With summer here and the high temperatures that come with it, it’s completely normal for your dog to get a little hot – or very hot, depending on where you live. Always having cool, clean water available for him is obviously a necessity, but… what if you could also give him something tasty and refreshing to help him handle the heat a little better? Yes, we are talking about a good ice cream for dogs, simple to make and irresistible.
Searching online, you’ll find a ton of recipes, some of which are very complicated and others pretty boring. So, to save you the time of surfing from website to website looking for the best options, here is a collection of the best ice cream recipes you can make for your dog.
Can dogs eat ice cream?
They sure can, obviously, and not just that – they love it. But commercial ice cream, typically eaten by humans, aren’t healthy at all dog dogs (in truth, they aren’t healthy for us either).
Many commercial ice creams can cause them diarrhea, vomiting and even high blood sugar, since dogs don’t have the sugar addiction that we humans have and commercial ice creams are loaded with sugar. Obviously, if they eat a tiny bit, it’s possible that nothing will happen, but it isn’t the healthiest thing for them.
The best option is to make a delicious ice cream for your dog yourself; they’re really easy to make and you can even eat them yourself. Remember that even if a homemade ice cream is good for your dog, if he eats it too fast or too much of it, it’s not going to sit well with him.
You should give it to him so that he licks it and eats it little by little. If he swallows it whole… you might want to make it bigger to avoid this, or simply give it to him yourself, little by little. Remember to never put popsicle sticks or things that can harm your dog inside the ice cream.
Dogs who are accustomed to Kong (the toy) can also use it with ice cream inside.
Homemade ice cream recipes for dogs
The base of all the recipes you’ll find is yogurt. It should be plain, unsweetened yogurt, with as few additives as possible. The more natural the yogurt, the better it will be for your dog.
Yogurt ice cream recipe
You can make a simple frozen yogurt by putting the yogurt in freezer and waiting for it to freeze. When it’s frozen, simply remove the packaging and let your dog enjoy it.
Some people prefer not to give so much yogurt to their dog, whether because of their size or any other reason.
You can mix a yogurt with half a cup of water and mix it manually or with a mixer until the liquid is more or less homogeneous. Put this liquid in containers to freeze, any size you want, and that way you’ll have tons of frozen yogurt ice creams ready for your dog.
Ice cream recipe with fruit
This recipe is exactly the same as the previous one, but you’ll add your dog’s favorite fruit to make the yogurt even more delicious. Not to mention healthy, since certain types of fruit are very healthy for dogs.
If you don’t know which fruit to use, I recommend you read: Healthy fruits for dogs
Some examples of healthy fruits are:
⦁ Banana
⦁ Apple without the core/seeds
⦁ Pear
⦁ Berries
⦁ Watermelon
The recipe consists of adding chunks of whole fruit to the ice cream, whether yogurt or yogurt plus water, before freezing. This way, the fruit will be incorporated into the ice cream and your dog will be even happier, if possible.
If you don’t want to use whole pieces of fruit, you can blend them with the yogurt or yogurt plus water and freeze the resulting liquid, which will obviously have a great fruit flavor and all of its nutritional properties.
Ice cream recipe with “cookies”
This is without a doubt the most intuitive recipe of all. You simply add “cookies” to the yogurt before freezing, or blend them with the yogurt if you don’t what them to come out in chunks. They cookies can be dog biscuits or plain, all-natural cookies. Always avoid giving them industrial cookies loaded with sugar and/or preservatives.
Chicken ice cream recipe
This time, you won’t use any yogurt for the recipe, since all you need is a little chicken broth, with or without pieces of chicken. Remember that if you add chicken, it should be only meat, never give your dog cooked bones.
The recipe for this ice cream for dogs is very simple. Boil some chicken (breast, thigh, whatever you want) in a little water, without adding salt or any other ingredient. When you’ve created a delicious broth with chicken flavor and it’s cooled, you can put it in containers to freeze.
If you prefer, you can also add pieces of chicken along with the broth, and then freeze it all together later. It is no doubt a very appealing ice cream for dogs, and who says it has to be chicken? It can be beef, rabbit, or your dog’s favorite meat.
