Show your cat how much you love them this Valentine’s Day (or any day of the year) by baking them these delicious homemade tuna cat treats. Best of all, this tuna flavoured cat treat recipe is easy to make with just a few simple ingredients.
Please note, this tuna cat treat recipe is intended as an occasional treat for your cat. Fish and tuna isn’t recommended as part of a cat’s daily diet. Feeding tuna to your cat in moderation is fine, and these treats may be helpful if your cat has gone off its food and you need something smelly like tuna to tempt them to eat. Our tuna and catnip treats are also great as training treats. For example, if you are teaching your cat to wear a harness and walk on a leash.
The Pawesome Cats family and their friends have happily taste-tested these homemade tuna heart cat treats, and gave them a big paws up.
Tuna Heart Cat Treats
makes 30-40 cat treats
- Preheat your oven
Preheat your oven to 175˚C (350˚F), or 160˚C (320˚F) if you have a fan-forced oven.
- Ingredients you’ll need
150g canned tuna, in oil
1 cup rice or oat flour
1 large egg
1 tbsp dried catnip
extra olive oil
- Combine ingredients in a bowl
Combine drained tuna, rice or oat flour, egg and catnip in a glass bowl, and mix thoroughly with a fork until combined. Alternatively, you can use a food processor, which will result in a more finely blended cat treat.
The mixture should hold together but not be excessively sticky. If the mixture is too dry, you can add a little extra olive oil as required. - Roll the dough and make the treats
Roll the dough into ½ teaspoon sized balls and place on a biscuit tray lined with baking or parchment paper. Flatten each ball with the back of a spoon.
Or, if you find it easier roll the dough into a longer sausage shape, cut slices and roll these into circles. - Stamp cat treats with heart shape
To add the heart-shaped pattern, I made a stencil by carving a heart shape with a knife in a piece of raw potato. Dab the potato with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture.
Press the heart shape gently into the top of the treat so that it leaves an indented heart pattern.
You may prefer to leave your tuna cat treats plain or draw another symbol such as a cross. Maybe you just want to add a few indentation lines with a fork. It’s up to you. - Bake the cat treats
Place the treats into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until they are dry and slightly golden on top.
- Storage
Allow the cat treats to cool completely and then place in an airtight container.
The homemade tuna treats can be stored in the fridge for approximately 7-10 days. Although, if your cats love them as much as mine do, I doubt they’ll last that long.
If you’re making these for your cat for a Valentine’s Day treat, you may also be interested in How to Plan the Perfect Valentine’s Date with Your Cat.
Happy baking! Let us know how these turned out for you, and whether your cat enjoyed them in the comments below.
Just made these treats for my “kiddo” Sami. Add some water to the dough if you use tuna in water not oil. Sami actually “chewed” these treats instead of swallowing them whole! Not sure how long they’ll keep but I did put them in an airtight container in fridge after cooled. Nice to know what’s in the food I’m feeding my baby. Not concerned anymore about the added junk in store bought treats. Sami ate 6 in a row and I don’t feel guilty for it because I knew what he was eating! Would have tried them myself if it weren’t for the cat nip! Ha! Thank you for sharing.
Oooooh, these sound nommy! We may have to wait for a few days to make some, though, as we’re supposed to get 14 inches of snow starting tonight. 🙂
These sound so super nommy. Mom just sent the recipe to the printer. She’ll just have to get some oat or rice flour. We’d send her out after it tomorrow, but we are getting buried in snow so guess we’ll have to wait a couple days. Hope y’all get a big batch for V’day Friday.
They look fantastic. A perfect Valentine gift for that very special kitty in our life.
Great idea! Do you have a recipe for chicken treats? Cinco and Manna are big chicken fans 🙂 I would totally try this.
Those look pretty tasty even though they aren’t for us humans. I wonder if my dogs would like them.
Baking your own means you don’t have to worry about the ingredients being ‘less than stellar’!
Tuna plus catnip? Skeeter says: what’s not to love?!
What an excellent recipe. We don’t have kitties, but have friends who do, and now we can make treats to give to them. Thank you!
Oh we gotta get the mom to make these for us since we can’t use the oven ourselves.