Feeding dog on food scraps - saves waste, but is it healthy for him?!

[MrsRossPoldark]

My family are very fussy eaters and rather than throw uneaten food away, I put it in a box for the dog. He then eats about 50% food scraps / 25% proprietary dog meat / 25% proprietary dry food. Is this a good way to be environmentally friendly, or am I just storing up problems for him?

Depends what the scraps are. Dogs shouldn't eat onions, garlic, tomatoes, grapes (and probably other stuff) but all three of my dogs (two mongrels and a Border Collie) have eaten scraps and lived to their late teens, BC is getting on a bit at 16 and doesn't look top-notch but, well, she's 16!

Tends to be bolognese [mince, maybe with a tomato pureeand onions as ingredients?]; pasta; rice; meat eg chicken breast etc, so hopefully not too bad then! He never has raw tomatoes, grapes, chocolate, so not sure about the cooked tomatoes in the bolognese?

It's not good but a dog can survive on it. Dogs will eat whatever their given but it doesn't make it good for them for health reason.

Onions and garlic are toxic to dogs, if you are going to feed your dog scraps you should read up what is ok and what isn't first.

Onions contain an ingredient called thiosulphate which is toxic to cats and dogs. The ingestion of onions causes a condition called hemolytic anemia, which is characterized by damage to the red blood cells. Onion toxicity can cause the red blood cells circulating through your pet’s body to burst.

Symptoms of this condition include breathlessness, lethargy, diarrhea and vomiting. Your pet also could lose interest in food as a result of this type of poisoning. It may take up to two to four days after your pet eats the onion for symptoms to appear.

Are All Onions Dangerous To Pets?
All onions — whether cooked or raw — are a danger to your pet. It takes a very small amount of onions to poison your cat or dog.

Consumption of as little as 5 g/kg of onions in cats or 15 to 30 g/kg in dogs has resulted in clinically important hematologic changes. Onion toxicosis is consistently noted in animals that ingest more than 0.5% of their body weight in onions at one time.

About 600 to 800 grams of onions can cause acute toxicity. Your pet can also become poisoned by eating extremely small amounts of onions over a period of time.

I fed my late dog on cheap scraps and Aldi dog food most because of money problems. I bitterly regret it. I don't think the risk is worth the economy personally, I know his poor diet contributed to his illness which led to his being put to sleep after pancreatitis. One fatty meal can trigger pancreatitis - in our poor dog's case it was pork and beef mince. The problem is you don't know which dog will be susceptible, and which dog will carry on for years - so leftover chicken is fine, but bolognaise as WeAllHaveWings says, it could be cumulative.

There are better ways to be environmentally friendly; I'd feed the dog with dog food.

Garlic is debatable - some people think it's fine. We save all the meat scraps for our dog but dump the carbs - dogs don't need carbs like rice, potato and wheat - it only provides extra calories. Our dog gets cooked meat as a treat. Raw meat for meal times. High meat dried food for when we really can't be arsed - orijen or ziwi peak.

Eric gets all the meat scraps so meat off the chicken carcass we don't eat, Sunday roast end bits, ham on the use by date etc but wouldn't give him mince because there are onions etc added to that. Don't give him cooked veg because of the salt but do give him raw carrots, sprouts and a cabbage leaf when I'm preparing them because he loves them. I do as a treat cook him a butcher's sausage when I do a cooked breakfast (he doesn't touch the supermarket ones). He doesn't get the carbs but do give him a Yorkshire pudding occasionally to play with as he loves to chase it round and throw it about but doesn't eat it. Eric's fussy with food anyway and eats to live rather than lives to eat so he'd turn his nose up at most things anyway.

Mine have meat, veg and pasta scraps as well as kibble. They seem fine.

Mine devoured the leaves of a cauliflower on the way home from the shops one day - it was all a bit of a game, never wanted any after that!

Mine has a Sunday roast - loads of veg, scraps of meat and a bit of gravy every Sunday. I will chuck her left overs during the week but this will consist of plain meat/fish/poultry, veggies - agree with a PP, no carbs

I feed mine on any (& that includes onions, bones, carbs, everything) left over food & dog food, they are cross breeds, so maybe this makes a difference but at 16 & 10 yrs. they are doing fine.. vet checked last month, said very well for their age!

prob does depend on the dog , we gave the oldest chocolate & milk before we knew it wasn't good for them, with no ill effects though..

Garlic is a yes no answer. Too much is bad but small amounts and in talking you need to know exactly how much is ok.

We personally raw feed all ours and it isn't expensive you can get 1lb of raw food from 45p.

I know a few dogs on scraps and as I said above the dog will eat it but it doesn't make it good.

Its a bit like saying my granny lived to 98 and smoked 20 fags a day and it did her no harm.

We know cigarettes are bad for you, but some people are lucky, like my gran, or not so lucky, like my dad.

Some dogs may manage to survive on scraps diets which includes onions which are know to be toxic to them, but it is never going to be a healthy choice for them.

Wow - lots of scary information on here! Thanks MN - I think! I will probably carry on using up scraps [I just hate throwing away uneaten food], but will cut out the onions / garlic / etc. and just do scraps of meat, veg, etc.

He eats 50% dog food anyway right now, so I will also try to adjust the ratios to be e.g. 75% dog food / 25% scraps.

Murph has lilys, he'll occasionally have a leftover thrown in his dish (couple of chips from the Chinese tonight ). If we have a roast dinner he'll have one, he had pancakes on pancake day. Dh is guilty of sneaking him the odd fruit pastel as well.

He's a healthy weight and is not a regular thing, I really don't see how a handful of chips occasionally will do him much harm but I guess it's much like humans with 'moderation'.

Besides, he'd be devastated if I didnt hand over my empty ice cream tub when id finished as he stalks me from the second it comes out of the freezer and genuinely looks gutted if it goes back in because I've not finished it all.