Carrots and other veg for dogs

Goldenegg

Hi,

I have a shiatzu pup just short of 11months old and her new thing to eat is carrots! She adores them raw along with the occasional parsnip! I'm not too sure if this is good for her or not so just wondering if anybody has any insight?

Also,what can I do to make her stop eating plants! My flower beds are diminishing!

Thanks!

Sigma Force

Carrots are fine they might not be fully digested when fed raw but never had a prob with feeding my pooches carrots. No idea about parsnips though.
If you can, fence off your flower area with some chicken wire or trellace or something and give her plenty of toys to play with just say 'ahah' when she goes near the flowers and then offer her a toy.

Eyeore

Mine love raw carrots too! They get one between them every evening when they come in. They will sit by the veg baskets and beg if I forget it

Planet X

Same here. My two Yorkies go mad for carrots.

tesslab

My vet told me that raw carrot and apple are great treats for a dog. Dya think the dog will eat either of them? hahaha! No chance!:D

tk123

Raw carrots, peppers, green beans, apple, banana and blueberries are my guys favs. Oh and he'll only take cooked asparagus! :pac:

Chris_Heilong

You can give as a treat, just for the feeling the dog gets from chewing it, but Dogs cant digest veg and it should not be a part of or instead of its normal meals.

**Vai**

Carrots are fine and can be digested by dogs. They are best when given to the dogs raw (but washed of course). Mine get carrots 3-4 time a week with their food. Long as u stay away from tomatoes, onions, spinach etc u should be fine. I dont know about parsnips but I'd check any veg out before giving them to the dog. Some need to be cooked and some dont, some are just not right for a dogs digestive system.

koneko

They can't digest veg as easily, but it's not true that they can't digest it at all. But the main appeal is keeping their mouths busy, hah.

Mine love carrots too, nice cold crunchy carrots

Mayo Miss

My loony dog will eat anything. Yesterday I was using a potato instead of a ball because he had already lost 3 balls in the long grass until he decided it was more fun to sit and eat the potato. I had to chase him to get it off him.

He has the appetite of a savage! Although I was less than impressed when he chewed half the paint roller tray a few weeks ago.... His favourite hobby now is chasing the swallows around the field. He's determined to keep them flying, lol.

antocann

Mayo Miss wrote: »

My loony dog will eat anything. Yesterday I was using a potato instead of a ball because he had already lost 3 balls in the long grass until he decided it was more fun to sit and eat the potato. I had to chase him to get it off him.

He has the appetite of a savage! Although I was less than impressed when he chewed half the paint roller tray a few weeks ago.... His favourite hobby now is chasing the swallows around the field. He's determined to keep them flying, lol.

raw potatos are toxic for dogs health

Mayo Miss

antocann wrote: »

raw potatos are toxic for dogs health

That's why I ran and got it off him.

kassie

I feed my dogs the raw/BARF diet and part of that is to feed veggies! Any veggie other than that quoted by Vai are good. The idea behind feeding veggies with the barf diet is that if a wild dog were to hunt/kill an animal it would probably eat the contents of said dead animals stomach which would be half digested ( i know!) to get the nutrients they need. Veggies are best served ground by a tool like a pestle and mortar so as to open up the nutrient cells in the veggies kind of mimicking half digested food but serving them whole or blended is fine too! Lets face it, who is going to sit down to a pestle and mortar and grind up veggies???

Here is a list of veggies, fruits (and RAW meat and UNCOOKED bones) for you read up on if you feel like it! http://www.barfworld.com/html/barf_diet/barfdiet_specific.shtml

cjf

I put the carrots in the freezer ... Makes them crunchier for the pups! Also in the hot weather I make them ice pops with diced carrots and small bit of mackrel into a freezer bag fill with water freeze it and they spend ages trying to get the treats out of the frozen blocks!! Got the idea from some zoo programme tgey do it for the apes and polar bears with fruit and veg!

Wibbs

kassie wrote: »

Here is a list of veggies, fruits (and RAW meat and UNCOOKED bones) for you read up on if you feel like it! http://www.barfworld.com/html/barf_diet/barfdiet_specific.shtml

Yea it's way better than most dogs diet, but although wolves and dogs are the same species, dogs have evolved away from their wild cousins in a few ways. Not least in matters of diet(not unlike modern humans compared to their older versions). They have weaker stomach acid, smaller dentition with weaker enamel and a less muscular bite(an average adult wolf has twice the bite strength of an average dog the same size and a third stronger than a bull terrier). So the odd bone and the odd bit of raw meat yea, but I wouldn't IMHO be copying the wild dog diet to the letter. If you do, throw in rats and mice. Wolves and other wild canids eat a lot of them.

On the mortar and pestle front? Don't bother, just cook them. Releases the nutrients and energy of the veg(and meat) and takes the place of pre digestion, hence human stomach acid has reduced and our digestive tract has shortened since we discovered cooking.

My dogs over the years have always liked fruit and veg. Cooked or raw. My current fella loves a good salad. Minus dressing.

Steve30x

When i cook mixed veg with my dinner every day I do a small bit extra for my dog and she loves it.

Chris_Heilong

I disagree with the BARF diet and feel dogs should eat no veg what so ever, giving the dog some green tripe once every 2 weeks will simulate the eating of the stomach contents, dogs are the same species as wolves and like humans dont always know that the food they enjoy eating is bad for them. I think Veg puts the dogs digestive system trough a lot, also all these reports of Cancers in dogs possibly comes from the diets most modern pet owners feed them. I dont think the argument about dogs have developed different with humans, except for structure DNA wise they are the exact same as their wild cousins. Also Humans are eating very diffrent nowadays to what we ate 100 years ago, back then dogs would have been feed RAW, what ever was left after humans took the good stuff.

toadfly

How bad are potatoes for dogs? My mams dog ate a raw spud today..

Steve30x

I would love to see some real proof from the people who say that dogs shouldnt be fed vegetables. I think some of it is from their own fears of what might happen from their dogs. I would think that it would be good for the dog to get fed some vegetables every once in a while with their dog nuts.

Chris_Heilong

Dogs should not get nuts also, lol

As we are more aware of the benefits of healthy eating & how carbohydrates can make you fat, there has now been a change in our eating habits, & people have moved to a balanced diet that includes a large amount of pasta, rice, vegetables & Greens.

Many people think that dogs will benefit from this change also in their diet too & will aim to give their dogs a balanced diet that includes pasta, rice, vegetables, greens & meat.

Its a case of seeing the dog as Human and what is good for people should be good for our dogs to(same reason why people think they need to cook the meat the give a dog)
I think the science is in the dogs structure, a dog has no flat molar teeth for crushing plants and the Jaws are not designed to chew with side to side motions like we have, dogs will & do struggle digesting starches in vegetation!
Humans have an enzyme in their saliva, which is called amylase, this amylase starts to decompose the starches as soon as food is put into our mouth & then further decomposing in the stomach.
Dog's do not create amylase in their saliva only in their pancreas & therefore do not start digesting any starches until the food reaches their small intestine, which is also very much shorter than a humans intestines.umans have a longer small intestine than dogs; the reason for this longer omnivore's small intestine is that vegetables require sitting in the intestines for longer to be processed.
With the dog's smaller carnivore's intestine, vegetable just do not sit in their stomach long enough to be fully processed. All the science you need is out there, but most people will ignore it. Most of my info was sourced from http://eskimohuskies.com.

koneko

Nuts = dry dog food

Chris_Heilong

koneko wrote: »

Nuts = dry dog food

"Dogs should not get nuts also, lol" cant you see this was sarcasm?

koneko

Huh, I guess it was.

sunshiner

my dogs eat veg and all left overs from dinners, one dog loves curry which we make from scratch. theyre both healthy,active and theyre coats are in great condition, obviously we feed them dry food too.

antocann

my dog thinks she's human , eats anything youo give her, including fones ect ...

she loves all kinds of food , a fecker for gethini in the bin and taken left over curry , but loves when i make her boild rice with chicken