Saturday, April 07, 2007

no pet food recipes

What's good for people isn't always good for pets. And, as is consistent with my deep faith in the fallibility of our species, I am quite certain some recipes out there are in fact toxic.

For example, someone just posted in my comments section with a link to a blog with dog food recipes on it. I looked the blog over and noticed several of the recipes included garlic powder (I also noticed it was a strangely impersonal blog with no info about where the recipes came from and with ads all along the side...not the sort of environment which induces a sense of trust).

The problem is, garlic and onions contain a substance which is toxic to animals. The raw forms have been associated with hemolytic anemia, and the powdered forms show evidence of the same effects.

The ASPCA operates an animal poison control center which has an "ask the animal poison control center" page with an archive of questions about food. If you are planning to feed you pet home made pet food or human food, do some research first. Check this list out, if you don't see something you want to feed your pet on there ask about it here or talk to your vet before you introduce it into your pet's diet. The whole point of switching to home made food would be to AVOID poisoning your pet.

3 comments:

WinterWheat said...

Ohhh, that breaks my heart. My dog died of autoimmune hemolytic anemia, kicked off by a leptospirosis vaccine, not garlic or onion powder. But I learned recently that avocados are toxic to dogs, which I didn't know before. I'm too cheap to feed her whole avocados, but I will admit to giving her chunks that the baby threw on the floor. Thank goodness for the ASPCA's public service announcements. (And you for announcing this here. BTW, you have a fabulous blog. Would you please tell more people about it??)

PFG said...

Sorry about the pup. This isn't the one whose pictures were up on your blog, is it? Oh please I hope not.

As for the blog...thanks for the "props" as the kids say these days (or more like 5 years ago - my slang's out of date I think)

Alicia said...
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