It’s Easter time. I love Easter eggs, adore chocolate and embrace celebration times where we can bring our family together and have fun! I’ve grown up with dogs all my life and they have always been treated as a family member – from joining in on our kids birthday parties & wearing paper party hats to celebrating with their very own birthday pup cakes and I am convinced they love to party as much as we do. My first childhood dog was a loveable Labrador called Candy. I have a fond memory of her with a paper party hat on and a big ribbon around her neck bounding around with us all at my 9th birthday party.
With Easter holidays just around the corner my poodle Roland and I have put together a selection of three delicious dog friendly safe Easter Treat ideas for you to make from scratch at home. Roland loves to party with the humans.
On behalf of our adorable dogs remember Easter is also time to say a big loud “no” to chocolate for your pup: When we think of Easter we think of chocolate. Easter advertising invades our minds as retailers fill our senses with …. chocolate. Now it’s a delicious treat for humans but it’s toxic for our dogs. Let’s focus on making dog safe Easter treats so your dog can be part of the family and join in the Easter celebration fun. You and the kids can have fun making these treats from scratch and you know that your dog is eating dog friendly dog safe treats.
Let your family and friends know that chocolate is really bad for dogs so they don’t leave it around this Easter season. The vets will tell you about their many canine victims of painful toxic chocolate poisoning so it makes sense to take precautions with the family chocolate easter eggs. It’s an expensive lesson to learn in more ways than one.
In our 3 part video we cover some great Easter treat ideas.
Join Roland and I as we create something sweet, something savory and something a little bit fancy for Easter – all without using toxic chocolate.
Part 1 – Easter Bunny Face Chicken muffins/pup-cakes with creamy mash potato topping. Irresistible?
My video shows you how to create an adorable Easter bunny face on freshly baked chicken savory muffins with rolled oats and heaps of nutritious veggies smuggled inside for your pooch to celebrate with his humans at Easter time. I piped some whipped potato mash on top of each pup-cake then created the cute bunny face for my Easter theme using baking eyes, parsley, carrots and soft strap dog treats. It’s Easter Bunny dinnertime.
Part 2 – Easter Carrot Pup-cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. Pawsitively delicious!
Whip up a batch of these Easter themed pup-cakes made from scratch using human grade dog safe ingredients. With fresh eggs, grated carrots, honey and whole wheat flour – they’re good enough to share! If your dog has food allergies to wheat you can substitute the flour for a non-wheat variety. Pipe yummy cream cheese frosting and top with slithers of carrot to form the Easter Theme.
Part 3 – A Carob Piñata Easter Egg filled with treats. Now we get a little bit fancy.
CAROB CHOC EGGS. Human chocolate is toxic for your pup but we can use a healthy dog friendly alternative – Carob! It looks like chocolate, melts like chocolate and tastes like chocolate but it is a nutritious legume. Health food shops stock it and also some supermarkets. It’s a healthy treat for humans too!
I bought some carob powder and button/chips from my local health food shop and used the melted carob buttons to create a dog friendly ‘chocolate alternative’ Easter egg. My video shows you how easy this was to do with step by step instructions and the result was a fabulous dog safe Easter Egg filled with Roland’s favorite Kibble/Treats.
Definitely no chocolate for your pooch please – it’s toxic! So let’s talk about the natural healthy alternative that looks like chocolate, tastes like chocolate and melts like chocolate. You see it in a lot of commercial dog treats labelled “Chocolate drops” or varieties of Chocolate chip dog cookies/treats. It’s the legume that comes from a Carob tree called ‘Carob’. Just to clarify, Carob is not toxic for dogs and in fact has many health benefits. Theobromine is the toxic ingredient in ‘normal chocolate’ and is similar to caffeine But Carob is a legume that comes from the bean pods of the Carob Tree (an evergreen native to the Mediterranean) and does not contain this toxic ingredient. Carob contains vitamins, in fact as much Vitamin B1 as strawberries or asparagus and the same amount of niacin as some bean, peas or lentil. It has more Vitamin A than eggplant and is high in Vitamin B2, calcium, magnesium and iron. So as you can see it is a wonderfully healthy alternative.
Recipes for these delicious Easter themed goodies can be found in the recipe section of our blog. Watch our video then head on over to the recipe section and get your baking on.
Happy Safe Easter everyone.
Roland’s Nutrition Tips
Carob: A Legume that comes from the bean pods of the Meditteranean Carob Tree. Packed with nutritious Vitamin B1, niacin , Vitamin A, Vitamin B2, calcium, magnesium and iron.
Chicken: Protein Meat – Low in fat and high in protein.
Eggs: One of the cheapest sources of high quality protein and essential fatty acids you can buy. They are a whole food and contain all the nutrients required for the growth of a new chicken. Egg whites and whole eggs are fine as part of a balanced diet. Dogs have been consuming whole eggs for generations with no problems. Whenever you want to add protein to a dish for your dog one of the best things you can add is an egg. You can also whisk in some Brewer’s Yeast to a raw egg — dogs will love them.
Honey: Is rich in many nutrients such as sugars, enzymes, minerals (magnesium, potassium) and B Vitamins. It is an excellent source of instant energy for mothers, sick dogs, young dogs, old dogs in diabetic crises etc. It has anti inflammatory properties, is anti bacterial and is generally beneficial for your dog. Ensure is it local organic honey and not heat treated as raw honey has many more nutrients than cooked honey and this includes enzymes and B vitamins. Pets with allergies can benefit from a little honey each day just as we do.
Oats: Provide high fiber, whole grains and essential fatty acids. They are a good source of minerals, high in calcium, iron, zinc, potassium and manganese along with good levels of Vitamins E&B.
Parsley: This herb is a great breath sweetener for your pooch’s doggie breath.
Veggies: Carrots & Pumpkin are packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber. They are an excellent source of beta carotene which is good for eyes and boosts the immune system. Pumpkin is good for both diarrhoea and constipation.
Whole wheat flour: Contains good protein, fiber, Vitamins E&B. It is fine in small doses such as when used for treats but a wheat based diet is not recommended.
