Hello
Not so much a feeding question but more of a question around the general health benefits or otherwise of some of my dogs seemingly having an addiction to eating Dandelions! Stems, open flowers, closed buds, seed heads, leaves, it doesn't seem to matter!

For 12 years, I don't think any of our dogs had paid any attention to dandelions, and then a month ago, along came our new 4 month old boy who seems to have developed an obsession for them and lunges at them while on walks and has taught his walking partner, our 6 year old bitch, to do the same!

I have come across a couple of articles ranging from those which say, 'yeah OK they won't kill them', to those which claim that they have various health benefits.

I haven't really had a good look in my raw feeding books yet, I'll do that tonight, but does anyone have any experience of dogs having this obsession, or does anyone know what the specific benefits might be to dogs generally, and puppies in particular.  We raw feed our dogs and they do get veg/fruit every few days.

Thanks in advance :)

Had a bitch that always headed for forget me nots.Some love clover roots. I did look up what was in forget me nots- forgotten now !

I have a pup that eats daisies, dandelions, grass, leaves and twigs !
Never had a dog like it before !  I wish she would eat her food with the same gusto !

Dandelions encourage urination. In French they have the nickname 'pissenlit', which translates as 'wet-the-bed'.

As kids we were told if you got the sap on your hands it would make you wee the bed.

Maybe there is something in them that is lacking in the diet or just a fad unique to him.

Our ponies always leave the dandelions when they graze - our aviary birds love them so works out well lol.

I can't see any great issue with dandelions, although has been said they are can have a diuretic effect, and act as a tonic for the kidneys. From my greenfood-gathering days as a rabbit owner, I recall they can be laxative in large quantities.

The young leaves are often eaten as a salad vegetable in France and other countries, though they are often rather bitter even when quite tender. You can imagine my horror as a 13-yr old French Exchange student when the mother of the family I was staying with went picking dandelions, and served them up for dinner!

They also contain high levels of Prebiotics, so as such are good for digestion, and I have sometimes included a few fresh leaves in the blitzed veg mix I make up for my raw fed dogs, but rather the dogs than me!

I have read that some people have an extra-heightened sense of bitterness, due to different tastebuds and that might explain why I couldn't eat the dandelions, plus as a child I couldn't eat my grandfather's home-grown lettuces either - to me they were mouth-puckeringly bitter, but my parents thought I was just being fussy. I've had similar experiences with the leaves from home-grown celery, and have never ever been able to drink "Bitter" beer.