{"id":539533,"date":"2010-04-22T10:42:07","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T14:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/askthevet.smartpak.com\/?p=806"},"modified":"2010-04-22T10:42:07","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T14:42:07","slug":"feeding-dogs-milk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/539533","title":{"rendered":"Feeding Dogs Milk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could you please tell if it’s okay to give my dog, a 9 yr. old Brittany spaniel, 2% milk. He loves it and does not seem to have any side effects from it, ie; diarrhea, vomiting, etc. I give him about 3 cups a day besides his wet dog food and people food which he likes better than any dog food. Thank you for any advice. SW, Michigan<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear SW,<\/p>\n

While it sounds like it\u2019s fine in your case to give your dog milk, in my opinion three cups a day is a bit much. Most dogs (and cats) lose the ability to digest dairy products after weaning so offering milk, cheese, even yogurt can result in problems like you mention: diarrhea, vomiting (or flatulence). Yours still seems to have the enzymes needed to break down the lactose sugar in milk so that these problems aren\u2019t occurring.<\/p>\n

However, three cups seems a bit excessive. The rule of thumb for the amount of water a dog drinks per day is 1 ounce per pound body weight. You have a Brittany Spaniel that the AKC says should weigh between 30 and 40 pounds so he should be drinking about 30 to 40 ounces (four to five cups) of water daily. So three cups of milk is more than half of his total fluid intake. I would like to see him drink more plain water than milk.<\/p>\n

I also looked up the nutrient profile of 2% milk. Each cup has 137 calories so three cups has 411 calories. A 30 to 40 pound dog only needs about 600 to 800 calories from its food each day, so you\u2019re also supplying over half your dog\u2019s daily caloric requirements with the milk. The bottom line is I don\u2019t think your dog is getting a complete and balanced diet (especially when you say he likes people food better than any dog food).<\/p>\n

Since he has perhaps become a picky eater but you enjoy providing \u201cpeople food\u201d for him, you sound like excellent candidates for home cooking. However, that\u2019s expensive, time-consuming and recipes are often hard for owners to stick with. I have a better suggestion for you! First, cut back on the milk. Treats and table scraps should not make up more than about 25% of the diet or they will unbalance it and add too many calories, so give him no more than one cup of milk per day as a special snack. Then, provide him with human grade food that you\u2019ll feel good feeding and he\u2019ll feel good eating: Proportions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A new concept in feeding dogs, it includes hand-carved chicken breast in pumpkin stew <\/a>in one pouch with dehydrated fruits and vegetables <\/a>in another pouch. Most owners mix it with PortionPaks<\/a> of high quality dry food <\/a>but either way, it\u2019s complete and balanced, wholesome nutrition for your dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could you please tell if it’s okay to give my dog, a 9 yr. old Brittany spaniel, 2% milk. He loves it and does not seem to have any side effects from it, ie; diarrhea, vomiting, etc. I give him about 3 cups a day besides his wet dog food and people food which he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}