What human foods are safe for dogs to eat? Can my dog have cheese?

Ideally, a high-quality commercially-prepared diet should make up 90% of a dog’s diet, with nutritious treats making up no more than that last 10%. Commercially-prepared foods are formulated to provide proper balances of vitamins and minerals, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Nutritional deficiencies or imbalances can lead to a host of health conditions. There are some dogs or pet parents who prefer home cooked diets over the commercially available options. In these cases, the recipe for the home cooked food must be carefully balanced to account for any lacking nutrients, and are best formulated by specialists in veterinary nutrition. Examples of such recipes can be found at www.balanceit.com. However, occasional treats of people foods, such as boiled white meat chicken, cooked sweet potatoes, turkey, green beans, or carrots are perfectly fine!

Ideally you would feed your dog consistently the same dry dog food. Some dogs have a sensitive stomach and switching up food/offering table food can cause stomach upset (vomiting, diarrhea), or can lead to a picky eater. Also some human foods can be toxic to dogs (raisins, grapes, and garlic and onion are not recommended). I would try to stick to a consistent dry dog food for your dog, which will also provide a more complete and balanced source of nutrition.

The best food to feed Bentley is a high quality puppy formulated food such as Royal Canin, Hills Science Diet, or Purina ProPlan. That's all he needs to be healthy. It's not recommend to feed him human food on a daily basis, as that can lead to obesity and further health problems. I will give you a link to a website that shows human foods dogs can have on an occasional basis: http://www.akc.org/content/health/articles/human-foods-dogs-can-and-cant-eat/

You should not give him any human food. The best food to give him is a complete dog food for large size dogs, preferably a good brand. Pumpkin is a good additive as it adds fiber and makes his stool voluminous, helping with digestion and evacuation of the anal sacs. There is no need to add yams or peas to his food if it is a "complete" food. You can feed boiled carrot pieces or green beans as treats.

Feeding from the table can make your puppy fat, and also there are several human foods that are toxic to dogs. Some dogs fed from the table begun to refuse to eat their regular dog food, which is nutritionally balanced for them (while table food is not). I would suggest following the advice of your vet for the best outcome for your puppy.

The key here is extreme moderation. If you give too much of something that is not formulated to be S/O friendly, you compromise the diet and then it doesn’t work. It should be fine to give Sadie a carrot stick or a couple sugar peas once a day. The absolute best majority of her intake should be either the diet or the urine friendly treats. I would probably avoid giving her meat products. Stick to the veggies as this will help control weight as well. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Yes those are good. Never give grapes or raisins as they can cause kidney damage and death. Onions aren’t good or large amounts of garlic. I feed plain canned pumpkin which fills them up and increases the fiber in the diet to keep them regular. In addition please feed a good quality dog food so she gets the nutrients she needs. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Lucy.