# Adding vegetables to food????



## Doodle (Apr 6, 2009)

For those of you who add vegetables to your dog's food, how do you prepare them? Raw? Cooked (if so, how)? Chunks? Diced? Blended? Thanks!


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## Mssjnnfer (Aug 9, 2009)

I usually just give them raw. Mojo loves munching on carrots, and it will take him about ten minutes to eat a whole one (giving me ten minutes of free time, hehe) so I'll do that once in a while. I peel them first. Is that the right word?  Sounds weird.

Anyway. I love giving them green beans too. Just out of the can. I drain them. Sometimes Mojo gets a special treat when I buy a bag of frozen green beans. I'll give him a couple of frozen ones. He loves crunching through them. Very cute to watch.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Feeding vegetables for the most part just makes people feel good... dogs can't break down the cell walls due to having different digestive enzymes than species who eat more plant matter. So for that...you'd really need to cook and/or use a blender on most vegetables. Others here can comment more specifically on that.

I sometimes give my dogs stuff I'm eating (so raw or somewhat cooked) for my enjoyment or for enrichment.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

I give my dogs both cooked and raw...they love raw carrots and sweet potatoes/yams. I also add these to their stews that I make them along with green beans and zucchini.


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## Florabora22 (Nov 30, 2008)

I give Flora frozen green beans in her food, mostly to just make her feel more full!


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## rappwizard (May 27, 2009)

Mac shares our house with our two pet rabbits and enjoys crunching on some fresh romaine, radicchio and butter lettuce (but she gets her snack in a separate pile away from the rabbits, of course!) When we have baked sweet potato she enjoys that too. She's not much of a fruit eater.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

You could top with a dehydrated raw like the Honest Kitchen supplement if you feel you need to add something to get the dog's interest while still providing valuable nutrition.

I'll share my carrots, apple, or other veggies too. They usually get spit back out. lol


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## mikeynote (Jun 30, 2009)

I give Hazel raw green beans. I'm planting extra green beans this year. When she was a puppy I would go in the back yard and we would do some training and she would get fresh green beans as treats. We have a big fenced in backyard and I would do recalls with her...she would come flying when she heard 'come' since a green bean was involved


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I use a blender (high speed) to pulverize raw veggies and sometimes an apple. Usually some sort of greens, carrots and garlic and whatever else I bought. This makes the nutrients available to the dogs - my Towhee had no idea what a carrot was for when she first came to my house (still has no use for chicken BTW) - now she lines up with Casey and Faelan for her end while I'm cutting the stuff up to go in the blender LOL


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## 2golddogs (Oct 19, 2009)

I've given Jackson the occasional carrot which he loves to chew. Kosmo could care less about any vegetable. However, Jackson is nailing the asparagus in the asparagus bed. He loves it, especially the tender shoots. The other evening I went out to the garden to pick asparagus to serve for a small dinner party we were having and all the tips were gone!


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## marshab1 (Aug 28, 2006)

Tinkerbell loves veggies raw or cooked. I never give canned way too much salt. So I give fresh or frozen. Green beans are a huge hit both ways. I'm planting 2 tmes as much as I did last year cause she loves them so much. I break them into bite size pieces. She likes carrots at times but would rather those be cooked. Sweet potatoes and baked potatoes get cooked. Broccoli and cauliflower are given raw and/or steamed. Lettuce and tomatoes are given raw. I make everything bite size pieces and Tinkerbell is usually a chewer when it come to her food.


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

Enzo is a big fan of carrots...we usually give them raw. Sometimes frozen, now that he's teething. He had cooked baby carrots for the first time today. He thought it was a great treat and spent 10-15 minutes throwing it around and catching it by himself before he actually ate it. =) He also likes green beans (usually sodium-free canned), bananas and cantaloupe. Be careful with the cantaloupe, though. Too much can cause soft poops.


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## Florabora22 (Nov 30, 2008)

I am FLOORED that there are goldens that turn their nose up at food. Flora's even eaten a piece of ginger that I accidentally knocked to the ground when I was cooking, and then looked up @ me for more. She'll eat ANYTHING.


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## Griffyn'sMom (Mar 22, 2007)

I don't add veggies to Griff's food but I actually give them to him as treats. We rarely give him biscuits - he love carrots and especially loves bites of broccoli stalks. He loves his veggies.

We recently went to my parents house and upon arriving I let him in their back yard where the grass is lush and green. It was like he just arrived at a smorgasboard! He was wolfing down grass left and right. He loves greens in any way, sort and shape.


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

Enzo had a frozen carrot tonight since he lost a tooth and is especially mouthy. In case you were thinking of giving your dog a whole carrot to chew on, beware of what your living room may look like after! lol


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## nixietink (Apr 3, 2008)

RedDogs said:


> Feeding vegetables for the most part just makes people feel good... dogs can't break down the cell walls due to having different digestive enzymes than species who eat more plant matter. So for that...you'd really need to cook and/or use a blender on most vegetables. Others here can comment more specifically on that.
> 
> I sometimes give my dogs stuff I'm eating (so raw or somewhat cooked) for my enjoyment or for enrichment.


I think it might be that cows (and other specific mammals) have little bacteria guys in their gut that produce an enzyme called cellulase. It's this little enzyme that breaks down the cellulose in plants.  But the veggies do help move food along the digestive tract. 

Vito loooves carrots and veggies.


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## kwiland (Aug 27, 2009)

Enzo's Mom, your sofa looks a lot like my kitchen floor at times!

I feed Winnie a raw, BARF, diet, so he does eat veggies. I thought he would prefer veggies cooked with some sort of seasoning, like lemon juice, because I like that. Or a salad, because it has dressing. But I was wrong, Winnie likes raw veggies best, and steamed, with no seasoning, second. He will spit out veggies that have been otherwise cooked, or salad with a dressing. He loves raw carrots, cauliflower, green beens, broccoli. But his absolute favorite is any type of squash. If it's cooked, he likes sweet potato and pumpkin. And the only fruits he dislikes are citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, or limes. He loves grapes, but can't have them because they can be toxic. He had them as a baby, before we knew they were dangerous. He'll go crazy for apples and bananas. I probably should note that my dog simply likes FOOD, so, he really isn't too picky.

Before we fed him a raw, BARF, diet, the veggies would mostly pass without being digested. Now, it at least looks like he is actually digesting most of the veggies. But that might just be because a raw fed dog's stool is smaller and different than a kibble fed dog's stool. Sorry if that is WAY more info than anyone wanted to read!


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

He managed to get the sofa and the floor pretty much covered...but he did pick up his pieces when the big part of the carrot was gone. =)


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## Heidi36oh (Feb 27, 2007)

My guys love their veggies, they get green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes and love tomatoes.


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## kwiland (Aug 27, 2009)

Winnie only thinks he likes tomatoes. We garden, and grow tomatoes. And we think the best thing ever is a ripe tomato, right off of the vine. Since we think it's so yummy, Winnie wants a bite. But he always spits it right out!


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## unclelar (Oct 10, 2009)

We have used thawed frozen green beans and have for last four months to help Buddy and Lady lose weight. They love them and so far Buddy is down to 76 and Lady is 82. Both were around 94 lbs when we started. Buddy is back to normal eating but I still put a few in his bowl. 
Neither of them cares for carrots but they do like apple and we give them a slice for treat now and then.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

kdmarsh said:


> I am FLOORED that there are goldens that turn their nose up at food. Flora's even eaten a piece of ginger that I accidentally knocked to the ground when I was cooking, and then looked up @ me for more. She'll eat ANYTHING.


LOL - so true for most goldens  I think Towhee never had 'people food' at her original owners or at Barb's when she was returned. She just had not a clue that food wasn't hard, crunchy and measured out of a bag, then she comes to my house and is given raw meat & veggies? The meat she got but the end of a carrot was beyond her for a few days LOL

Now she's game for anything other than chicken ....


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## Lilliam (Apr 28, 2010)

On special occasions like holidays I cube up an eye of round roast and mix it raw with liver, canned green beans, wax beans and diced carrots. So they get their special meal while we have our holiday dinner! That's only Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
They're very happy afterwards!
I sometimes give them a can of green beans as a treat, mixed with their Evo.


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## Finn's Fan (Dec 22, 2007)

Cody got steamed, then chopped up, veggies every day of his life. I steamed and chopped because of the cellulose business; he loved them!


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## Wendy427 (Apr 4, 2009)

Enzos_Mom said:


> Enzo had a frozen carrot tonight since he lost a tooth and is especially mouthy. In case you were thinking of giving your dog a whole carrot to chew on, beware of what your living room may look like after! lol


LOL this is SO true! Lacey LOVES raw carrots...and cauliflower and broccoli ....and frozen blueberries! I don't give her much of any of these, but the first time I dropped a blueberry on the floor, she nosed it around a bit, not too sure what it was, and finally ate it. But, I'd have to say that carrots are her fav raw veggie!


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## Wendy427 (Apr 4, 2009)

Oh, and I add a heaping tablespoon of the the canned, NO-SALT-ADDED, green beans to Lacey's dry food. She loves it.


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