7 Dog-Friendly Thanksgiving Foods

Happy Thanksgiving from our team at Wags to Wiskers Pet Supplies to your family and fur family at home! We hope you have a wonderful day eating whatever your traditions decree. Thanksgiving is a great time of year - the house smells great, the family is home, lots of quality bonding time and great memories made. We don’t want to spoil these beautiful moments with an emergency because you fed your dog something they shouldn’t eat, so we put together a list of some foods that will allow Buddy to join in on the Thanksgiving feasting for our southeast Michigan customers.

Certain Thanksgiving foods are safe and even healthy for dogs!

However, only the pure, raw, unseasoned forms of these foods are acceptable to give to pets. These Thanksgiving foods are dog-friendly, but they should still be served only in moderation.

Sweet Potatoes

These are a household favorite of mine - we make little sweet potato stackers in which they’re thinly sliced, stacked on each other, and drenched in oil and butter and cheese. They are delicious. However, we’re not writing about human foods here. Sweet potatoes are a superfood and we sell them from local southeast Michigan distributors at Wags to Wiskers. Orange sweet potatoes are packed with beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, potassium, fiber, and many other much-needed nutrients. Feel free to feed your pup raw or dried pieces of sweet potato, not the canned mix.

Apples

The thought of sweet, cinnamony apple pie makes our stomach rumble, and with a dog’s super sensitive nose it’s sure to get the drool flowing liberally. Apples are fine for a dog to eat, again in moderation, but don’t give them the sweetened, sugary, flavored apples. We’ve seen some pups eat apples in pretty funny ways, trying to peel the skin off as if it’s a toy, or carrying it around like a tennis ball. To avoid this, you can always cut the apples into bite-sized chunks and even freeze them!

Bread

Yummmm!! Lot's of carbs, very low nutritional value… so, perfect for Thanksgiving right? Be careful to never give your dog raw dough, as the yeast will rise in the heat of a dog’s stomach and can be incredibly dangerous! However, our team at Wags to Wiskers know that some scraps of your bread rolls can help complete your dog-friendly Thanksgiving day meal.

Turkey

Wags to Wiskers Thanksgiving

This is, figuratively, the bread-and-butter of almost every Thanksgiving. Cooked turkey is safe for both cats and dogs to eat, but again we must stress that it should be unseasoned and skinned. The dogs that live with our Wags to Wiskers team often get the giblets (small bundle of parts inside the turkey cavity like the gizzard, heart, and liver) along with some dry food for dinner. Be wary of giving your dog turkey bones, they are rather brittle and the splinters can cause major intestinal damage. Furthermore, be careful to not give your pup turkey skin as it’s rich flavor and fattiness can cause pancreatitis in dogs.

Green Beans

Green bean casserole is a delicious piece of your Thanksgiving meal and while we are 100% certain your dog would prefer their green beans mixed with delicious mushrooms, onions, and whatever else would make it in there, don’t give in! High in fiber and vitamins C and K, toss your pup a handful of green beans before you add them to the casserole, and remember that mushrooms and onions are toxic to dogs.

Pumpkin

Thanksgiving is the ideal time of year for this special treat and it’s perfect for both pets and humans! Our team at Wags to Wiskers requests that if any of our southeast Michigan pet owners do feed pumpkin to their pups, remember to avoid sugar and spices and to always go with the fresh, pure pumpkin and not canned pumpkin filling. We also sell pumpkin-flavored wet food mixes that are big hits among our Ann Arbor and Chelsea customers!

Carrots

Last but not least, think about adding raw carrots to your pup’s meal this Thanksgiving! High in antioxidants, beta-carotene, vitamins and fiber, these roots pack a healthy punch for cute puppers. The crunchiness of a raw carrot is unmatched in satisfaction, but if you must cook them for Lucky (maybe your senior dog is losing his teeth) then make sure they’re unseasoned!

So there you have it!

Seven dog-friendly Thanksgiving foods that you can feel safe and secure about letting Theo steal this Thanksgiving day. We want to wish our Ann Arbor and Chelsea customers a very wonderful Thanksgiving from the team that keeps them and their fur family in mind at Wags to Wiskers Pet Supplies.