Fruits and vegetables: What is suitable for dogs?
What should dog owners pay attention to when buying homegrown food?
Fruit and vegetables from your own garden are often fresher and taste better than store-bought produce. Furthermore, you can avoid harmful fertilizers and pesticides. However, even with pesticide-free homegrown produce, dog owners with gardens still face the question of which of their harvested fruits they can share with their four-legged friend.
As a general rule, any new food item added to a dog's diet should be carefully tested. Because our four-legged friends, just like us, can have allergies or intolerances. If you have any questions or concerns, you should always seek veterinary advice.
Not everything from the garden is suitable for dogs.
Even homegrown food isn't automatically suitable for dogs. With onions, for example, great caution is advised. They are generally unsuitable for dogs because they contain substances that can damage red blood cells. Whether raw or processed, even small amounts should be consistently avoided.
Apples and pears, on the other hand, can be a useful addition to a dog's diet. Both fruits provide valuable nutrients and are well-tolerated in moderate quantities. It is important, however, to remove cores and seeds before feeding: these contain substances unsuitable for dogs and also pose a risk if swallowed.
There's nothing wrong with sharing strawberries in the patch. However, the sweet, red berries should only be fed in small quantities to avoid digestive problems.
Homegrown vegetables:
Caution with nightshade vegetables.
Some homegrown vegetables are suitable for dogs when properly selected and, if necessary, prepared. Cabbage, for example, should not be fed raw. It can also cause flatulence in dogs and should therefore only be given sparingly and in small quantities. Kohlrabi is tolerated raw by some dogs, provided they don't eat too much.
Some popular garden vegetables belong to the nightshade family, which can contain solanine, a toxin for dogs, when unripe. Therefore, potatoes should only be given to dogs cooked. Unripe peppers and tomatoes, as well as green parts of the plant, also pose a health risk. If you grow peppers and want to share the vitamin-rich harvest with your dog, you should select only fully ripe, red peppers, remove the seeds, and, even then, give only small amounts. Against feeding tomatoes to dogs at all. While the fruit itself is no longer toxic when fully ripe, it can cause adverse reactions. Therefore, tomatoes should not be given to dogs without first consulting a veterinarian.
Cucumbers, pumpkins, and zucchini:
Please taste before eating.
Cucumbers are high in water and therefore a refreshing snack, especially in the summer months. They are generally well-tolerated and can therefore be fed raw. However, when buying homegrown cucumbers, as well as their botanical relatives, pumpkins and zucchini, it's important to ensure they don't contain bitter substances – so-called cucurbitacins. These are usually no longer present in commercially available products. However, they can be present in homegrown produce and lead to poisoning. Since dogs have fewer taste buds on their tongues than humans and also tend to gulp their food, they might not notice the bitter toxin, which is clearly perceptible to us. Therefore, the expert recommends that dog owners carefully taste the produce themselves before giving it to their four-legged friends.
Otherwise, edible pumpkins, like carrots, are generally considered well-tolerated and, when cooked or steamed, can be a nutrient-rich addition to a dog's diet. Ornamental pumpkins, however, are poisonous to dogs just as they are to humans and should therefore never be included in their diet.
Fruit and vegetables from the garden
- Apple: yes, without seeds.
- Pear: yes, without seeds.
- Strawberries: yes, in moderation.
- Cucumber: Yes, exclude bitter substances.
- Carrot: yes, in moderation (contains a lot of sugar).
- Potatoes: only boiled.
- Cabbage: only cooked, in moderation.
- Kohlrabi: yes, in moderation.
- Pumpkin: only cooked, excluding bitter substances.
- Bell peppers: only red, very ripe pods and in moderation.
- Tomato: no.
- Zucchini: better cooked, to eliminate bitter substances.
- Onion: no, always poisonous.