Pet owners have been warned against giving their dogs certain foods.
Hands up if you’re guilty of giving your pooch these snacks?
*Raises hand*.
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When you’re tucking into your lunch or a quick snack, it’s so hard to resist those puppy dog eyes.
And with dogs eating just about anything and everything, it can be difficult not to give them a little tidbit.
But while some foods can be especially dangerous for your four-legged friend, there are other foods that are no good for their digestive systems, either.
Vet Barbara Royal told Oprah about all the foods that can cause problems in both dogs and cats.
“There are a lot of foods that people tend to feed their animals that they shouldn’t – and they don’t know they shouldn’t,” said Dr Royal.
Pizza crusts
If you’ve ever polished off a pizza and spotted your dog looking longingly at the leftovers, then you’ll know how common it can be for dogs to steal a crust here and there.
“Other things that people feed are, like, Friday evening pizza crust – that comes under my long list of things which is: no corn, no wheat, no soy and no white potato in foods,” said Dr Royal.
The vet explained that processed foods containing white potato often use the skin, which contains a toxic substance called solanine.
Sweets and biscuits
According to the vet, all sugary food is a huge no-no and should be ‘off limits’.
Of course, if you are a dog owner you’ll probably already know that chocolate is hugely toxic.
Instead of the kinds of foods we might be eating, Dr Royal recommends foods that ‘make sense to [our pets] evolutionarily’.
The vet explained: “Cats – even more so. They’re obligate carnivores so they absolutely shouldn’t really be eating food other than mostly meat – they should have high protein, high fat and low carb – not more than 5-10% of their food should be carbohydrates.
“So when you’re feeding treats, a lot of the treats have a lot of sugars and things in them. You wan’t to get rid of those.”
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Crisps
It can be easy to sneak the dog a cheeky crisp here and there, but you really should resist.
“The salty foods are things that are going to be more inflammatory. You don’t want to be feeding these to your pets,” added Dr Royal.
Peanut butter
In case you didn’t know, dogs love peanut butter.
But Dr Royal warned against giving the spread to your pup.
“I have a lot of animals that will come in [with] allergies or chronic problems, and then I find out that they’ve been giving all the medications in peanut butter,” she said.
“So we stop the peanut butter and everything gets better.”