DIY Dog & Small Animal Treats - Banana Chips

​This is a super easy treat recipe, although it does require a dehydrator (unless you want your oven running all day!). This treat can be enjoy by dogs and small animals like rats, hamsters, rabbts or gerbils. Since adding the addition of a hamster to our family, I like treats like this that can be for multiple pets.

Making your own dog or pet treats is a good way to introduce healthy variety into their diet. It can be very inexpensive while giving you maximum control over what goes into the treat, which is beneficial on so many levels. From food allergies to deceptive pet food marketing, its a safe bet so long as you are staying within your dog's calories and using pet safe ingredients and wholesome foods.

INGREDIENTS
- Bananas (not overipe or underipe)

Optional
- Lemon Juice

INSTRUCTIONS
Cut your bananas into 1/4 inch slices.  Optional to let them sit a few minutes in a bit of lemon water to help prevent browning. Honestly, I didn't bother, it doesn't have to be that pretty - just yummy and healthy! You can experiment and make slices thinner or thicker but thicker takes longer etc. Space out your bananas in your dehydrator next to each other but still apart. Set your dehydrator to the temperature recommended by your brand of dehydrator. The American Harvest is recommended at 135 degrees. I let mine dehydrator for 10 hours but you can do 8-12 just depending on what texture you like. My husband said they weren’t crunchy enough for his taste but I really don’t think our dogs or hamster cared!

Bananas are full of vitamins and are low calorie. They make a great dried treat for dogs and small animals.

I could have put a little closer but I didn't have much to fit for the first round. This was two bananas.

We let it sit for about 10 hours and this is what they looked like. As you can see....I'm not the best fruit cutter. Its okay, don't fret if yours are all crazy looking like mine. The dog's won't know! ​

These DIY dog treats should be put in the fridge since they do not have preservatives. I did not make many so I used a metal container since they would be eaten in a few days. I have since put other batches in the but it does make them more chewy in texture.

Sophie and Gul'Dan gave the treats a paw up! A say five stars on these DIY dog / pet treats and they are super super easy to make and cheap! ​These treats are also great for small animals.