Is it ok to serve human food to dogs

[eRobin]

I know there’s a number of things dogs can’t have and to beware of stock and things in sauces, but is it healthier for them to have mini versions of what I’m having? Could I give them a mini fish pie? Is there a cook book for dogs?

Dogs used to live on leftovers, scraps and lumps of horsemeat from the knackerman.

We've had dogs for >20 years, and they get fed a standard kibble and some tinned dog food, and whatever scraps we have going spare, including a few spoons of leftover curry (which includes cooked onions) stirred into the biscuits. They have so far lived long and healthy lives.

My understanding with onion is that a large amount is toxic (0.05% of bodyweight) but that small amounts are processed out of the body (so for a 20kg dog, you need to start worry at 100gm, which is quite a lot of onion. Garlic is a bit more toxic, but a small amount is unlikely to do any harm. So while I wouldn't prepare food for my dogs with garlic, onions (or leeks or chives) in it, I will feed them scraps that I know contain small quantities because it won't do them any harm.

I cook for my two , batch cook , fresh meat from the butcher , fresh veg all wacked in the slow cooker and portioned up . They don't eat the same food every day , one day meat , one day salmon fillets etc
They also eat good kibble .

I was thinking of doing that

DDog is fed kibble with wet as a topper.

Which might be tinned dog food or it might be from what we're eating (but of course without hostile ingredients)
Dogs are basically scavengers, and do well on mixed diets.

Depends on the age of the dog. Puppies need a 'complete' food - balanced between carbs and protein. Otherwise they can grow too fast or too slow and that can give them real long-term problems.

After about a year old, dogs can manage a more varied diet, but if you're worried about how to support your dog properly it is worth studying a bit about canine nutrition. Also be careful about giving them too much protein, especially when young - they do need mixed diets, they aren't obligatory carnivores like cats; they won't be able to process too much meat and their poo will get soggy!

My Labradors say too right it’s fine. They’re all good on the various leftovers they liberate from the kitchen side. Criminals.

It is better quality if human grade, but you won' want to give them cheesy fatty things as that'll lead to pancreatitis. So lean meat, veg, fine.

You can cook dog food, portion it and freeze.
I used to do back and skin when I was cutting whole chicken together with a bag of frozen vege.
We ate the soup and dogs got meat, skin etc. from the chicken, some soup and vege.
Also tinned tuna over dry food.
Block of mince and vege cooked with rice.
And occasionally iceland cheap sausages cooked with leftover vege.
If you have smaller dog you can do these but freeze portions. Mines ate it in two days usually.

And my dogs very much didnotice the difference between dog food and cooked one

Labradors should have their mugshots taken

@eRobin are you a dog nutritionist? Pet food companies spend millions ensuring that their foods contain sufficient balanced nutrition for dogs. And it's a regulated industry.

By all means feed your dog whatever you like, but please ensure you register with the pet food manufacturers association and do the relevant research to ensure your dog gets all the nutrients it needs. Not just ask a bunch of randoms on mumsnet.

There didn't seem to be dog food when we were kids - they lived on scraps and were fit as a butchers dog

If you are feeding your dog the same tinned food or kibble every single day, then you need assurances that it contains everything a dog needs

Just like a human who eats the same thing every day would need to know that the thing was complete/sufficient.

However, once you depart from that model, and are instead eating a changeable variety of suitable foods, the chances of nutritional gaps are much reduced.

The problem with feeding human food is that they can have additives or a lot of salt in which isn't good for them. If you've freshly cooked chicken, fish, rice, vegetables without any salt or flavouring it would be OK - but you will also be running the risk of your pet refusing his dog food once he gets a taste for yours .

Yes but human food used to be mostly meat and veg, less salt, sugar and UPF.
A lot of what people eat now is completely unsuitable for dogs

You won't find many wolves in the vegetable patch

This is fascinating. NB I don’t have a dog, and I don’t know anything about dogs. But I have a qu. If you put some food out, containing onions, would a dog know to avoid eating it. As a sort of instinctive thing*. Or would instinct only count for wild/non domesticated dogs, who would traditionally presumably only ever eat raw meat?

*Here, not referring to Labradors, who I think will eat just about anything?

My dog won't touch onions, and he will eat absolutely everything if it falls down on the kitchen floor. So there's some instinct there.

This only applies if you feed them enough raw innards. There are some dog nutritionists that promote the "whole animal" approach, but I find it impractical for modern everyday life.

Quite frankly, no. Human grade food is far to rich (it gives them the shits) full of fats (it makes them obese) and full of too much salt or sugar for dogs. Feeding your dogs a bit of sausage and mash or some chilli once in a blue moon won’t kill it…but routinely? Yes. You’ll do some serious damage - if only making your dog grotesquely fat (and far too many people think their dog is healthy when it’s clinically obese).

Dogs have very different digestive systems to us, and their allergies can be life-threatening in the smallest amount of consumed food (by which I mean they’re often extreme).

When you find a food that your dog eats, doesn’t make them sick or fat and gives them energy, you should 100% stick to it. Don’t fuck about with things that work just because you don’t think the bowl is pretty - particularly when you have no clue what you’re doing.

Hence picking food that is manufactured by a member of the pet food manufacturers association (UK Pet Food as they are now). Oh, and using a food branded as a complete food.

just read this 😂thank you random internet person, I did actually chuckle 😀

We used to feed our dog with human grade food because of his health issues, but I preferred to feed him that way in any case. Just make sure you keep toxic stuff out. Eg, do not give them mushrooms, plenty of info on the web of what to avoid. Also, I want to be clear: we don’t eat processed or prepared meals so everything was natural fresh cooked food, seriously. We sometimes cooked it in batches, froze it and reheated it, then allowed it to cool.

We think that some dog foods are not very healthy and are actually expensive for what they are. We fed cooked meat (such as cooked, trimmed liver, chicken etc), fish and eggs with veg and fillers like rice and potato. He loved it and was better for it. We read that you can add stuff like a bit of crushed up egg shell for calcium, and dogs will eat things like cooked broccoli stalks because these are perfectly edible but are discarded by humans.
You can also boil chicken carcass to make a broth that is loved by dogs if you are not using it for gravy, and obviously they love any bits of leftover chicken.

If you have a large dog it could get expensive so you may need to supplement with a quality complete food.

Agree, this was largely our approach. We used other ‘fillers’ too, like potato and rice etc, but kibble also.

Pleeeease make sure you give him supplements if you start feeding him home cooked meals. I saw this horrendous case of a dog that ended up with brittle bones and a misshapen spine & pelvis after his owner had thought he was spoiling his dog by cooking his meals at home. Turns out he had the worst case of calcium deficiency that the vet AND the orthopaedic specialist had ever seen.
Dog food says 'complete' on it for a reason

They need calcium too? Please see my previous comment