The chomping sound our dogs make as they attack the vegetables we give them from the yard is something that will never get old to me. Our dogs really love radishes. Rigby, our lab mix, can recognize the sound of us pulling radishes from the dirt and will come running from across the yard to get a bite! Our little dog Murphy is not too far behind. As enjoyable as gardening is on it's own gardening with your pets makes it even better!
Cucumbers: Cucumbers make for a hydrating snack that has vitamins and minerals that are great for both you and your dog. Like Zucchini, once you have a producing plant you will be carrying basket fulls very soon. As of April 2024 we have scaled up our yard and are starting to grow our own cucumbers!
Always look up anything new you are feeding your dogs. It's always best to be cautious and confirm something is non-toxic to our beloved dogs before feeding them. You also never want to feed your dogs any seasonings or spices.
We add steamed vegetables to our dogs regular meals (a mix of wet and dry dog food) to add more fiber, nutrients, and just make it healthier in general. One of our dogs gets so excited about us adding different veggies to his meal that he is actually less excited if we don't.
Here is a list of what we love to grow for us and our dogs to munch on fresh from the garden and in the kitchen…
Radish: Radish has grown to be one of my favorite vegetables to grow. They are quick to mature, grow even in colder weather, and I cannot express this enough: my dogs go absolutely crazy for radishes. We grow radishes all year with ease and we always plant more than we think we will ever need because our dogs will definitely eat everything!
Zucchini: We used to buy so much zucchini from the grocery store because our dogs love them so much! We like to steam them for our dogs but we do sometimes saute them with no seasonings. While we love zucchini growing it in the garden for the dogs was essentially necessary for our budget! Zucchini is a warm weather plant so we are not able to grow it year around like the radishes but we can squeeze about nine solid months where we are harvesting zucchini regularly.
Squash and Pumpkin: We have had a lot of luck with our squash and pumpkin this past year and will be doubling up up this next year too. The biggest issue we had with growing pumpkins was gophers coming from below to snack on the leaves.
Snap peas: My wife grew Snap Peas very successfully this past cold season to great success. We started to grow so much we humans were not able to eat them all. Luckily, Rigby and Murphy have been assisting with eating the snap peas before they expire.
Carrots: Carrots are hit and miss with our dogs. Sometimnes I wounder if they think it's a weird tasting radish. Sometimes they love them sometimes they'll be completely uninterested. Carrots are safe for your dogs to eat both raw and cooked.
Kale: I know what you're thinking and yes your dogs may enjoy kale! Rigby loves kale but is sometimes picky and will only eat it if the leaves are picked off and hand fed to him. I know! SO SPOILED!
Vegetables and fruit we do not grow ourselves but feed our dogs:
Apples: Please remove the seeds before serving an apple to your dog as the seeds are toxic to dogs. We are going to be adding more fruit trees to our property over time, including apple trees. Our bigger dog Rigby does enjoy apples occasionally.
Yams: Our dogs love yams and we always have several in our kitchen waiting for our dogs. We like to steam them for our dogs but we also saute them too if we're low on time.