Here’s Some Things NOT To Feed The Dog At Thanksgiving

I won't lie. If there's a fluffy, sweet, lovable dog face staring at me with those cute puppy eyes, I am pretty much helpless. I would happily dump my whole plate right down a dog's gullet if I could. And while there are a whole host of things that are totally safe to feed Fido from the table, here's a few things that you shouldn't, according to TopDogTips.com...

Turkey - Now there's two sides to this. If you've got good, clear white meat, no problem. But skip the skin. All the nice things that you seasoned it with like garlic, onion, and sage, can be really bad for your dog.

Stuffing and Gravy - For all the same reasons above with turkey skin... the herbs and spices can be bad for your dog. Even fatal. For instance, there's a chemical in onions that can damage a dog's red blood cells. Yikes!

Cranberry or Apple Sauce - Cranberries and apples alone can be pretty good for dogs, but when you look at the amount of high fructose corn syrup and sugar that there is in canned cranberry or apple sauce, you'll see why it's a bad idea for Spot.

Bread or Cookie Dough - The yeast in the bread dough will cause the dough to rise in their stomach, making them very uncomfortable, and with raw egg in cookie dough, you could be running the risk of salmonella.

Nuts And Fruit - Grapes can wreak all sorts of havoc on a dog's kidneys, and some kinds of nuts are just downright toxic to dogs. So why even try to figure out what is safe and what isn't. Just skip fruit and nuts altogether, just to be safe.

Pumpkin Pie - Pumpkin or even sweet potato is great for dogs raw or cooked plain. But when you add things like nutmeg and cinnamon to the mix, that's where it becomes harmful. Nutmeg can cause seizures, and cinnamon can cause low blood sugar and vomiting.

A couple others worth mentioning, but are pretty obvious are chocolate and alcohol. Both these things are around in abundance at the holidays, so it's always a good idea to make sure they aren't accessible to your dog. Chocolate is the #1 cause of food poisoning for dogs, and because of their size even the smallest amount of alcohol can have extremely dramatic effects.

Sure, a lot of this is common sense. And those of us that have been around for a while know a lot of these things. But there's a lot of new families out there, with new pets, all celebrating their first thanksgivings together. So it's always a good reminder. But most importantly, enjoy thanksgiving!