Forbidden Food: Salt

As for humans, salt, in excess, is not healthy. Salty foods can put our friends in danger.

Unlike humans the dog’s body does not process the salt and this can easily trigger a series of negative serious consequences.

The salt, in fact, it absorbs water in the body and that is why a dog that has ingested it, will be extremely thirsty.
You will notice that your furry friend will drink more water than usual in an attempt to calm the thirst and this leads him to urinate more. The body will swell due to the stress to which the circulatory system and kidneys are subjected in order to try to process the excess of sodium.

The symptoms of intoxication by sodium are diarrhea, vomit and kidney failure which may also lead to coma and death.

Obviously if you think your dog shows similar symptoms after ingesting too much salt, take him to your vet immediately.

The lower salt consumption contributes to decrease the volume of blood pressure and the work the heart would perform better. So, if your dog is suffering from a cardiovascular disease, salt is extremely banned.

Sodium is an important element, but you have to take into consideration that it is already present in many foods. The amount naturally ingested through foods (unsalted) is sufficient and appropriate to fulfill our dogs needs.
When you cook for them, forget about the salt! Do not ever add it to pasta, rice, or as a condiment. Never.
If you have cooked the pasta and you want to use a bit for them, wash it very well to remove all traces of salt.

Do not give them leftovers from your dishes because they are seasoned and, therefore, far from being a gift .
They do not know that salt is harmful and they will look at us with pleading sweet eyes, but we know that it is also what babies do when they want to eat the whole packet of muffins, right?
Say no it is for their own good .

Vegan Lasagna

Ingredients:

• Aubergine
• Courgette
• Rice Mozzarella
• Red Pepper
• Olive Oil

Guarnish:

• Basil

Preparation:

• Clean the aubergine removing the skin.
• Cut it into thin rectangular slices.
• Wash the courgette and cut the edges.  Repeat the previous step cutting it into thin rectangular slices.
• Now it is the turn of the rice mozzarella: same shape and size.
• Cut two flowers of red pepper.
• Grill all the veggies. The aubergine slices have to be very well done because raw is toxic for dogs.
• Serve alternating layers of aubergine, courgette and rice mozzarella.
• Add a drizzle of olive oil.
• Guarnish with basil and the red pepper flowers.
• Now you can serve it!

Tips: at serving you can cut it into pieces for an easier canine approach. Furthermore, you can keep the leftover veggies in the fridge for an upcoming doggy meal. If you wish, you can prepare this lasagna for you as well, but remember to add salt only to your portion. Salt is toxic for dogs.

Mushrooms & Tofu

 

Ingredients:

• Pasta
• Mushrooms
• Tofu
• Olive oil

Preparation:

• Boil the water and, when it is well cooked, wash it well.
• Wash the mushrooms and pour them in a pan.
• When pasta is ready, drain and mix it with the mushrooms.
• Cut a couple of slices of tofu into cubes and add them.
• Season with a drizzle of olive oil and give a nice browned!
• Serve, let it cool and serve!

READY IN 10 MINUTES!

 

 

Forbidden Food: Raw Potatoes, Leaves and Sprouts

Potato is part of Solinacee.They contain a substance called Solanine that dogs do not metabolize and can cause serious problems. If ingested in high dose, in fact, it can lead to death.

The solanine is located in the RAW potato, in LEAVES , in SHOOTS and the area below.

But do not panic: cooking, fortunately, neutralize the alkaloid!
It should, therefore be washed well, peeled and all the shoots must be removed before cooking.
Boiled potato, in fact, is particularly healthy and appreciated by our furry friends and is especially recommended for dogs with food intolerances and allergies.
If cultivated, keep your friends away from the plant.

For us too solanine is harmful. If we eat raw potatoes and feel a bitter taste it is because our body warns us of the high concentration of solanine. Our bodies immediately refuse it. Fortunately, our body is full of sensors.

Dispelling thus the dismissive phrase ‘the potato dogs no’.
Cooked potatos is an excellent food!

Forbidden Food: Avocado

Even if the guacamole is delicious, never give Avocado to your furry friends.

In fact, it contains a substance called Persin which is toxic to the dog, while it is not for the human being, except for allergies.

The Persin is in the fruit, leaves, seeds and bark so beware! If a Avocado plant is growing in your garden or near the house, keep your dog away.

When you have avocados at home, keep them up high or out of reach of hairy tenants.

Vegan Dogs: Common Doubts

a) Is the dog carnivorous or omnivorous?

The dog was originally fed exclusively on flesh, as today its wild relatives still continue to do so.
In assessing a situation, however, we must always take that into account otherwise you may also give the human being the club.

After 60,000 years of adjusting to life with the man and share his varied food, the dog’s diet has become omnivorous.
From the teeth, which is also evolved and adapted to the new lifestyle ‘pet’, and the digestive tract is clear that the dog is an omnivore and not a pure carnivore. The dog, in fact, derives its nutrients not only from meat, but also from all other foods.

The dog can therefore be fed according to a vegan or vegetarian diet without suffering from any physical or mental problem. In this case we can establish an important similarity between the human and the dog: both can live without meat but not without protein and that this can cause, both assume that, for example, from legumes.

There is always a great anxiety by proteins that afflicts the detractors of the vegan diet, and it is this point that leaks a general ignorance on the subject. What the dog can be drawn from animal protein are meat and taurine . This amino acid is essential for our furry friends, but the important thing is that they can produce thanks to vitamin B, the carnitine and methionine. All three are found mostly in legumes, in the germ wheat and partly in rice. here an article of PETA (among many others) that confirms this. It ‘s true that we read that some dogs may need an integration of taurine and L-carnitine, but dogs are predisposed to a heart disease problem. here article that delves into the issue.

b) They can not decide, we force them to a diet devoid of corpses?

No, the rule is the world’s oldest, according to which the parents decide for their children, for their own good. We make a decision for our dogs as we choose for our fellow men, both are members of the family. Our dogs have the right to live as long as chickens, cows, pigs, tuna and all other animals. have the right to health and a healthy diet.

c) Since the dog is an omnivorous animal, vegan or vegetarian diet for a dog is an unnatural diet?

No. The dogs as well as humans are omnivores and can follow a balanced vegetarian or vegan diet without any problem. Otherwise, friends, we would be dead two decades ago when we embraced this lifestyle!

Those who think that vegetarian or vegan diet is not natural, do you really think instead it is ‘natural’ feeding off canned and dry food made with meat from animals that ever, “in kind” could have been feeding? The wild dogs do not eat certain cows, or tuna for example.
Canned and dry food exist in nature perhaps? No! It’s all industrial food full of addictive drugs that enslave the animal. They are produced with slaughter waste “unfit for human consumption”, full of antibiotics, hormones, drugs, tumors, harmful to humans and livestock. The prohibitions of marketing for human foods do not apply to those of companion animals. Analyzes have documented that contain any type of waste from the slaughter room floor: meat of animals already dead, dying and sick. They also contain scraps of restaurants with high concentration of dangerous free radicals, heavy metals, dangerous preservatives and hormones. In addition, the possible words “plant derived” may even contain coal!
In short, we challenge anyone to eat the food your dog’s food industry thinks is fit and to share the meal with him!
here an article to shed some light.

The key point is not the type of power, but its nutritional balance.
The key thing is to nourish and nurture our furry friends in a healthy, balanced and appetizing way.

So friends, following an old saying: WE ARE WHAT WE EAT!

Forbidden Food: Green Tomatoes, Leaves and Sprouts

We often hear that the tomato is bad for our dogs, but it is appropriate to look better into what and why it is harmful to them.

The green part of the tomato  is toxic to dogs, the one with which it is attached to the plant, leaves, sprouts and green tomatoes. They contain a toxic substance called Solanine that dogs, unlike humans, can not metabolize.

The ingestion of large amount of Solanine can cause significant gastrointestinal problems and damage the central nervous system. It can also cause tachycardia, tremors, anxiety and restlessness. If taken in very high doses it can even be deadly.

However, the part of the plant used for human consumption, that is the ripe tomato, is not toxic.

The level of toxicity of these plants depends mainly on the composition of the soil, the temperature and the humidity degree in which they are grown.

In tomatoes Solanine content is inversely proportional to the degree of ripeness: the more they are mature, the less they contain Solanine. Cooking helps to inactivate any residual of the alkaloid.

If you want to use the tomatoes you can do it but choosing them with great care. It is better to use it rarely because it’s a little sour food so not really digestible. The thing is very simple: choose carefully the tomatoes and clean them from leaves, buds and green parts.

Sometimes we give our furry friends small pieces of ripe cooked tomato mixed with other vegetables cooked in a pan just to give that little bit of taste. The tomato sauces you can buy in the shop are very harmful because during the processing they macerate ripe and unripe tomatoes with leaves and sprouts.

So if you want to use tomato sauce to season a meal, choose a very ripe tomato, clean it well, remove the peel and chop. Do not, however, give it raw, nor often.

Eat, When?

The dogs omnivores eat usually once a day while for dogs Veg is highly recommended to two meals a day: breakfast and dinner, plus a snack.

By following this daily rhythm our friends have never had any health problems.
From a third to half daily intake of food must be made up of proteins by shuffling the rest of the ingredients. Do not give them food only protein (legumes only, only soy …), the combination of elements is important for a balanced diet. As for snacks, fruit or raw vegetables such as carrot, cucumber, zucchini, are excellent. If not for sale there are also vegan biscuits or bones.

Clarification:

For dogs we recommend that you give two veg meals, one smaller than the other, per day. Do not double the dose of food during the transition from omnivore to veg.