Pumpkin is a powerful tool for helping the
little tummies of cats and dogs. I call it 'nature's pepto bismal' and
it is a widely recommended 'tool' of the veterinary world for it's
ability to resolve diahrrea as well as constipation! It's therefore
considered a perfect GI 'balancer'. If your pet gets loose stools,
instead of turning to chicken and rice, consider browned ground turkey,
baked (plain) sweet potato and some pumpkin! Much healthier options and
still very bland and easy on the tummy.
First, the
best pumpkins to use for puree are pie pumpkins because of their
consistency, but even a large carving pumpkin would work. Note: each pie
pumpkin makes roughly 3 cups of puree.
- Cut the tops off each pumpkin as you would like a carving (jack-o-lantern) pumpkin. Then cut the pumpkin into 2 halves down the middle so you have 2 equal looking halves. Preheat oven to 350*F.
- Gut the pumpkin as best you can, removing all seeds and pulp. Then with the two clean halves, go ahead and cut each of those into half again (now have 4 equal quarters). Place each quarter, skin side down on a baking sheet and bake for approx 50 minutes or until each piece is fork tender. Remove from oven and when cool, remove the skin (this will be very easy to do now).
- Chop the pumpkin into small cubes and add to your blender/food processor. You may need to add a little water to help with the puree process. Puree to a very smooth consistency. Then store as desired. I like to pour the puree into quart sized bags, then smooth them and lay them flat in the freezer. In the freezer, your pumpkin will last months and months! (I'm still using pumpkin from last fall!)
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