Avoid Feeding Your Dog These Red-Flag Foods
Jenna—the editor of Pugs Home—recently shared with me an interesting article on human foods that are dangerous for dogs. Many of us already know about common fare like chocolate, onions, garlic and grapes and raisins. The Pugs Home piece also includes lesser known food items like macadamia nuts and mentions milk and cheese as potentially toxic for canines, although I don’t agree with including dairy products, which based on my research do not appear in the chart of “Foods to Avoid” in my book The Dog Bible: Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know.
Jenna speaks of bacon as a dangerous food for Pugs. While bacon isn’t toxic in and of itself, certainly the chemicals used for curing it, along with the high fat content of bacon, makes it an inadvisable food for any kind of dog (or person, for that matter!)
Do not feed pieces of fat to your dog! Fatty scraps can upset your dog’s digestion, as well as put on weight (and letting your dog become overweight is actually creating a life-shortening medical condition). The garbage can is the right place for the fat you cut off meat or chicken, however you can give tough pieces of meat and gristle as a nice addition to your dog’s dinner bowl, or as an after-dinner reward for not begging at the table. Feel free to also include small amounts of other non-greasy leftovers, but be aware of how many calories you are adding this way and subtract it from her dog food portion.
The best way to feed your dog is choosing a quality dry food, with 1/3 of the calories from adding a good canned dog food (my dogs get Halo’s Spot’s Stew Healthy Weight kibble with a rotation of Spot’s Stew canned beef, salmon and lamb) with that kibble. You’ll see a big change in your dog’s eagerness for her meals and know that she’s getting healthy valuable nutrition.
Keep in mind that your dog is not a living garbage disposal: just because a dog will eat anything, does not mean that she should!
—Tracie Hotchner
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