liese

Mine will eat broccoli -- raw or cooked! Also, apples cut up (when she's riding in the car). Be careful with things like cheese -- my brother lost his dog to feeding too much "people food" with cheese being such a binding food that it caused intestinal blockage. I would ask my vet about this as well.

LindaR

try baby carrots as a treat and see if he will eat them...my small dog will chew on one for a long time before eating it...she always has toast in the AM with DH, thats their routine LOL

k9dancer

When the nation's pets began getting sick and dying from contaminated Chinese products in the dog foods, I began feeding my dogs raw. As it happens, I had been investigating raw food for several months before this happened, so it wasn't much of a stretch for me. There are several rawfeeding groups on Yahoo you may want to check out.

gspsplease

I feed mostly dry kibble (dog food) but always read the contents label to ensure that grain especially corn is not the first ingredient listed, since the ingredients are listed according to what proportion of the kibble they make up. It's surprising how many of the "top" ie most expensive dog foods are predominantly grain. Look out for terms like "beef flavour" rather than beef -- it means there is only a tiny amount of beef included. I save all our (human)meal scraps especially cooked vegetables and raw broccoli stalks and carrots, and add a few spoonfuls to the kibble, then add a small amount of hot water which helps to release food scent -- this makes the food more attractive to the dog (try this if your dog is a fussy eater). I also buy chicken carcasses (most of the meat cut off leaving only fat, gristle and bone) which are very cheap (about 5 for $1) and feed them RAW ONLY to my dog with a little hot water to take the chill off if they are straight from the fridge (and to release the scent). Raw chicken carcasses are very good for your dog -- lots of calcium, and plenty of jaw exercise crunching them up-- but don't use them if your dog bolts his food or competes with another dog or they can choke if they try to swallow whole.

ziegamomma

Do watch out for the corn in dog food. Our Lab was allergic to corn and had lots of skin problems because of corn.

Caswews

NO garlic or onions in any of the food for the dog. My Avatar loves cooked chicken (her fav), beef and rice or pasta. We feed her Halo Dog food as its a natural dog food, then as a treat once or twice a week we make up the boiled chicken or beef, rice, peas and carrots for her. Please check with your vet to see what foods a dog can have-ours has a sensitive stomach and has had a stroke so certain foods may not be good for her. Our vet suggested the boiled chicken, beef, fish (deboned-no skin)and Turkey.
Brie loves noodles any kind as long as they are noodles and she knows when we are making spaghetti or something containing noodles. LOL She smells it in the air and sits by the stove till she gets some in her bowl !LOL

quiltmom04

Be sure you check what food you shouldn't give your dogs. Pork, bacon, ham, onions, grapes and
raisins are harmful. Obviously chocolate, but on a healthy dietnthey wouldn't be getting that anyway!

mary705

I have mine on a grain free chicken for large breeds. It has all the essential vitamins, minerals, omega's and what not in it. He does very well, and first ingredient is Real Chicken. He chunks of frozen watermelon and sliced bananas.This is a great site if you want to make your own dog treats.
http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com/index.html

Snooks

When I was growing up as a kid, we had show dogs. My mom always made them a meatball soup, it had carrots and rice in it. She would warm it up and the dogs loved it. All of them lived to be OLD. In the winter, we would give them Oatmeal or Cream of Wheat with a little milk in the morning and then they had soup late afternoon for dinner. Our dogs ALL lived to be 16 to 21 and none of them got fat. I still feed my dogs today the same way. They eat fruit and veggies, both cooked or raw. Good luck.

Neesie

Lots of good advice, here. I do want to share a few words of caution, though. Unless your dog is very active and is building/maintaining muscle, do NOT overload on the protein. Too much (unneeded) protein is hard on the kidneys. Very active dogs (just like humans) need the extra protein, for muscle building/maintenance. Couch-potato dogs do NOT. The average dog does need adequate protein, of course - just not an overabundance of it! I found this out, the hard way, when Phoebe developed a kidney stone (many years ago, when she was young and on a "premium" diet). Since then, she's been on a lower-protein diet, has plenty of energy, shiny coat, and is as healthy as she can be. Now at 10 years old, she's still a lap-dog, at heart . . . but has more than enough energy to run and play. Anyway, because of that, I started really researching the protein issue.

Another interesting fact about high-protein - it can also cause some dogs to be more aggressive.

Corn is a problem, IF your dog is allergic to it. Otherwise, it's an excellent (and inexpensive) source of carbohydrates. Just because it's cheap, doesn't make it bad . . . unless your dog has a problem with it. Many dogs thrive on foods with corn as the first ingredient. Potato is another excellent source of carbs, as is rice.

Many people argue that dogs are carnivores and should primarily eat meat; in reality, they eat whatever is available. In the wild, their ancestors ate the whole kill, not just the muscle/meat. The whole kill included the stomach and its contents (most often of herbivores), thus supplementing their diets with whatever the other animal had eaten. So you can look at the teeth (which were necessary for making a kill and tearing it apart) and see a carnivore . . . but if you look at their actual nutritional needs, you'll see an omnivore.