Easy Homemade Naturally Green Leaf Dog Treats - Dalmatian DIY (2024)

Today we’re sharing a simple naturally green homemade dog treat recipe. It’s great for making easy colourful treats for holidays or just because, like these cute little leaves. And, on the subject of leaves, the post includes the DIY details on how to make easy leaf dog treats like these without using special leaf-shaped cookie cutters or stamps. Not into green? The base dough of this dog treat recipe is easily adapted to other colours, too. Easy peasy!

Right now, our northern furfriends are enjoying your late spring with all the glorious fresh leafy greens. If (like us) you’re in more of a fall feeling, you can simply swap the natural colouring add-ins to create gold, orange, brown, etc. for your leaf dog treats. Turmeric is one of my favourites for golds. Check our our post on using natural ingredients to create colourful dog treats for more ideas.

It’s currently the last week of autumn here in New Zealand. Leaves are falling, days grow ever shorter, and nights are getting chilly (great for dog snuggles…), but since I already have pretty maple leaf treats prepped and waiting for our Canadian furfriends next month, I decided to go green for these leaf dog treats instead of creating fall colours. Plus, our boys love their wheatgrass.

Homemade Naturally Green Leaf Dog Treats with Wheatgrass Powder

The pictured treats use wheatgrass powder in a simple milk powder and stock dog treat dough to make an easy naturally green roll and cut dog treat dough. Cutting shapes, like these leaf dog treats, cutting shapes is only one option. Not all treat doughs work well for rolling and cutting, but any roll and cut dough can be used to make hand formed treats (ball and flatten), pressed into a pan and cut to size, formed as treat bars, and more. See our shortcuts for making baked dog treatsfor ideas.

This dough is also a good base recipe for adding other doggone delicious ingredients like finely chopped cooked meat, shredded cheese, or dog-friendly herbs if you’d like to boost the flavour and scent. Note that these may affect the appearance and/or cutting characteristics, especially if chunky.

Treat Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup low fat (trim/skim) milk powder
• 1/4 cup of low-sodium dog-friendly stock or broth
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp ground flax or LSA
• Optional: 1 tbsp wheatgrass powder for colour (and scent/flavour)
• Approximately 1 to 1+ 1/4 cups of brown rice flour, plus extra for rolling

Making the Treats:

• Preheat your oven to 180C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
• Combine milk powder, stock, egg, flax, and wheatgrass powder in a mixing bowl.
• Incrementally add flour, mixing into a cohesive workable dough. The amount of flour required will vary depending on your individual ingredients and any optional add-ins or substitutions. Missed the mark? No worries! You can add a little bit of extra liquid, a small amount of olive oil, or additional flour to adjust consistency if/as needed.
• Rest dough (optional but recommended). This milk powder enriched dough may feel slightly sticky when mixed, but hold off on adjusting the flour until after you’ve rested the dough. You can always add a little extra when you knead the dough lightly before rolling if you have to adjust the texture for rolling and cutting.
• Roll, cut into desired shapes, and place on a prepared baking pan. See below for details on how I shaped these leaf dog treats.
• Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes. Cooking time will vary with shape/size, so keep an eye on the oven.
• Cool before serving and storage.

If you have leaf-shaped cookie cutters (affiliate link), then you can (of course) use those to make leafy treats. If you’re planning to use plunger cutters, note that milk powder enriched dough can be on the sticky side for working but bakes beautifully. I recommend resting your dough before working, then adjust the consistency to suit if/as needed as noted above.

As a very easy alternative to specialty cutters, if you don’t have a cookie cutter and want to make leaves, the pictures above show an easy hack using a basic biscuit cutter. If you have one, you can use a fluted biscuit cutter (as shown) for a fancy leaf edge. Or You can use a plain biscuit cutter or other suitable circular object for a smooth edge. Drinking glasses or empty cleaned tins are an easy stand in for a biscuit cutter if you don’t have one. For added style, press with a knife to add veins to the leaf shapes. Easy peasy and very cute!

Baked Biscuit Dog Treat Making Tips and Tricks

• See our posts onmaking baked biscuit (cookie) dog treatsanddecorating homemade dog treatsfor more information and helpful tips.
• We don’t include yield in our treat recipe posts because it is very dependent on what the maker decides for treat shape, size, and thickness when they’re baking. We like to bake small batch treats though (variety is the spice of life!).
• Baked treats can be broken for smaller dogs, or made bigger/smaller. Keep an eye on your time and temperature. The smaller the treat, the shorter the baking time.
• For a crunchier treat, you can let baked treats sit a while in the cooling oven before removing to get a little crispier or pop the baked treats into a dehydrator.
• Homemade baked dog treats are best consumed within a couple of days from baking or frozen for longer storage. See our post onbaked dog treat shelf life and storagefor information and tips.

Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks

• Variations in measurements, individual ingredient types, and options and substitutions as well as variations in egg size, ingredient and ambient temperatures, etc. are all part of why we work incrementally when mixing.
• In addition to richness and nutrition, milk powder helps to enhance dough consistency and I find it also creates a slightly firmer/crisper baked result. Interestingly, when milk powder is used in a dough, it also usually requires slightly more flour than if mixed without.
• Not into dairy? I’ve baked similar treats using coconut milk powder to test its potential as a substitution option. You can also check out our full collection of roll and cut dog treat recipes and hopefully find something that’s better suited to your pet and preferences.
• Not into wheatgrass? Prefer a different colour? See our post on using natural food colourings in homemade dog treats for more ideas.
• As noted above, this dough is also a good base recipe for adding other doggone delicious ingredients like finely chopped cooked meat, shredded cheese, or dog-friendly herbs if you’d like to boost the flavour and scent. Note that these may affect the appearance and/or cutting characteristics, especially if chunky.