veg

I was just looking on the Natural Dog Food Company website and it says about adding veg to the dogs complete food, but it says to liquidise the veg as dogs cannot digest veg. Is this right? I sometimes give Poppy (4 month old CKCS) cauliflower, brocolli and carrot (all steamed) in with her dinner, I cut it into small pieces and she loves it. Is this OK?

The food should be cooked, or if it is raw, it should be blended.
It is true that dogs cannot digest cellulose, so you have to break it down for them

so if you cook the veg is it then ok to just mash it and then they will be able to digest the vitamins etc??

I'm probably having a right thick moment here! lol...but I can't imagine raw carrott for instance, in my blender, I think it would break it...lol

I guess a food processor would be what you need?

How about grating certain raw veg??...does that break the cellulose down enough??

oh well my dogs have always eaten veg, both raw and cooked and have always been ok!!That's interesting though hevvur about the cellulose

Sorry guys, I'm not gonna make any friends here, but this theory is not something I subscribe to, for a number of reasons. I regularly feed whole raw veg (and fruit) to my two

i also feed bot cooked teamed and raw veg to tyson he loves it ! he seems to have no troubel at all .. and hes on a vet approved diet !

awww look at satch wiv his cucumber!!bless him!!

well I always give mine whole raw carrots for something to munch on while I cook but I wasn't worried how they digest it cuz it wasn't part of there main meal...but they seem fine with them whole...I had heard you have to blend them though...I guess people have got different ideas it seems

Nice picture of Satchmo

*Clambers aboard soapbox*

Most people who feed veg choose to blend or cook because they believe dogs cannot digest plant matter, a 'fact' which is usually gleaned from pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo.

Cooking - only feeding cooked veg reduces the amount of nutritional benefit gained from the vegetables.

Blending - usually explained as a way of mimicking the vegetable matter found in the stomach of a prey animal: unless you also add concentrated hydrochloric acid and an assortment of enzymes to the blender, the only thing that you're mimicking is pureed veg

Unless you're feeding only wild vegetable species, your dog is not likely to have problems digesting vegetable matter. Modern vegetable species have been domesticated to allow easier digestion for humans (and therefore dogs).

I'm fascinated as to why dog food sites still insist on claiming dogs cannot digest plant matter - quite why they believe a semi-omnivorous domesticated species that has evolved to live in a symbiotic relationship with Man (and his vegetables) cannot handle a carrot is beyond me. The idea of pureeing the vegetables also makes no sense IMO - these dog food 'experts' seem to forget that a healthy dog chews raw food more completely than kibble.

*Clambers off soapbox and gets back in cupboard under the stairs to rock back and forth and rant at the wall for a bit*