Homemade, No Bake, Cottage Cheese Pill Treat.

My dog Ruby has epilepsy. This is one of the recipes I make to use as a pill treat to give Ruby her medication.  I stopped using the store-bought pill treats years ago because they are very expensive and I don’t trust the ingredients.  I began developing my own recipes for healthy, homemade, soft pill treats that I could make for less money.  If you would like to see more homemade pill treat recipes, click here for my homemade pill treat book for many more recipes your dog will love.  These treats aren’t just for pills.  You can also make them as healthy treat options for your pup rather than buying store-bought treats.  

This easy recipe for cottage cheese is great for when you are short on time and you have cottage cheese in your refrigerator.  This is a super easy dough recipe to make and your dog's going to love it. The treat stays soft and easy to work with all week .  

First to add four tablespoons of Brown rice flour. I use Bob’s Red Mills Brown Rice Flour, but you can use whatever flour you have.   Next, add one tablespoon of the beef gelatin. I use the Great Lakes Beef Gelatin brand.  Stir the dry ingredients together. Next, add two tablespoons of large curd cottage cheese.  I have found that large curd cottage cheese works better in this recipe then small curd cottage cheese.  Finally, add three tablespoons of water. You can use any other liquid, like a chicken broth or beef broth.   

Mix all of the ingredients together to create the cottage cheese dough. If your dough appears too dry or crumbly you can always add another tablespoon of liquid until it’s the desired dough texture. You'll see that the ingredients are a little lumpy and don't immediately form the dough right away. Once you have gotten the dough ingredients mixed for the most part, use your hands to pick up the dough and create a dough ball.  

So that's it. We have our cottage cheese dough that is ready to go to make the soft pill treats. You can leave it as a dough ball and place into an airtight container in the refrigerator.  This way  you can pull off what you need as the week goes. This is a good option if your dog has different size pills so you can pinch off what you need throughout the day and week. The second option, which I typically do because Ruby only has one medication that she takes, is I create the pill tree shape ahead of time and store the treats in a Pyrex container in the refrigerator.  

To create that pill treat shape simply pinch off a little piece of dough that is big enough depending on the size of your dog’s pill. Make a little dough ball in your hands by rolling the dough in between the palms of your hands.   Next, use your  finger to create a small hole in the dough ball.  This allows you to place the pill in the treat and then squeeze the dough closed around the pill. The pill will be completely hidden from your dog and they will think they are just getting a treat. Check out the video below to watch me make the cottage cheese dough and create the pill treat shape.