About table-scraps

Table scraps, given in appropriate amounts, do have their place in your healthy dog food diet. However, there’s a big  difference between good quality leftovers and “scraps”.

Quality leftovers are pieces of steak (trimmed of fat), roast beef, chicken or turkey and adding this to your dog’s bowl is fine when done in moderation and do not exceed 10% of the pet’s normal feeding, In addition leftover pasta and rice is good, so long as they are minus butter and other fatty sauces, and are plainly cooked.

Don’t overfeed table-scraps on a continuous basis. Doing so will expose your pet to a diet loaded with fat and you’ll end up with a pet prone to stomach upsets, diarrhea and other potentially serious gastrointestinal disorders such as life-threatening pancreatitis.

Even if your dog’s digestive tract can handle a diet full of table scraps, the chances of him or her gaining weight will increase enormously in proportion to the amount of scraps you’re feeding. There are many people who claim that table scraps are not good for your pet, but much human food is perfectly acceptable for dogs.   The trick is research!.

Forget, for example, about serving your dog the leftover macaroni and cheese, even though pasta is OK and the cheese is low fat. Dogs do not have the needed lactase to break up the lactose and the result can be diarrhea.

Turkey, chicken, steak, or any other kind of cooked bones are no-nos, because they can splinter and pierce or obstruct the dog’s digestive tract.. Bones can also cut the roof of the mouth.
Leftover stew is OK, as long as you remove the onions, and if your family loves sushi, Fido will have to “pass” raw fish that can create a thiamine deficiency in dogs. As a result the dog will suffer from seizures and possibly death.

Easily digestible foods such as cooked rice or chicken and turkey (boneless) will be fine in dog food. Some fruits and vegetables are well received by dogs, though there are some types to avoid such as grapes. Feeding grapes to your dog may cause severe kidney damage. While some fruits are acceptable to feed your pet, avoid grapes at all times.

Fido, Buster, or Sport know all the moves when if comes to finagling you out of those scraps. Don’t let mealtime degenerate into a battle of wits. Know what are acceptable table scraps, and feed them in appropriate amounts, but never try to save money or avoid wasting food by making them the main ingredients of your pet’s healthy dog food.