Best Dog Treat Mixes: Every Make-at-Home Option Compared
Alex WillenTL;DR: Setting aside kits that just supply cutters and a recipe card with no actual mix inside, there are six real dog treat mixes worth comparing, from five brands: our own Pupsicle Mix and Baked Biscuit Mix, Puppy Scoops, Puppy Cake, King Arthur's Dog Biscuit Mix, and Nordic Ware's Homemade Dog Treat Mix. They split into two formats, frozen (Pupsicle Mix, Puppy Scoops) and baked (Baked Biscuit Mix, Puppy Cake, King Arthur, Nordic Ware), and two occasions, everyday treats versus a birthday-cake splurge. The table and verdicts below cover price, ingredients, and which one actually fits your situation.
"Dog treat mix" is a smaller category than it sounds. Search for one and you'll mostly find cutter-and-recipe kits with no actual mix included, or one-off blog recipes. The real proprietary mixes, the kind with their own formulated ingredient list you finish at home, come down to a short list. We're one of them, so we'll be upfront about where we think we win and where we don't.
What Counts as a Mix (and What Doesn't)
A mix, for this list, means a packaged product with its own ingredient formula that you finish yourself, usually by adding water, egg, or oil, then baking or freezing. That rules out a few things people often lump into the category:
- Cutter-and-recipe kits, like MindWare's "Make Your Own Dog Treats" or the Hapinest and BARKTIVITY kits, include tools and a recipe booklet but no mix. You supply all the ingredients yourself.
- Wagabonz sells a "Bake Your Own Dog Treat Kit" ($9, mason jar plus cutter), but it was out of stock when we checked and doesn't itemize its ingredients, so it's left out of the table below.
That leaves six products from five brands that qualify as real mixes.
The Comparison Table
| Mix | Type | Price | Size | Price / oz | Prep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooper's Pupsicle Mix | Frozen | $12.49 / $29.99 | 4.3 oz / 14 oz | ~$2.90 / ~$2.14 | Add water, mold, freeze |
| Cooper's Baked Biscuit Mix | Baked | $12.49 | not published | n/a | Mix, roll and cut, bake |
| Puppy Scoops | Frozen (ice cream style) | $7.49 / $4.50 | 4.65 oz / 2.32 oz | $1.61 / $1.94 | Add water, freeze 5+ hrs |
| Puppy Cake | Baked (cake) | $7.49 to $8.49 | ~9 oz (unconfirmed estimate) | ~$0.83 (estimate) | Add egg, oil, water, bake |
| King Arthur Dog Biscuit Mix | Baked (biscuit) | $8.95 | 12 oz | $0.75 | Mix, use Dog Bone Pan, bake (~42 biscuits) |
| Nordic Ware Homemade Dog Treat Mix | Baked (biscuit) | $12.99 list | 7 oz | $1.86 | Add peanut butter, egg, water, bake (~32 treats) |
Cooper's Pupsicle Mix
Our own frozen line: freeze-dried meat and simple binders, add water, freeze in a mold. About 20 calories per treat, no added sugar, no dairy. Four flavors, including a Chicken & Sweet Potato option and a novel-protein Lamb & Spinach for sensitive stomachs. Best fit: an everyday frozen treat you can hand out a few times a week without tracking down a calorie count first, since we publish one.
Cooper's Baked Biscuit Mix
Our oven-baked line, in Beef & Cheddar and Turkey & Cinnamon. Same mix-and-bake method as the other baked options here. We haven't published its full ingredient panel or a per-bag yield, so we won't compare it head to head on those specific numbers, but it follows our same no-added-sugar, no-artificial-anything standard, and the Baked Biscuit Starter Kit is the easiest way to try it.
Puppy Scoops
The closest thing to a true "dog ice cream" mix: add water, freeze at least 5 hours, and you get a lactose-free, cane-sugar-sweetened frozen dessert. Cheapest per ounce on this list. No published calorie count. Best fit: an occasional frozen dessert rather than a daily treat, especially if your dog can't handle a rich, meat-based pop but enjoys something sweeter.
Puppy Cake
A cake mix, not a treat mix in the everyday sense, add egg, oil, and water, then bake, frost, and serve for a birthday or party. Cane sugar is the second ingredient in the Peanut Butter version, which is normal for a dessert and part of why it's a special-occasion product rather than a daily one. Best fit: an actual dog birthday cake, including the Pupfetti and candle-kit versions.
King Arthur Dog Biscuit Mix
From the baking brand, sold in Pumpkin & Apples and Carrots & Beef Broth. Cheapest per ounce of the baked options, and the only one paired with a dedicated silicone pan (their Dog Bone Pan, sold separately) that yields about 42 biscuits per bag, working out to roughly 21 cents a biscuit. We found its ingredient list on third-party listings rather than confirmed directly against King Arthur's own packaging, so treat that specific list as a starting point, not a guarantee, until you check the bag in hand.
Nordic Ware Homemade Dog Treat Mix
A 7 oz mix that needs you to supply your own peanut butter, egg, and water, then bake, yielding about 32 treats. Priciest per ounce at list price, though it's frequently discounted. The ingredient list is genuinely unresolved, different retailers list different panels for the same product, so we're not going to repeat either one here. Best fit: Nordic Ware bakeware fans who don't mind supplying their own peanut butter and egg.
Calories
A published calorie count actually matters, not just as a nice-to-have. Our Pupsicle Mix lists about 20 calories per treat, so you can hand out four in a day and still have room for a training session. None of the other mixes here, Puppy Scoops, Puppy Cake, King Arthur, or Nordic Ware, publish a per-treat or per-serving calorie count on the pages we could find, which makes the math a guess rather than a plan. That doesn't make them bad treats, it just means you're estimating portion size by eye instead of by number.
Which One Should You Buy
- Everyday frozen treats: Cooper's Pupsicle Mix.
- Everyday baked treats or training rewards: Cooper's Baked Biscuit Mix, or King Arthur if you want the cheapest per-ounce baked option and don't mind an unconfirmed ingredient list.
- A dog's birthday or a party centerpiece: Puppy Cake.
- An occasional ice-cream-style treat: Puppy Scoops.
- You already own Nordic Ware bakeware and don't mind adding your own peanut butter and egg: the Nordic Ware mix.
Maple, our own taste-tester at home, would happily eat her way through every mix on this list if we let her. That's great for confirming nothing here is dangerous, and useless for confirming which one is best, she's never met a treat she didn't like. That part comes down to your dog's stomach, your calorie budget, and what you're celebrating, if anything. For more everyday frozen ideas once you've picked a mix, our best frozen dog treats roundup and dog treat recipes guide are good next stops, and our Pupsicle Starter Kit is the simplest way to try ours.
