Is it safe to give the raw hard broccoli stems to my cocker spaniel?  His loves raw carrots, green beans, cucumber and apples.

Thanks
Jax :-)

My Bernese eat them all the time.

My three come running if they hear me preparing veg and broccoli is a favourite.  It's one of those vegetables that is listed as harmful in some articles but, it's my understanding, that it would have to be fed by the barrow load to do any harm. 

If you are managing weight issues then be a little sparing with carrots and apples as both contain quite high amounts of sugar - otherwise, chomp away :)

My GR's loved broccoli ate them before the raw carrot. Just chopped it up into suitable chunks and added to their kibble. Also liked cucumber and always had the starting bits and the tail ends when we were making salads, actually GR's eat most things.

> My three come running if they hear me preparing veg

So do mine :) :) (but just two :) )

No weight problems.  Yes, it was the articles that had me confused, some said OK and others said not :-s
Apart from onions and grapes is there any other fruit/veg that he shouldn't have?

Dogs seem to love broccoli and like most things is only a problem if given in excess. Would not give it to a dog that may have bleeding problems and restrict the amount if the dog is on a blood thining type of medication like asprin.

>If you are managing weight issues then be a little sparing with carrots and apples as both contain quite high amounts of sugar

Sorry off topic - I'm managing weight issues and just wanted to know to be sparing with carrots, apples and broccoli or just carrots and apples? Also, are there any other fruit and veg that are particularly high in sugars that are to be avoided when dealing with weight? Is there a website you could direct me to, so that it saves you the hassle (if it's a long list).

Thank you :)

I have all 5 of mine loving broccoli, both stems and tops.

My youngest will eat every fruit and veg given to her from apples pears bananas strawberries oranges sweet potato squash pumpkin celery peppers carrots sweet corn peas beans sprouts cauliflower you name it, so it would be good to know if any of the above are no no's.

None of these cause her any problem gut and poo wise but it would be good to know if she's having anything she shouldn't.

She's not a veg only fed dog by the way, just a very very greedy highly active raw fed piggy.

> Also, are there any other fruit and veg that are particularly high in sugars

You could probably do a calorie check online as the most weight watchers websites have the information but as a rough guide I always work on the principle that 'green is good' when it comes to vegetables. Root veg is generally higher in sugar so avoid too many carrots, parsnips or sweet potato (thank about the fact they caramelise when roasted...), and feed fruit sparingly.

For most healthy weight dogs you don't need to consider this at all but if you are adding vegetables to your dogs meal in order to bulk it out whilst reducing portion sizes, then it could be a factor.

(Don't forget that you can't feed raw potato at all - solanine - see this post for more info on this topic)