Holidays Food That Can Harm Your Pet

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There are many foods that can be dangerous for your pets that you may only consume during the holidays. Even if you eat these all year round, you may have more on hand when it is time to have family and friends over. The problem may not be that you are feeding your pets these dangerous substances but your guests may not be as discriminating as you are. Children do not always understand that pets cannot eat the same foods that we can and may inadvertently poison your pet. The following are foods that you need to warn your guests not to feed your pets:

• Chocolate – Chocolate is one of the most dangerous foods that you can feed your pets. It contains two dangerous chemicals that are called xanthine and theobromine which are toxic. Xantine can cause urinary problems and can also cause their hearts to race which leads to heart attacks. Theobromine is also dangerous for your dog and can cause many other health problems.
• Bones – Your guests may be inclined to offer your dog or cat their scrap turkey bones after their meal is over. While the meat itself is not harmful, the bones can splinter and be trapped in the throat or can puncture the stomach. In no way should your dog or cat be given left over bones from a turkey.
• Bread Dough – If you are baking at home, avoid the temptation to give your pet any scrap bread dough because it can expand in their stomach. This can cause many problems and can actually kill the pet. If at all possible, keep the animals out of the kitchen while you are cooking so that they cannot get any foods and ingest them.
• Kitchen String – Most people use a kitchen string that truss up the turkey or ham with before cooking it. This is usually just tossed into the garbage can when preparing the meat for the meal. If the garbage can is in an area that the pet can get to, this temptation cannot be resisted and your pet may attempt to eat the string. This can cause choking and can be very harmful to your pet. Always keep your trash bin away from pets to avoid this danger.

If you want to keep your pet healthy during the holidays then you need to make sure that you do not allow them to be fed any foods that can danger them. Make sure that your guests know that they cannot feed the animals any foods from the table. You may want to put the pets in another room until all of the foods are put away.

Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles and the author of How to Earn a Living Writing for the Internet. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of ebooks and thousands of website pages and related content in more than 10 years as a professional writer.

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