Umm Umm Good

My dogs love meal times. Tsar was the only picky eater I've ever had, the current pack looks forward to that magic time of day when the bowls come off the shelf. My rule is that unless you're sick or very old like Morgan, breakfast is just plain kibble. I am not a morning person. It's about all I can do to measure kibble into a bowl before my first cup of coffee. Even the dogs know I can't be expected to come up with a tasty topper in the morning. Syd is disappointed about this rule. She'd like something special on her breakfast, but she eats it anyway. Morgan gets  some special canned food to help her choke down that dry garbage we call food.

Dinner is a different story. That's when Good Old Mom  gets creative with tasty tidbits from the kitchen to liven up a dog's outlook on life.

The Whole Dog Journal had a short piece on human foods that were good to add to a dog's food and here's their very short list.
1 Eggs for protein..  I do occasionally scramble eggs for my kids but generally when one is sick and needs pampering.

2.Yogurt for the probiotics....My dogs get yogurt every night before bed. It helps them sleep thru the night. Porties are known to vomit bile during the early morning hours if they don't have a late night snack and we find that yogurt works well.

3. Sardines for the omega 3 fatty acids.... Now you're talking! Sardines are the natural food of Porties. They used to eat them when they worked on the fishing boats before they became household companions. My dogs get sardines weekly and absolutely love them. I try to give them the night before our trash pickup so the empty cans don't hang around. We don't call them 'stinky fish' for nothing.

4. Fruit and Vegetables. They mention blueberries, apples, bananas and melons. Those are covered in yesterday's post. Our dogs get fruit and veggies almost daily. Besides the ones already discussed, my dogs like oranges. I have an orange almost every evening and the dogs each get a section. Tsar used to set his on the floor and roll on it before eating it. It was a bit disgusting but gave his coat a nice smell.

5.  Healthy leftovers but they don't explain what they think is a healthy leftover. I'm guessing it's not pepperoni pizza. We give our dogs shrimp tails and sometimes I'll cook an extra chicken breast to cut up for them.

Our vet has suggested blueberries for their brain health and Brazil nuts because they're a great source of selenium, an antioxidant. He also recommends sweet potatoes for digestive health and when we discussed the soup that I make for them he suggested I alternate between rice and barley. Apparently barley is quite nutritious.

Green beans are a staple if I don't have anything else planned or haven't had time to put something together for them. So with all these healthy food for dinner, we can splurge on a cupcake for birthdays without feeling guilty.