Avoid This Common Baking Ingredient In Your Homemade Dog Treats

Your pup may love you forever if you make homemade dog treats out of their favorite ingredients. Maybe they adore pumpkin and peanut butter or chicken and banana (not the most appetizing combos, but to each their own). However, making tasty, soft dog treats for your canine pal comes with key caveats that you don't typically need to factor in when baking for your fellow humans.

Safe recipes for dogs need to follow several restrictions; in fact, you'll want to avoid an ingredient often found in human baked goods: white flour. Though used as a binding agent and the foundation of many delectable desserts, you should skip this form of ground wheat when baking treats for your dog. This includes all-purpose flour, bread flour, and cake flour. As long as they're not allergic, your canine may be able to handle white flour in small quantities, but the risks outweigh the benefits when it comes to this popular powder.

Wheat is a common allergen for dogs, accounting for 13% of all dog allergies, according to a 2016 study published in BMC Veterinary Research. While some allergies are genetic, repeated exposure can make a wheat allergy develop, so that's one reason to avoid using regular white flour in large amounts. Your dog may look like a loaf of bread, but it's not a good idea to feed them one.

Allergies aren't the only concern regarding using white flour in your homemade dog treats. As a highly-proceeded product, white flour has had much of its nutrients removed, and it's not a good idea to fill your pup's stomach with something that doesn't offer nutritional value. White flour could cause gastrointestinal problems for your dog, especially in higher quantities. And because they won't get adequate nutrients from it, they might overeat, potentially resulting in bloat, a very serious condition in dogs. Additionally, the lack of fiber could lead to a blood glucose spike followed by a crash — an especially dangerous scenario for canine's with diabetes.

If you know that your dog tolerates wheat well, whole wheat flour is a better option than white flour. When choosing a flour to bind the ingredients of your dog treats together, whole grain flours — like oat, quinoa, and buckwheat flour — are going to be your best bet, in general. If you want to avoid grains altogether, some dogs can handle almond, coconut, chickpea, or lentil flour as well. As with any human food you hope to introduce to your pooch, consult with your vet, and start with a small portion. Once you know your dog can handle them, limit these ingredients to an occasional rotation only.

You can also skip the flour altogether and rely on ingredients like mashed banana, unsweetened applesauce, or mashed sweet potato (make sure to cook and peel it first!) to keep your treats together. They may not look cookie cutter perfect, but your dog will not care. They'll just be grateful that their owner cared enough to make them homemade treats. Better yet, maybe your dog is actually a professional chef and can help you out in the kitchen!