Golden oldie? Golden goodies! The final post of Oli’s 12th barkday bonanza is our tasty adaptations of favourite dog treat recipes in glorious gold. We adapted all sorts of golden dog treat recipes for Oli’s golden oldie birthday celebrations. In addition to the golden birthday cake and special birthday treats, we made golden versions of go-to treats and favourites for the birthday buffet. Here’s the scoop on our turmeric and coconut milk gelatin gummies, lamb and carrot meatballs, and coconut oil treats with turmeric. Yum!
Golden Dog Treat Recipes
Admittedly, the golden oldie theme for this year’s special birthday celebration is beautiful, but there are extra reasons to love the glorious golds. Our favourite natural food colouring for creating golden dog treats is turmeric, which doggone healthy and delicious. And as luck would have it, yellow happens to be one of the colours that dogs see similarly to people. Or at least as far as we know! My dogs are still far more interested in tasty scents than pretty colour, but we humans do like to have a little fun. Especially when it’s time to party!
Gelatin Gummy Dog Treats with Turmeric and Coconut Milk
Glorious Golden Gummies
Gummies gummies, gummies! I’ve been trying to keep a batch of gummies on hand at all times as part of our Year of the Dog resolutions, and turmeric gummies are one of our dogs favourites. They’re also one of my favourite ways to include turmeric in their diets since gummies make sharing less messy. Turmeric stains, but turmeric gummies are easy on hands and white fur. Shortly after Oli’s cataract surgery, I made a batch of turmeric gummies with coconut milk powder. They were a massive hit with the dogs. I’ve run out of coconut milk powder and we’re limiting pantry items pre-move, so I opted to adapt the recipe to use coconut milk instead. Easy and doggone delicious.
Turmeric and Coconut Milk Gummy Dog Treat Recipe Adaptation
The gummies were made with 3/4 cup plain low-sodium chicken stock or cold water, 3 tbsp powdered gelatin, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 tbsp ground turmeric, sprinkle of ground black pepper, sprinkle of ground ginger, and a sprinkle of ground Ceylon cinnamon. See the original golden milk gummy dog treat recipe post for full instructions, seasoning notes, and tips/tricks.
Other Golden Gummy Options
Not into coconut milk? You can use a little bit of dog-friendly yogurt or other milky add-in for a similar opaque-looking golden gummy. Alternatively, you can keep it super simple with just stock as the base. You can still include turmeric for a colour boost, like our golden gummy star dog treats, or keep it plain for by using a pale yellow-ish stock. Other yellows, golds, and light oranges or brown could work in golden dog treat recipes, too. Our pumpkin gummies, spiced apple gummies, and many other gelatin gummy dog treats are naturally in that colour family. Check out our post on using natural ingredients to create dog treat colours for more ideas.
Lamb and Carrot Meatball Dog Treats
Mmmm…Meatballs!
Since I was making a pumpkin and peanut butter birthday cake this year instead of a meatloaf-style dog birthday cake, I decided to do some meatballs on the side. Meatballs are a great option for a special homemade meaty dog treat. They’re easy to make and they freeze well for later defrosting as individual treats and/or special meal toppers.
Lamb Meatballs with Carrot and Turmeric
I prefer to make my dog meatball treats firm, either with a meat-only base or a meat-and-carb combo. For these, however, I decided to experiment with a meat-and-veggie combo for these and ditch most of the carbs. In addition to cooked pureed carrot, the meatballs also included a colour boost of turmeric and some doggone delicious dried herbs for even more scent and flavour.
The end result was no doubt tasty and healthy, but much wetter and softer for handling – especially when warm. The recipe didn’t make the cut for the blog, but the dogs (of course) still loved them. I had delusions of making a doggie croquembouche of meatballs, but ditched that plan between my soft meatballs and being time poor with moving prep. I just stacked them on a platter instead. Again, no complaints from the dogs. Haha! See our meatball and meatloaf dog treat posts for recipe ideas.
Coconut Oil Dog Treats with Turmeric
Combining Coconut Oil and Turmeric
With all the turmeric in these golden goodies, I couldn’t resist making a few coconut oil shapes. Both coconut oil and black pepper are purported to enhance the benefits of the curcumin in turmeric. I have used turmeric coconut oil dog food sprinkles, but often use the ingredients separately for different mix-and-match treats and/or as individual sprinkle on toppers. Mixing things up!
Coconut Oil for Dogs
If your give your dogs coconut oil as a supplement, it’s simple to set the oil into small treats. Plus, it can make sharing easy and fun. When this post was create, coconut oil was recommended as a dietary supplement for dogs by many holistic vets and dog nutritionists; however, it has recently come under debate. Not sure what’s right for you? See our post on super simple DIY dog treats using coconut oil for helpful links on the potential good and bad of coconut oil. If you feel it isn’t, there are tons of other recipes you can explore here on the blog instead.
Turmeric Coconut Oil Heart Dog Treats
The hearts were made with coconut oil, turmeric powder, and a sprinkle of black pepper. The basic process is the same as making a plain coconut oil treat, just with add-ins. See our simple DIY coconut oil dog treats for extra information and tips.
Non-Soluble Mixtures
I’ve made turmeric and coconut oil treats a few times now and it’s easy. My only grumble is that irrespective of how I melt the oil, how I combine the ingredients, or how quickly I set the finished mixtures, there some precipitate always settles on the bottom. It doesn’t affect the treats, they still hold together firmly, and it actually looks rather cool (I think). For this particular batch I experimented with letting the mixture cool and thicken, stirring periodically, before transferring it to my moulds and putting in the freezer to rapidly finish the settling. More effort for sure, but less settling as well. I use a similar technique to suspend solids in gummies. If you have other tips or tricks, let me know!
Hungry for more tasty treats? There are all sorts of homemade dog treat ideas in our blog archives. You can use the category and tag labels to find other recipes that might be of interest or use our internal search tools to find something specific. Remember, treats (bought or homemade) are for spoiling your pup in moderation. We share ideas from treats that we’ve made ourselves for our pets, but different animals have different preferences (likes/dislikes), just like people. Some pets may have special dietary requirements and/or food allergies/intolerances. If you are ever in doubt or have questions about what’s suitable for your pet, have a chat with your trusted vet.
