Not exactly the obligatory pet writer Thanksgiving food warning you might have been expecting

One of the biggest mistakes people make all year is feeding their pets such a freakishly restricted diet of the same endless processed food that the pets become violently ill from eating healthful, natural food like cooked turkey.

The remedy is not to refrain from giving your dog "people food" at Thanksgiving, it's to give up the junk food diet entirely and give them FOOD all year round.

Because there is no such thing as people food; there is just good, fresh, wholesome food and processed convenience food.

In case you're not sure what I mean, this is good, fresh, wholesome food:

This is also good, fresh, wholesome food:

This is a video of dogs eating food:

 

And this is processed convenience food, a mono-diet of which can render your pet unable to eat real food without digestive distress, a condition many veterinarians will blame on the real food:

Comments

[Mary Doane]

Agreed! Thank you, Christie, as usual. My 4 dogs are in the back yard, as we speak, "shaking" out a piece of smelly, fresh, raw, green tripe. Will be followed shortly by a raw bone, each... from our local slaughter house. Most inexpensive meals on the planet.

[Ps]

It's not the turkey that's the problem. It's the chocolate, pie, and stuffing - not to mention the turkey bones, ham bones, and other cooked bones that folks who say they subscribe to the BARF diet (but haven't bothered to actually read it) insist on giving to their pets on Thanksgiving. Take it from a vet's wife - if you cooked the bone, do NOT give it to your dog.

[Cheryl]

Seamus the wee fiend has been on raw since he was a year old. He does get some cooked meat and has never had a problem with Thanksgiving Turkey - for that matter none of my dogs has ever had a problem with it. They all lived to 17 and Seamus hit 9 this year. I think the fact that we always gave them table food saved them from the kibble. Seamus is the first to get a no kibble diet and has been really healthy.

[tiffany murphy]

My dogs get their own thanksgiving turkey - raw and whole!
So true about vets blaming the real food. I always say if you ate nothing but mac and cheese all your life, a good steak and veggie dinner would make you sick, but it isn't the food that's bad!

[Anna Abney]

Mine don't just get turkey at Thanksgiving, they get it all year, along with chicken, venison, pork, beef, goat, & whatever other fresh, raw meats & organs I can find for them. They also get whole raw eggs, yogurt, goat milk, & fish. Been feeding this way for 12 years. Great article! 8-)

[C.L.H.]

Green beans are food. Green bean casserole is "people food". We all do better with FOOD.