Beginner's Guide to Lick Mats

Beginner's Guide to Lick Mats

3 Dog lick mats

Lick mats don't need to be complicated! Here's what you need to get started:

  • a lick mat (shop ours here: link)
  • your dog's food (wet, dry, raw - doesn't matter!)

That's it! You can add other things, and I'll go over my favorites below, but you don't need them to get started.

How to prep your dog's food for a lick mat

How you prep your dog's food can vary based on what type of food you feed, but one thing is the same for all of them: you need to subtract the amount of food you're using from the daily amount you feed your dog. You don't want to overfeed your dog! Let's say your dog gets 1.5 cups of food per day and you want to use 1/2 a cup for a mid-day lick mat, that would leave you with 1/2 cup for each meal.

If you're using a dry kibble or freeze-dried food I recommend rehydrating it in an equal amount of warm water. This makes it easier to freeze! If you want to get fancy with it you can swap the water for goat's milk or bone broth.

Some of my favorite add-ons:

  • Goat's milk

  • Cucumbers

  • Carrots

  • Blueberries

  • Pumpkin

  • Plain Greek yogurt

  • Dog-safe peanut butter

Other tips

  • Freeze your mat to extend lick time! Frozen mats normally keep our dogs busy for 45 minutes.
  • Short on time? Prep your mat with a wet food and single-ingredient baby food puree

Looking for some inspo? We post new recipes every Tuesday! Subscribe to our email list for recipes straight to your inbox.

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1 comment

Id love new idea’s!

Trisha Larose

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