Foods to avoid feeding your pet

Your dog or cat may enjoy the snack, a number of food items are not meant for canine or feline consumption. Here are five foods you should make sure your pet always avoids:

• Chocolates. Chocolate products contain methylxanthines, which include caffeine and theobromine. Depending on the type and amount of chocolate ingested, your cat or dog may be at risk for serious complications.
• Grapes and raisins. Although we don’t know why it happens, eating grapes or raisins can cause kidney failure in dogs.
• Alcohol. Dogs and cats are very sensitive to alcohol; even small amounts can cause coma and death.
• Avoid adding salt to your dog’s food; they don’t have taste buds developed for salty food, so this little flavour-addition is lost on them.
• Avoid onions, garlic and stock powders.
• If you aren’t sure if the diet your dog is eating is balanced, consider a multivitamin.
• Many dogs do not tolerate high-fat diets and in some cases the resulting pancreatitis can be painful, costly and messy for everyone.
• Dogs are neither wolves nor humans. They need food suitable for dogs.