what is and isnt bad to feed my boxer? this morning i was eating brown bread with spinach dip and for a joke I asked her if she wanted a piece..offered her some spinach dip...AND SHE ATE IT!!! she also ate a piece of apple last night...this dog gets stranger and stranger. ive heard of alot of people giving there dog bread but spinach lol??? anything i can put in her dish to kinda add some flavour??
home cooking
- Thread starter RoxyBoxer
- Start date
i'll tackle your question from the opposite side - there are relatively few things your dog shouldn't eat, such as (obviously) chocolate, onions, and grapes.
my own dog is a little "veggie hound", he loves all kinds of veggies and also fruit. he prefers steamed to raw, pulped veggies tho, so unless i feed pieces of raw veggies as a snack that's what i use. broccoli, sweet potato, zucchini and carrots are especially big hits. his favorite fruit is banana, but you can also hand him a whole apple and he will eat it completely. in each batch of food i prepare for him i use 3-4 different kinds of veggies, rotating frequently.
one thing you need to be aware of is that dogs cannot break down the cell walls of most raw fruits and veggies. if you give your dog a whole, raw carrot for example, you will see bits of undigested carrot in her poop.
in order to be not just a snack without much nutritional value, these cell walls must be broken down, either mechanically (pureeing, mashing, grating), chemically (freezing, cooking, steaming etc.) or by enzymes (e.g bacterial fermentation, digestive enzymes).
my own dog is a little "veggie hound", he loves all kinds of veggies and also fruit. he prefers steamed to raw, pulped veggies tho, so unless i feed pieces of raw veggies as a snack that's what i use. broccoli, sweet potato, zucchini and carrots are especially big hits. his favorite fruit is banana, but you can also hand him a whole apple and he will eat it completely. in each batch of food i prepare for him i use 3-4 different kinds of veggies, rotating frequently.
one thing you need to be aware of is that dogs cannot break down the cell walls of most raw fruits and veggies. if you give your dog a whole, raw carrot for example, you will see bits of undigested carrot in her poop.
in order to be not just a snack without much nutritional value, these cell walls must be broken down, either mechanically (pureeing, mashing, grating), chemically (freezing, cooking, steaming etc.) or by enzymes (e.g bacterial fermentation, digestive enzymes).
thanks for the ideas. im going to mash some carrots up and mix it in with her dinner see what she thinks of it. Is steak bad for a dog? Sometimes I cook Roxy her own little piece when we have dinner. it keeps her occupied for a whole 5 seconds while we eat but at least after she understands the 'you had yours go lay down'
RoxyBoxer, adding a little here and there isn't a problem at all. just keep in mind that the main source of nutrition for a dog is protein and fat, not carbohydrates - and dry dog food contains a high amount of carbs already. add a bit of meat or an egg now and then to keep the protein content up.
as a very general rule of thumb, as long as you don't replace more than 1/5 or so of your dog's daily food intake with a wide variety of extras, you won't create nutrient imbalances. do keep in mind that if you add things to the food you also add calories - if you don't adjust for that, your dog will gain weight.
as a very general rule of thumb, as long as you don't replace more than 1/5 or so of your dog's daily food intake with a wide variety of extras, you won't create nutrient imbalances. do keep in mind that if you add things to the food you also add calories - if you don't adjust for that, your dog will gain weight.
