Question for dog owners: scraps vs healthy diet of plain dog food

[hatredisnotavalue]

Our old black lab lived to be 16 eating a diet of dried dog food, drizzled with hamburg grease and scraps and beggings from the table. As I type, our new pup of 1-1/2 years is gulping down the same said meal regiment. Am I a bad parent? Should I just put him on a diet of Science Diet and forgo the extras? Does it really make a difference?

[Sanity Claws]

1. I don't think dried dog food is all that great

My late great Boxer was fed Nutro for most of his life. He developed serious heart and kidney problems at around 8. I was worried sick because there was nothing that could be done for his kidney problems (this was about ten years ago.) I did some reading and put him on a special diet. His meals were a combination of rice, beans, and a vegetable/meat dish. He thrived on it. His fur and skin got nicer. His arthritic knees didn't bother him as much.
However, cooking for him was a lot of trouble. I think if I ever had another dog, I would supplement a good dried dog food with some good human quality food at the same meal or at least one day a week.

[hatredisnotavalue]

5. Well this is my take

We could all eat a perfectly balanced diet and live to be 110, but would we, on our death beds, remember our best meal ever. I am going to keep feeding the little guy what we do.
Here he is with the cat, who also loves to eat pickled beets.

[China_cat]

2. My vet has always recommended

up to 10% table scraps in our dogs' diets. Minus onions, chocolate and heavy spices.

Our dogs have done well with it.

[qnr]

7. Why not onions? I know about the chocolate, and can understand

the heavy spices. Is it an intestinal thing, or does it impact their sense of smell or what?

[serryjw]

10. Toxic for dogs

http://www.bogartsdaddy.com/bouvier/Health/say-no-to-onions.htm

[qnr]

11. OK, thanks. Interestingly, though our dogs love to eat, on the few

occassions when we've given them onions (years ago, fast food hamburgers), they have eaten around them.

[serryjw]

12. There are plenty of things WE love

that are terrible for us. My Igamoo preferred bad cat food when I adopted him, He didn't want to eat the good stuff. I wouldn't give in and he finally came around when he got hungry!I do let him LICK bowls!

[China_cat]

15. Do you have Bouvs?

Curious...that's my breed.

[henslee]

20. My uncle had one. Great personality. Aloof if he didn't know you...

and I like the way they jump.. all 4 legs off the ground, right?

[China_cat]

22. Yep. The aloof is typical of the breed, too.

As is the 'bouv snort'. And the deadly bouv fart.

[henslee]

25. Ah, the deadly Bouv fart... known to take down the strongest of men.

[China_cat]

14. Onions cause Heinz body anemia

for which there is no cure...it is 100% fatal.

[qnr]

16. Thank you.

:hi:

[inanna]

3. Well, my dog can't tolerate grease

but maybe his stomach is just sensitive?

I will give him de-fatted gravy sometimes over his dry food. And on occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas I have no problem browning and simmering the turkey innards and making a bit of gravy for him. Sometimes he gets leftovers if I consider them fairly healthy, like a bit of chicken noodle soup, just to flavor his kibble. Most of the time though, he just eats his kibble. I give in sometimes because I think the dry food must be awful monotonous, no matter what the vet says.

Imagine a childhood with no ice cream or candy. Ever.

I just can't do that to him.

[flvegan]

4. You should look into how commercial dog food is made

and what the ingredients are, and where they come from. You'd probably do that for your children, right?

[hatredisnotavalue]

6. Great answer

I always cooked pretty pure for the kids, never premade meals, always a meat, a starch and a vegetable and both are very health. And my little guy is truly my third kid,....so I guess whatever worked for the human kids is going to work for the third furry one!

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. I agree. Read the label of the dog food you give your pup....

you'll likely find that the first or second ingredient is "Chicken bone meal" or something like that. What that consists of is everything from bones to heads, feet and feathers, cooked and dried. If you see just "Bone meal" that can and often does include everything you could think of up to and including roadkill (Deer, etc.) and even euthanized dogs and cats from shelters.

Dogs can digest raw meat very easily and because that gets real expensive i just recommend you feed the best food you can afford.

[SofaKingLiberal]

8. Lived to be 16?

Considering the average life expectancy is around 12, I think you've done a good job.

I have a lab/rot mix that gets scraps from just about everything I eat.

[GrumpyGreg]

9. I've had 2 dogs who made it to 14 and they ate commercial dog food

with a treat of real meat when I was serving it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. My grandparents raised three healthy hunting dogs entirely on table scraps

and with the first dog that my parents owned (we got him when I was ten), he was on straight dog food for years, but we had trouble finding a brand that agreed with him. We switched to some commercial dog food supplemented with table scraps and liquid vitamins. Whether it was the table scraps or the vitamins, his energy level, coat, and general health improved markedly after that. He lived to be 17.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

17. I just wanna say hi...

and Happy Everything to you and hubby...and easy on the scraps...but yeah give him some fun stuff..just no spicy stuff

[henslee]

18. Your dog is worth spending a bit more for prem. food. We feed our

14 year old gal INNOVA for seniors. My dog loves it. It's not cheap and while i only use canned, I would advise mixing with kibble for a dog that has teeth. Ialso cook the gal up some egg whites and sweet potatos once in a while... for a treat. I never give table scraps.

[Redstone]

21. "Raw, meaty bones."

I'll never forget the NPR segment I heard some years back featuring the guy who recommended this diet for dogs; the hilarious part was hearing him say "raw, meaty bones" with an Australian accent about 75 times in half an hour...

Redstone

[B Calm]

23. I had a beagle that lived 18 years on our leftovers.

[xchrom]

24. nothing is too good for doggies.

my dog lived to be almost 16 -- and when he was done wolfing down his dinner -- he shared mine.
he would sit on the bed right next to me and get just about every other bite, thank you very much.