Can Dogs Eat Turkey in Tulsa, OK?

Pet owners love to give their pets treats, this can be okay, so long as you know what your dog should and should not eat. It can be confusing to know which kinds of fowl your dog can eat since most people know that chicken bones can be deadly to dogs when ingested.

Turkey is something that your dog can eat, and there is turkey in a lot of different dog foods for this reason. If you are cooking your turkey for humans to enjoy, however, it might be prepared with spices that dogs cannot ingest. You should make sure that you are not feeding your dog any kind of human food that has been seasoned so that you do not expose them to the risk of allergic reactions or toxicity.

How to Feed Turkey to Your Dog Safely

If you want to feed your dog turkey, there are some steps that you need to take before you can give this kind of meat to your dog. You will need to be sure that you are removing the excess fat from the meat that you give your dog since fats can cause pancreatitis in any size dog and any breed of dog.

1. Strip off the Skin

This is where most of the fat is in a turkey, so you will want to take the skin off of the meat before you prepare it for your dog. The fat content in any meat can cause pancreatitis, and it can also irritate your dog’s digestive tract since they are not good at digesting fats.

2. Don’t Season the Meat

Make sure that the meat products that you give your dog are never seasoned. Dogs can be quite sensitive to things like onion, and garlic can also be toxic in large quantities.

3. Make Sure Not to Feed Any Bones

Bird bones of all kinds are bad for dogs to eat as they are hollow and can splinter, causing immediate gastric distress. Dogs that eat hollow bones require surgery to remove them, and this can still sometimes be a deadly mistake. You should not feed your dog any kind of bone from any animal due to the risk of bacterial overgrowth in the bone and due to the risk of high-fat content in the bone marrow causing pancreatitis.

4. Cook Lightly

Your dog would probably be happy to eat turkey raw, but it is safer to give it a light cooking so that it is bacteria-free and safe to put into storage for later. You will just want to cook the turkey in the oven until it has come up to a safe temperature.

5. Feed Small Portions

Start out feeding small portions of turkey to your dog. Some dogs are very sensitive to changes in food, and you could cause gastric distress if you feed too much turkey too rapidly to your pet. Make sure as well that you are not giving your dog large amounts of turkey every day. This can be very hard on older dogs and dogs with diabetes, but even younger dogs should not eat a large quantity of turkey on a daily basis.

Is it Worth it to Feed My Dog Turkey?

There are many reasons that you might be better off just feeding your dog a quality kibble and avoiding sharing your food with them. You will need to prepare the turkey that you buy just for your pet, and you will also need to be cautious about how much of the turkey they eat. There is a lot of extra work involved in getting this kind of protein into your dog’s diet in its actual form instead of just feeding it to your dog via kibble.

If you want to make sure that your dog is getting the best diet, you can often choose a high-quality dog kibble for them to eat. Quality dog foods will offer your pet everything that they need to be healthy, and you should not have to supplement anything on top of this food. A kibble product that has been made by a good company will include all of the vitamins and nutrients that your dog needs, as well as things like joint support.

Remember as well that feeding your dog table scraps or sharing the food that you have made for yourself with them is not a good idea. Spices that humans can eat can be toxic to dogs, and you should not risk exposing your dog to excess fats from butter and other items that might have been used to prepare the turkey for humans to eat it. Keeping your dog’s diet clean and simple is always best for their health and to prevent digestive upsets that can lead to long-term digestive struggles.

Dogs Can Eat Turkey, But Only in Limited Amounts

At the end of the day, your dog can have turkey, but not in large quantities. This is not one of the preferred meats to give to a dog to help make their diet more complete, and many companies that make turkey-based kibble only use a small amount of turkey in their products. Turkey that has been prepared for humans should not be offered to dogs either, since certain spices can be toxic to dogs and due to the risk of high fat content that can cause pancreatitis.

While your dog can eat turkey, they might not even enjoy it all that much, especially if it is prepared for them without seasonings and fats in the mix. Turkey is one of the meats that your dog can have, but it is not an ideal kind of meat for your dog to eat. You should be sure that you are careful about what you feed to your dog on top of their usual diet, as you can cause a lot of digestive issues for your pet that can be avoided by keeping them on a diet that is made for them.

If your dog needs an emergency vet in Tulsa, OK give Animal Emergency Center a call at 918-665-0508!