Can I Give My Dog Pumpkin Everyday

Not many people knows, but pumpkin is a great choice of food or snacks for dogs because pumpkin contain important micro nutrients and essential fibers which make pumpkin a fruit packed with nutrients. Plus pumpkin is also a natural fruit and very effective in soothing stomach upsets.

Dogs suffers from presence of excess water in their digestive tract, and pumpkin is the right fruit for every dog because pumpkin does magic in the digestive system of dogs and helps to expel excess water present in a dogs digestive tract.

Various pet owners especially old people knows the trick of using pumpkin of soothing stomach upsets and relieving dog diarrhea. If you want to be among such wise people, you must learn various methods of preparing pumpkin and still retaining their nutritional values.

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Various Health benefits Of Pumpkin For Dogs

Pumpkin is also very useful and important for humans, not just our dogs, but we are only going to be talking about the various number of health benefits your dog has when ever you decide to feed him pumpkin.

• Vitamins and mineral resources; pumpkin contains a great number of vitamins and minerals resources such as vitamin E, C and vitamins A plus mineral resources such as potassium and iron. If you feel like providing your dog with more nutrients, feed him a can of plain pumpkin will prove to be of great help no matter the species of dog.
• Useful in cases of indigestion; Pumpkin is a very good fruit to be used in cases of indigestion because it is high in contents of soluble fibers. When you feed your dog pumpkin, it will add good weight to their stool and therefore free up their digestive system and this continued, will aid in the reduction and sometimes cure of diarrhea in dogs.

Can I Give My Dog Pumpkin Everyday

Normally in dogs, the acid level of their large intestine is usually high, but sometimes it becomes too high, so feeding your dog pumpkin will help to lower the acid level of his large intestine. Plus pumpkin also contain essential fatty acid which aids in supply of energy to your dogs body cells.

• Powerhouse for prebiotics; Prebiotic is known as important element or compounds that are only present in some specific foods or fruits or vegetables. Lo and behold, pumpkin is among the fruity vegetable filled with prebiotics along side butternut squash.
• In the digestive tract, there is need for the presence of certain bacteria’s which are important for the aid of effective digestion and prebiotics are supporters of such important bacteria’s. When you provide your dog with foods essential in prebiotics, you are there for strengthen their digestive system, so feed your dog some pumpkin.

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Health Hazards Of Feeding Your Dog Too Much Pumpkin

People seem to believe everything with an advantage has a disadvantage and vice versa, and so dose feeding your dog pumpkin. Of course there is no doubt that pumpkin is greatly healthy for your dog but you should also know too much of everything is bad and feeding your dog large amount of pumpkin continuously can lead to some health hazards such as :

• Calorie increase; Some people call pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable but either way, pumpkin has a very high starch composition and it is also high in fiber. Your dog is entitled to a specific number of calories per day, and feeding him one food that contains more than 10% of his needed calories intake will lead to obesity. So if you feed your dog some pumpkin today, the rest of his meal for today should be very low in calories.
• Nutritional deficiencies; In as much as you want to strengthen your dogs digestive health by feeding him food rich in fiber such as pumpkin, too much pumpkin or other foods that are rich in fiber will pave way for nutritional deficiencies because your dog may not be able to absorb other food nutrients from his food such as protein or carbohydrates.
• High in sodium content; For dogs with health issues such as kidney problems or heart disease, you should try to avoid feeding them canned already processed pumpkin because some canned pumpkin contains large amount of salt for the sole purpose of preservation. Few brand of canned pumpkin foods can contain up to 600mg if sodium per can of pumpkin. If your dog is in perfect health, you can offer canned pumpkin but in small quantity at a time.
• Addition of artificial Ingredients; So when feeding your dog already processed or company be sure to look out for the type of canned pumpkin food you buy, there is the pumpkin pie filling and there in canned pumpkin. Normal canned pumpkin is mainly made of pumpkin flesh and other partly natural ingredients which is good for your dog and will not cause harm to his health. But pumpkin pie filling is made up of other still natural but harmful ingredients and spices such as garlic, ginger, nutmeg, sugar, cinnamon, fat and other preservatives. All these combined will definitely cause harm to your dog’s digestive system.

What is the healthy quantity of pumpkin to feed my dog

Talking about the right amount of pumpkin to feed your dog per meal it depends on the type of pumpkin and or the size of the dog. But normally, you can add up to one table spoon minimum and four tablespoons maximum to each meal in your dogs diet.

You can decide to start in small quantities with one tablespoons at first to keep the fiber content on the right scale. In case you are not comfortable or certain about the quantity of pumpkin to add to your dogs diet, you can decide to consult with your veterinarian for advice.

Various preparation methods for pumpkin in dog diet

Below are various possible ways you can add pumpkin to your dog’s diet, preparation and serving:

• Freshly oven baked pumpkin; To prepare oven baked pumpkin, you will first wash the pumpkin and cut open then remove the seeds and cut to any desired size and place in the oven to bake until its soft and sweet, then remove, leave to cool and serve to your dog.
• Plain canned pumpkin; Plain canned pumpkin is very easy to serve to your dog because it has already been processed and packed so you do not need to cook or warm or do anything to it, just open the can and pour it into a bowl or plate and serve to your dog. Before serving, check can for expiry date and any added artificial additives.
• Roasted crunchy pumpkin seeds; If you want pumpkin as a treat, you an use roasted crunchy pumpkin seeds as a healthy dog treat. After removing the seeds from the pumpkin fruit, you will wash them clean and out on an oven pan and roast in the oven for 350° for one hour, after one hour, take out the roasted seeds and leave to cool after which you can feed them to your dog like that or you can grind them up and put them into your dog food as a form of garnish. If you decide to feed the crunchy seed directly to your dog, you should also consider your dog’s size because dog’s of smaller breeds or puppies may reject it or may even choke on it.
• Pumpkin puree; To make this for your dog, you will start by washing the pumpkin then peeling the back of the pumpkin, afterwards you will cut it open and take out all the seeds then you slice it into desired sizes. The flesh of the pumpkin you peeled you will boil it in water for up to 20 or 30 minutes or as long as you desire. After Which you will drain the water, separate the content and mash with your hand or something blunt like a cup, or you blend with a fruit blender until it’s a smooth paste.

When made, the pumpkin puree can last for up to six months if placed in the freezer and kept completely frozen. And can last up to four days without going bad when put in the fridge to be cool. Pumpkin puree can be added to other meals to create a new or different food, so if you want to do so, make sure it is completely defrosted before use, and used few hours after defrosting it.