Dont forget brand name pet food with corn, maize, meat by products, beets etc....unhealthy food can be in packaged pet food.

Thanks for this post! I have also heard mushrooms are bad for both cats and dogs?

"Raw/Undercooked Meat, Eggs and (raw)Bones" should not be on that list. I have been feeding my dogs a raw diet for over 10 years now, with only one problem, and that was a dog who was a 'gulper', and tried to swallow a too big chunk of a turkey neck. She horked it back up though, so really no problem, and after that I cut her food into smaller hunks. 2 dogs have since passed from old age, (14 1/2 and 15), and my 10 month old and 3 year old are doing great.

Raw/Undercooked Meat, Eggs and Bones -- absolutely has no place on the list above.

(Somebody forgot to tell canines in the wild to cook their meat and eggs before eating.)

;-)

Raw/Undercooked Meat, Eggs and Bones -- absolutely has no place on the list above.

I have fed my dog raw marrow bones and she loves it... with no adverse effects.....as a matter of fact cooked bones are much more harmful.

In addition to the ASPCA's clear bias against raw foods, I would also question their advice to avoid milk products. Cottage cheese and yogurt are an excellent diet supplement. I like Mazer's point about poor quality corn based kibbles too. That should be number one on ASPCA list of what NOT to feed your pets. The very concept of 'People Food' is part of the problem. It's all just food.

SOME pets may have lactose intolerance, but many do not, and for them milk is an excellent source of protein and calcium. None of my cats or dogs have ever suffered digestive disturbances due to dairy products.

I should have added, almost all of the other things on that list are definitely good to know, especially about raisins and grapes. Many, many people do not know how dangerous they are.

I believe that some milk products are great for cats! Sour cream and plain yogurt are healthy and my cats never have a problem with them...
Goat's milk is great for kittens - I buy condensed goat's milk and my adults and foster kittens enjoy it not diluted :)

I figured this post would stir the "pot", but not a boiling pot because then it wouldn't be raw, right? HA! It's meant to be a joke. Have some humor.

I know a lot of you are proponents of giving your animals raw meat and/or bones, and that is your prerogative. I know how the ASPCA feels, and I, along with my Vet who happens to also be a personal friend, just happen to agree with them. There are lots of great pet food recipes out there to make and feed your pets if you don't want to give them commercial dog food. Of course, this would entail more work than just throwing out some raw bones to your animals.

BTW, our pets are not wild animals and haven't been for many years. Pets' diets, just like humans' diets, have changed over the many years of evolution. So just because some of you still think of your animals can eat raw food, go ahead and feed them raw food, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the best food for your pets. Hey, maybe you can just throw them a whole side of beef just out of the slaughter house. If you have ever been in a slaughter house, you might not even want to eat meat.

Anyway, that is your prerogative. However, I happen to chose not to feed raw food to my pets because I do not think that is what my dogs and cats need. My dogs and cats sleep on the bed with me. They are more like children than livestock.

I find it amazing that some of you think you know more about it than veterinarians. Enough said. The information is there for those that decide to adhere to it. The rest of you, continue on doing as you please. I really don't care.

BTW, do you pay attention to the animal toxic plants list? You might want to consider it, but then again that is your decision.

For your information I have an english bulldog.....one of the most medically troublesome breeds. When my baby went to the vet recently he could not stop commenting on how healthy she was. Everything from her coat, to teeth were perfect.

Of course, this would entail more work than just throwing out some raw bones to your animals.

Wow. Although I don't find feeding my pets a balanced raw diet onerous, it certainly requires more thought than 'throwing some raw bones' and way more effort than serving up the same commercial food day after day. No one has denigrated anyone's choice to serve the same kibble 365 days a year. Please don't minimize the thought and effort that folks who choose a balanced raw diet put into feeding their dogs. It is your choice to feed kibble, and I hope you've at least read the labels on the kibble and are buying a good brand. I personally think my dogs do much better with variety in their meals and without preservatives and other elements of a manufactured extruded diet. I'm not against kibble, I simply don't choose it for my dogs. My dogs don't develop allergies or need dentals. There are some good commercial foods out there, but would YOU thrive on the same bowl of kibble every day of your life? How can that be healthy for any living thing? Vets are not experts on nutrition by the way. Much of what they do is combating the effects of poor nutrition.

"I find it amazing that some of you think you know more about it than veterinarians. Enough said."

here in my part of the world vets always tell you do not feed your dog cooked bones because it makes them brittle and they can splinter and get lodged in the gut. the advice here is raw bones are fine, but never cooked and make sure the bone is an appropriate size for the dog so they dont try and swallow it whole, so I guess it depends on which vets you ask.

"I find it amazing that some of you think you know more about it than veterinarians. Enough said."

When it comes to medical treatment for my animals, I would never for a moment think that I know more than my veterinarian. The information about toxins is also something that vets know more about than most people--good information.

However, I am in agreement with others that "Raw/Undercooked Meat, Eggs and Bones" has no place on this list. Those items are not toxins like the others, and the dangers listed are somewhat exaggerated in the accompanying description. Raw bones do not splinter like cooked bones do, and although un-chewed bones can still cause obstructions, it's a rare problem. Bacterial infections from the Salmonella and E. coli in raw meat is seldom a problem for dogs, as most dogs' digestive tracts can handle these bacteria well. It can be a problem for humans sharing the environment, especially very young or very old humans, or humans with a compromised immune system. This is to say that raw diets do carry some risk, but those who choose to feed their dogs raw are comfortable with that risk and often consider the long-term health risks of many commercial diets to be of greater concern.

Unfortunately, when it comes to canine nutrition, few veterinarians know substantially more than a pet owner who has spent time learning. Animal nutrition is a tiny part of the vet school curriculum, and canine nutrition is a tiny part of that. Few vets I've met have taken it upon themselves to learn more. I guarantee that I know more than my vet about appropriate nutrition for giant breed dogs (which isn't covered in vet school curricula at all). She knows this and has even referred other clients to me for assistance in choosing the right diet.

I have home cooked for my dogs and cat since the petfood contamination scandal 2 years ago. It is essential to add calcium to the diet, either powdered calcium carbonate or baked ground eggshells, to replace the bones they would consume as part of their natural diet.

Most domestic dogs have not adapted all that well to filler, eg corn, rice etc, and because I must add some filler for economic reasons, I also add digestive enzymes to their food. If I had only a small dog I would eliminate filler altogether, as I have from my cat's diet.

The fact is that domestic dogs would never have survived had they not been able to adapt to a diet that includes grains/fillers. That doesn't mean it's great for them; just that they can subsist on such a diet.

I have no opinion one way or the other about raw feeding, except that my cats have all been hunters and I think that the raw diet that they have consumed in addition to the food I have fed them may account in part for their longevity. (All but one lived into their 20s and the current cat is doing well in her late teens.)

Meat by-products in pet food is bad????? Meat by-products in our hot dogs isn't? Utter silliness. People are starving all over the world and would love to have our commercial dog food as their main course.

Sometimes I wonder what our priorities are.

I only intended this post to be helpful. I posted the information in good faith to try and help our pets. I was very surprised to see so many of you attack the post because you have differing ideas than the ASPCA, and I felt some of you were outright rude. When I feel attacked in such a manner, I will get rather sarcastic in my response which is not my normal manner.

I realize we all have our own opinions, but since I'm not a vet, I have to trust my vet to take care of my 5 dogs and 8 cats. And to date, after almost 50 years of raising pets, my vets have done pretty good for me.

Not too long ago, I lost 5 of my cats to old age, one was 20, and I lost my beloved Golden last September at the age of 15. I love my pets so much, and I know others do too, so I was just trying to help. I guess I was wrong.

Disagreeing with the ASPCA is not the same thing as an attack on you, ltcollins1949.

ASPCA began as the first animal welfare organization in this country, patterned after the RSPCA in Britain. After a century of improving the lot of animals, it sadly is morphing into an animal rights group like PETA. Animal rights groups are unconcerned with the care of domestic pets. In fact they are opposed to the concept of pet ownership. ASPCA is not a full-blown animal rights group yet but it is headed down that path.

Many lists of toxic foods began with qualifiers attached but have devolved into chain mail that has dropped the qualifiers. For instance one such original list stated that cows milk can cause digestive disturbances IN SOME CATS, and that salt was harmful IN MASSIVE QUANTITY. When these qualifiers were dropped the statements lose all validity.

Posting information about pet care is a good thing to do, but it would be irresponsible for others who spot flaws in this advice, or take issue with some of it, not to point them out. That is the purpose of a discussion group.

spedigrees said: ~Many lists of toxic foods began with qualifiers attached but have devolved into chain mail that has dropped the qualifiers. For instance one such original list stated that cows milk can cause digestive disturbances IN SOME CATS, and that salt was harmful IN MASSIVE QUANTITY. When these qualifiers were dropped the statements lose all validity.~

Thank you for pointing that out! There's so much being taken out of context on the web and in addition to the wrong info on raw diet, the same goes for avocados. One has to read the print carefully and understand that it's the peel, pit and leaves/bark that are toxic and not the meat of the fruit.
Some pets can have a reaction to certain foods so I'm not saying Avocado is safe for all animals, but it is a fruit that many owners feed to their dogs with no problems.
Avocado is also considered toxic for birds, but there are bird owners feeding it to their pets.

The list the OP posted is informative, but owners should research each food group to learn what makes a food toxic. Often it's the quantity that's ingested that makes a certain food toxic, not the food itself.

The site below has more info.........

Thanks for the list, ltcollins. I had no idea about sodium and just found out about xylitol a while back. They have a big warning at one of the local health food stores.

I have to agree about the misguided info on raw diets, however the other stuff seems accurate. I think you have to look at what's species-appropriate and a most likely scenario in the wild - that's where dairy sounds questionable, but if it works for your pet, more power to you.

You don't see many dogs and cats milking cows or goats. It 'works' for us (and many argue we shouldn't really have dairy either) because of a much longer history of genetic tolerance, I guess in dairy-heavy cultures, if you got IBS or other sorts of reactions from dairy, you weren't so likely to breed...

I firmly believe one of the reasons vets are so opposed to raw diets is the level of funding the pet food industry puts into vet training and resources etc. It would appear to be something of a conflict of interest, and it's documented in the below link. I should also point out that outside of North America, eg Australia, the BARF diet for dogs (raw food) is looked upon very favourably by many vets.

I think if you feed your pet garbage, then yes, it may make them sick. The commercial raw food I feed our dog, I would be (not gonna try it though) confident would be fit for humans (if you like ground up bone and organ meat with your chicken) because it's prepared hygienically.

Remember also dogs have a much shorted gi tract than us and can eat stuff that really would make us sick, it passes through dogs much more quickly.

I hate to admit we started our dog on kibble and didn't change til she developed some big gastric problems, I knew it wasn't the best thing for her, but it was cheap. I don't know if the Kirkland food was implicated in the melamine scandal, but I'm glad we changed - I don't think she would have survived on kibble anyway.

If non-cooked food really wigs you out, then your own home-cooked pet food is almost certainly better than commercial dry or wet food, especially the larger scale stuff. Some of those ingredients are just not species appropriate, and some are blaming the increase in carbohydrates in dogs' diets for the higher incidence of diabetes..

Avocados, though, I didn't know about. We did give ours some the other day. A dog in the wild would definitely eat fallen fruit, which was my reasoning. I don't see any prohibition on bananas, which seem to be one of her favourite things....

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/rawdogfood/index.html

The other thing I wanted to mention was the timeline. Commercial pet food has only been around for a few decades, probably at most 100 years, but I suspect most growth was after ww2.

In terms of 'research' not a terribly long time, and consider that much of the research (again see the link) is to work out what they can tolerate, rather than what's best for them. Much of what goes into commercial pet food is literally garbage.

Consider also the history of domestication of pets, again, not that long at all, and usually these semi-domesticated dogs and cats got cast-off people food. And for that matter we've been eating people food a lot longer than dogs and cats, so we have developed more of a tolerance. Again commercial pet food is relatively new and untested, and virtually unregulated.

I am personally surprised BSE (mad cow disease) hasn't swept through the pet population. Consider that humans do at times eat pet food by accident or design, and it seems apparent we really should regulate it.

Cats should have a diet of almost nothing but meat, but commercial foods have lots of other ingredients including cereals. Dogs are much closer to being omnivorous, but with far more restrictions than us (on the other hand we often feed our pets better than we do ourselves, as we make conscious choices to have those things we know are bad for us)

I'm still waiting for my (old) vet to explain to me how dogs can regularly lick their butts and eat each other's poop,
yet raw fresh food will make them sick ;)