Four Feet and Food (now with some training too!)

Doing our best to keep our furry children healthy by being vigilant about what we feed them and how we also keep them mentally stimulated.

Tag Archives: dogs and cats


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Homemade Sweet Potato Chews

With all of the circulating reports of dogs falling ill or even dying after eating jerky treats, I no longer feel confident feeding Chile most store-bought chews.   She is a dog, however, and loves to have chewy treats to gnaw on and I like them because they keep her busy if we are out at a restaurant with her or shopping, etc.   I decided to try making some sweet potato chews at home and it was actually pretty simple.  Chile loved them and my husband and I even ate some as a snack ourselves.

I made them in the oven so it tsweet potato treatsook a few hours but if you have a food dehydrator that would probably be faster.

The “recipe” is as follows:

  • Pre-heat oven to 250° F
  • Scrub the sweet potato (I used one large, organic sweet potato), no need to peel.
  • Cut the sweet potato into the desired size, I cut them into chip-sized discs because Chile has a smaller mouth. The ones you see sold in stores are usually cut lengthwise to make them look like jerky. The thinner you cut the slices the shorter your baking time.
  • Place the slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 250° F for three hours (slightly chewy) or longer for crunchier.  Keep an eye on them because your cooking time will vary depending on your oven and the thickness of your slices.

One single, simple ingredient that’s delicious and nutritious!  (Much cheaper than buying a bag at the store too!)


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This is Love

I cook the occasional chicken roast or steak for my husband or guests but handling pounds of raw meat is something altogether different, and I have to admit, the first batch of raw food I prepared for Chile made me sick to my stomach. I also didn’t realize that raw turkey smells a lot worse than raw chicken!  But for Chile I sucked it up and kept on going, trying to suppress my gag reflex as much as possible.  As with the handling of meat for human consumption, I was very diligent about using a separate cutting board for all of the raw meat and thoroughly cleaned my work areas during and after the preparation.  Chile’s new diet also recommends she be given raw chicken and turkey necks each week to chew and consume.  These are parts of a bird I had never seen up close…and let me tell you they aren’t pretty!   I was very wary of feeding them to Chile because historically she’s not the best chewer and usually sends large objects down her gullet like a pelican as soon as they are swallowing size.  With some coaxing from Sabine I presented Chile with her first chicken neck last week (served on top of an old sheet).  She absolutely loved it!  She did a pretty good job with the chewing and only swallowed the last bit.  She showed no signs of an upset stomach following her treat so I guess she handles it pretty well. Although I still find the prospect of feeding her the neck of something disgusting, I was actually excited to feed her another one last night because she enjoyed it so much…now that’s love!

DSC_0870(I am still way too grossed out by the turkey necks to feed them to her but who knows I might warm up to those too…doubt it, but who knows?)