The holiday season is here once again! Before you celebrate Thanksgiving, let’s take a moment and talk about how to keep your dog safe.
What Thanksgiving Foods Are Safe for Dogs to Eat?
While you are celebrating and enjoying a nice meal with your family, you may be charmed by your canine friends to share it with them. While giving people food to your dog is not an absolute no-no, it is completely necessary to know which foods you can and cannot give to your precious pooch. Read on to discover which foods are safe for your dog, and which foods you must avoid.You must know about the electric fences for dogs, which are used to keep your pet within a safe zone.
Turkey
Since it’s turkey day, thank goodness that you can safely share some delicious turkey meat with your dogs. With that being said, you need to avoid giving them any pieces that have any skin on them, so that they aren’t accidentally given any seasoning such as butter or spices. Also, resist the temptation to give your dog turkey bones to chew on, because they can potentially splinter in their mouth or throat and cause a puncture.
Fruits and Vegetables
There are many fruits and vegetables that are safe to give to dogs. It is just a matter of whether these particular fruits and veggies will make it to your Thanksgiving table or not.
For example, apples are a great, tasty treat to give to a dog. Full of vitamins A and C, apples contain a healthy dose of fiber for your canine friend. However, keep in mind that just because apples are good for your dog, this doesn’t mean that you can feed apple pie to your dog. Apple pie has spices and sugar that your dog cannot have.
Cranberries are safe for dogs to eat. Both fresh and dried cranberries are acceptable to feed your dog, in small quantities. Feed Fido too many cranberries and he just might get an upset stomach.
If your veggie tray contains cucumbers, good news. You can safely feed cucumbers to your dog as well. They are nutritious for your dog as they contain vitamins K, C, and B1, in addition to potassium and copper.
Peas and green beans are also safe to feed to your dog. However, you must make sure that they are served plain as opposed to being in a casserole of some sort. Dogs cannot eat either one if they are creamed, buttered or salted.
Dessert
Feeding your dog dessert of any kind is not a good idea. This is because dogs cannot eat sugar. You may have heard that dogs can eat pumpkin, and this is absolutely true. Pumpkin is great for dogs. However, this does not include pumpkin pie. Give your dog a Thanksgiving treat by opening up some fresh, canned pumpkin and scooping him out a spoonful.
Thanksgiving Safety Tips for Your Dog
The following are some things that you should NOT give your dog this Thanksgiving:
- Foods with spices
- Chocolate or desserts
- Onions or garlic
- Raisins or grapes
- Stuffing
- Creamed vegetables
Some of these foods can give your dogs an upset stomach, while others such as chocolate or grapes can be detrimental to your dog’s health.
Logically, you want to make sure that your dog doesn’t accidentally get ahold of any alcoholic beverages. Putting your drink down on a table that is too low may put it within your dog’s reach.
Also, be sure to keep watch on your trash can. Your dog might decide to go rummaging through it in order to get a taste of something yummy that his nose has sniffed out. Keeping a cover on top of it when you are not using it in order to proactively solve this problem.
If you have decorated your home for the season, make sure that everything is kept out of your dog’s reach. Candles and tinsel are just two examples of decorations that could become a problem if your pets get too close to them.
With a careful eye and a bit of planning, your holiday season is sure to go off without a hitch.