Tips Of Feeding Your Dog

Before listing the diets, I want to give you first the answers to a few questions that are asked me most frequently on the subject of feeding in general. Most of them are applicable to all sizes and breeds of dogs and therefore should prove helpful to you either by themselves or in connection with the diets that follow:

1. Dogs usually wolf their food down without chewing. This is perfectly natural and nothing to worry about. Their teeth are made for tearing food and their stomachs take care of the rest. This habit probably dates back to the time when dogs traveled in packs; a dog had to eat fast to get his share.

2. Some dogs won't eat raw meat. Such dogs, I suppose, are the truly civilized ones. Cook the meat for them slightly, enough to take away the odor of blood and the reminder of barbaric days.

3. Some dogs won't eat ground meat but will eat it cubed, while still others like it in big pieces so that they can tear it apart.

4. Raw eggs disagree with some dogs. Try soft-boiled eggs in this case. If soft-boiled eggs don't agree with your dog, or if he doesn't like eggs, forget about them.

5. Expensive cuts of meat are not necessary. The cheaper cuts, as long as they are lean, are just as nourishing.

6. Heart, liver, and other organic foods agree with some dogs. Dogs in their wild state, I have read, used to kill an animal, and if times were particularly prosperous, eat only his insides and leave the rest of the carcass. I don't know what this proves today. I do know that organic food disagrees with many dogs, and if you find that it disagrees with your dog, don't give it to him.

7. Prepared foods are all right occasionally, but before you use any of them, consult your veterinarian about types and brands.

8. Milk does not cause worms.

9. Meat does not cause viciousness.

10. Some dogs won't drink water. This is nothing to worry about. It may be that they're getting all the moisture they need from their food and milk or from a source unknown to you-the toilet bowl, for instance. There is a popular belief that a block of sulphur placed in the drinking water is (a) a water purifier, (b) a blood purifier, (c) a worm exterminator, (d) a tonic and I don't know what else-the list is so long. This is a lot of foolishness. A block of sulphur is a fine dust collector and that's about all.

11. No dog should be allowed within a mile of chicken bones, fish bones, or other small bones.

12. The following foods, I have found, do not generally agree with dogs: pork, potatoes, fresh bread, cake, candy, cabbage, turnips, spaghetti, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, beets, lima beans, bananas, and cheese (excepting cottage cheese). And I would sternly like to add: cocktails, cocktail canapes and sausages, salted nuts, and such things that people in expansive moods too often feel that they must share with the dog. The festive board is not for dogs.

13. The following foods, I have found, do agree generally with dogs: beef, lamb or mutton, fish, carrots, spinach, string beans, asparagus, boiled onions, broccoli, lettuce, celery; fruits such as oranges, pears, apples.

14. If your dog won't eat at his regular mealtime, take his dish away and wait until his next mealtime. Don't try to tempt him an hour or so after his regular mealtime.

15. Different breeds do not require different kinds of food. A Mexican hairless eats the same kind of food that a Scotty eats, and a Scotty eats the same as a great Dane. Only the amounts vary, and big dogs quite often need more "filler" foods-that is, foods other than meat.

16. If cod-liver oil upsets your dog, try viosterol. Give smaller quantities of viosterol than those prescribed for cod-liver oil. Give very small doses of either one in hot weather.