# The Matter of Table Scraps



## LabradorRetriever2009 (Jan 29, 2009)

One starting point for getting your dog on the road to good nutrition is understanding the difference between quality leftovers and table scraps. Most people have good-quality food leftovers from their meals, such as pieces of sirloin steak, roast beef, chicken or turkey. With any excess fat removed, these leftovers are fine to add to your dog's kibble or to use as the protein source in a properly formulated home-prepared diet. Leftover rice, pasta and safe vegetables that are plainly cooked, with no butter or fatty sauces, can be used as carbohydrate sources in a home prepared diet. In addition to good-quality food, most people have bits of fatty or fristly meat and rich gravies or sauves left over from their meals. These table scraps are not nutritious, and we don't recomend feeding them to your dog.


----------



## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

LabradorRetriever2009 said:


> With any excess fat removed, these leftovers are fine


Don't remove the fat. Dogs need fat in their diet. There is no such thing as "excess" fat in a dogs diet. Fat isn't detrimental to a dog like it can be for a human. You've got to learn the difference between dogs and humans.



> ... with no butter or fatty sauces,


Butter and fatty sauces are much better for the dog than those veggies you listed.



> can be used as carbohydrate sources in a home prepared diet.


Dogs have no need for carbs in their diet. They utilize fat in the same way humans utilize carbs. Again, there is a difference in the way dogs and humans bodies work. Dogs are carnivores and humans are omnivores. You can't create an omnivore by feeding a carnivore omnivore food.



> In addition to good-quality food, most people have bits of fatty or fristly meat and rich gravies or sauves left over from their meals. These table scraps are not nutritious, and we don't recomend feeding them to your dog.


Much more nutritious than the plant material you recommended earlier.


----------



## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I guess I'll agree with you in general that it is good to add real food to your dog's diet. It should really only be meat and fats though.


----------



## LabradorRetriever2009 (Jan 29, 2009)

rannmiller said:


> I guess I'll agree with you in general that it is good to add real food to your dog's diet. It should really only be meat and fats though.


Today, dogs are not as likely to be fed a diet that consists entirely of table scraps as they were in the past. Instead, it is likely that table scraps are fed as embellishments to commercial dog food. Enhancing your dog's kibble with unhealthy table scraps is not a good idea. If you are adding table scraps to his/her diet, you are likely overfeeding your dog and predisposing him/her to obesity. By reducing the quantity of nutritionally balanced food and increasing the quantity of unhealthy table scraps, you are putting your dog at risk for nutritional deficiencies and possibley more-serious health problems. As preciously noted, meat scraps are likely to be high in fat, and a diet that is too high in fat may contrubute to gastrointestinal disorders, such as pancreatitis, a serious inflammation of the pancreas, which can be life-threatening.


----------



## Postal (Jan 23, 2009)

LabradorRetriever2009 said:


> Today, dogs are not as likely to be fed a diet that consists entirely of table scraps as they were in the past. Instead, it is likely that table scraps are fed as embellishments to commercial dog food. Enhancing your dog's kibble with unhealthy table scraps is not a good idea. If you are adding table scraps to his/her diet, you are likely overfeeding your dog and predisposing him/her to obesity. By reducing the quantity of nutritionally balanced food and increasing the quantity of unhealthy table scraps, you are putting your dog at risk for nutritional deficiencies and possibley more-serious health problems. As preciously noted, meat scraps are likely to be high in fat, and a diet that is too high in fat may contrubute to gastrointestinal disorders, such as pancreatitis, a serious inflammation of the pancreas, which can be life-threatening.


Enhancing your dog's kibble with unhealthy table scraps.. What you've posted before is still requesting that people keep the best part of the food from their dog. Instead, top unhealthy with unhealthy. I think RFD might know a little thing or two about this and that's why you refuse to reply to his posts..

And feeding your dog that extra bit of food every now and then isn't going to make him obese. As long as it's not all the time, it isn't bad. If i want an extra patty on my hamburger one day, i'm not going to gain 10 lbs overnight and be at risk for cancer. Ugh


----------



## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Wait, didn't you _just_ say people should add table scraps to their dog's food so long as it falls under your category of "good" scraps and now you're saying table scraps are unhealthy and cause GI issues? 

Make up your mind! 

I agree that many people aren't smart enough to figure if they're adding real food to their dog's diet, they should cut back on the amount of kibble they're feeding because otherwise it's just extra calories all the time. 

And animal fats and proteins are the only scraps that should be added to a dog's kibble-fed diet anyway, the veggies and carbs are unnecessary.


----------



## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

LabradorRetriever2009 said:


> Enhancing your dog's kibble with unhealthy table scraps is not a good idea. If you are adding table scraps to his/her diet, you are likely overfeeding your dog and predisposing him/her to obesity.


I would think that if one was enhancing his dogs kibble diet with and appreciable amouint table scraps, they would be wise enough to cut back on the amount of kibble. Perhaps you have a lot more table scraps that I do. LOL I feed my dogs and cats the leftover meat every evening and it's really not that much.



> By reducing the quantity of nutritionally balanced food and increasing the quantity of unhealthy table scraps, you are putting your dog at risk for nutritional deficiencies and possibley more-serious health problems.


I don't see how kibble is in any way balanced nutritionally. Not with all the garbage they put in it. A properly balanced diet for a dog would be meat, bones, and organs ... mostly meat, some bones, and some organs. Exact percentages just aren't critical.



> As preciously noted, meat scraps are likely to be high in fat, and a diet that is too high in fat may contrubute to gastrointestinal disorders, such as pancreatitis, a serious inflammation of the pancreas, which can be life-threatening.


As I previously noted, fat is an important part of a dog's diet and is not harmful. Possibly a diet high in very processed fat might be as you say but plain ol'd animal fat is not harmful to a dog.


----------



## TippysMom (Oct 3, 2008)

LabradorRetriever2009 said:


> In addition to good-quality food, most people have bits of fatty or fristly meat and rich gravies or sauves left over from their meals. These table scraps are not nutritious, and we don't recomend feeding them to your dog.



I have some questions. 

1) What is "fristly" meat?
2) What are "sauves"?
3) Who are "we" that don't recommend these type of table scraps? 

I do a lot of cooking & I've never had fristly meat or sauves.

Hahaha! Seriously - you sound like you're very full of incomplete information. Like an untrained person with a gun, you're probably more of a danger to yourself than to anyone else.


----------



## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

"We" as in the vet industry perhaps?


----------



## TippysMom (Oct 3, 2008)

rannmiller said:


> "We" as in the vet industry perhaps?


I figured as much - I also didn't really expect a response from Lab. Just bugs me when people refer to themselves in the plural - reminds me of that old response "who's "we", you got a mouse in your pocket?"....

:biggrin:


----------

