Food For Thought?
I don’t know about you, but when Thanksgiving week comes around food is at the forefront of my thoughts. I love potatoes, corn, ham, pie, bread, yams, bread, cranberries, gravy, stuffing (which is bread) and also, BREAD! I’m ambivalent about turkey but I’ll snag a wing if it’s available.
When it comes to the holidays, it’s all about sharing a meal and precious time with those you love, and who do we love more than our pets? Uh, no one, obviously…
But in truth, sharing may not actually be caring when it comes to holiday food for our pets. Most of the things we choose to eat on the holidays are actually pretty unhealthy, and what’s unhealthy for us tends to be especially unhealthy for them. So what is actually safe to share with our pets? Here are my recommendations:
Thanksgiving Harvest Foods Safe For Pets
- Turkey and ham- if it’s not prepared with onion powder, it’s going to be safe to give a few bites of raw or roasted turkey or ham to the fur babies. Unfortunately, most Thanksgiving turkeys and hams have been soaked in a brine to enhance flavor, and while that salt load isn’t ideal for us or them, it certainly won’t harm them especially if only a few tidbits are given.
- Turkey necks and giblets- stuffed inside that turkey are the parts that so many people simply throw away- make sure you snag it! The neck is an excellent raw meaty bone, and a staple in my house. The giblets are usually heart, gizzards and liver, sometimes kidney. These organs are packed full of vitamins and minerals and powerhouse snacks for your pets. If you’ve never fed them before then Thanksgiving night is NOT the night to throw them all in a plate and walk away. Organs, while delicious and nutritious, can cause diarrhea if your pet isn’t used to consuming them. Save them, freeze them, or chop them and put them into little freezer molds to pull out and give as treats throughout the next week if you want. Otherwise you might find your holiday ends with you cleaning up the worst kind of chocolate pudding…
- Sweet potatoes- these are fine after you’ve boiled them but before you add the salt, butter and other seasonings to them. Sweet potatoes, which starchy, are full of magnesium and potassium and a tasty treat in moderation.
- Cranberries- if you’re cooking whole fresh cranberries on the stove, you can smash a few and give them as a tart and tasty treat. These bright red berries are high in antioxidants and even have some iodine in them! But once you mix them with sugar, they should be avoided.
- Some of the stuffing- the plant portions of the stuffing are pretty safe, specifically the celery, carrots, garlic and apples. You want to avoid the onion (don’t panic if your pet eats a sliver of onion, they’re actually only dangerous in large amounts), but otherwise a few bites of these crunchy veggies as you chop them to mix into the stuffing are really healthy!
- Pumpkin minus the pie- you know what I’m going to say here. Raw pumpkin before it becomes a delicious pie packed full of sugar is fine. Once you mix it all up, no no no.
- Corn- off the cob makes me happy. Even if you’ve already added some butter and salt it’s still fine. But please avoid corn on the cob for dogs, and dispose of your cobs safely. These are undigestible and can cause choking immediately or an obstruction in the GI tract later.
- Green beans- I’m actually not a big fan of legumes for dogs because they have a somewhat higher glycemic index, so I never include them in my preps. However if you’ve having some for dinner you can sneak a few to your fluff without it being an issue.
Thanksgiving Harvest Foods To Avoid For Pets
- Onions- in general, avoid these. In large amounts they can cause anemia, so while a tiny piece or two isn’t cause for alarm, don’t leave the whole onion out for your dog to steal off the table when your back is turned.
- Cooked bones- if you want to save those turkey or ham bones for another use, put them in the fridge or freezer and use them to make bone broth or stock at a later date. Never EVER feed cooked bones to pets, as they become brittle and can splinter.
- Grapes- it seems like holiday charcuterie boards are a big hit right now, and grapes tend to feature on them. These guys are no good for our pets, so either keep them off your board and elect to use berries instead, or keep them out of reach completely.
- Pies, especially chocolate- these guys are not nice for our dogs and cats. They don’t need sugar no matter how they bat those puppy dog eyes at you. You have plenty of healthy options you can offer them instead, so reach for one of those when they look sad while you’re mixing the sugar into your pie. Be especially careful that they don’t get their jaws on any chocolate pie because chocolate is truly toxic for our pets, even in small amounts depending on how concentrated the chocolate is.
- Bread- ugh, my favorite! But not something our fur babies need. Maybe one teeny tiny bite of sourdough (don’t tell on me lol), but absolutely no rolls and no white bread!
- Canned cranberry sauce- first of all, if you’re one of the people who eat the canned pink goo instead of freshly cooked cranberry sauce then I’m already questioning you…. 😉 But in all seriousness, these usually have sugar and may have preservatives so don’t share.
There you have it, plenty of healthy options to choose from for your holiday. Make sure you only say yes to the yummy stuff and no to the naughty stuff!
Anxiety/Overstimulation
When I go to a party, the first thing I do is find the dog or cat and then put myself on the ground to hang out with them. Don’t be offended if you invite me over and I say hi to your fur kid before I say hi to you!
Not all dogs and cats want this though, and we need to pay attention to their cues and tells to determine if they’re getting overwhelmed from the commotion. All the sights, smells, sounds, unfamiliar faces and stimulation can really provoke anxiety in our pets. So what can we do?
Remove them from the situation.
Be sure to have a safe space for them in your house away from the main gathering. Perhaps in your room, or an area where your scent is present so it can comfort them, like an office where you frequently work. If they have a crate that they consider their haven, put that in the room you plan to place them in so they can choose to go in it if they want. Maybe place a blanket or shirt that smells like you in with them.
What we don’t want to do is put them in an area that isn’t going to comfort them or that they aren’t used to. For example, maybe the only place that you think won’t get traffic is the laundry room, so you put kitty in there with the litter box and a bowl of water and figure they’ll be ok for a few hours. This can actually be really stressful for them. Laundry rooms often smell strongly of soaps and dryer sheets, which are quite unhealthy due to the artificial fragrances and chemicals imbued in them. These smells can be overpowering when locked in a small room. In addition, if you have laundry running that loud and random thumping can be really stressful for kitties. So be sure you aren’t just choosing a spot for convenience- make sure it’s one that you know will make them feel safe.
Provide calming supplements.
I’m a big fan of calming supplements for our fluff butts. I use CALM full spectrum hemp extract from CBD Dog Health. This is my favorite company by leaps and bounds. Their products are unparalleled with their organic growing practices, double extraction methods, and high standards and transparence. Remember that you’re always looking for organic, for a COA, and for a full spectrum product. A broad spectrum or an isolate aren’t going to give you the same results.
CBD Dog Health also has two edible options! Nina’s Edibles are a meat based CBD treat, and Blanche’s Edibles are a plant based CBD treat. I will use one of these in combination with the calm tincture.
When planning on using a calming tincture, you really want to build up the dose over a few days or weeks so it can reach a steady state in your pet’s system. It’s much more effective that way, and then you can give an additional dose if needed for acute calming needs. It’s also most effective if you drop it directly into the mouth along the gums, rather than adding it to food. The treats however can be given day of and eaten as a snack, and the amount recommended is on the bag.
Poisonous Plants
This is probably one of the biggest concerns for our cats and dogs. There are many plants that are very toxic to our pets, and those plants tend to make their way into the house on the holidays.
Things like tiny pumpkins or gourds aren’t a problem, even if your dog or cat managed to munch on them, they aren’t actually toxic. At the worse, you might see some constipation or GI upset. Flowers are the bigger problem here.
Some of the most common flowers people use to decorate for the Harvest time are marigolds, sunflowers, roses, lilies and chrysanthemums (mums). Of these, marigolds are slightly toxic, and lilies and mums are extremely poisonous, especially for cats.
Please consider either keeping toxic plants out of the house, out of reach, or out of the rooms your pets have access to. Some of these flowers can cause kidney or liver failure in hours and it truly can be tragic.
Decorations
Lastly, be cautious what you choose to decorate with. Cats are notorious for putting things in their mouth that don’t belong there. Holiday decorations tend to have dangly pieces, crunchy or crinkly pieces, or have artificial smells that entice investigation.
When decorations end up in our pet’s mouths and stomachs, we end up in the emergency vet office. Ropes and plastic pieces are great at causing obstructions. Move things away from cat level or ensure they aren’t able to be consumed, either from being bitten off or already being small and mobile.
This is a different perspective that many of us don’t consider, but another super common decoration during the holidays are candles. Sadly, those pungent odors are actually not good for our health. Most artificial fragrances are endocrine disruptors and can impact the thyroid and adrenal glands with long term exposure. That means us and our pets, but it’s especially impactful for them because they’re smaller, and they can’t leave or wash the residue off themselves like we can. Instead, they walk on the ground where everything settles, then lick themselves and ingest it.
A healthier alternative are animal safe essential oils and organic natural herbs or spices. There are several companies who have pet safe EOs, and my favorite is animalEO where you can find EOs for cleaning, bathing and sprucing up the smell of your home. If you elect to use herbs and spices to make you home smell like the holidays, you can mix it up and be creative!
Here is an easy recipe you can use at any time of year, but seems to go over especially well for the holidays.
Ingrediets:
- Large pot for the stovetop
- Several cinnamon sticks
- Handful of cloves
- Sprinkle of anise or allspice
- Several oranges, sliced
- Several apples, sliced
- Knuckle of ginger, sliced
Instructions:
- Place pot on the stove and place all ingredients inside
- Fill pot about 3/4 full of filtered water
- Bring the water to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer at lowest setting
- Continue to allow to simmer on the stove throughout the night, checking to ensure the water does not drop too low and allow the ingredients to stick to the bottom and burn
- Add extra water if you want to keep the simmer going longer
- Discard ingredients when finished
That’s it! Hug your friends, hug your family, and hug your dog and cat (but tell them that one is from me!). I hope everyone has a happy, safe, and super fantastic holiday.
