Vegetables in the Diet

Great for the humans but dogs need them predigested.

Question:

My little terrier loves raw vegetables, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, okra, etc. and fruits-apples, oranges. Will eating these harm her? She eats this in addition to her dry food.

Dr. Nichol:

Fruits and vegetables for dogs: unnecessary if you are feeding a complete and balanced diet-which most are nowadays. In fact anything you add to a balanced diet is really just throwing it out of balance and thus lowering your dog’s plane of nutrition. And while dogs need the vitamins and nutrients in those healthy foods they have a different system of digestion.

Can we go back to the wild? The free roaming dog eats game-the whole beast: muscle, hair, intestines, organs, brains, and toenails. Inside those intestines is the food consumed by that other critter: vegetation. This vital source of nutrition is partially digested already, which is exactly the way the canine digestive system needs it to be. High quality complete and balanced dog foods supply these nutrients in a digestible form. The bottom line is that you can give fruits and veggies to your terrier but they’ll do her little if any good. I recommend feeding your dog, get ready, dog food.