Friday, February 7, 2014

Eat Your Veggies

My dogs love fruits and veggies. They all get introduced to them at a young age. When Samba's puppies were about three weeks old we could feel tooth buds popping up and we started giving them baby carrots to chew on. They used the cold hard carrots  as teethers and it probably saved our hands from many bites from sharp puppy teeth.They still get excited when we take carrots from the refrigerator.
Sebastian was older when he found us, about eighteen months and he'd never eaten fruits or veggies. When we offered them to him, he either turned away or politely took one, then put it down on the floor for someone else to grab. It took a while to get him used to the strange tastes. I started with green beans, putting just one bean on his dinner. He ate around the bean, but after a couple days he tried it. I gradually increased the number of beans on his meal until I noticed that he was eating the beans first before the kibble. He now eats all sorts of fruit and veggies along with the others.

Recently Rob came across an article online called The 10 Healthiest Human Foods For Dogs. Here's what the article had to say.

1 Green Beans- a source of omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins A, C and K, calcium, copper, fiber, folic acid, iron, niacin, manganese, potassium, riboflavin, thiamin and beta carotene.

Wow, my dogs get these several times a week.

2 Cantaloupe - a source of vitamin A, B-6 and C, beta carotene, fiber, folate, niacin and potassium.

Cantaloupe was Bentley's favorite fruit.

3 Spinach - iron

Sorry to say, my dogs have never had spinach, but that's going to change.

4 Apples - antioxidants and vitamin C

One of our favorites.

5 Pumpkin- fiber, vitamin A and antioxidants

My dogs love fresh pumpkin but don't like the canned variety.

6 Sweet Potatoes - Vitamins E, A B-6 and C as well as calcium, iron, folate, potassium, copper, thiamine and iron

We have these often. They're a favorite because of the sweet taste.

7 Blueberries - high levels of resveratrol that fight cancer and heart disease plus tannins to help prevent urinary tract infections

Dr B told us about these long ago to help keep senior moments at bay. Morgan gets fresh ones in the summer and blueberry capsules the rest of the year.

8 Watermelon - Lots of lycopene and vitamins A, B-6 and C plus thiamin
Since Mitch and Maggie introduced us to watermelon several years ago, it's become one of our summertime favorites.

9 - Asparagus - Vitamin K, A, B-1, B-2, C and E along with folate, iron, copper, fiber, manganese and potassium.

This is one of my favorites and Bentley loved it. We don't have it as often as we should but that may change. Most of the dogs like it but it's an acquired taste.

10 - Brussels Sprouts - Vitamins K and G plus manganese, folate, fiber, potassium and Vitamins A, B-1 and B-6
Rob loves brussels sprouts but I don't like them. They taste bitter to me. The few times a year that I fix them I cook them in mustard to disguise the taste, BUT I tried a new recipe this week that cooks them with bacon and bleu cheese. They were actually good and I liked them, even had a second helping. The dogs had them for the first time and liked them. They didn't get the bleu cheese but I mixed them into rice and sweet potato and bacon. Yum!!

OK, I know this is getting really long so I'll quit here. Tomorrow I'll tell you about an article in The Whole Dog Journal that tells us about other good foods to feed our fur kids.

10 comments:

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

We eat carrots and beans and our Grain-Free kibble has lots of vegies and fruit in them.

SHE buys pureed baby food when SHE's lazy and it always has a combination of fruits and vegies.

But best of all we like meat and fish.

XXXOOO Daisy, Bella & Roxy

SissySees said...

What a great post! Carrots are Sissy's morning eye drop treat, and Gretchen is often sitting at the fridge waiting on us. They both love most fruit and veggies - including spinach. Sissy can't stomach grapefruit, which was Fred's favorite food in the whole world.

bbes tribe said...

We like carrots, apples, green beans, banana, cantaloupe watermelon Yummy stuff...didn't know about some of the others. Mom makes us dome treats that are pumpkin and peanut butter....drooling here...
Tail wags
Ernie Chica Lucas and Rosie

ElleC said...

My pack all love fruits and veggies. They eat pretty much anything I give them. But their favorite is bananas or as we call them Barnanas, after Barney. In the summer Ricky picks ALL the strawberries, green or red he doesn't care, and more than once we have had to rescue the little one from the blackberry bushes. Their fur gets caught when they are picking. Oh and they all love the sour cherries, Barney will pick them right off the tree. Fortunately he is the only one tall enough. Jasper has one unusual favorite, fresh mint leaves. He's an odd little guy.

gMarie said...

Beau loves just about all fruits and veggies. Abby will only eat melon and red or orange peppers and carrots. She doesn't like anything else - but will guard it with her life so Beau won't eat it!!

Lucy would very gently and delicately pick one blueberry at a time off the bush, eat it and then go back for more. Such a sweet girl! g

Rubye Jack said...

Well, I'm with Sebastian. I never have and never will care much for vegetables, except for broccoli, and I'm a vegetarian. Lots of force feeding here and I'm not even a dog.

Molly the Airedale said...

We love all fruits and veges and we love spinach too, especially the huge crunchy stem! Brussels with bacon and blue cheese? yummmmmmmm

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

Ruby said...

Oh, all that fruit looks FABulous!!! I loves fruit!! Veggies can go take a hike!! YUK!!!!! Ma tries to get me to eat carrots (I make a mush outta them and leave them on the carpet), green beans (pffft), peas (eh), pumpkin (od'd as a pup, don't like it anymores), though since you told Ma abouts the sweet potatos..yummers!!!! She's been givin' be some everyday to try and firm up my poopies and she thinks it's helping (most days) and I likes it too! Thanks Sue!
Now, I'll be right overs for some fruit...
Kisses,
Ruby ♥

parlance said...

Thanks, a great article. I read somewhere reputable yesterday (I forget where) that dogs could live on a balanced vegetarian diet. Penny eats plenty of veggies, as well as her meat, but I'll add in a couple of those mentioned here.

Soggibottom said...

Freya eats carrots, so does Frankie de tabby, but then that cat is a walking dustbin anyway. He loves green beans too, especially if they are off of a proper plate :-)
Your not alone with sprouts Sue :-) Could never get our Labrador to eat them, no matter how small we chopped them up. She would like them, then spit them back... Yep, lovely post Sue :-) x x x