Being a pet owner can be a marvelous experience. However, once you decide to adopt a dog, you take on a big responsibility. As a pet owner, you want to ensure that you provide the best care and attention to keep it healthy and happy. This involves things like purchasing dog health insurance, regular vet visits, constant exercise, and providing it with the best food. It’s natural for us to want to give our dogs the healthiest and tastiest meal possible. And if you’re one of the many pet parents looking to incorporate turkey into their pet’s diet, there’s a high chance you’re thinking of cooking your dog a fancy dinner.
While that’s completely fine, keep in mind that this can’t be the same as your normal Thanksgiving dinner. Human food is for humans, and dog food is for dogs. You can give your dog a bite from your Thanksgiving plate, but we don’t recommend feeding them the same turkey as the spices and other ingredients in a human’s turkey may not be the best options for dogs.
That’s why we’ve made this guide of a couple of tasty ways to feed turkey to your dog. We’ve found a safe way to cook turkey for your pet without putting their health at risk. That way, both you and your dog can have a memorable and tasty dinner.
How Should I Cook Turkey for My Dog?
The one thing to remember when preparing a turkey for your dog is to keep it as plain as possible. Modern turkey recipes call for a lot of salt and fat added to the turkey. While this makes it taste great for humans, this makes the turkey incredibly unhealthy for dogs.
Not to mention the fact that many turkey recipes require stuffing that may contain garlic and onions, which could be toxic for dogs. So, if you’re cooking turkey for your dog, it’s best to stay away from the family recipe book.
Instead, we recommend following these steps:
Cooking the Turkey
We found that the best way to cook the turkey is to roast it. You can do this by sticking the turkey in the oven (if it’s a whole turkey) and waiting for it to cook through fully. It’s best to use a meat thermometer for this to ensure that the meat is fully cooked before serving it to your dog.
If you have a single piece of turkey like the breast or the thigh, you can roast it in the oven or on a pan, whichever is most convenient. However, the most important factor is to make sure you don’t add any spices or flavorings to the turkey.
Additionally, if you want to shift your dog to a bland diet, you can boil the turkey as well.
With all that said, most dogs’ bodies are better adapted for raw meat. Feeding raw turkey is safe for most dogs, and their stomachs might even be able to handle it better. So, if your dog gets proper exercise and nutrition, you won’t even have to worry about cooking the meat first.
Add Vegetables
When cooking the meat, feel free to add dog-safe vegetables. Just like humans, dogs can’t just have one ingredient for a balanced diet. They need to have vegetables along with their meat, especially if you aren’t feeding them kibble and processed dog food. All-natural and homemade dog diets can take a lot of work. But once you see the results, you’ll find all that work is worth it.
Some of the vegetables we recommend mixing with the turkey are yams, sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, and pumpkin. Remember, you aren’t cooking a dish for your palette, so you don’t have to be as picky with the ingredients.
You have the freedom to choose whatever vegetables you want. Just make sure that they are good for dogs. Additionally, if you’re cooking a hard vegetable, make sure to soften it enough before serving so it tastes better and is easier for your dog to eat.
Remove the Bones
If you decide to cook the turkey, make sure to remove the bones before serving. Cooked turkey bones are much softer than raw ones, so dogs will have an easier time biting into them and swallowing the bones. A build-up of bones in your dog’s digestive tract can be very serious and cause death in some cases.
So, make sure to remove the bones before feeding the dish to your pet. Additionally, you want to make sure the food has cooled down first. Your dog may dig in before testing the temperature, which can lead to your dog scalding themselves, which can hurt a lot.
Conclusion
If you want to cook a tasty and nutritious turkey dish for your dogs, don’t feed them the same meal you feed your family. While it may taste great for you, turkey dishes for humans contain tons of ingredients that are dangerous for dogs.
Instead, we recommend feeding them a plain turkey dish. You don’t need to add any spices or seasoning. In fact, you don’t even have to cook it! Dogs can handle raw turkey meat just fine, especially if they are healthy and active.
However, before introducing anything new to your dog’s diet, speak to your veterinarian first.