Dog lovers tend to be very kind people. They share their hearts and homes and even beds with their canine pals. And of course food.  Many of the foods, however, such as fruits and vegetables, that humans digest fine can be harmful for a dog’s body, causing severe health problems.

Before giving your dog foods that you crave, read on, and learn which foods are safe and which can send your dog straight to the vet.

While our blog’s mascot is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, this applies to any breed.

Common foods we give our dogs

Many owners decide to feed their dogs with home-made food instead of commercially available dehydrates and semi-wet to wet dog food. This is absolutely fine as long as the people know the nutritional requirements for the dog in means of protein, fat and carbohydrate percentage. Moreover, a home-made meal must not contain products that are potentially toxic and harmful to the dog’s health. This also goes for giving table-scraps, which again, isn’t such a bad thing as long as you keep the threats away from their digestive system.

It’s frustrating to even start researching and find the most suitable type of food.  Go to a reputable store or website like www.pets-menu.co.uk, read reviews, and do your research!

Related:

• Best Dog Food
• Dog Food: What Are The Different Types Available?
• Can Dogs Eat Nopales?

High-risk foods

There are mild-risk and high-risk foods for dogs. Mils risk food has the potential to harm the dog except when it’s given in small quantities or specially prepared. However, if you don’t see any necessity to feed your dog the following types of food just don’t do it. Dogs are tolerant of most fruits and vegetables, but you have to careful and take out the hard pits and seeds because they represent a choking hazard.

Fruits

Citric fruits like oranges, mandarins, grapefruits, and lemons contain irritating substances that cause stomach and intestinal wall defects leading to gastric ulcers, inflammation, and vomiting. Grapes and raisins are especially toxic due to their kidney toxicity. Even small amounts of these types of food can cause kidney failure with lethal outcomes. Pomegranate is another fruit with a toxic effect that should never be given.

Vegetables

Mild-risk vegetables include ginger, tomatoes, spinach, and eggplants. The riskiest types of vegetables for dogs are onions, garlic, and leek. What exactly happens after a dog ingests them is that the red blood cells start rupturing and hemolytic causing severe cases of anemia. That’s the main problem with giving table scraps because cooked human food almost always contains onions and garlic. Hot peppers should be avoided due to the irritant effects on the stomach and the intestines.

Bones and fatty meat

We believe many owners feed their dogs raw or cooked bones. Bones help clean up the dog’s teeth but what about the risks they carry? Broken teeth, intestinal obstructions, intestinal perforation, and inflammations are risks associated with bone ingestion so they should never be given to dogs. The same goes for processed meat products filed with artificial colors, spices, and salt that besides the irritable effect for the stomach can damage the dog’s kidneys as well.  Also avoid bacon, fatty meat, and salty foods.  As these can also be bad for humans, they are not good for dogs.

Chocolate, alcohol, and coffee

It’s not very likely for someone to give alcohol to their dogs, but be careful when you leave alcohol on the table as some dogs may actually reach for it. Chocolate and coffee contain large amounts of theobromine and caffeine and should be kept away from all dogs! These substances have a very potent stimulating effect on the animal’s CNS (central nervous system) resulting in panting, increased heart rate, high body temperature, and seizures.

Chewing gum, soda, cat food, caramel

Also, make sure you put out of reach chewing gums, sodas, cat food, and caramel products. In case your dog accidentally swallows any of the mentioned products, make sure you take him to the vet even when there are no obvious symptoms of poisoning or digestive troubles.

Originally posted 2018-09-21 18:51:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter