# Carrots and Sweet Potatoes



## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Any issues with giving these things raw?


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Carrots won't really be digested if given raw. Not sure about sweet potatoes. 

I give sweet potatoes as a "treat" in meals once in a while due to the sugars. I boil them until they are just soft. 

Carrots I boil and them put in a food processor with all kinds of other stuff to make a veggie type goo.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

I cook sweet potatoes and carrots and give them to the dogs, but I'll also toss them a chunk of raw carrot any time I'm cutting one up. Then don't really seem to digest well, but the dogs like crunching on them.

When I worked at a stable, we got horse carrots delivered sometimes. My dog used to help herself to whole carrots from the bags in the aisle. Never seemed to do her any harm.


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Forgot to add that frozen whole carrots are great for teething puppies too......makes a mess, so they are given outside or in a crate....


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## Carolyn Herle (Dec 29, 2009)

Howard Gaines III said:


> Any issues with giving these things raw?


If you want the dog to get any nutritional value, the carrots and sweet potatoes would either have to be ground raw or cooked. For a chew treat, there is no issue with giving a dog a whole carrot or sweet potato that I know of. I prefer yams to sweet potaoe.


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Carolyn Herle said:


> If you want the dog to get any nutritional value, the carrots and sweet potatoes would either have to be ground raw or cooked. For a chew treat, there is no issue with giving a dog a whole carrot or sweet potato that I know of. I prefer yams to sweet potaoe.


I find that even grinding raw carrot up, it comes out the way it went in, so there is no real nutritional values, maybe ranks as more of a filler (like corn in kibble). 

So if looking for a "treat" then yes, give raw. If looking to add to a meal, then cook.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Carol Boche said:


> I find that even grinding raw carrot up, it comes out the way it went in, so there is no real nutritional values, maybe ranks as more of a filler (like corn in kibble).


This is true. The dog doesn't naturally produce sufficient enzymes of the right kind to process that kind of hard root vegetable (along with many above-ground vegetables that have hard cell walls stiffened with cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) or even have the loooong convoluted system that we have (allowing several times the number of hours that a dog's allows for processing). Grating raw root vegetables isn't enough.

I could demonstrate this with dog poop, but I suspect we could all find this evidence if we tried. :lol:


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

I haven't had any of my dogs want to eat raw carrots by choice. Neighbors toss carrots to the horses in the field once in a while and the dogs never eat them. Maybe they think it's not worth the risk of a taking a hoof. Rarely do they eat the road apples either. When I fed kibble they were more into eating other things. I haven't tried sweet potatoes or yams. But, have always toss the skins and leftovers to the chickens. Friends say their dogs eat the livestock feed and pellets, but haven't had a problem with that.


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

I believe I read somewhere that potato skins are not good for dogs.....and I never kept the link...I will see if I can find it again on the net......

Edit..here is what I found by googling Potato Skins and Dogs (quite a bit comes up actually)

*Potato Sprouts and Green Potato Skins can poison both dogs and people. Solanum alkaloids can be found in green sprouts and green potato skins, which occurs when the tubers are exposed to sunlight during growth or after harvest. The relatively rare occurrence of actual poisoning is due to several factors: solanine is poorly absorbed; it is mostly hydrolyzed into less toxic solanidinel; and the metabolites are quickly eliminated. Note that cooked, mashed potatoes are fine for dogs, actually quite nutritious and digestible.*


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## Gillian Schuler (Apr 12, 2008)

Carrots need to be cooked and have oil / butter added to them to be good for anyone, dogs or humans (so I've heard)

The only dogs that I know that would eat a raw carrot tossed to them are Cocker Spaniels but then they'd eat anything. They are the greediest dogs out in my opinion.

We have something here in Switzerland called Krautstiele. I cooked the leaves and the stems and afterwards tossed the leaves into the garbage, boiling hot but our foster Cocker Spaniel bitch fished them out and ate them.


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Carol Boche said:


> I believe I read somewhere that potato skins are not good for dogs.....and I never kept the link...I will see if I can find it again on the net......
> 
> Edit..here is what I found by googling Potato Skins and Dogs (quite a bit comes up actually)
> 
> *Potato Sprouts and Green Potato Skins can poison both dogs and people. Solanum alkaloids can be found in green sprouts and green potato skins, which occurs when the tubers are exposed to sunlight during growth or after harvest. The relatively rare occurrence of actual poisoning is due to several factors: solanine is poorly absorbed; it is mostly hydrolyzed into less toxic solanidinel; and the metabolites are quickly eliminated. Note that cooked, mashed potatoes are fine for dogs, actually quite nutritious and digestible.*


 Carol when I'm harvesting potatoes from the garden, my dogs flock to the location for ANY chance to steal from the bucket! As a kid, I had a male BC who would eat radishes all day long.

Today this female BC found shit to roll in...white neck and dark brown remarkings!!!!!!!!!!:-x


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Gillian Schuler said:


> Carrots need to be cooked and have oil / butter added to them to be good for anyone, dogs or humans (so I've heard)


Brown sugar and a little onion make them yummy too!!!


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## Gillian Schuler (Apr 12, 2008)

I guess that tastes good but I wasn't talking about the taste but the nutritional value!!


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Howard Gaines III said:


> Carol when I'm harvesting potatoes from the garden, my dogs flock to the location for ANY chance to steal from the bucket! As a kid, I had a male BC who would eat radishes all day long.
> 
> Today this female BC found shit to roll in...white neck and dark brown remarkings!!!!!!!!!!:-x



All my dogs love the stuff that is bad (possibly highly toxic) for them....grapes being the number one item that has to be watched if out on the counter with a dog out. 

Had a Dalmation once that ate a whole 1 pound bag of Hersheys Kisses, foil and all.....took her to the vet and although she had seriously nasty runs for a couple days, there was no other damage.......the vet said she had never seen that and that the dog literally had an iron gut.


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Gillian Schuler said:


> I guess that tastes good but I wasn't talking about the taste but the nutritional value!!


Interesting...how does butter and oil make them more nutritional?


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## Maureen A Osborn (Feb 12, 2010)

Carol Boche said:


> Interesting...how does butter and oil make them more nutritional?


 vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, so to absorb it better, you add fat(oil or butter)


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Maureen A Osborn said:


> vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, so to absorb it better, you add fat(oil or butter)


Thanks Maureen....... 

Huh....well....the dogs are going to have to absorb what they get as I am not adding butter or oil (other than Salmon Oil) to their diets. I have cut it almost completely out of mine......


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Just curious if carrots are ground and blended really well wouldn't the dog get some benefit from the "juice"?
Is it JUST the cellulose that makes then indigestable?
As to the chocolate, my son's girlfriend is an emergency room vet. She said a dog would darn near have to eat it's weight in Hershey's chocolate in order for it to be seriously toxic.
Dark, Baker's chocolate is a totally different thing.


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## Matthew Grubb (Nov 16, 2007)

My wife throws sliced sweet potato, sliced and cored apple, berries, and other natural goodies in the food dehydrator as natural treats for our dogs. When she went grain free with them she changed their entire diet.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Matthew Grubb said:


> My wife throws sliced sweet potato, sliced and cored apple, berries, and other natural goodies in the food dehydrator as natural treats for our dogs. When she went grain free with them she changed their entire diet.




I think apple "seeds" can be toxic in large amounts. 
Maybe Connie or Maren can verify the if, how and why of that!


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Matthew Grubb said:


> My wife throws sliced sweet potato, sliced and cored apple, berries, and other natural goodies in the food dehydrator as natural treats for our dogs. When she went grain free with them she changed their entire diet.


Bananas are great too...I make chips and the dogs really like those.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

_I think apple "seeds" can be toxic in large amounts. _

Apple seeds contain cyanide, but you would have to eat a LOT of them to poison yourself.


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Learning so much from this thread!!!


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

leslie cassian said:


> _I think apple "seeds" can be toxic in large amounts. _
> 
> Apple seeds contain cyanide, but you would have to eat a LOT of them to poison yourself.



'Zackly.

Apple seeds, cherry pits, peach pits, pear cores, plums pits, and apricot pits contain cyanide, which can accumulate if dogs get them regularly. 

Most of the serious (including deadly) consequences I've read about involved dogs finding a windfall or getting the garbage after a canning or apple-saucing session.


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