how much fruit, how often?

[Cathy T]

Both of mine love all kinds of fruits and veggies. When I'm in the kitchen cutting up my fruit salad Jake sits right next to me and paw me every once in a while to "remind" me that he is there waiting. I give me a little of anything I put in there.

I have to laugh at when I've fostered and given breakfast. Our breakfast consists of baby carrots, apple and broccoli. Usually the foster will look at me and Jake and Shelby like we're nuts. Within a couple of days they are waiting anxiously for their breakfast!!

[Suzanne]

If you want her to get some nutritional value from most veg and fruit then it needs to be pulverised (eg very finely grated or put through a juicer or cooked and mashed) but even in sticks as a treat, these are low-cal treats and good roughage for them.

Karlin,
I was under the impression that fruits and veggies lose a lot of their nutritional value when cooked...so, I was wondering if you meant cooked or steamed? Do you also mean that as "sticks" they are just low-cal treats and good roughage without any significant nutritional value?

Lucy's been enjoying carrot sticks, sharing apples with me, and getting raw string beans cut up and placed on top of her dry food at dinnertime.
After reading these posts, Lucy is thrilled to know that bananas, pears, peppers and strawberries will be appearing on her menu, too!



Are blueberries and raspberries ok, too?

[Cathy T]

Jake says "blueberries rock"

[Karlin]

Cooking takes out some nutrients, but dogs don't get a huge amount of nutrition off most raw veg they eat as they can't digest it -- but it is great as low cal filler/treats and as healthy dietary fibre. I don;t think it makes much difference if the food is cooked or raw and certainly many nutrition experts (such as Monica Segal whom we have been discussing here --Linda is feeding some of her food) are cooked diet advocates. I often make stews with cooked chicken and veg for example. The dogs love it and there's plenty of nutrition in it. Pulverised raw veggies are great too and do retain more nutrients.

I think watermelon sounds like a great treat!

There's a list of dangerous foods here:

http://cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=862

Also a lot of cooked diet recipes in the Caring for Your Cavalier scetion of the Library

[labboyer]

My Cav loves all kinds of fruits as well as carrots. He definitely has a sweet tooth!

But I do notice that he doesn't digest the carrots particularly well if I give him carrot sticks. So the earlier advice about grating food seems logical.

Also watermelon seems to give him diarrhea.

In addition to the list of foods to avoid posted above, I've also heard that grapes and raisins can be harmful to dogs. Apparently the skins can be toxic.