Dogs love to eat meaty treats, but jerky and cookies can carry a whopping calorie count and they aren’t great for pups who are watching their waistline.
These easy to make dehydrator dog treats combine the low calorie health benefits of veggies with a taste of meat, to create a green bean chicken dog treat that your pup will love. My puggle, Kolchak is a food hound. (Actually, I usually call him a food something else, with some 18A rated language.) He will cut you and step over your limp body if he thinks it will get him closer to a snack. When something smells super delicious, there is *no way* to keep him from loosing his head. What can say? He’s part beagle. These dogs are slaves to the snouts. Snacks: All the cool dogs are doing it. Actually, all the cool dogs are over-doing it. It’s estimated that almost HALF the pet population is overweight. Time to lay off the Snausages (they are smelly and gross and full of junk anyways.) Still, I totally get it. Dogs love treats and we, as their people, love giving them treats. The secret is learning to give treats that they will love and you can feel good about.
Lean, Mean & Green
I know we have professed our bean-love before, but let me just say it again. Beans are delish. We love fresh steamed green beans as a treat or green bean pupsicles as a cool treat on a hot day. Beans are full of awesome. Full. Beans are a great source of carotenoids and antioxidants, two things that are essential for kibble fed pups due to the highly oxidized nature of kibbles. Beans are also a rich source of dietary fibre, zea-xanthin, folates, vitamin B-6,thiamin, and vitamin C, as well as a great mineral source for iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese and potassium. They are also AWESOME for your waistline.
At only 34 calories per cup (*fresh) you can easily eat a bunch without packing on the pounds.
The only catch? They are just beans. My dogs really love meaty treats and getting them to eat dehydrated green beans without a kick of flavour can be a real challenge. That’s why I decided to combine the power of chicken and green beans to make these easy dehydrator dog treats.
Meaty, Green Bean Dehydrator Dog Treats
Ingredients:
2 cups frozen green beans, defrosted
1 cup freeze dried chicken treats, like Purebites (<affiliate link)
*Kol’s Note: You could actually use any kind of dried meat treat you like. Felix loves these made with duck or white fish due to his allergies.
These crunchy green beans treats can be made in the oven or in a countertop dehydrator. We like to make ours in our dehydrator because it is so easy to just pop them in there and forget about them. I always worries about leaving the oven on for this long.
OVEN: Preheat to 150F or get out your counter top dehydrator
Voila! That’s it. Delicious, nutritious and oh so easy to make.
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These sound great – saving this one for sure!
Here’s my link for today: http://www.lapdogcreations.com/2016/01/pupcrate-delivers-joy-every-month.html
Everyone talks about dogs loving green beans. Mom won’t eat them, so we don’t have them around. At BlogPaws a meal was served with them. Mom gave Bailie one as she eats pretty much everything, she spit it out and refused to eat it. I won’t even put one in my mouth. I think we have a weird family??? One of our nose work buddies uses green beans for rewards and the dog loves them, but for some reason, we don’t like them. We would enjoy the chicken part, though.
That’s why we started adding chicken! Our friends dog needed to lose weight, but hated veggies. Worked like a charm. I can’t imagine using them for a nose work reward. That’s pretty cool, but I think Koly would be like “are you kidding me?!”
That looks so yummy. I’m having trouble making dehydrated apple chips. Maybe I’ll have better luck with the green beans.
What kind of trouble? Can I help at all?
Luke loves green beans and will eat them any way he finds them – even fresh out of the garden. But the girls are more picky, so something like this would probably make them all happy! Plus the Momz is happy when it’s easy!
This sounds awesome! I’m going to have to try it!
Mmm! I’m sure dogs just adore these!
These look great especially since we give Nala a few too many treats. After they are done how do you store them?
My dogs get TOO MANY treats too. I swear, I am too weak for Kol’s puppy dog eyes and Felix’s grin.
I pop these in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. If they get damp, they’ll rehydrate and spoil a lot faster.