DIY Cat treats

Hello Week 22 of Project Money!  Fall is in the air and it feels we are in the home stretch of Project Money.  This week I took an idea from my Project Money friends and decided to make some homemade cat treats. My cat Jazz is a bit on the finicky side so I was pleasantly surprised when her olfactory senses kicked in as we opened the can of salmon. Isaac helped me with the ingredients, the preparation, and the baking, and Miles helped with the taste test, but more on that later.

We selected a recipe and put our own spin on it, aptly naming the treats “savory salmon snacks.”  We had most of the ingredients on hand though we did purchase some pink salmon as it’s about half the price of red salmon.  We combined the salmon with wheat flour, baker’s yeast (a natural flea repellent), and a few other ingredients.  We had to Keep Jazz at bay as she jumped up on the counter and wanted to lick the “batter.”  This was a good sign. 

Once mixed, we rolled out our batter on a floured surface and used our fish-shaped cookie cutter to make the salmon snacks.  Each cookie yielded twenty bite-sized snacks that we popped out onto the lightly greased cookie sheet.  After baking for 15 minutes or so, they were ready to cool on the baking rack.  Once cool, the moment had arrived:  would our finicky feline like the salmon snacks?  Miles gave Jazz one and she ate it and seemed to enjoy it.  A little while later she ate another one.  Success!  Well not so fast. 

Today, she is not interested in the least bit.  I am hoping to take the other remaining 398 snacks and find some colleagues who have cats who want to give them a try.  Because there are no preservatives in them, they have a limited shelf life, so I do not want them to go to waste.  In the end, we enjoyed trying something new and spending time together as a family.  However, it’s a little disappointing to invest time into a DIY recipe if your cat or your children do not like Mom’s newest concoction.  What was supposed to pennies for a batch has just turned into a waste of money.  Better luck next time.  Life is too short to get discouraged. 

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