Kitchen Scraps For The Family Pet

[mumof3]

We are awaiting a new puppy from a lovely registered breeder and I am considering all sorts of things about her welfare.

Something has come to mind as a result of another thread and I thought I would put it to the forum as a way of gleaning useful advice.

I really want to give our pup a good start in life in every way, and this post is to do with diet.

In the past our working dog pups have been fed combinations of chicken carcases, milk, eggs, and something of a stew made up of left over veges and meat from the kitchen. They may also get raw beef and beef bones when it seemed the stew was low on protein. They all grew quite healthily. One breeder put us on to feeding some added calcium, which we did with one dog (that was the last pup we raised).

So what does the forum have to say about the feeding of kitchen scraps in particular to dogs and puppies? I understand that onions, corn cobs, chocolate, cooked bones and potoatoe peelings are not good for dogs. What about left over mashed potatoe and gravy, rice, roast meat, sausages etc etc etc. Left over weetbix with milk. I know some pups may be lactose intolerant, so that is to be watched for. As a family with young children, there is often lots of left over food. I'd love for some of that to go to our new pup, but only if it benefits the pup. The chooks already eat alot of the scaps, and there is always the compost heap. Are there any high alergen foods so far as dogs are concerned? Things to be avoided until a certain age??

[Christina]

See other post on long lived dogs.

Owners choice & beliefs I guess.

[Bubitty]

I feed my dogs a main diet of raw meaty bones and some pureed veggies but besides that they get all the scarps you mentioned mumof3. So far they have suffered no ill effects from their diet. They have been known to get a bit of cake if I am eating it, roast, all sorts of fruit, lick cake icing, some ice cream during summer and this morning they had a small serve of eggs benedict for brunch.

I am an advocate of a varied diet.

[ellz]

Feed whatever they do best on. Not all dogs are lactose intolerant. Dogs only become lactose intolerant if they AREN'T give lactose. All of my dogs love milkshakes and egg flips and leftover weetbix and cornflakes and porridge and all manner of other milky foods.

They are also given on a regular basis, every single leftover that you have mentioned and they love them.

This week's "extra" will be a big pot of vegetable soup. Mr Ellz cooked it yesterday but got a bit sidetracked during the football and let it burn. Bad news for the hoomans but great news for the dogs!

Editing to add: If you're feeding chicken frames, necks and wings and lots of meaty bones, you probably wouldn't have to supplement with calcium. Calcium powders are a waste of time really, they aren't easily digested and in many cases, their only effect is to make white, powdery poo!

Edited April 18, 2010 by ellz

[Sandra777]

Personally so long as not too much of any one thing is given and absolutely no cooked bones, I don't have issues with dogs getting table scraps. It would depend on the size of the puppy how much would be appropriate as I wouldn't be keen on more than 5% of the diet being bread/cereal/pasta and another 5% vegetables. Obviously this would vary over the week, I'm not obsessive about balance every day Allergens - this depends on breed a lot and also IMO on early exposure. Ask the breeder if there are specific allergens common in the breed. I certainly wouldn't be changing or adding to the pup's diet for a week-10 days after it coming home but I guess you know this already since you seem well prepared.

Adult dogs IMO can live quite well on scraps and a high quality food - be that dry food or raw food according to your preferences. Ours get all the left overs here (including things they actually shouldn't get) but with only 2 adults there's not a huge quantity of these anyway - and our pups are always introduced to weird leftovers before they leave - they particularly enjoyed the surplus bread rolls at Christmas time and had a great time ripping them to bits and spreading them on the lawn for the birds

[RufusTheDoofus]

Sounds like a great way to bring up a pup

[Guest Pandii]

My boy gets a varied diet and gets house scraps too, he loves vegemite toast and the odd milkshake and porridge

milk has no effect on him at all, and last night he had asian soup and again no ill effects

He gets raw bones, chicken frames, a good dry food as be main basis of diet

Although he does like pancakes with bananas and strawberries too