Vegetables for dogs

volchitsa

I have a question about fresh food in general, as opposed to raw feeding on principle : what size do the chunks of veg need to be?

Our 5 month old sheepdog (mixed breed) mostly gets kibble but also loves fresh stuff and I've started doing extra veg with our food and leaving it aside to add to her meals later, but I'm not sure what size to cut them for her.

The reason I'm wondering is she wolfs down her kibble and sometimes throws it back up, and I'm wondering if adding in biggish chunks of, say, cooked carrot or raw cucumber, both of which she loves, would slow her down or whether it might just make her choke.

Cherry Blossom

Hi, I've moved your post to a new thread as the other one was four years old and quite a few of the posters there are not around now.

Galway K9

Alot would say they don't need veg basing that on the Prey model diet (raw).

However every raw meal i give i give 10% green veg.

Dogs are not able to digest veg regardless so it must be pulped or pureed.

tk123

I feed veg to Bailey to bulk out his meals but I don't have time for blitzing etc so get frozen sliced green beans and spinach and thaw them out. I also mix in canned carrots which are mushy too. I don't usually add veg to Lucy's meals because she can get mucky ears and veg can cause this...Also she's not greedy like her brother so I don't really need to bulk her meals out lol!

jonon9

I give my dog broccoli as I find it helps hugely with her allergies, She eats fish and broccoli for dinner.

Cortina_MK_IV

I get Dunnes baby carrots in a jar. He's loved them as a treat since he was a pup. Oh, he's a Golden Retriever.

irishlady29

My lady is a sucker for raw carrots. She's hard so excited when she sees one. I give her a piece roughly an inch long

volchitsa

irishlady29 wrote: »

My lady is a sucker for raw carrots. She's hard so excited when she sees one. I give her a piece roughly an inch long

Thanks for all the replies, and this sort of detail is exactly what I was wondering.

I've been giving her raw cucumber for a couple of weeks now (about half a cucumber per day) along with some courgette and cooked carrot from time to time : her poops seem fine, and her fur is is anything a little better than on just kibble (it seemed a little greasy along her spine at times, and I wasn't sure if we should wash her more - she doesn't like baths! - or look for another cause) so I was thinking about introducing more fresh food and less kibble.

She's on Royal Canine Medium Puppy, just because we can order it from someone at the puppy club who buys in bulk, but we could change if necessary I suppose. Any opinions welcome.

The other question I have is whether anyone thinks biggish chunks might slow down her rate of eating or could it just make things worse?

volchitsa

jonon9 wrote: »

I give my dog broccoli as I find it helps hugely with her allergies, She eats fish and broccoli for dinner.

Our young lady loves fish. We live near the sea, and she often digs up rotting fish and various kinds of shellfish - it's the only thing I've see her actually growling at us for trying to take it off her!

TG1

volchitsa wrote: »

The other question I have is whether anyone thinks biggish chunks might slow down her rate of eating or could it just make things worse?

My dog used to eat like a Hoover, and I was very wary of giving him anything big because he treated it the same as the little kibble bits. I'd give him a whole carrot to chew but anything smaller would chopped into thin strips in case he ate it too fast.

Have you looked into the slow feeding bowls with the raised bits and dips in them to slow a quick eater down? Some also suggest a ball in the bowl but my guy just saw that as a great game, how quick could he get the ball out before diving in...

I fed him outside on the ground for years, and spread the food around so he would have to go look for it a bit! He slowed down at about 13 due to lack of teeth though!

volchitsa

Yes we've been putting a ball in her bowl (maybe she's not as bright as sheepdogs are meant to be, or maybe she's just a baby still, but she seems to eat around it alright, which is good. I haven't seen those bowls for sale though I might order one, but I've just got her one of those feeder things where she has to sort out how to get the food out first, she'll be on her own every day this week (first time it's ever been that long, hopefully won't happen again for another four or five months!) so if she likes that we might use it fairly regularly.

I got a cheaper version of this last month, a big round top you were meant to screw onto a bottle, and she had to empty the kibble into the top container and from that out onto the ground.

Well.
She's like a bulldozer - she had it taken apart in about 30 seconds! So much for brain-training!! Sheer brute force, that's our girl, the Katy Taylor of the dog world!

volchitsa

TG1 wrote: »

My dog used to eat like a Hoover, and I was very wary of giving him anything big because he treated it the same as the little kibble bits. I'd give him a whole carrot to chew but anything smaller would chopped into thin strips in case he ate it too fast.

I also meant to say : That's what I was wondering about the big chunks - maybe they do chew them a bit though, no?

Cookie_Monster

We feed our pups the offcuts of carrots & broccoli mostly, pretty much as a treat. They go mad for carrots and happily (and quietly) spends ages chewing them up.

volchitsa

Raw carrots and broccoli, I imagine, since they take ages to eat them? I hadn't been sure about whether or not it was better t cook that kind of thing.
I'll try some raw ones, see how she likes them.

(Your pups are two gorgeous little things I seem to remember, a cocker and a something else?)

Cookie_Monster

volchitsa wrote: »

(Your pups are two gorgeous little things I seem to remember, a cocker and a something else?)

a spoodle too, in the photo thread today

Edit: just noticed you mentioned cucumber in your OP too, ours like that too, straight from the plant when they're not supposed too :mad:

Latatian

Given the entire heads of broccoli that have been stolen and eaten in my house I'm not sure they even need to be cut up. Much fun was had shredding it and leaving tiny green pieces all over the couch. That and the bags of vegetables and salads they rob.

I ask you, what self-respecting dog steals lettuce?