Treats for Tricks

What kinds of treats are OK to give my dog?

Everything in moderation, and nothing to excess. -Aristotle

This is a pretty common question I hear every day in practice. Anyone who has seen me in person (especially in profile :P) would agree that I think treats are pretty important. We get into problems when we forget that they are TREATS and as such should not me a major part of our diet.
In my case - scoop of ice cream=good. PINT of icecream=BAD.
In your dog's case - dog biscuit=good. Handful of biscuits=BAD.

First and foremost, keep in mind that most biscuits and treats for dogs and cats are about as calorie dense as an equal amount of their kibble. I've had owners complain that their dog "only eats a cup of food a day" and are shocked that they have gained weight. After we really look at what goes into the dog over the course of the day, I find out that they get 10 mini-milkbones a day. That's nearly another cup of food!

Just walk down the treat isle at the local pet store and you will be shocked at the sheer number of different options. Notice that nearly all of them are marketed to you, not your dog! Does your dog really care that his food is in the shape of a bone? He eats poop, afterall. Would he like it any better if it were a poop shaped cookie?

There are an unfortunate number of treats that are much to hard to be safe. Nylabones (sorry Nylabone people) and dried beef bones are just plain dangerous. Same goes for ice! Your dog will bust a tooth on one of these. I believe Nylabone does make a flexible/squishy chew. That's OK.

Rawhide: One of the most popular treats. Dried cow skin. Cousins to this would be pig snouts/ears and bully sticks (dried beef penis - I kid you not). Rawhide can be a great treat IF your dog isn't an idiot and tries to swallow it whole. Rawhide does NOT digest once swallowed. Big chunks of rawhide will cause obstruction. Some dogs methodically chew and gnaw the strip down to little bits. Rawhide is great for them. These treats do absolutely nothing for the teeth unless they are enzymatically or antimicrobially treated. They simply turn to slimy wads of old skin. Pretty disgusting, but dogs love them!

Greenies (all all associated copy cats): Greenies were the chlorophyl treat that made all of the other "edible compressed starch" chewies popular. The original form of the treat was too hard and if swallowed in big pieces, would cause obstruction. The company has long since reformulated them and they are now completely digestible. Some dogs get diarrhea when eating a Greenie (or similar). This is probably the case with all treats, but Greenies seems to be accused more than others. Don't know why. Any of the compressed corn starch treats or compressed veggie treats are probably fine.

Table foods: Look below for a list of acceptable fruits and veggies. This section is specifically addressing table foods. We humans eat some very, very calorie dense foods. It doesn't take much "table food" to provide big-time calories to our pets. We MUST be careful with this one.

Fats: High fat items are dangerous for your dog. Steak trimmings, bacon, nut butters, and dairy butter are very effective triggers of pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can be exceptionally dangerous and even fatal. High fat foods must be fed in small quantities only if they are fed at all.

Bones: Raw bones are soft and can be great to chew on. You have the issue of microbial food safety, but the bones won't cause damage. COOKED bones are an entirely different story. Ribs, steak, hambones are all popular treats but should not be fed. Cooked bones have all of the fat and soft tissue cooked out of them and the result is that only the hard calcium matrix. This can not be chewed through. It's harder than a tooth and will break a tooth pretty easily. Once swallowed, cooked bones cannot be digested and can cause obstructions or perforations.

Fruits and veggies:
Pretty much any fruit or veggie is OK with a couple of major exceptions:

Grapes and raisins are expressely forbidden! Bad. Some dogs die of horrid renal failure after eating grapes or raisins. Others have absolutely no problems. So, NO GRAPES FOR YOU!

Onions and garlic (allium family veggies) are dangerous to cats. Dogs can handle small amounts, but you must be careful. Cats have acutally died from drinking onion soup broth. The reason for this toxicity is that cat red blood cells (and to a lesser extent, dogs) are very sensitive to the oxidative damage that allium species do to the surface of the cell. They get damaged, the body takes them out, and the pet ends up with dangerous anemia and expires. Onions-cats-bad.

Some favorites I've had people give: frozen green beans (or fresh - dogs seem to like the crunch), carrots (fresh - NOT frozen), celery stick, sliced apple, sliced pear, and red or green bell pepper.

Post a comment on your favorite treat for your pet. There are tons out there. I'll comment back if you'd like.

AMH

Pet Food Choices

"Let food be thy medicine." - Hippocrates


"Feed the dog, Not the bag." - I can't remember who, but they were smart




There are lots and lots of foods on the market now. Most are good. Some are very good. Some are absolute crap. I'm going to mention a few by name. I guess that's an endorsement, but just because I don't mention it doesn't mean it's not good.


There is no food that is properly designed to be "good for all life stages."
Puppy food is designed for puppies. Senior food is designed for seniors. I encourage owners to feed an age appropriate food.


Here are a few general statements: Puppy foods are higher in fat and calcium. Adult foods are lower and fat, moderate in carbohydrates, and higher in protein. Senior foods are higher in fiber and carbohydrates, lower in fat, and moderate in protein.


Most puppies only need puppy food up until 6 or 9 months of age. Spaying and neutering doesn't make a pet fat. But their metabolism doesn't ramp up and so they just don't need the same calories as an intact dog or cat would. So from the time of their surgery, it's usually OK to go ahead and switch to an adult food.



Many adult foods are simply too many calories for the pet they are feeding. This is ESPECIALLY true in cats. Don't hesitate to switch to a lite or less active food. They don't have to be "fat" to switch. It's a preventative thing.


Senior pets must be careful what kind of proteins they eat. It's not that they need to be on a low protein diet. They need to be on a moderate protein diet. Older pet colons also benefit from a little extra fiber - just like you and I. Fiber is your friend!


Let's talk grain free.
This is a hot button issue. Many folks are ABSOLUTELY convinced that corn is the devil's fruit. Others see corn as an excellent carbohydrate source. I'm in-between those two extremes.


I disagree with the assertion that dogs and cats don't eat grains in the wild, therefore grains are bad. Dogs and cat's rarely eat a bowl of rice or some corn on the cob in the wild. What they do eat are the things that eat the rice and corn and have the corn in their bellies when they are killed and eaten. Therefore, the dog or cat do get the grains in an unprocessed/partially digested manner.


It's an effective argument to say that wild canids or felids don't eat processed grains and that processed grains are different from raw. Ok - I'll give you that one. But I have a hard time believing that grains are absolutely bad.


Rice and corn, for instance, can be outstandingly well digested by the body and are an excellent source of energy. Critics of grains in our pet foods argue that the processed grains used in pet foods are not an intended food for dogs and cats. Because of that, they are not appropriate for the overall health, energy, and immune state of the host system. Although these components don't cause direct damage, they still cause subtle disruptions in the body's energy and/or homeostasis. Therefore, your pets are "healthier" if you don't eat them.


There is big business in the specialty pet food market now. I find it immensely interesting that one company who markets a grain free diet uses potatoes as the carbohydrate source. Anybody ever seen a dingo eat a potato?

"We only use the part of the chicken you would eat." or "100% muscle."

Have you ever seen a wild dog or cat eat their kill? They leave tasty parts we would eat behind. Instead, a dog or cat eats from the butt hole forward. They need the guts, the liver, the heart, the lung, the kidneys, the blood. Sure, meat is tasty. But the good, balanced nutrition is in all the bits and pieces we won't touch with a 10 foot pole. Don't let this marketing trick fool you. "Animal digest" and "offal" are pretty disgusting to think about but they are really good for your pet.


Raw Diets:

I've seen some pretty amazing things happen when a pet with a poorly controlled, hopeless, chronic condition suddenly transforms when they are fed a raw diet. I've also seen some trainwrecks and death from people who don't know what they are doing. A proper raw diet is NOT JUST MEAT! It irks me when people think that some chicken meat constitutes a raw diet. If you feed your pet meat only, you will kill them. Just because it's not cooked, doesn't mean it's not balanced. If you are considering feeding raw - DO YOUR HOMEWORK! There's a right way and a wrong way. Some pets do fantastically on raw and it can be an excellent choice for someone dedicated enough to do it right.

Food safety is critical when feeding raw. Be aware of your source. Salmonella and E. coli can be just as lethal to your pets. Campylobacter and listeria as well. Quality sourcing of a quality product that is handled in a safe way is not easy to do. Nor is it cheap. If you aren't careful, you WILL make your pet sick. It is quite possible to kill your pet with raw food.

Therapeutic veterinary diets:
Each of the major food manufacturers has a line of therapeutic diets. Royal Canin, Purina, Iams Company, and Hills are the major players. Discussing therapeutic diets with veterinarians is sometimes like discussing politics or religion. People tend to have pretty strong feelings about it.

My opinion is that Royal Canin has far and away the best product line. I like them and encourage them to be fed. Your veterinary hospital may have two or three product lines that they carry. Some hospitals are exclusive to one company. I'm not a fan of Hills foods. Not at all, and that's all I'll say. They have one or two good diets, but they are the one that most folks recognize by name.

There is no such thing as a "prescription diet." Meaning no foods are considered legend drugs by the FDA and require a prescription. Prescription Diet is a trademarked marketing term used by Hills. If your veterinarian says they require a prescription to sell you a food - that's not technically correct.

Therapeutic diets are sold only through veterinarians because they are considered to be so specialized or restricted that they are not appropriate to sell over-the-counter to the public. Feeding a kitten or puppy a diet intended for a kidney failure patient could severely hurt the kitten's ability to develop and grow normally. Feeding a diet intended to prevent urinary crystals could be disastrous in certain dogs and cause them to become severely ill from pancreatitis. Although these foods are not technically a prescription product, your veterinarian may restrict to who and for what reasons they sell these foods in the interest of safety.

Specific foods:

When people ask me what foods I recommend I list the following:

Royal Canin
Wellness
Innova
Eukanuba
Iams
Purina Pro Plan


I have inconsistent results with Nutro. I have a strong dislike of Hills. Very strong dislike.

I'll add more to this later.

AMH