Christmas Tree Kong Recipe for Enrichment

EnrichmentFood
Written By Lily Chan

This Christmas, I decided to create an edible Christmas Tree for my two dogs, Patches and Kiko, using the Kong. Check out the recipe and give it a try for your pup! If following a video is more your jam, click the image below to watch the recipe video. You can also check out the extended cut video of Patches and Kiko eating the treats on the Dogfullife YouTube channel.

Two dogs sit behind a blue ottoman with two blue plates on top. On each plate is a red Kong treat decorated to look like a Christmas tree.

Click the image to watch the video of this recipe

Two dogs enjoying stuffed Kongs made to look like a Christmas tree.

My dogs, Patches and Kiko, enjoying the Christmas Tree Kongs

Ingredients for 2 servings

  • 2 Kongs, size large

Filling

  • 40 grams of Plain boiled salmon

  • 1 sweet potato

Tree Trunk

  • 1 spoonful of peanut butter, only ingredient listed should be peanuts

  • 1 cup of plain old fashioned rolled oats

  • 2 natural chews (e.g. Nature Gnaws 4-5” Beef Tendon Chews)

Decorations

  • 1 spoonful of plain Greek yogurt, no added sugar (e.g. Two Good Greek Yogurt Plain)

  • Handful of frozen green peas

  • 1 yellow bell pepper

Food ingredients laid out on a wood board with a plant in the background.

Directions

1. Peel, dice, and boil the sweet potato until soft. Do not add any salt to the water.

2. While the sweet potatoes are boiling, add a spoonful of yogurt into a piping bag with a cake decorating tip. Pipe decorations onto a silicone surface (e.g. a silicone mat) and put in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

Two hands are holding a blue silicone piping bag with a cake decorating tip, piping Greek yogurt onto a red silicone mold.
A white square bowl with steaming, boiled sweet potato cubes sits on top of a wood board.

3. Once the sweet potatoes are soft enough, drain the water and mash it up. Put it aside to let it cool.

4. Use a food processor or blender to grind the rolled oats down to a powder.

5. In a large bowl, mash the banana and a spoonful of peanut butter together and mix well.

6. Add the rolled oats into the bowl and mix all together. You can adjust how much rolled oats you want to add. The consistency should be something you can mold with your hands with some stickiness, like soft clay or Play-Doh.

In a large clear bowl there is a banana and peanut butter mixture. Two hands hold the bowl of the food processor with rolled oats in powder form.
In a large clear bowl there is a banana, peanut butter, and rolled oats mixture. On the table, there is a bowl of the food processor with some leftover rolled oats powder still in the bowl.

7. To fill the Kong, alternate between adding in the sweet potato mash and chunks of salmon. You can also mix both of these ingredients together before stuffing it in the Kong. Using a small butter or cheese knife that fits inside the hole makes it easier to fill the Kong. You should have lots of mash and salmon left over that you can use for other food puzzles or your own food.

8. Once you’ve filled up the Kong, stick the chew through the hole at the bottom of the Kong.

9. Press the dough onto the chew and start forming the trunk. Setting it on a plate will make it easier to mold the tree trunk.

A hand holds a red Kong stuffed with sweet potato, salmon, and a natural dog chew. There is another stuffed Kong sitting on the wood board, next to a bowl of boiled salmon and a bowl of sweet potato mash.
2 red stuffed Kongs stand on top of blue and brown plates.

10. Cut two 2 inch x 2 inch flat pieces from the yellow bell pepper. For each piece, use a sharp knife to cut out a star, leaving a tab at the bottom that can be used to stick into the hole at the top of the Kong.

11. To decorate the Kong, put a little bit of yogurt on the peas and stick them on the Kong. If you cut the peas in half and add the yogurt on the flat side, it will allow for more surface area for the pea to stick. If you want to use the whole pea, it will stick better to the crevice rings of the Kong. You can also use peanut butter as the glue, which will be stickier than yogurt.

12. Do the same with the frozen yogurt decorations you created earlier.

13. Stick the bell pepper star into the top of the Kongs.

14. Serve the Kongs immediately or put them into the freezer overnight.

Two hands hold stars cut out from a yellow bell pepper.
Two dogs sit behind a blue ottoman with two blue plates on top. On each plate is a red Kong treat decorated to look like a Christmas tree.

I hope you and your dog enjoy this recipe this holiday season. Comment below and let us know what you think! If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Dogfullife Digest and Dogfullife YouTube so you can get our latest nuggets of wisdom.

Lily Chan
Previous

Valentine’s Day West Paw Toppl Recipe for Enrichment
Next

Thanksgiving Turkey West Paw Toppl Recipe for Enrichment