A list of foods you should never feed your dog...minefield!

Over the years I have heard obviously chocolate, raisins, grapes, fatty foods and caffine are bad for dogs, which seem to be common knowledge.

But then I've heard others- e.g. garlic, potatoes, brocolli, red meat, certain nuts, apple cores, dairy products and cereals are apparently lethal to dogs or not very good for them, which sort of goes straight against the idea of using liver cake for treats with garlic and cheese! Also alledgedly the 'best' foods for dogs and puppies use these ingredients.

Please can we put together a list of must not, should not, not often, occassionally, shouldn't harm your dog if he's not allergic and harmless?!

There are quite a few lists like that online but you'll find variances in all of them. In the absense of thorough scientific studies to prove absolutely that Xg is toxic, Yg is safe, people's opinions will vary. There will be those that feed garlic daily for the health benefits/as a flea deterent, and those that wouldn't feed a single bulb for fear of it's toxicity. There's the dog that died after a handful of grades, and the dog that had 3 grapes a day for its entire life and had no apparent problems.
I think a general motto of "if in doubt, leave it out" is sensible enough to adopt, but most things will be fine in small amounts, if not entirely health. A bit like us and chocolate bars, the odd bit of "real" butter on a crumpet, the odd glass of wine, etc.

Well as my dog only weighs around 4kg I am sure it wouldn't take much of any of the 'lethal' stuff to kill her.

She has enjoyed the ones I've bolded since being a tiny puppy with no ill effect. Also cheese (a dairy product).

I've been advised to give a bit of mashed spud to a sick dog in the past.

And before I heard about grapes not being good for dogs, one of my dogs used to love them and always had some when we were eating them.

As for RED MEAT? What?

*does make me wonder how the hell we got such a huge street and stray dog population problem here in Cyprus where they mostly eat ANYTHING chucked out the back of restaurants or scavenged from bins. They obviously have not read this list!

Try lashings of real butter on FOUR crumpets!

Honestly there seems to be more healthy eating advice for pets than there does for humans these days.

Yep, did also wonder how wolves survived...and these seem to be the views of one quite high profile dog trainer in the uk....

Potatoes I'm not convinced are lethal but always made my dogs poo goe funny...

Apple cores we always used to feed, but then someone told me it was the equivilant of feeding a drop of cyanide...

Such a minefield!

Mine have ate every single one of these things listed

Exactly, they eat bloody anything!

Oh and if Yoghurt is 'dairy' well that's what Bella SURVIVED on when she was deadly ill as a tiny puppy. Greek yoghurt stopped her starving to death.

Arch did too, plus tin foil straight after a throat op (it tasted of bacon, cant blame him), multiple socks and squeakers...

Just wanting to make sure future pup has best start in life :P

Green potatoes are meant to be toxic so could be where that one comes from?
Apple pips contain cyanide (well, a compound that becomes cyanide when digested) but you would need a large amount to cause harm. Also dogs don't digest plant matter that well, and apple seeds are coated with a tough shell as the seeds need to pass through an animal's digestive system unharmed in order to be passed out into a new area and grow into an apple tree. You'd need to feed a dog probably a cup of apple pips to cause any harm, and crush them first, so the odd apple core isn't going to do much at all!