Incredibly Healthy Organic Dog Biscuits

incredibly healthy organic dog biscuits 

Okay, I've been researching and pondering how to make "raw" dog biscuits that were healthy and not full of preservatives, artificial dyes, meat by-products (double yuck), but were very crunchy! Well, I'm still working on the "raw" ones that will be made from fresh ground vegetables and organic grains and real raw meat - but they will be dehydrated at "raw" temperatures. In the meantime, I needed to make something healthy for my dogs so my husband won't keep bringing home these pretty unhealthy biscuits - he means well, as we all do.

Now, we have two beautiful and "incredible" Brittany Spaniels. Brit, we've had since he was a puppy and he turned 2 this past January. Our elder dog, Abby, who I'd had for about 15 years was a golden retriever mix and an very, very good dog. We miss her. We buried her a few months ago. A few weeks ago we started looking for another Brittany puppy and quickly found instead our new member of the family, Pepper.  She is a 7-year old Brittany and as luck would have it, she and Brit are first cousins. She hurt her ACL while hunting and hasn't been able to hunt. Her owners were looking for a good home and we were looking for a good dog and it's been a beautiful combination. She and Brit had some "issues" at first, but they are buds now and it gives me great joy to see them running around the yard chasing the squirrels and birds (which they never catch of course.)  We put 4' fences around our flower beds once Brit got bigger last year - and he immediately figured out he could easily jump those. He is so beautiful as he sails across those fences and loves doing it - so we've dedicated those areas to his play ground.

So to the recipe!  I've been reading Dr. Pitcairn's "Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats." An incredible book full of good information. It was copyrighted in 1995 and doesn't agree with some one of the other holistic vets that I've been following - so will check on the sources and the information before writing about some of his natural ways to keep our pets healthy. They all agree that raw meat is best, organic or grass fed beef, or organically raised other meats - which can get expensive. We're trying to figure out ways to accomplish this without spending more on their food than we do on our own. We will be writing more and more about it in the future. This recipe comes from Dr. Pitcairn's book - slightly tweaked.


2 cups whole wheat flour (organic)
1/2 cup garbanza bean flour (organic)
1/4 cup cooked quinoa (organic)
1 tsp bonemeal (some disagreement about this, so we use dried egg shells that have been ground up finely, use 1/2 tsp)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (organic)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (organic, chip these up just a little bit)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp butter, melted (we use Earth Balance, but you could use olive oil or meat fat)
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 tsp salt (optional)
2 eggs mixed with 1/4 cup milk

Mix the flours, quinoa, bonemeal, and seeds together. Add the garlic and the yeast. Combine the butter, oil, molasses, salt and egg mixture. Set aside 1 tbsp of egg mixture. Combine the rest with the dry ingredients. You may or may not need to add more milk if necessary to make a firm dough. Knead together for a few minutes and then cover the dough and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch. You can then use cookie cutters or a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits. We found a few really cool dog bone shaped cookie cutters and we use those - like the dogs know the difference!  Now use the extra egg mixture to lightly brush each biscuit. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until lightly brown. Sometimes to make harder biscuits (which is really good for the dogs' teeth), I will leave them in the oven after turning off the heat until they are as hard as I want them. Dr. Pitcairn reminds us that the biscuits will keep longer if you use oil instead of butter or fat. 

Let me know if you try these or have any questions. When I can get the dogs (remember their Brittany's!) to sit still long enough, I'll post some pictures of them.

Thanks for listening!

Ann