feeding dogs "non dog food"

I just got a Golden Retriever pup & the breeder feeds their dogs a substantial portion of their diet in non-dog food. Most of it is vegetables (a LOT of green beans). Apparently, they eat a lot of venison & pork that is harvested wild on their property. Their dogs are beautiful and appear healthy.
I grew up being scolded if we gave the dogs 'table scraps'.
Obviously, you don't want to give a dog highly processed, preservative & hormone filled human food. I also don't want to have an overweight or allergy burdened dog.
Does anybody else subscribe to this feeding option? I spend a lot of cash on expensive food from the vet, and would like to chop that expense down.
Thanks, I'll hang up & listen.

I feed table scraps along with the dog food, but I never overdo it.

No table scraps for my lab. However wild meat and veggies is very healthy food so . . .

I will do an occasional steak, chicken or turkey scrap but other than that it is strictly dry kibble with an added flax blend. There are some great dog foods out there today - lots of organic and wild food choices. If you want to get a fun thread going, just ask what is the best type of dog food to feed.

what do you think dogs ate before this man made diet was started? Whatever they could kill or scrounge up or table scraps...these dog food companies have everyone believing that dogs cant survive and live a long healthy life without them.

Dogs do pretty good on road kill. Deer and hog scraps.

Dry dog food is the easiest and cheapest for me. My little Yorkie eats it but still doesn't mind a little from the table.

I've seen dogs with pancreitis from being fed too many table scraps.

Yes, it is widely known that dogs do get Pancreitis with too much fat in their diet (especialy when they aren't used to it). Dogs that 'get into the trash' frequently end up @ the Vet due to Pancreitis.
I have tons of fresh vegetables in my garden & multiple freezers full of game- some of the meats are quite lean. I won't feed him corn because Golden Retrievers are prone to corn allergies. Grandpa's Coon Dogs did seemingly well without Purina/Science Diet/Alpo...

I feed my dogs victor blue I get it at my local feed store not too bad priced and my dogs love it she leaned down and helped build muscle

My dog loves oranges And apples. Just have to be careful with the apple seeds.


Veggie he eats include carrots, green beans, broccoli. He does not like celery


I have yet to find a meet he doesn't like.


I also put an egg on his food about once a week which helps his coat

I have fed my dogs old deer meat from the freezer at the start of the new season before. The dogs up north we always fill them full of deer fat and bones as we clean them. Wild meat is great protein for them.

On that note, if your commercial dog food has corn as it's primary ingredient, you aren't doing your dog a good service.

Wrong about the corn. I feed Purina Dog Chow and my dogs have as much bottom as any others in the field, and firm stools. That's all I ask for.

ive raised several hundred dogs of all ages and have yet to have one experience anything of the sort.

Corn equals filler.

But firm stools are important.

Actually no.

The benefits of corn

Corn has a lot of really nutritious qualities:

Corn is highly digestible. In fact, once cooked, corn is more digestible than rice, wheat, barley and sorghum1. You will find many internet articles that claim that corn is very hard for a dog to digest. This is only true if the corn is in its original, unground form. However, in order to be made into kibble it has to be processed and cooked and is therefore, quite digestible.
Corn contains essential fatty acids2, such as linoleic and linolenic which help with the health of the skin and coat.
Corn contains some great nutrients such as carotene (which is converted to Vitamin A in the body), vitamin E, and lutein2.
Corn is actually a quality protein. (see corn gluten meal below).
The following paragraph is taken from the Small Animal Clinical Nutrition textbook (4th edition):

Corn is a nutritionally superior grain compared with others used in pet foods because it contains a balance of nutrients not found in other grains. Corn provides a highly available source of complex carbohydrates and substantial quantities of linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid important for heathy skin. Corn also provides essential amino acids and fiber.

I eat the chit outta corn nuts.

It has some positive attributes, such as some you named and I didn't say it was bad to have in the food. Just not as the number one ingredient. It is an inexpensive filler.

Mine get non dog food, along with the high end dog food.
Its not table scrapes, but cottage cheese, plain greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, coconut oil, and fish.

I will be starting my new pup on Dr. Tims kinesis and raw wild meat such fish, duck, dove and venison. I will also supplement with fido flexx. As the pup gets older we will switch to Dr. Tims Pusuit and wild meat.

Cracker got a $0.99 cheeseburger after the morning hunt today.

I would say table scraps and non dog food need to have a place in a dogs mind.. but dosnt mean the non dog food is table scraps its more of how/when its fed to him..

Zipper and I have an understanding. If I am within eyesight, she does not touch any food other than what is placed in her bowl. If I am out of eyesight, anything she can scrounge up is fair game. I went into academy the other day to buy more shells after a morning hunt leaving her in the truck and completely forgot about the gas station donuts I had purchased earlier that morning. I came back to an empty package of donuts, lol.

Occasionally I will place scraps in her food bowl, but never feed her from the table. Just my little way of saying thanks for all she does on those extremely cold mornings when she's sitting there trying not to chatter teeth and spook birds. Truth be told, she probably eats healthier than I do.

I'll feed my dogs scraps of wild game that I'm cutting up (Fish, deer, etc). They get the miscellaneous veggies and stuff that drops on the floor while cookign (minus onion, avocado, etc).

Other than that they'll get Peanut Butter occasionally but we stick to their dry food almost 100%. They seem to do fine.

not really table scrapes, raw carrot, sweet potato & raw beef

My lab/gsp get all table scraps including all wild game, just don't over do it. His favorite is the dove heads, a reward for the retrieve. I didn't do this until he was older.

Raw meat is one of the best things you can give them. The large bags of chickens thighs are a great deal and good for their teeth. The dog show breeders feed the raw meat diet, I feed both dog food and raw, you will see a difference with raw meat, especially in their teeth. Deer leg bones are also good and they love them.

Though purely anecdotal, I am a believer in giving dogs as much "non dog food" as possible. Growing up in KY we had an accidental litter of puppies and $$$ was beyond tight for my grandparents. Luckily, it was deer season when they weaned and aside from very little cheap dog food, they got mostly deer legs, ribs, spines, organs, etc. I kept one of the puppies and he was one of THE smartest, healthiest dogs you could ever hope for. Coulda been genetic, coulda been environmental, but he was great.

I am of the school of thought that introducing novel protein sources in small amounts at young ages helps to prevent hypersensitive stomachs in dogs. Just don't overdo the fat (pancreatitis possible) and you'll be fine.

Several years ago a family move in next to me. They had a pair of Dobermans and they would piss me off to no end. Every time I would walk by the fence they would start barking like they were going to attack.
I wanted to warn them that if they jumped the fence, I would shoot them, so I walked up to the fence and told them that. She told me they were trained and they would listen to anything she said. I looked at the dogs teeth and it look like a tooth paste bright smile and their coats were shining . Latter we became friends and come to find out she is one of those dog judges on TV. I asked her what she fed them and she told me nothing but raw meat.
That was about 15 years ago and any chance I get, I give them raw meat.

Another thing, I was a Port-A fishing and at night I would walk out to the dock. Their was an older man who lived there with his dog. He would catch a few Croaker feed them to his dog right off the hook. I asked him about it and he said that he has been doing it for years.

Mine get trimmings from game while I'm cleaning it. Just not table scraps. No chips, left over mashed taters, none of that.

Your breeder's an intelligent person. Think about what we feed our dogs. Dried up, ultra-processed dog kibble. Do you think in his wild habitat your dog would EVER eat "animal by-product". No, he'd eat what was on the vine or in his kill. Everyone says dogs are carnivores, but that's wrong. Dog's are omnivores, meaning they east vegetables and fruit. Cats are carnivores. Carnivores cannot survive on just plan food and herbavores cannot servived on just meat product, omnivores can servive on either. You breeder is anintelligent person and I'd bet anything he's got pretty close to a zero record on health problems, his dogs live longer and do better and when they go crap in the yard it's smaller and doesn't stink the same as the rest of our dog's (all the undigestible stuff coming through our dogs leaves an odor for sure).