Homemade Dog Treats: 7 Easy Recipes UK Owners Can Make Today

Look in the kitchen before you look in the shops. A brown banana, half a bag of porridge oats, the carrot at the bottom of the veg drawer: that is most of what you need. Start with the safety check, then pick a recipe that suits your dog and your afternoon.

Which ingredients are safe in homemade dog treats, and which are not?

The good news first. Oats, banana, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, egg, plain cooked chicken, sardines in spring water and xylitol-free peanut butter are all fine.

The ones to keep out are xylitol (also labelled birch sugar or E967), grapes and raisins, onion and garlic, chocolate, macadamia nuts, avocado, raw bread dough and anything heavily salted.

Xylitol is the one that catches home bakers out.

It is sold in bags for baking as well as in sugar-free sweets and gum, and it turns up in some “no added sugar” and high-protein peanut butters. Signs can start within an hour, with a dangerous fall in blood sugar and liver damage the main risks (Blue Cross, Poisonous foods for dogs, 2024). Read the ingredients every time, not just the front of the jar.

Ever checked the back of yours?

Here is the full checklist, with the “why” column taken from Blue Cross’s guidance on poisonous foods.

Two supermarket notes. Tinned 100% pumpkin purée appears around October and vanishes again, so butternut squash or sweet potato is the year-round swap. And sardines means the tin in spring water, not brine or oil.

Keep the same list in mind at Easter, when chocolate eggs, hot cross buns full of raisins and sugar-free sweets all land in the house at once. For the seasonal version, including what to tell the vet if a dog gets to the eggs first, read why Easter is risky for dogs before the long weekend.

How many homemade treats can a dog have a day?

Fewer than the tin suggests. Treats should make up no more than 10% of a dog’s daily calories, with the main meal trimmed to match, which is the line UK Pet Food takes too.

For a healthy 20 kg adult dog in ideal condition, a day’s food runs to 790 to 993 kcal. Ten per cent of that is 79 to 99 kcal, so call it around 80 to 100 kcal of treats.

A biscuit from recipe 1 is roughly 40 kcal. So a 20 kg dog gets about two a day, and a 10 kg dog gets one.

Two biscuits. Not the tin.

That is how a batch of home baking quietly undoes a sensible feeding plan. If you’d rather not do the sums by hand, a dog food calculator that works out daily calories gives you the starting figure, and you take 10% of it for treats.

Cheaper calories buy more rewards, though. A 5 g cube of plain cooked chicken breast is about 8 kcal, so ten training cubes cost the same as two biscuits.

And if baking for your dog feels slightly ridiculous, you are in good company. Our piece on why we pamper our pets looks at why so many of us do exactly this.

1. Three-Ingredient Banana and Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

If you have never made a dog biscuit in your life, start here. No flour, no sugar, no special kit, and around 28 small biscuits at roughly 40 kcal each.

Ingredients: 2 ripe bananas (about 200 g peeled), 150 g porridge oats, 60 g peanut butter with peanuts as the only ingredient, or peanuts and a pinch of salt.

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas 4) and line a baking tray.
2. Blitz the oats in a blender for 20 seconds so they behave like flour. Whole oats work too, the biscuits are just more rustic.
3. Mash the bananas, stir in the peanut butter, then work in the oats to a dough that holds together. Add a spoon more oats if it is sticky.
4. Roll to 1 cm on a floured surface and cut into shapes, or press flat and score into squares.
5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until the edges brown. Cool fully on the tray.

Storage: airtight tin 3 days, fridge 7 days, freezer 3 months.

Best for: first-time bakers and confirmed peanut-butter obsessives. The dough also presses neatly into a food puzzle toy.

Got a dog with a delicate stomach instead? Recipe 2 is the gentler one.

2. Pumpkin and Oat Dog Biscuits

Pumpkin makes a soft, fibre-rich biscuit that most dogs find easy on the stomach. It is also the one to bake in autumn, when squash is cheap and everywhere.

Ingredients: 150 g pumpkin or butternut squash, steamed or roasted and mashed smooth (or tinned 100% pumpkin purée, not pie filling), 1 medium egg, 160 g oat flour, 25 g whole porridge oats.

1. Heat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan, gas 3) and line a tray.
2. Beat the egg into the purée, then stir in the oat flour and whole oats. Add a tablespoon of oat flour at a time if the dough is too wet to roll.
3. Roll to just under 1 cm, cut into 20 shapes and bake 20 to 25 minutes, turning the tray halfway.
4. Cool completely. They firm up as they cool.

Storage: fridge 5 days in a sealed tub, freezer 3 months. Freeze in a single layer first so they don’t weld together.

Best for: dogs with sensitive tummies, and autumn baking.

Now for the shortest shopping list of the lot.

3. Sweet Potato Chews

One sweet potato, a low oven and a bit of patience. That is the whole recipe, and it gives you 20 to 25 leathery chews with nothing added at all.

Ingredients: 1 large sweet potato, around 300 g. That’s it.

1. Heat the oven to 120°C (100°C fan, gas ½). Line two trays.
2. Scrub the sweet potato, leave the skin on, and slice lengthways into even 5 mm strips. Thinner slices go crisp, thicker ones stay chewy.
3. Lay flat with space between slices. Dry for 2½ to 3 hours, turning at the halfway point.
4. Cool on a rack. They should bend without snapping and feel dry to the touch.

Storage: fridge 1 week in a paper bag inside a tub (paper stops them sweating), freezer 3 months.

Best for: chewers. A dog working through the skirting boards often just wants something to gnaw, and a long strip of sweet potato beats the sofa leg. If yours has moved on to shoes and chair legs, our guide on how to stop a dog chewing everything pairs chews like this with the training side.

Chewers sorted. Trainers, this next one is yours.

4. Chicken and Carrot Training Treats

One tray, one pizza wheel, and around 300 pea-sized rewards at about 2 kcal each. If you do a lot of training, this is the batch that earns its freezer space.

Ingredients: 150 g plain cooked chicken breast (poached, no stock cube), 1 medium carrot (about 60 g) finely grated, 1 medium egg, 60 g oat flour.

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas 4). Line an 18 cm square tin so the paper overhangs.
2. Blitz the chicken, carrot and egg to a rough paste, then pulse in the oat flour.
3. Press the mixture into the tin about 1 cm deep and smooth the top.
4. Bake 20 minutes until firm and just coloured. Lift out on the paper and cool.
5. Cut into 1 cm squares with a pizza wheel. Yes, 1 cm. Smaller than you think.

Storage: fridge 3 days, freezer 2 months. Freeze flat in a bag and snap off a handful before each walk; they defrost in a pocket.

Best for: recall, loose-lead walking and every stage of how to toilet train a puppy, where the reward needs to arrive within a second and disappear just as fast.

Some dogs, of course, sniff a plain chicken square and walk off. Recipe 5 is for them.

5. Sardine and Oat Bites

These smell strong enough to interest the fussiest dog in the house. You will notice, too. One tin makes roughly 30 bites.

Ingredients: 1 tin sardines in spring water (120 g tin, about 90 g drained), 1 medium egg, 100 g oat flour, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional, and it helps with the breath afterwards).

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas 4) and line a tray.
2. Drain the sardines well and mash with a fork, bones and all; tinned sardine bones are soft.
3. Beat in the egg, then stir in the oat flour and parsley to a thick, spoonable mix.
4. Drop teaspoon blobs onto the tray and flatten slightly.
5. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until golden underneath. Cool on the tray.

Storage: fridge 4 days, freezer 2 months, in a sealed tub unless you want the whole fridge to smell of the seaside.

Best for: older dogs whose sense of smell has faded, and dogs that turn their nose up at biscuits.

That’s the oven done with. The next one only needs a freezer.

6. Frozen Banana and Yoghurt Dog Treats

No oven, which is the whole point on a hot July afternoon. One banana makes about 12 cubes at roughly 15 kcal each.

Ingredients: 1 ripe banana, 150 g plain natural yoghurt with no sweeteners (check “light” versions carefully).

1. Blend everything smooth.
2. Pour into an ice cube tray or silicone mould. Small cubes for small dogs.
3. Freeze for at least 4 hours.
4. Serve one cube in the garden, or freeze the mixture on a lick mat for a slower, calmer 20 minutes.

Storage: freezer 2 months, bagged once frozen so they don’t pick up freezer smells.

Best for: heatwaves, teething puppies and the dog that stares at your Cornetto. Plenty of adult dogs don’t digest lactose well, so if yours gets a loose stool after dairy, swap the yoghurt for water or lactose-free yoghurt.

This is the safe stand-in for the ice cream ingredients that are dangerous for dogs.

7. Dog Birthday Cake

For the one day a year that calls for candles. The “icing” is plain mashed potato or natural yoghurt, and there is no sugar anywhere.

Ingredients: 1 ripe banana, 1 medium carrot (about 60 g) grated, 1 medium egg, 120 g wholemeal flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 60 ml water or unsweetened oat milk, 1 tablespoon xylitol-free peanut butter. Topping: 100 g plain mashed potato (no butter, no salt) or plain natural yoghurt, plus a few of recipe 4’s squares.

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas 4). Line a 15 cm round tin.
2. Mash the banana, beat in the egg, peanut butter and water, then fold in the carrot.
3. Stir in the flour and baking powder until just combined.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool completely in the tin.
5. Spread the mash or yoghurt on top, stud with training squares, and stand a carrot baton in as the candle.

Storage: fridge 3 days, or slice and freeze for 2 months. One cake is many treat days, not one.

Best for: birthdays, gotcha days and the photo. Serve a thin slice and share the rest with the dog guests.

Every one of these makes more than a dog can eat in a day. So where does the rest go?

How long do homemade dog treats last?

Think of them as fresh food, because that is what they are. There are no preservatives, so the soft ones made with banana, chicken or fish go off fastest and fully dried biscuits keep longest.

Three habits stretch those times. Cool everything completely before it goes in a tub, because trapped steam turns to mould within days. Give soft biscuits an extra 10 minutes at 100°C with the oven door ajar if you want them drier.

And date the freezer bag, because sardine bites and banana bites look identical at minus 18. Ask us how we know.

Bin anything with fuzz, a sour smell, or a soft patch on a biscuit that should be crisp.

A batch in a jar also makes a lovely present for the dog owner in your life. If you are short on time, our list of the best last-minute pet Christmas gifts has plenty of shop-bought options too.

How big should a homemade training treat be?

Smaller than you think. Pea-sized is right, about 5 mm to 1 cm across and 1 to 3 kcal, soft enough to swallow in one go and smelly enough to hold attention.

Most of us overdo it. One survey found 55% of owners gave more than the recommended amount during training and sport, and underestimated how much energy the treats held (Morelli and colleagues, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 2019).

Recognise yourself there? No judgement.

The fix is to shrink the reward, not the number of repetitions. A puppy learning to sit might earn 40 rewards in a ten-minute session.

Forty squares from recipe 4 is around 80 kcal, a 20 kg dog’s whole daily allowance. Forty whole biscuits from recipe 1 would be more than a day’s food.

Use the dog’s own measured kibble for the easy repetitions and save the chicken squares for recall past a squirrel.

Puppies can have these from about 8 weeks, once weaned, as long as the treats are soft and counted within the same 10%. Hard chews such as recipe 3 wait for the adult teeth, at around 6 months.

On heavy training days, take the treat calories out of the evening bowl. If you’re not sure the balance is right after a few weeks, a quick hands-on body condition score check for a healthy weight tells you more than the scales do.

Which swaps make homemade dog treats allergy-friendly?

What if your dog can’t have eggs, or grain, or chicken? Good news: every recipe here takes at least one swap.

Grain-free: recipes 3 and 6 already contain no grain, and in the rest you can replace oat flour gram for gram with rice flour. Egg-free: use 50 g extra purée or banana per egg and bake 5 minutes longer.

Chicken-free: recipe 4 works with turkey breast or sardines. Nut-free: leave the peanut butter out of recipes 1, 6 and 7 and bind with a spoon of pumpkin.

Dogs on a prescription diet, or with a diagnosed condition such as pancreatitis or diabetes, need a quick word with the vet before any of these become routine.

Where does pet insurance fit alongside homemade treats?

Baking for your dog is one of the small daily ways you look after the things you can control: what goes in the bowl, how big the biscuit is, whether the peanut butter jar passed the label check.

The bigger surprises, the swallowed corn cob at a barbecue or the raisins pinched from a shopping bag, sit outside that control.

Pet insurance covers unexpected vet bills for accidents and illnesses, subject to the policy terms and annual renewal. Owners who have already thought carefully about what their dog eats often want the same sense of a plan for the things they can’t bake their way around.

Whether cover is appropriate depends on your finances, your pet’s health profile and how much risk you are comfortable carrying yourself. You can find out more about pet insurance cover from Perfect Pet.