It’s Halloween time and there are plenty of pumpkins around. Good thing that pumpkin is great for your dogs! It’s high in fiber, low in calories, and full of Beta Keratin. It’s also great for your dog’s digestive system.
You can use canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling.) However, if you have a few real pumpkins and want to give them to your dogs, here are some cooking and preparation suggestions:
1. Raw pumpkin is okay, as long as it is fresh. Don’t use your Halloween pumpkin that’s been sitting out on your porch steps for weeks. Yuck! Just peel the pumpkin and cut the flesh into small cubes. You can then top your dog’s food with some of the pumpkin cubes.
2. Pumpkin puree
Boil peeled, cubed pumpkin until tender.
or
cut pumpkins in half and scoop out the seeds. Place on cookie sheet and roast for 30 minutes or so, until golden brown on edges. Scoop out the flesh and discard the skin.
Place in food processor and add a little water and puree.
I put spoonfuls of pumpkin purees in muffin cups and froze. Then I popped the frozen lumps out of the tins and placed in ziploc bags to store until needed.
3. Pumpkin Pupsicles
Mix pumpkin puree with water until smooth. Poor into ice cube trays or molds and freeze.
4. Pumpkin Biscuits
I don’t really enjoy cooking, but I got inspired to make dog biscuits with some of the pumpkin puree. One of the reasons I’m not much of a cook is because I’m horrible at following recipes and I hate to measure. So I put the puree in a large bowl and added some rolled oats, a little cinnamon, 2 eggs, and some flour. I kept mixing in flour until it felt like the right consistency to roll out. I rolled the dough and pressed out dog bone shapes with cookie cutters. I then baked them for about 15 minutes. They didn’t look too bad! Best of all, my dogs were crazy about them! It made me ridiculously happy to make something from scratch that my dogs seemed to love!
Other ideas are
Mix pumpkin with peanut butter, banana, plain yogurt—or all!
Stuff into a Kong
Make pumpkin dog-safe ice cream
Bake into doggie muffins
Do you give your dogs pumpkin?
How do you prepare pumpkin treats for your pet?
