Human food

[Michael Romanos]

Looked at the Dogster site today and noticed how in so many of the 300,000-odd Dogster pages, the owners say that their dogs love best 'human food' or words meaning the same. I too have said this about Taylor.
About two-three years ago, I learnt that a lot of the so called non-dog food is actually good for dogs and exactly what a dog needs in his/her diet. Examples are grains and cereals. So giving my Taylor a grainy slice of bread is very good for him and is not sneaking hm a bit of human food. Add some pure honey or pure peanut butter to the bread and you're adding value. Corn on the cob is good. Pasta (wheat), rice, even potato. The list can go on and on. The one thing that needs to be avoided is sugar and dogs find sugary things irresistable. A little like in a small scoop of (real cream) icecream on special occasions is not going to kill a dog with kindness - but refined sugar that goes into most human foods like cakes, biscuits etc is a dog's enemy healthwise. Thank goodness the science of feeding dogs has come along way in the last several years and many manufacturers of dog food are catering for the real needs of a dog and not what they (dogs) were drastically limited to in the wild to their peril.

[MyPemCharlie]

Interesting you posted this, as I was just last night researching foods not to give to dogs. Wanted to make sure I never give Charlie anything bad for him.

Most articles I read said Do Not give corn on the cob. Corn is obviously fine, but there have apparently been many cases where the dog ingested pieces of the cob. The cob can cause intestinal blockage, making other foods "back up", and require surgical removal.

Link to one of the articles I read on toxic or problematic foods:
Carol's Blog: The Bad Foods for Dogs List

[Michael Romanos]

Dogs, like people, can choke on anything. One has sometimes to take calculated and observed risks. About corn on the cob - I have only successfully given parrots them. The last Corgi I gave a cob to, rejected it but had he not, I would have ensured he only extracted the corn and not 'dug' out the cob. Anyway, extracting the corn from the cob is little extra work though it takes away the fun aspect of a cob for a dog.

[Louwants]

Duncan got a hold of a corn cob once, and had devoured almost all of it before I caught him. Talk about being worried for the next few days!!!! I watched him like a hawk in a chicken coop. But, he "passed" everything with flying colors. After that, I made sure that when we ate corn on the cob outside, there weren't any that were within nose cruising height. I think he snatched it while we were yakking and had set the plate down on a little table stand.

[Vannette]

When I was married, long long ago, we had a garden and a German Shepard. We always knew when the corn was ripe because Muttzies would pick an ear, peel back the silk and munch away. She did this over and over and it never harmed her. Of course, I'm not going to throw my corgis an ear of corn to see how they fair but Mutts handled it well. I know Katie would eat it but she will eat anything. She's a bit chubby and doesn't need anything extra to add to her weight.
I try to avoid the corn thing if I can
Vannette

[Michael Romanos]

I met some newcomers to the Wellington Wlesh Corgi Walking Club yesterday and it continues to amaze me why so many Corgis are overweight and the owners can't seem to negate the excessive weight. However, I am sending two emails on my aticle about the best food to feed your dog. It should help. One of the member's give her overweight, 8-year old Pem, Sabre who sufers from arthritis, 1.75 standard cups of dry food per day and wonders why he is not losing much weight. My fellow gets one standard cup of food all-up per day apart from a bikkie and the odd tit-bit treat.