Pof was the columnist’s best friend and inspired many of his previous articles.
My little dog, Pof, died suddenly recently. He was my best friend and inspiration for many of the things I do, including this column. We had an odd but sweet way of picking subjects for the newspaper. As there were so many subjects to write about, I would often recite to him some titles that sounded relevant, and generally, his eyes and ears would perk up on a particular topic. And that is what I would write about. It was a way of filtering out much of the research that goes into this column.
Losing Pof felt initially like an overwhelming dread in the middle of the night when lost somewhere strange and the moonlight disappears unexpectedly behind a cloud. Then as his death sinks in, it becomes like an ice-cold anvil had lodged in the chest, weighing heavily on the heart and lungs; even the air smells dull and different and the mind tangibly pounds with grief and sorrow.
As Pof was always a curious creature, I think he would like an article about the ideas that humans have about nutrition for dogs. Because he often said to me with his eyes, “Yes, it is OK to give me that tidbit under the table because nobody will know”, even when I was debating in my mind whether he should have another lump of cheese rind. And until his death, I had never researched that topic, probably because I never asked him, and he was never the pushy type.
So this article is about nutrition, just not for humans, but for the best friend of many humans. And it is more interesting than one would expect.
When I was young and growing up in Malaysia, my mother would feed our dogs the leftover foods from our meals, usually padded with cheap cooked cracked rice and some extra soup or gravy made from boiling bones scraped from our plates. None of our dogs ever objected, and so it was assumed that such meals would also be adequately nutritious for them.
However, that would be a false assumption, based on the facts. None of my dogs in Malaysia lived long, probably a maximum of around nine or 10 years before they expired. It was always sad to lose any of them, but now the reasons may be better understood.
Key nutrients
Despite many people feeding dogs with treats (or kibbles) made from grains such as maize, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, and associated cereals and flours, there is absolutely no requirement for dogs to eat any carbohydrates. A dog’s ability to digest carbohydrates is limited and digestion of such carbohydrates often result in fermentation in the canine guts causing remarkably odorous flatulence.
Dogs require a nutrient called taurine, which is found in higher levels in fish like tuna and tilapia. — COTTONBRO/Pexels
Some fruits and vegetables, preferably raw, are better for dogs, purely because of the nutrient content, such as minerals and vitamins, though the fibres in such foods often also results in fermentation in a dog’s gut.
Unlike humans, dogs can manufacture all the Vitamin C they need for their bodies via their glandular system. Hence it is unnecessary and potentially harmful to give them too many foods with high Vitamin C content.
On the other hand, unlike humans, dogs cannot produce any Vitamin D within their bodies. Despite the obvious joys of dogs lying around in the sun, their skins cannot convert sunlight into Vitamin D, and there is often a critical shortage of this important nutrient in many dogs fed on human leftovers.
In such situations, it may be a good idea to supplement their diets with some extra Vitamin D once in a while, via drops or crushed pills mixed with some oily foods. Vitamin D needs fats to be absorbed so make sure a dog has fats when supplemented with the nutrient. Based on some research data, a suggestion would be around a maximum of 1,000 IU of Vitamin D per kilo of food, but please check with your vet to make sure.
As mentioned, carbohydrates can often be somewhat mildly problematic for dogs to digest. That is because the digestive systems of dogs have evolved to rely on proteins and fats as their main sources of energy. Many thousands of years of co-existence with humans have made modern dogs considerably more tolerant of carbohydrates, but they still lack most of the gut fauna needed to efficiently process carbohydrates into energy.
Another important nutrient that dogs need much more than humans is taurine. This nutrient is found mostly in animal-based proteins, though curiously it is significantly more abundant in aquatic-based proteins. For example, beef contains around 39 mg of taurine per 100 gms, while tuna contains 964 mg per 100 gms and tilapia (a cheap farmed fish) has 972 mg of taurine per 100 gms.
So if you feel your dog is lacking in energy, a harmless idea might be to give your pet a few chunks of cooked tilapia or some other fish proteins.
Dogs can also be supplemented with other nutrients such as Vitamins B3 (niacin), B6, B12, copper, zinc, and calcium, which they need in higher proportions than humans.
The bad stuff for dogs
A lot of people may not be aware that grapes and raisins are extremely toxic to dogs. There is no safe limit for the consumption of grapes and raisins for dogs, and even a very tiny amount can cause severe poisoning in dogs. There are as yet unidentified compounds in grapes and raisins that provoke kidney damage and total renal failure in dogs. So please do not even consider giving your dog a piece of fruit cake or hot cross bun.
Grapes and raisins are poisonous for dogs and even a tiny amount can cause severe poisoning. — BRUNO SCRAMGNON/Pexels
Plants in the Allium family such as onions, garlic, and chives should never be fed to dogs. They have been known to damage or affect red blood cell production in dogs. Overfeeding dogs such plants can cause anaemia in canines.
A synthetic sweetener called xylitol which is commonly used in human foods, confectioneries, and snacks causes drops in canine blood pressure and liver damage. Once again, never feed your dog any foods such as cakes or buns that may contain artificial sweeteners.
One of my favourite treats is macadamia nuts, but such nuts must never be given to dogs. These nuts can cause vomiting, tremors, and hyperthermia in dogs. The exact compounds in macadamia nuts that cause such problems in dogs are not known for certain, but may be the cyanogenic glycosides (proteacin and durrin) found in such nuts.
Most dog owners would know about the dangers of chocolate and caffeine to dogs. These foods contain methylxanthines that can cause vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, seizures, and even death in dogs. So never give a dog chocolate treats or coffee.
An odd danger for dogs is the raw dough used in baking. The yeast in such uncooked doughs can expand in a dog’s stomach, causing bloating and even a degree of alcohol poisoning if left to ferment too long.
Dogs have very low levels of the enzyme lactase, so they are usually unable to digest the lactose in dairy products such as milk, cream, yoghurt, and cheese. Aged cheeses, and especially the rinds of aged cheeses, are better as the aging would have turned most of the lactose into lactic acid. Pof loved the aged rinds of the local cheeses here and I think the rinds also helped with augmenting his gut fauna. At least, he tolerated them very well.
So the summary is that dogs can eat much of the same foods as humans, but one has to be aware of the differences in the way canines digest food compared to humans. And one should always be vigilant not to allow dogs to ingest foods that are potentially lethal to them.
The ending
Pof would probably be very happy with this article, as now more people would be informed about the nutritional requirements for dogs, and importantly also about the dangers of common human foods indiscriminately fed to dogs.
If one does not have a dog but would like to assist with running a dog shelter, please consider offering some help to Jacqueline, a wonderful lady who runs the Kajang SPCA in Malaysia. Her email address is spcakajang@gmail.com if you wish to make a little donation. Please contact her for details.
Carbohydrates like rice are not necessary for dogs as their ability to digest carbohydrates is limited. — HUY PHAN/Pexels
I now also know there are not many words capable of expressing deep grief, but I will try with a translation of a German poem by Erich Fried:
It is nonsense,
says reason.
It is what it is,
says love.
It is loss,
says logic.
It is pain,
says fear.
It is futile,
says intuition.
It is what it is,
says love.
It is ridiculous,
says pride.
It is reckless,
says prudence.
It is unbearable,
says experience.
It is what it is,
says love.
The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
