Until the last twenty years or so, it was possible for a dog to live a healthy life eating table scraps. However, as the modern American diet has changed, table scraps have changed to the point that feeding them to dogs is not longer advised. Fats, so important to a dog, are neatly trimmed and boned from meats sold for people. Vegetables are now sold frozen, dairy products are pasteurized and chicken is thoroughly cooked. Prepackaging makes cooking for families simpler, but it also reduces the amount of leftovers that most families have.

Any scraps left over from food such as this are only inedible portions. And a dog certainly wouldn’t be able to survive or have a balance diet on these scraps alone.

A dog owner who feeds his dog leftovers needs to ask himself: if he did not own a dog what would he be doing with his table scraps? If he would refrigerate them as leftovers to be eaten as or with a meal at a later time then it’s alright to feed it to the dog. If he would just throw them in the trash then it is absolutely unsuitable to give to a dog as well.

Worse than this is the nutritional hazards of table scraps. Much of the time, dogs think that table scraps are quite tasty, even though they have little nutritional value. Sometimes an owner will attempt to “spice up” his dog’s regular food bowl by mixing in some better tasting table scraps. This usually doesn’t work unless the scraps are ground up. Most of the time, the dog will pick through his bowl and only eat the scraps, leaving the more nutritious food behind.

Table scraps mostly contain empty calories. They are filled with fats and carbohydrates, with little of the proteins, fiber, and vitamins that all dogs need. The great danger is when a dog becomes so accustomed to table scraps that he loses his appetite for the much healthier regular dog food. It simply tastes too bland to him now. A dog owner may feel that he is treating his dog to a great injustice by refusing to feed him table scraps. He feels that he isn’t giving his dog what it wants. In the long term scheme of things, the dog may refuse his food at first, but eventually he will become hungry enough to eat. The owner may feel like he is starving his dog, but he is doing it with the best possible intentions: a happy healthy companion.

If you’re looking for Dog Beds for Large Dogs be sure to visit Jaden’s site. Jaden is also into crafts and has an Embroidery Sewing Machine review site.