Mixing human food with pup food

[WalshyPup]

Hi all - I'm new to the forum.. we adopted our little girl Luna exactly 1 month ago and she will be turning 4 months old tomorrow! She is doing GREAT - is crate trained, dare I say potty trained (its been over a week since her last accident), comes, sits, lays down and turns around on command for treats of course. My question though is we are feeding her a mix of Sunday's for dogs and chicken FROMM pup food (Pink bag). I make my own beef or chicken broth with bones, carrots and celery (barely any salt or pepper)., but we always mix her food with shredded plain boiled or roasted chicken, or pan cooked plain meats (unsalted), like steak or pork or fish or whatever the family is eating. And mix in some nutrition like steamed sweet potatoes or cucumbers or even a dash of cheese. Is this a problem? I know mini schnauzers have high lipids in their blood, but she definitely exercises A LOT. When I asked the vet, she said not to only because it makes them picky if we ever decide not to cook for them anymore, but our girl is like one of my kids and we have no issue jazzing up her food with some of ours each meal. She eats 3 times a day. Thoughts?

[Dawnspell]

Hi and Welcome.

If you think of those extra toppers as treats then so long as it makes up no more than 10% of her daily food then its fine. Its if added food and treats goes over 10% that you could upset the nutritional balance of what you are feeding.

Pups quite often get picky around teething time and into adolescence. To be honest I'd avoid adding the meat and cheese as these are normally the foods that you keep scarce as high value for training. If shes already getting high value for doing nothing you're removing the value for its use in training. Again this becomes more relevant during adolescence, pups will work for dust and attention.

[WalshyPup]

Thanks for your reply… I was worried I was actually causing harm to her health as one breeder when we were researching said absolutely no table or human food. But dog food is made of actual food so I never understood it. Those who feed raw and home cooked I assume do in place of kibble or dog food, so I thought it was ok. But I understand your point about treats. So far we reserve chicken and beef jerkys as high value treats but honestly was hoping we were ok to mix human food with their dog food. I just feel guilty when we sprinkle cheese or give a splash of cottage cheese with breakfast since those are higher fat content

[zeta1454]

There is no need to worry about giving ‘human’ food to your puppy. The least processed food is far better in fact as the nutrients are more likely to be easily digested and are naturally present in lightly cooked or raw meals. It is important to be aware of high fat foods with mini schnauzers and not to use too many high value foods on regular meals but other than that the only issue is potentially the balance of nutrients if you are mixing artificially enhanced kibble with regular meat /veg. The 10% ‘rule’ is a guide to how much of ‘extra’ items can be given without necessarily making an impact on the nutritional balance of a prepared dog food. Having said that, how many people work out the nutritional balance of their own meals every day?

It is, as you say, quite possible to feed a dog with raw or home cooked food only and they can do very well on it. There are no health issues as such with these diets as long as they provide the range of nutrients needed for a dog and most of these will be readily available in a highly digestible form in low or unprocessed meat (muscle meat, offal, bone (raw), organ meat etc). A mixture of different meat sources and fish are best to provide a range of different vitamins and minerals as well as protein. Some vegetables can also be added either lightly cooked or blended raw with a minimum of carbohydrate so mostly leafy green veg. It might be worth considering going to a fully home cooked diet if you enjoy providing these but, if you prefer just to add some meat or broth to kibble it shouldn’t do any harm to Luna’s health as long as her overall diet remains varied and good quality.

[WalshyPup]

There is no need to worry about giving ‘human’ food to your puppy. The least processed food is far better in fact as the nutrients are more likely to be easily digested and are naturally present in lightly cooked or raw meals. It is important to be aware of high fat foods with mini schnauzers and not to use too many high value foods on regular meals but other than that the only issue is potentially the balance of nutrients if you are mixing artificially enhanced kibble with regular meat /veg. The 10% ‘rule’ is a guide to how much of ‘extra’ items can be given without necessarily making an impact on the nutritional balance of a prepared dog food. Having said that, how many people work out the nutritional balance of their own meals every day?

It is, as you say, quite possible to feed a dog with raw or home cooked food only and they can do very well on it. There are no health issues as such with these diets as long as they provide the range of nutrients needed for a dog and most of these will be readily available in a highly digestible form in low or unprocessed meat (muscle meat, offal, bone (raw), organ meat etc). A mixture of different meat sources and fish are best to provide a range of different vitamins and minerals as well as protein. Some vegetables can also be added either lightly cooked or blended raw with a minimum of carbohydrate so mostly leafy green veg. It might be worth considering going to a fully home cooked diet if you enjoy providing these but, if you prefer just to add some meat or broth to kibble it shouldn’t do any harm to Luna’s health as long as her overall diet remains varied and good quality.

Thank you, thank you! I really am considering home cooking, I just of course have to weigh the long term dedication to it haha. If I start I know I’ll have to most likely do that forever and I truly do need guidance about the balance of nutrients. Can someone point me to a thread that specifies the ratios please?

[zeta1454]

I cannot advise you re home cooked food specifically as I have been raw feeding our dogs for 15 years now and there are differences in terms of this e.g. raw ground bone can be included as a calcium source which is vital for dogs and may be more difficult to include in a cooked diet as you could not use cooked bones.

There is a link here with some guidance to necessary nutrients and which foods contain these:

https://www.dogster.com/dog-food/dog-nu ... -dogs-need

Here in the U.K. there are many raw food for dogs companies as well as some that supply cooked meals for dogs rather than highly processed kibble and these are designed to meet the requirements of a balanced diet. I use raw food for dogs companies for our dogs as it is easier with our 14 dogs to have the meals ready prepared (frozen) especially as I am not a meat eater myself. Many people who feed their dogs only on raw or home cooked food do add some supplements to ensure the diet contains everything needed. You might find that there are Facebook or similar social media groups of people who feed their dogs home cooked food and they might be helpful to you.

The Sundays food you mention above looks to be less processed than many commercial dog foods and using better ingredients but home cooked and raw meals do give a more appetising diet for a dog and are generally better tolerated and lead to better overall health than the processed foods.