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Fruits and Veggies for Your Dog
Toxic or Not?
With more and more of us choosing healthier lifestyles for ourselves. What about our dogs?
In many household, dogs are looked at as a furry family member, not just a pet. It’s important for them to get a good amount of exercise along with getting fed a healthy and nutritious diet.
With all the food scares concerning commercial dog foods, we are constantly looking for healthier, more natural alternatives. Raw diets, fruit and veggies are options for consideration.
There is a lot of controversy with regards to feeding raw food diets. “To cook or not to cook, that is the question”. Depending on whom you speak with, your veterinarian, a breeder, your friends, you will get a wide variety of opinions. Whether or not to feed fruits and veggie to your dog is a much simpler question to answer. Yes!!
Fruits and vegetables can provide your dog with essential vitamins and minerals. Vitamins and minerals can help promote a healthy weight, boost their immune system, and support heart health. But, not all fruit and veggies are created equal. I have included a list of fruits and veggie that are safe for your pup to eat and ones that are toxic.
5 Fruit and Veggies that are Toxic for Your Dog:
Grapes and Raisins: Can cause kidney failure and irreversible kidney damage within 24 hours of being eaten.- Tomatoes: Vines, stems, and leaves contain a harmful alkaloid called atropine (tomatine poisoning), can cause serious problems if eaten. Green or unripened fruit has less of the toxin but can still cause stomach upsets. Ripened red tomatoes are not as likely to make your dog sick but should not be a part of a regular dog food diet.
- Garlic and Onions: Small amounts of garlic is said to be beneficial but when ingested in larger amounts, both garlic and onions can cause anemia and stomach upset due to the destruction of red blood cells.
- Avocados: All parts of the plant and seed-pit should not be eaten by dogs. Dogs could experience painful oxygen deprivation leading to possible death and pancreatitis. Whether or not the avocado meat and oils are poisonous is still being debated. Best to avoid feeding any part of the avocado to dogs.
- Fruit Seeds/Fruit Pits: Includes apple seeds, pits from cherries, plums, peaches and nectarines. Can cause choking, bowel and intestinal obstructions and they also contain the poison cyanide? Death or cardiac arrest is possible within two to four days without treatment.
Now, the good news, here is a list of fruits and veggies your pup can eat.
8 Fruit and Veggies to Keep Your Dog Happy and Healthy:
- Apples: Great source of vitamin A, C and fiber. Helps clean residue and build-up on your dog’s teeth. Do not give the seeds or core.
- Carrots: Are high in beta carotene and loaded with vitamin A, C, K also high in potassium and fiber. Good for skin, eyesight and cleaning teeth and gums.
- Sweet Potatoes: High in fiber, vitamin A, B, C, and E. Great for weight management and lowering blood pressure.
- Celery: Rich in many vitamins and minerals; A, B, C, and calcium, potassium, phosphorous, iron and sodium. Improves heart health, lower blood pressure and help fight cancer. Bonus: celery freshens doggie breath!!
- Watermelon: 92% water and therefore excellent for hydration and skin. Good source of vitamin A, C, B6, dietary fiber, potassium, and magnesium.
- Green Beans: Great source of natural plant fiber, high in vitamin A, C, K, and manganese. Fantastic low calorie, filling snack.
- Bok Choy: Calcium for healthy, strong bones and teeth, good for the heart while protecting against cancer. Packed with vitamin A, C, K, potassium. (Bok Choy is a type of Chinese cabbage.)
- Pumpkin: Rich in vitamin A, C, beta-carotene, fiber, potassium, zinc, calcium, and magnesium.
Dogs don’t chew their food like we do and usually just swallow food whole with little or no chewing involved. It’s best to thinly slice, chop or even puree first. You can feed these fruits and veggies raw or slightly stem but don’t add any seasonings or oils.
Bon Appétit!!
