FEEDING. 143 



its trip through, which would mean death to the dog. Burn all your CHICKEN 

 BONES excepting the necks. 



Vegetables and rice mixed in the mush you have made are very good for a 

 change, and the hill of fare can be thus varied once a week or so, which will be 

 appreciated by the dog. Carrots and beets are the best to use, cabbage not agree- 

 ing with all dogs; potatoes are too fattening and possess very little nourishment. 

 A baked sweet potato is relished by dogs, but the same objection applies here, 

 besides leaving a sweet taste, and dogs should never have anything sweet. 



All dogs should have more or less hard feed two or three times a week at 

 any rate, a bone or a biscuit, or something they can use their teeth upon and not 

 bolt. A dog's teeth are jus't as important to its continued well-being as those of a 

 human being, and as we cannot provide our four footed friends with a false set, 

 every care should be exercised in order to preserve the teeth. 



Of vegetables, onions, carrots, turnips, beet root, and potatoes are the most 

 nutritious and fat formhjg^t5abbages and similar kinds are good for the blood, 

 but contain few positive properties. Oatmeal is fattening but heating; rice forms 

 an ideal food for toys, being very easily digested, satisfying, but not too stimula- 

 tive; pearl barley, sago, tapioca, and semolina may all be made use of as changes. 



Milk is a complete food in itself, only suitable, however, unassisted in the 

 earliest stages, but in combination with other material it may and should be used 

 freely in a kennel. Only note that i't is fresh, and boil at once, which goes far 

 to preserve it, and destroys most impurities it may contain. 



Eggs are much on a par with milk, and especially useful when nourishment 

 has to be given with a spoon. Cooked liver is not a bad thing to mix in the food 

 once in awhile, but not oftener than once a week. Pork or veal are not good for 

 dogs, excepting a veal bone, neither are lights good. In summer I give them 

 some buttermilk once or twice a week; sour milk (clabber) is also very good 

 once in a while. Cornmeal mush or baked corn bread for a change in winter is 

 ali right, but much too heating to the blood in summer. Candy, cake, or anything 

 sweet or too greasy should M;VI i; be given a dog you might just as well give 

 them poison in small doses. Many a dog has died before its time due to this 

 mistaken kindness of its master or mietress. When darling Fido so frightens his 

 mistress with that low moan, succeeded by that painful and prolonged howl, with 

 his back arched, his feet tucked in towards each other, and vainly trying every 

 possible posture to escape the pain, he is merely suffering the natural result of 

 that last lump of sugar. True, Fidp may have had sugar frequently without 

 suffering in this way, but the last lump is the straw that breaks the camel's back; 

 and no surprise need be felt if persistence in the kindly-meant but objectionable 

 practices induces repeated attacks of colic, ending in inflammation and de"ath. 



I have been called in many a time to see a sick dog that was in misery due 

 solely to improper and over-feeding, but could do it no good, for it was so fat, 

 asthmatical and wheezy that it could hardly walk or get its breath; no medical 

 skill could avail and the pet had to die not its fault, but its owner's. Take my 

 advice and warning don't feed your pet these poisons everytime it begs you, 

 perhaps by "sitting up" or "speaking," but treat it with true kindness by feeding 

 as I have advised,, and never oftener than twice a day. Always keep clean, fresh 

 water handy, and in summer see that it is never exposed to. the sun. Eggs are 

 good for dogs, but I have found that in cases of a sick dog with a weak stomach 

 very few of them can hold it down. Chicken gravy, or the gravy with a little 

 flour in it, as the wife makes it in stewing chicken giblets, is often accepted by 

 a sick dog after refusing everything else that has been offered it. 



