Much to be thankful for this year. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and kick off to the season.
Repost - because it's important.
Thanksgiving.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day which as we all know is the kick off to the Christmas season. Thanksgiving day and the season to follow can be taxing on our dogs. We may be heading off and leaving them at home; or having a houseful of guests that they are not use to. No matter what you are doing for Thanksgiving, make sure to consider your dog/dogs. Hustle and bustle can lead to stress in humans and canines alike. Take extra time to make sure that your dog has a great day along with the rest of the family and your friends.
- Make sure to fit in exercise.
- Have a place where your dog can slip away for some quiet time and rest.
- Watch what your dog is eating (handouts from guests).
- Turkey yes, stuffing, gravy and trimming.....no. If you feed strictly kibble, a few pieces of turkey is more than enough. I got a big turkey so that Luke and Elsa will have lots of leftovers :)
- Watch your dog closely while guests are coming and going.
- Stress is bad for us and our dogs, try to have a relaxing and thankful day.
As for turkey?
No doubt you will be seeing a great deal of information on many of the dog sites about not feeding your dog turkey. I don't know how many times I read that it was dangerous to feed turkey to our dogs a couple of years ago. I'd heard enough, so I went on a serious research mission. I headed to all of the folks who I trust and rely on first. "Of course dogs can eat turkey," was what I was told. I already knew this of course but with all the NO TURKEY talk I wanted a straight answer.
So where has all of this NO TURKEY talk come from? The problem is not with the turkey at all but the fixings and the feeding habits of those dogs who have problems. What I found was that the largest problems are from people feeding their kibble eating dogs a big turkey dinner. They like to throw the extra skin, gravy and stuffing in their bowl as a treat and then are surprised that their dog is upset afterwards. Had they simply added a few pieces of lean turkey to their dogs meal, they may have been fine. Dogs that eat a consistent diet of kibble have a difficult time eating different things.
DOGS CAN EAT TURKEY. They just should not eat stuffing, gravy and lots of extra fat. My dogs eat turkey all of the time and they will be eating it this season as well. If you feed your dog a regular diet of kibble then be careful when you add other foods in general. Take your time and make sure that is lean protein. Many dogs end up in the emergency by being fed a very fatty Thanksgiving dinner after eating kibble all their life. Their body cannot deal with it. Just imagine if you lived on Rice Krispies your whole life and then you were allowed to indulge in Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixn's. I can guarantee that you would be sick.
Take extra care during this time of year. If you want to share the turkey with your dog then do it in moderation. That means that if you only feed your dog kibble, a few pieces of lean turkey will suffice. But if you feed your dog real food as I do then your dog will be able to have much more turkey. Save the extra skin, dripping, gravy and stuffing for the people. They too will probably suffer from a very rich dinner but that is all up to themselves, right?
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