Carrot-man & What to Avoid…
In 1974 a man named Basil Brown from Croydon died from drinking carrot juice.
He died after drinking 38 litres of carrot juice in 10 days.
Apparently his skin was a yellow/orange colour.
I mention this because from time to time scare stories appear in social media about carrots – based on this one story of one person over-eating one type of vegetable.
Carrots are clearly good for us in moderation.
The real dangers to us are junk foods in their various forms that study after study have shown to damage us over the long term.
Problem foods for dogs
There are some foods that are mentioned regularly on facebook as being poisonous to our dogs and yet it is difficult to work out how poisonous.
Are they daft carrot-man poisonous or are they a few grams poisonous?
Definites to Avoid
Cooked bones
Not poisonous but with dogs the number one item that concerns me is cooked bones. Unlike raw bones that are springy the cooking process hardens the bones and creates a choking hazard.
Grapes (inc. sultanas, currants, raisins)
Grapes, including their dried versions, should not be given to dogs.
Sultanas, currants and raisins are even more likely than grapes to be toxic.
Chocolate
The darker the chocolate, the more toxic it is, as it contains more theobromine.
White chocolate only contains a tiny amount of theobromine and it’s highly unlikely your dog could eat enough for it to be an issue.
Both grapes (especially their dried versions) and chocolate can be toxic to dogs but the amount that causes poisoning varies so much from dog to dog that it’s best not to take any chances and just to avoid completely.
Avoid too Much of…
Avoid allowing your dog to eat too much of these items.
Garlic
It takes a lot to cause a problem, “Studies have found it takes approximately 15 to 30 grams of garlic per kilograms of body weight to produce harmful changes in a dog’s blood. To put that into perspective, the average clove of supermarket garlic weighs between 3 and 7 grams, so your dog would have to eat a lot to get really sick.”
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/nutrition/can-dogs-eat-garlic/
To put it in context most articles I read about this saw the main threat from garlic bread being the butter.
Onions
0.5% of your dog’s body weight needs to be eaten for them to be at risk of toxicity from onions.
For our big boy Roscoe that would mean him eating an entire medium sized onion.
That’s highly unlikely but we use onions in many recipes – is that a possible problem?
Katharine emailed me about onions in cottage pie after the leftovers email I wrote last week. She’s a first time pet parent and wondered whether they could be a threat to her dogs’ health.
Naturally I immediately flew into a huge panic as that had never even occurred to me. We’ve always fed our dogs leftovers and never had any issues.
I did the maths…
It turned out Roscoe would have to eat Five adult portions of cottage pie to become at risk of onion toxicity.
Roscoe’s a big dog and so are his portion sizes but 5x an adult portion size – no chance that’s ever going to happen.
5x portions is tomorrow’s tea sorted.
It’s definitely not going to Roscoe – he’s very lucky if he gets half a portion for leftovers.
With smaller dogs less is needed but the amount we feed them is correspondingly smaller.
Leftovers
We’re attempting to be the best pet parents we can be, so we need to be aware of these issues.
However, definitely, don’t let them put you off giving your dog leftovers.
There are so many nutritional benefits from giving your dog new and varied meats, veggies and fruits.
And you’re enriching their lives with new tastes, smells and experiences.
The main food threat to our dogs is the same threat to us – junk – in all its forms.
If you’re becoming concerned about the grain or other junk in your dog’s current food take a look at 20% off offers for newbie buyers on our grain free dry food or raw 80-10-10.
Have yourself a lovely weekend!
Darren
PS
Thank you Katharine, that was an incredibly useful thing to look into.
PPS
For something a bit more light-hearted pop over to our Instagram to take part in our ‘Dog’s Behaving Badly’ competition:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZCzY_xLhkg/