I always make kong stuffing out of my Thanksgiving leftovers. I use whatever safe and appropriate items we have and the dogs get to celebrate along with us.
1. The Turkey carcass. I strip off all the meat and connective tissue and boil the carcass (I use an 8 quart stockpot) in enough water to cover plus fresh apple cider vinegar (I used 1/4 cup to 10 cups water). Boil as long as suits you, the vinegar will help release minerals from the bones, these minerals are very healthy for your dog, so the longer you boil the healthier the broth.
Chop any meat you are not going to save for yourself. The greater the proportion of meat to oatmeal the richer your finished product, so keep your dogs preferences in mind. If your dog has trouble with digestion, leave the skin out, I’ve used all the skin because my dogs have amazing digestion and I know they won’t have any trouble digesting the fat.
I made extra veggies, I have both cooked green beans and Brussels sprouts. The sprouts I’ve well cooked, otherwise they are difficult for dogs to digest. Since my veggies are cooked, I do not boil them with the carcass You can use whatever veggie you want, don’t have any, try mixing in a bag of fresh leafy greens when the end product is hot but done cooking.
Green Beans! Lightly cooked.
Well cooked Brussels sprouts.
Remove the turkey bones by running your stock through a strainer, be sure to get all tiny bones too! Then add the chopped meat and veg back to the simmer stock. Turn off heat! The rest is done without any heat.
Tip: be sure to finely chop the meat and veg, otherwise it’s hard to get into the kong and hard for your dog to get out.
I’m using Old Fashioned oatmeal, just keep adding until your mixture gets thick.
I also had some stale Cheerios, so those go in too.
Keep adding oats until your mixture is thick and pastey. Let this mixture cool until you can easily handle it.
Then start stuffing!
This makes a thick and sticky mixture that is HARD for dogs to remove, excellent for expert level de-stuffers! If your dog isn’t yet level expert at de-stuffing, try stuffing cows hooves (puppies and beginners), hollow shank bones (intermediate), Kongs (intermediate), West Paws Tux (advanced) and Squirrel Dudes (advanced). This mixture is also suitable for lick mats, and slow feeder bowls. Offered fresh is easier than if you stuff and offer the item frozen.
Tip: If you are worried about suction forming in the toy when the dog is licking it, at this stage and before freezing, run the stuffing through with a skewer, chop stick, or straw, the hole should run through the toy, and will remain after you remove the skewer.
Zahara sneaking a bone, in the totally obvious way that GSs are known for.
As October approaches the world starts craving all things Pumpkin Spice!
Each October I make a batch of Pumpkin Spice stuffing mixture, but pumpkin is so healthy for dogs that you can add it to any stuffing recipe.
As with all my stuffing recipes, please note, I make huge quantities and stuff every Kong, Squirrel Dude, bone, hoof, and West Paw Zogoflex Tux that I have in the house and I just judge everything by eye, so please adjust amounts to suit your preferences.
This is an oatmeal based recipe and as such it’s sticky, sticky stuffing are more DIFFICULT for your dog to extract, taking more time and effort. If your dog is new to enrichment see the bottom of the recipe for ways to make this activity easier or more difficult based on your dogs skill and drive level.
Stuffing:
Oatmeal, either Old Fashioned, Steel Cut, or Instant, UNFLAVORED without sugar, or flavor added. I’m using Quaker Instant Oatmeal because I found it on sale, I usually use Old Fashioned Oats.
Canned Pumpkin, or any cooked and mashed squash.
Eggs: The entire egg, shell and all.
Coconut Oil or Olive Oil (optional) some dogs cannot tolerate supplemental oil, others can. Know your dog.
Spice: Granulated Garlic and Ground Cinnamon.
Veg: Whatever you have! I used apple and rainbow kale, coarsly chopped.
Optional but Awesome:
I ALWAYS save the fine dust that is left over in treat packages, biscuit boxes, or when I chop up rolled dog treats (Natural Balance and Redbarn Rolls leave TONS of crumbs!) and instead of throwing these yummy bits away I save them in a plastic tub in the fridge. When I made this recipe I happened to have crumbs from chopping up Natural Balance Rolls into treats and so I poured that in this recipe.
Quantities: I make a huge batch and here is the recipe for that, followed by a smaller recipe for a single GS sized dog with 7 stuffable dispensers (Kongs, Squirrel Dudes etc).
Combine in a 8 quart stock pot or larger:
1 large tube of Oats (42 oz)
1 dozen eggs, shell and all.
1/4 Cup Granulated Garlic (NOT Garlic Salt)
1 TBS Ground Cinnamon (No more!)
2 Cans Pumpkin Purée or 3 Cups Mashed Squash
4 Cups Vegetable (I used Rainbow Kale and Apple) coarsely chopped. Only use dog safe fruits and veggies!
Optional: Treat dust (I had 1 Cups worth, oil, I used 1/4 Cup Coconut Oil).
Small Batch:
1 Small Tube of Oatmeal
4 Eggs
1 TBS Granulated Garlic
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon (no more)
1 can Pumpkin Purée or 1.5 Cups Mashed Squash
2 Cups Veggie/Fruit.
Optional: Treat Dust or 1 tsp oil.
Make it!
I seriously eye ball this recipe because I’m going for a particular texture (sticky and clumpy) and not regular people eating oatmeal texture!
In your 8 quart stockpot over medium heat, add the amount of water recommended on the Oatmeal package (I start with 2 cups water per 1 cup uncooked oats, adding more water if needed).
Bring the water to a simmer and add all your veggies and fruit, cook lightly (dogs can’t digest plant matter unless it’s lightly cooked or puréed).
To simmering water/veggie mixture add eggs and stir to break eggs up as much/little as desired. Cook until just set, about 2 minutes.
Add canned Pumpkin or mashed squash, stir to combine and heat through and return to a low boil.
Reduce heat to medium/low, you want the mixture to just barely boil, enough to cook the oatmeal.
Quickly stir to mix all ingredients, the mixture should thicken up rather quickly, so combine while you can.
Once well combined, and the oats cooked, remove from heat and allow to stand until cool enough to handle with your hands. Mixture should thicken considerably upon cooling.
Once the mixture is cool enough to handle it should be really thick and gummy, almost like cookie dough consistency. It sticks to EVERYTHING! This makes it really challenging to get out of a Kong.
Stuff, Stuff, Stuff! I stuff this into Kongs, Squirrel Dudes, cows hooves (for puppies/seniors only), Tux, and short shank bones. You could also stuff this into a lick mat or slow feeder bowl.
Above: West Paws Tux
Below: Short Shank Bone.
Tux, Kongs, and Squirrel Dudes.
Save the extra! This mixture is sticky enough that I also save some back and use this like a Pill Pocket, to wrap around pills so the dogs will eat them.
I also use it like canned food, to mix in with dry food at meal times.
It freezes well too, and can be used as a stuffing after being thawed.
The large recipe stuffs about 30 different items. The small recipe will stuff about 10, depending of course on the volume of the item being stuffed.
Remember, you can adjust the recipe to suit your needs!
Dogs benefit greatly from relaxing activities such as food dispensers, you can use this Relaxing Activity to balance Arousing activities such as fetch, tug, agility, or obedience to help your dog relax.
Tip: Making it easier. This stuffing, like all oatmeal based stuffings, is very sticky and difficult to extract. This is perfect if you have a Kong Level Expert dog, you know, the kind who can clean out a Kong in under 30 minutes. But this filling might be discouraging to a beginner dog or a lower drive dog. To make this stuffing easier to extract from the toy you can:
1. Fill the Kong half way full with kibble before stuffing.
2. Coat the inside of the Kong with butter, coconut, or olive oil.
3. Fill a slow feed bowl, or lick mat instead of a Kong or Squirrel Dude.
4. Feed it fresh instead of frozen.
Momma’s dogs need new bones! This blog contains affiliate links, so we can earn a small amount of money while you pay nothing extra!
This is the third level of stuffed pacifier toy we use. Please see the first and second levels before introducing this step to your dog. Your dog will thank you!
Supplies
Kong, Squirrel Dude, or Busy Time
Base Kibble (your dog’s regular food)
Novel Kibble (not your dog’s regular food)
Freeze-dried treats, powdered, optional
Sink drying rack, OR large bowl
Wide mouth funnel, optional
Chopstick, optional
You can manipulate the ratios to your dog’s liking. My dogs love their base kibble and enjoy pacifiers with just their base kibble. But I usually mix about half of the base kibble with a novel kibble, which is any brand of dry food they don’t eat for their normal meals.
If your dog is picky, you can add some pea-sized dog treats, or powder some freeze-dried dog treats to mix in with the kibble.
Directions
Prepare your kibble – I’m using all novel kibble. You can also use your base kibble, a mixture of base kibble plus novel kibble, and/or mix powdered freeze dried treats with your kibble.
Arrange your toys in a sink or large bowl. Bowl must be deep enough to almost cover each toy.
Pour kibble into each toy. I use a funnel and chopstick to get the kibble in neatly.
Add hot tap water until nearly to the top of the toys.
Let sit at least 30 minutes, or until kibble is fully saturated. This will depend on the individual kibble and may take some experimenting.
For toys soaking in a bowl, carefully pour most of the water out, then remove toys to a sink rack or dry bowl. For sink soaking toys, pick up the rack and set in the dry side of the sink, or on a cookie sheet. Drain for at least 5 minutes.
Either put in fridge for beginners, or freezer for more advanced dogs.
We want the first time we offer our dog this type of pacifier to be easy, so I typically give them unfrozen the first time. My dog has already learned the skills of how to manipulate two “easier” pacifiers from our previous lessons by licking or physically manipulating food toys, so typically dogs will generalize these skills to this new type of pacifier. Once they have succeeded, I freeze these so they last longer.
When to use pacifiers
So, we’ve put all this work into teaching our dogs to use pacifiers… What will we use this skill for, exactly? Well, lots of things!
During crate training practice
When caregivers need the puppy to be quiet (phone or video calls)
During car rides (if the puppy isn’t prone to carsickness)
When the puppy is prone to being destructive or hyper
When company comes over
Ideally, you will introduce pacifiers during confinement (crates or play pens). This will prevent any mess on your rugs, lost toys under furniture, and any squabbles between dogs. This will also give your dog a positive feeling about being confined.
You will want to also match the interest of the stuffing to the interest of the distraction. For example, if I want to put a young dog in her crate while I have company, I will choose all novel kibble with freeze dried liver powder mixed in. The distraction (my company) is high, so I match the interest level of the stuffing by making the stuffing very exciting (all novel kibble plus liver).
One of our clients sent me this picture of Puppy Cam on their TV, staring Nanny Andeigh playing with the F Litter.
We, and our clients, love the puppy cam. The puppy cam allows you to observe the litter in real time.
We turn the camera on around day 7, this marks the day the puppies can regulate their own temperature, so we can remove the sheet that covers the whelping box (which holds in the dams body heat).
We turn off the camera around Week 9, usually around the time the first puppies start going home.
The puppy cam is on 24/7, so you can and will often see the reality of raising puppies, including poo, puppy naughtiness, us in our jammies late at night tending them, and of course the entry and exit of the dam, and all the nannies and nannos approved to help teach the puppies.
The puppies may not always be on view, the camera doesn’t cover the entire space, they might be outside on their patio, or out in the house with us.
Sometimes, if there is a poosplosion, or if I’m particularly “unpresentable” I turn the puppy cam off for a bit, just check back later, it will be up again.
This year I am trying out a new way to have a “PuppyCam” with this litter.
The link to the the PuppyCam with this new hosting site is here. (This will open a new browser tab/window, so you won’t leave our site.)
Please try this out and let me know how it works. We are in a 5 day trial period with this hosting company, so there are a few limitations on streaming:
I believe there is a time limit on how long you can connect and look, without reloading the page (but I am not sure how long that is).
You have to visit the hosting site directly to view the PuppyCam.
You cannot link the video into a web page.
And it is hard (impossible?) to “brand” the camera.
If this works out and we like this host, I can upgrade the account with the company and get these issues addressed, and a few other extras to make it an overall better viewing experience.
A few other things on the video: the color (or lack of it) is due to our lighting (or lack thereof) where we have the whelping box. The camera is in color, but we don’t have enough artificial or ambient light to kick the camera into displaying color (unfortunately). The webcam is on 24×7, and has good night “vision” so you can see the puppies at all hours (I think it has infrared lighting built in). Also, I have the sound turned off, so don’t expect to hear anything…
So, please drop me an email and let me know how this looks and works.
Welcome to the new version of our website, that is now based on WordPress. At present, we have just moved most of the old site directly into WordPress, without a lot of editing or changes. However, over the next few days, we will be making a lot of changes to the pages, updating, restructuring, adding new content, etc.
So, please check back frequently, as things will change!
Chop any meat you are not going to save for yourself. The greater the proportion of meat to oatmeal the richer your finished product, so keep your dogs preferences in mind. If your dog has trouble with digestion, leave the skin out, I’ve used all the skin because my dogs have amazing digestion and I know they won’t have any trouble digesting the fat.
I’m using Old Fashioned oatmeal, just keep adding until your mixture gets thick.
I also had some stale Cheerios, so those go in too.
Keep adding oats until your mixture is thick and pastey. Let this mixture cool until you can easily handle it.
