FEEDING OF DOGS. 73 



mixed with them. Potatoes, even without meal, will be found to 

 form a good food for dogs which are not wanted for very active 

 exertion : they are cooling, and, when mixed with milk or butter- 

 milk, are sufficiently nutritious for all common purposes, and form 

 in this way an economical and wholesome food : if they are not re- 

 lished alone, a small proportion of greaves or other fatty matter, 

 may be added, which will make them palatable. When circrnn- 

 stances render it absolutely necessary to feed principally on either 

 barley or oat meal, the heating effects may be also greatly obviated 

 by mixing it with buttermilk. In all cases likewise of eruptive 

 affection, as mange, canker, &c., buttermilk will be found to pos- 

 sess something of a curative as well as preventive quality. 



In the feeding of favourites, much error is frequently com- 

 mitted ; for their tastes being consulted, they are too apt to be 

 wholly fed on flesh, and this in great quantities too. In such 

 cases, although the evil is acknowledged, yet it is alleged that the 

 animals will not eat any other food ; it is, however, always in the 

 power of those who feed them to bring them to live on vegetables 

 entirely even if it be desired ; but it requires, in some cases, con- 

 siderable determination and perseverance. If the usual quantity 

 of meat a dog eats be minced extremely fine, and a small portion 

 of mashed potatoes be mixed with it, it will not be possible for him 

 to separate the animal from the vegetable portion : if he refuses 

 to eat the mixture, let it remain until hunger obliges him to do it. 

 At each meal, a very small additional quantity of potatoes may be 

 added ; and this practice, if persisted in, will bring him at last to 

 live almost wholly on potatoes, or any other vegetable that may be 

 selected. In a medical point of view, a vegetable diet is often very 

 important. In many cases a complete change of food forms the 

 very best alterative ; and, in others, it is a most excellent auxiliary 

 to the curative treatment which is to be adopted. The cases that 

 require a change from an animal to a vegetable diet are frequent : 

 all eruptive diseases ; all fat and plethoric dogs ; all coughs, de- 

 pendent on congestion or repletion ; and various other inflamma- 



