As dog owners, we all want what’s best for our dogs. The most important thing with taking care of our pets is knowing what is good and bad for them starting with their diet. While it’s recommended that dog owners feed our dogs with food made specifically for dogs, as it already has the nutrients that dogs need, there are dogs that actually don’t like most dog foods.
Some dogs prefer actual human food than dog food so a lot of dog owners give dogs table scraps as food. While it is less expensive to feed dogs leftovers, it is not always safe for the dogs. Apparently, not all human food is safe for your dog. Some can actually be bad for them including some that are perfectly healthy for us humans.
Here are some of the foods that your dog shouldn’t eat:
- Chocolate – For humans, all chocolates are a sweet treat. For dogs, it deadly and definitely not a treat. Chocolates act as a stimulant which makes your dog’s heartbeat irregular that may cause seizures and even lead to cardiac arrest. It also induces frequent urination, vomiting, and diarrhea. If you even suspect your dog to have eaten chocolates of any sorts, it’s best to take the dog immediately to the vet.
- Milk – Like for some humans with lactose intolerance, milk, and other dairy products can cause harm to dog’s system too. Although we all know that as pups they breastfeed milk for food, dogs can still become lactose intolerant. Milk contains sugar that dogs don’t have the enzymes to break it down. For some dogs, consumption of milk could lead to diarrhea, vomiting and gastrointestinal problems.
- Grapes and Raisins– These fruits causes disorder in the dog’s kidneys and digestive system. Some of the havoc’s symptoms include frequent urination, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- Onions and Garlic – Onions causes the breakdown of dog’s red blood cells which affects the supply of the much-needed oxygen. If you are to feed your dogs with table scraps make sure to take out the onions or the dish was not prepared with onions. The effects of onions to dogs can be cumulative over time. Symptoms are vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, fever, and exhaustion. Since garlic is from the family of onions, it takes after onion’s effects to dogs. Garlic has components that have high toxicity levels.
- Alcoholic Beverages – Giving alcohol to dogs can lead to alcohol poisoning.
- Caffeinated Drinks – Like Chocolates s, they act as stimulants to dogs and may cause cardiac arrest.
- Raw Fish – Fishes that are usually consumed raw like salmon can contain parasites which can hatch on your dog’s digestive tract.
- Avocadoes – For most animals, avocados are toxic. The toxins damage internal organs like the heart, lungs and other tissues.
Not all foods that we humans eat are good for our man’s best friend. It pays to know what is good and not good to our pets since this is all about their health. A healthy dog is definitely a happy dog with a happy owner.