Table food means the food that the humans eat. We used to feed our dogs with dog food regardless of the cost. However, there was a time that there was shortage of dog food. And then there was that recall in Thailand of a particular dog food brand. So we studied on how to feed our dogs with homemade dog food. Now we cook chicken by boiling with no salt. That's more delicious than the canned dog food. And how about broiled fish with no flavoring? Much more delicious for our dogs. And it is much cheaper, of course.
IMHO pet food manufacturers will spread lots of "myths" so people can buy pet food from them. For ages, dogs and other pets ate the same food those who owned them ate. While I do know that there is food which shouldn't be fed to dogs [cooked bones which splinter easily for example] there are some table scraps dogs can eat and save the owner some money on pet food. That said, I don't buy pet food preferring instead to make the food the dogs will eat myself. And they are very healthy too.
I typically feed my dogs actual pet food. However, that being said if I have any table scraps that are suitable for my dogs then yes I will let them finish it off. Especially carrots or boiled potatoes, or meat of course,not that there's often a lot of meat left as we don't buy a lot of it in the first place. I think it's a great way to make use of the food rather than throw it in the bin though. I'd much prefer it fed something. My cat will also finish off any fish or chicken scraps if we have them, although it's less often she seems to get anything with two hungry dogs around!
"Pet food" is deplorable.. there is a lot more in there than you think and it shouldn't be fed to our little family members. I make as much as I can for them on my own and sometimes we buy good quality pet food for them (as good a quality as we can find anyway).. they don't deserve such horrible garbage that stores sell to the generally unaware public. Things no animal should be fed. Our pets, and we as consumers, should have healthy food options for them as we do, to an extent, for ourselves. But animals can't speak, so companies will forever take advantage of that and most people being unaware of what they put in there. I'm very very careful of the food I buy for them.. but even that isn't good enough when purchasing ready made food for them. Otherwise, I feed them "human food" that I know they can properly digest and thrive off of.. which many table foods aren't appropriate for and again, most are unaware and think it's fine because they aren't immediately sick. We all need to educate ourselves on food, no matter who it's for.
Our veterinarian actually advised us to feed our dogs only dog food since they get fleas and skin diseases easily. It worked since right now, they don't have both. We buy dog food by the sack at our local pet store at a good price. Sometimes, we feed them those canned goods for dogs but not that often since it's not advised by the doctor. We used to feed them table food as well. But it seemed like that contributed to their skin disease. Their furs would get lost and they would have red, watery patches with some abscess in their skin. We don't know exactly what foods trigger it though so we just avoid them all.
We just bought a new puppy, it has a breed, so it's given special treatment and it's being given dog food for puppies. What we do is feed table food to the other finicky dog (also with breed), and we have never considered making "pet food" aside from the method that you have mentioned. It's still simple cooking, right?
I agree because dog food can be so expensive, and some of it is so vile that even the dogs themselves will their noses up at it!. All the dogs we've had in the past tend to shun dog biscuits and some of that vile canned dog food. I think as long as you are careful about what you feed your dogs, you're probably best off making the food yourself. My mum and dad tend to give theirs meat mainly, and in some cases, dependent on their breed, milk. They lap all that stuff up! Apparently some breeds can't digest milk properly. So far all the dogs we've had have thrived and done ok on that sort of diet.
