!44: 6 Ingredients Never to Use When Baking Dog Treats

!±8± 6 Ingredients Never to Use When Baking Dog Treats

If you like to bake, baking dog treats for your pet can be a very rewarding experience. Choosing a recipe, rolling out the dough and cutting it into special shapes can be a lot of fun. But do you know what ingredients to avoid?

Below are some common ingredients better left out of your baking. They're in no particular order, but some, like the first four, you may find in dog treat recipes. Read on and you'll see why they're not so good for dogs.

#1 Cornmeal

You may find cornmeal in many recipes. While not really harmful in moderation, chances are your dog is getting plenty of corn filler in his food already. By adding more corn to his diet, you could be contributing to a weight problem (starchy) or in developing an allergy to corn.

#2 Onions

Onions in large quantities can be toxic to dogs. Their systems are not equipped to handle them. Onions and onion powder can damage pets' red blood cells causing anemia and breathing difficulties. Be aware if you feed baby food to your dog that many of them are high in salt content and onion flavor. Skip it or use organic.

#3 Bouillon cubes

While not harmful per se, bouillon cubes are loaded with salt and chemicals, neither of which your dogs don't need more of in their diets.

#4 Baby Food

Unless it's organic, a lot of baby food has extra sugars and salts in it that your pet really doesn't need.

#5 Chocolate

You won't find dog treat recipes with this ingredient because it can be toxic to dogs. Chocolate contains chemicals called methylxanthine alkaloids which can an increased heart rate and constriction of the arteries. Large doses can be toxic! And even small doses can cause sickness.

Use melted carob if you want to dip your dog's treats into something chocolaty looking and give them that "bakery"look.

#6 Dairy Products (some pets)

Just as some people are lactose intolerant, there is a percentage of the pet population also unable to digest the lactose in milk and cheese. (Typically, there can be lots of diarrhea if there's a problem) You can substitute lactose free cheese and other dairy products for your pet.

So go ahead and bake Fido some healthy, homemade dog treats. Just make sure you know what's going into them and things to avoid.