Older Animals Need Extra Special Care

When it comes to bringing a new puppy into the family, you want to make sure that you do everything right. After all, you're responsible for keeping your new puppy happy and healthy. One key factor in keeping your puppy happy and healthy involves the food you'll be providing it with. If you want to keep your puppy truly happy and healthy, you should avoid the table scrap treats. Those tasty little morsels off your plate may seem harmless enough, but they can actually wreak havoc on the health of your new puppy. Here are four reasons you should avoid those table scrap treats.

Leads to Obesity

You might not realize this, but those table scraps you're feeding your puppy could be leading to obesity. Not only do some table scraps contain high levels of fat and refined sugar, but they're also hard to monitor. You may be giving your puppy a couple tiny morsels of food, but that doesn't mean the rest of your family isn't doing the same thing. Not only that, but when you consider the fact that you're giving your puppy three meals a day of its own food, those additional servings of table scraps could really add up. To help prevent canine obesity, it's best to say no to the table scraps.

Undermines Proper Nutrition

If you're feeding your puppy table scraps, it might not have much of an appetite left for its normal diet. Unfortunately, that means that your puppy might not be getting the proper nutrients that it needs for healthy growth and development. Puppies need the right combination of vitamins and minerals for proper development. If your puppy is loading up on table scraps, it might not be as healthy as it should be. Make sure your puppy is getting the right vitamins and minerals by keeping the table scraps away.

Encourages Unwanted Behavior

Now that you have a new puppy in the family, you want to ensure proper behavior. The last thing you want is for your puppy to develop unwanted behaviors and habits. Unfortunately, giving your puppy table scraps can actually encourage unwanted behavior. That's because offering table scraps to your puppy encourages table-side begging, as well as trash can diving. To avoid those unwanted behaviors, say no to table scrap treats.

Increases Risk of Accidental Poisoning

The food on your plate may be healthy for you to eat, but that doesn't mean that it's healthy for your puppy. You might not realize this, but some of the foods you eat may actually be poisonous for your puppy. Things like chocolate, raisins, grapes, and even onions can be deadly for your puppy. You can prevent accidental poisonings by keeping the table scraps away from your puppy.

If you have a new puppy, keep it healthy by avoiding the introduction of table scraps to its diet. If your puppy does come in contact with food that makes it sick, such as those listed above, be sure to get to an animal hospital as quickly as possible.