Is this safe?

[Laurel]

Blaise has a fetish for potatoes. Twice now I have caught him grabbing a potato out of the bag. The second time I was too late and all that was left of it was little chibbles. Will this hurt him?

[rottlove]

There is a chemical called, I think, cyanocobalamin, that is present in raw potatoes and toxic in high doses. Potatoes are a nightshade. I wouldn't worry about the occasional raw potato, though. When in doubt, ask your vet!

[Laurel]

Enough said...that is all it takes to convince me to get the potatoes out of reach. Don't want to risk taking any chances :) Thanks for your quick response!

[moondog]

Potatoes are fine, as long as any sprouts or green areas are removed (same as for people). Here's a link to toxic substances, including plants:

http://www.doberdogs.com/Toxic.html

This link is getting quite a bit of air time today! :)

[Rott-Wiley]

Laurel, I have read in a Natural Foods for dogs book to not feed potatos. They did not say why you should not feed them and potatos were not on the list of foods to avoid. So I don't know. Just from that information I haven't made them part of my dogs normal diet. I will include some leftover cooked potatos from time to time but that's all.

[Burnsway]

Depends on the dogs. I swear Psyche has very little problem eating and digesting anything but Potatoes, raw or cooked, or Corn(Corn I can understand) come back up within minutes.......:(

I would just watch your dog close and I'm sure all will be fine! All dogs are different in dietary ways........;) But I do not think potatoes in themself are usually dangerouse to dogs!

My Pom mix can't have anything but her Regular food.......:D (learned that the hard way)......

[moondog]

I home-cook for my dog. She has an intestinal disease and the diet she was initially started on after her diagnosis used cooked potato as the carbohydrate source. She ate potato as a main part of her diet for months and did fine with it. My Strombeck book on home-cooked diets for healthy or sick dogs has scores of diets using potato as the primary source of carbohydrates. His diets are a result of his years doing gastrointestinal research at UC Davis, so I think potatoes are fine, LOL! :D

The biggest problem I has with potato is that it is very difficult to get enough calories in a Rottweiler to meet their caloric requirements. :)

And yes, it does depend on the dog. Some like it better than others and some tolerate it better than others.

[rottlove]

oops, the stuff in raw potatoes is called solanine. Cyanocobalamin is another word for good old vitamin B12!

[Laurel]

Blaise keeps going out to where I kept the potatoes and comes back and looks at me as if to say "Mom, where did they go?". lmao. So much for the potato stealing rottie.

[Rott-Wiley]

Originally posted by Laurel
Blaise keeps going out to where I kept the potatoes and comes back and looks at me as if to say "Mom, where did they go?". lmao. So much for the potato stealing rottie.

That is funny! Just when he thought he found a great source for an occasional snack. Yum! Now it's gone :(