I'm beginning to think that Holly has a little bit of fruit bat in her pedigree. For the last few weeks she has been grazing her way along every blackberry bush we pass. She's become very efficient at sniffing the berries, then taking the fresh ones off a stem. I hate to think how many she eats in the course of a walk, and she's doing it every day. This made me wonder if its sensible for a Labrador to eat so many blackberries. Can dogs have blackberries without any ill effects? We're not seeing any ill effects; poops are normal (but bigger) and its having no effect on her behaviour. Can anyone advise whether blackberries are OK for dogs in these quantities?
I walk with a chap who has a Labrador and she eats prodigious amounts of Blackberries and apples and seems fine, she is five years old now.
I have blackberries in the garden and Chepi has been grazing on them for weeks. I think I checked my new Gundog veterinary bible and googled and dogs can have blackberries without a problem. I still keep an eye on her as an excess of any fruit would give a dodgy tum.
Molly is another fruit freak, windfall apples, plums, blackberries and now nuts. She cracks them with her teeth and eats the lots including shell. On a really good day she also finds a yummy banana skin in the hedgerow.
Anything out of the ordinary that I feed Charlie seems to give him runny poo....but he seems to be able to raid the soft fruit patch - including most of the harvest from the carefully cultivated Loch Ness blackberry plants, my raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, without a care, and perfect poos.....
My dogs eat blackberries too, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and apples. All wild. The only problem I have encountered is I think, I'm not sure, but I think one dog also ate poisonous berries from wild Clintonia. I can't find conclusive information that the berries even ARE poisonous. Or that she ate them for sure. But she got sick every fall for three years in a row till it occurred to me that the berries, which look sort of like wild grapes or big blueberries, might be the culprit. And when I watched and kept away from where they grew she did not get sick in any subsequent fall. So I warn, if they eat one berry they might eat another. Children might too. And they can't tell which ones are safe.
My old dog loves blackberries so much that friends send him blackberries and raspberries as get well soon gifts. He used to be able to pick his own but he doesn't go out much now. Midge likes to eat them when we are out and the young fellow is catching on now. They all like raspberries the most.
Fred eats as many as he can get his paws on, when we are out and about. He even will go in my greenhouse and help himself to tomatoes and he is always OK.
Juno is a great fruit fan but I don't allow her to help herself whether from the garden or when out walking. If we give it to her she can eat it, if not she can't - helps to monitor what she's eating and what quantities , so never had a problem
Another fruit bat here. Loads of wild rasps here which Mira hoovers up with relish. I was gathering apples from a tree in the old railway cutting yesterday and she ate many windfalls. Last year she broke the trunk of our young plum tree by jumping up to steal the plums just as they ripened Cast iron stomach too!
Lilly is the WORST with our plums - goodness only knows how many she has on a daily basis. She is constantly at the back door wanting out to see if any more have fallen off in the last 10 mins since her last trip out. Aaarrgghh! She munches half, spits out the pip, then scoffs the rest. The raspberries have all gone, but the brambles are still there if she fancies a change.
Oh yes we have a blackberry picker too. Thomas, Hattie and I went blackberry picking a couple of weeks ago, Hattie very kindly walked on and sat by the best bushes, so it was one for her, one for the box Luckily I have a good "leave it" so she didn't eat too many so over 2 kilos are in the freezer and no dodgy after effects. xx
