It’s the holiday season, and while we’re greeting family and friends at the door, it may be the purr-fect time for your furry one to grab a treat. Here are some foods you should make sure your furry friends avoid during Thanksgiving.

1. Raw or uncooked meat – Salmonella isn’t only a threat to you and your stomach, but to your dog or cats tummy too. Eating raw meat, like turkey, is terrible for your pets’ stomach.
2. Bones – This one isn’t the most obvious. You give your dog bones all the time from the pet store? Bones from a cooked animal, like lamb or turkey, will fragment and could cause internal damage to your pet, if they eat them. Bones can also cause obstructions, some of which can only be fixed with surgery. So save everyone’s holiday, and throw away any bones from your meal, so your pets can’t get to them.
3. Beer – It may be funny to see if your dog is interested in the smell of beer or not, but letting your dog have beer is dangerous for their health. Beer can cause fever, seizures, rapid heartbeat, and more in a dog. So don’t give it to them intentionally, and be sure to monitor abandoned cups left on the floor or tabletops, and make sure your pet doesn’t have access to them.
4. Turkey Skin – This applies to any poultry skin, or fatty portion of animal meat. This fat is hard for your pet to digest, and it can cause your pet’s pancreas to become inflamed which leads to pancreatitis.
5. Spices – Your pet doesn’t handle spices the same way that we do, so it’s important to consider what spicing is in your food. For example, while sweet potatoes and pumpkin puree are great for dogs, nutmeg is not. Nutmeg has mild hallucinogenic properties for your pet, which can lead to seizures. Sage is also another spice that is toxic for dogs. It contains resins and oils that can be very harmful to your dog’s tummy, and it can even cause damage to your dog’s central nervous system. Include onions and garlic in the list of spices that your pet should never have. Onions and garlic contain sulfides, which can harm your dog’s blood and lead to anemia.
6. Macadamia Nuts – You may think that all nuts are fine for your dog, they do love the occasional treat of peanut butter. Macadamia nuts, specifically, cause serious problems ranging from lethargy, to vomiting, to your dog being unable to stand up on their own. Your dog can have macadamia nut toxicosis, so be sure to keep them away from your dog.
7. Lastly: Chocolate – Most people know that chocolate is harmful for pets, especially dogs, but it can’t hurt to include it on any list of harmful foods for your pets.

So keep an eye out for your furry friends, monitor what they have access to, and inform your holiday guests not to feed your dog table scraps. If your dog or cat has a problem with scavenging for food even where they’re not allowed, it may be a better idea to keep them in a bedroom or kennel for the duration of the meal, or cooking process.