healthiest flour possible.
If you don’t want to use wheat flour, you could of course substitute any type of flour you have on hand. Chickpea, coconut or even almond flour are good, nutrient dense choices for dog treats.
Using Pumpkin Puree in Dog Treats
Using pumpkin in dog treats is a great way to add extra fibre.
Some of the other benefits of pumpkin for dogs are:
- supports digestive health (high in fibre)
- it promotes good urinary health
- pumpkin seeds can be a natural remedy for worms and parasites
- good source of antioxidants and vitamins including Vitamin A, C, zinc and magnesium.
It’s very important that if you’re using canned pumpkin puree, you use pure pumpkin puree with no additives – not pie filling.
It’s very easy to make your own pumpkin puree. In fact for the purposes of these dog treats, you can just microwave some pumpkin (or sweet potato) and mash it with a fork once soft.
I used my Thermomix (thermal cooker) to make the puree for these treats. It took just 10 minutes. I used a mixture of pumpkin and sweet potato because that’s what I had on hand.
Further Reading
If you enjoyed making these sourdough doggie treats, you might enjoy these ideas:
- Find a tonne of other no wait sourdough recipes here – perfect for when you have starter, but no time!
- Want to bake the something truly delicious? Check out this delicious honey oat sourdough bread recipe.
- Easy pumpkin sourdough bread – perfect for the cooler months!
Sourdough Dog Treats
Equipment
- Cookie Cutter (Bone or Paw Print for some fun)
- Rolling Pin
- Baking Tray
Ingredients
- 180 g Sourdough Starter, can be active, fed or discard
- 2 Eggs
- 150 g Pumpkin Puree, or sweet potato puree
- 80 g Peanut Butter, natural, unsweetened, unsalted
- 100 g Rolled Oats
- 200 g Whole Wheat Flour, have some extra on hand just in case
- Pumpkin Seeds, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Mix all of the wet ingredients together into a large bowl. Use a fork to whisk them together into a smooth batter (include the peanut butter).
- Stir the rolled oats through the batter until they are coated.
- Now, add the whole wheat flour and bring together to form a rough dough. It doesn't have to be smooth and will be a little sticky.
- Once the dough has come together, sprinkle a clean surface with some whole wheat flour.
- Tip the dough out onto the floured counter and press out with your finger tips. If the dough is sticky on top, dust it with some whole wheat flour.
- Use a rolling pin to lightly roll it into a rough rectangle. It should be around 1/4" thick. The dough won't rise much in the oven, so you don't want to roll it too thin.
- Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour and use a cookie cutter to cut out as many pieces as you can. You can re roll the dough out to cut more pieces.
- Place the pieces onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- If you would like to use pumpkin seeds, lightly brush or spray the dough with water and sprinkle on desired seeds.
- Spray the biscuits lightly with olive oil.
- Place dog treats into the oven and bake at 180C/350F for around 20 minutes until golden. If you feel they aren't quite baked through, you can turn them over and pop them back into the oven for 5 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack. They will crisp up a little as they cool.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Rate and comment below!
Hi! Just wondering if you could have a metric change in your recipes for your American followers? Can you add an option for that? Thanks and I love all that you do and thanks for sharing your work!!
I understand your hesitation in using a scale, but I promise it will make things so much easier! Read this article on the benefits of weighing sourdough ingredients 🙂
Made these several times for my dog and her friends and they’re a hit!
Are they okay for cats too?
Hi Mary, I don’t believe sourdough is safe for cats.
I’ve made these many times for my dog and her friends and they’re a hit! Are these treats also okay for cats to eat?
I have 2 dogs drooling at my so I will take that as 2 paws up.
This is a go-to recipe for me – I use it every month. I no longer purchase commercial dog biscuits! I feel confident giving these to my pets as I know exactly what went in to creating them. They store well and are adored by my dogs.
I use a pizza cutter to cut them into small squares rather than press with a cookie cutter. This is efficient as I make a double batch.
Can these be made in bulk and frozen to use later?
Yes you can freeze them 🙂 Just thaw at room temperature 🙂
My dogs love these. It’s great that my sourdough discard never goes to waste. I also change the ingredients as needed to use up food before it expires. I just made some with oat bran, and I’ve used rye flour. When eggs were hard to obtain and expensive, I substituted a few tablespoons of Greek yogurt for the eggs. I love that I don’t need to let anything go to waste.
I like the top of the dough to be smooth. I pat it with wet hands before I put it in the oven and that makes the top look smooth and shiny.
Thank you for a recipe my dogs love!
Hello
Im going to make this dog treat recipe but how long do they keep for.
Lorraine
On the counter I keep as many as my dog will eat in about 5 days or less. The rest I freeze for later. Just like a baked good, these can get moldy, especially if kept in a closed container.
Our dog loved these treats. After a great harvest with our butternut squash this year, I’m wondering if I can use butternut squash instead of pumpkin or sweet potato?
Absolutely you can use butternut squash for sure 🙂
Made these many times and my dog “Runaway Leroy Brown” loves them. I use a heart shaped cookie cutter….because I love her. Occasionally I’ll add a few peas and carrots and/or a bit of applesauce. Perfect!
My dog loves these healthy treats! I change them up each time to use up ingredients on hand. I’ve added black beans, apples, nuts, banana, berries, squash with the skin, bone broth powder, etc.
My dogs loved these! Finally, a sourdough recipe that worked! I’m going to follow more of your recipes and hopefully, have better luck. I used a silicon mat with 16 dog bone molds. This recipe made about 38 of those. I wet my fingers and rolled a small ball of dough. I pressed that into the molds. I will freeze some of those for later!
Thank you!