Pumpkin

[Tiga's_mom]

Hello everyone. I haven't been posting too much but I do lurk quite a bit. Tiga is doing very well since his surgery. He had a traditional repair to his ACL is April.

 

I have a question about pumpkin. Tiga has issues expressing his anal glands, likely because of his allergies. I'm going to try putting some pumpkin back into his diet. My questions is, can I use the pumpkin out of the one that we're carving for halloween to feed him? If so, how do I prepare it? I've been reading that normally to use pumpkin that you bake or steam a smaller, sweeter pumpkin, not a jack-o-latern, cutting it up before cooking it with the skin left on and then take the skin off when it's cooked and put it in a food processor. That's normally for a pumpkin pie so I don't care about the sweetness. Tiga will eat anything. Any suggestions?

[Sue R]

Most canned pumpkin is really winter squash. Pie pumpkins are, as you say, not quite the same varieties as carving pumpkins. If he will eat it, I would just prepare it as you said, although I don't tend tp puree squash for the dogs so much as just to mash it up with a potato masher.

 

My dogs love cooked squash of all kinds, and I like to give them a little for the fiber, especially in the winter when there is no fresh grass for them to "graze" on.

 

Best wishes!

[Tiga's_mom]

But can I cook it without cutting it up? Can I scoop the insides out and cook that without the skin on? I've never carved a pumpkin before so excuse my ignorance.

[Tuxedodog]

But can I cook it without cutting it up? Can I scoop the insides out and cook that without the skin on? I've never carved a pumpkin before so excuse my ignorance.

 

If you don't carve it like a jack-o-lantern, just split it in half and put it cut sides down on a baking sheet and roast it until it is soft or collapses, and then scoop it out of the skin. If you have carved it, chances are it will be spoiled by the time you decide to cook it.

[ejano]

If you don't carve it like a jack-o-lantern, just split it in half and put it cut sides down on a baking sheet and roast it until it is soft or collapses, and then scoop it out of the skin. If you have carved it, chances are it will be spoiled by the time you decide to cook it.

 

I don't feed pumpkin to the dogs, but I do process home-grown pumpkins for pies and pumpkin bread. The type of pumpkin you buy for Halloween carving is generally a different variety than the type best suited for eating.

 

I also split the pumpkin in half place it cut side down in a little water in a large roasting pan and "tent" the pumpkin halves with foil to steam it...makes the process go a little faster. Scoop out the pumpkin, drain it in a colander then beat it smooth with a mixer, freeze (or put up in jars with spices for pies, but that's not for the dogs ) - If you freeze the pumpkin in ice cube trays then pop out the cubes and put them in plastic freezer bags, you'll be able to take out the appropriate serving amount for each meal.

[Tiga's_mom]

Thank you all for your information. I think I'll just go get a smaller pumpkin or squash for him. The ice cube tray is a great idea. I normally buy canned pumpkin and just put tablespoons in small baggies and freeze those but sometimes it's challenging to remove the baggie. I just thought that I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone and use the same pumpkin for both. I obviously had a skewed view of what happens when you carve a pumpkin.

[urge to herd]

The thing about peeling a hard squash or pumpkin uncooked is that it's difficult - always makes my tendonitis flare up. Cooking after splitting, (either baking or steaming) means that scooping out the cooked part is very easy.

 

You can use any hard winter squash, butternut, acorn, etc. My guys would wait in the kitchen as soon as I popped one into a steamer, and they would eat it all by itself.

 

Ruth

[sluj]

Growing up, we always used our Jack-o-lanterns for pie. Just had to strain more liquid out of the pulp, or it would take forever to bake. I don't expect the dogs would really mind the slightly blander flavour or extra juice, though.

[Root Beer]

I've prepared the jack-o-lantern type pumpkins for my dogs.

 

I cut open the top and scoop out all of the seeds and stuff. Then I cut it into a few big pieces. I put those pieces peel side up in a shallow baking pan and put in about an inch of water. I cover it with foil and bake for an hour or so.

 

After letting it cool, I use a spoon to scoop out the cooked part of the pumpkin and discard the peel.

 

The dogs like it.

[Alchemist]

I'm with Sharon and Kristine - any kind of pumpkin should be fine. If you're buying them for decorations and not carving them, why waste them? (but if you carve them and put candles in them, they start getting nasty FAST, plus I wouldn't be that thrilled with eating/feeding the candle soot).

 

Only I invest even less effort in prepping them. When I'm cooking a pie (or a butternut squash) for pumpkin pie, I just throw it in the oven, skin on, and bake it until it's soft. Cool it, cut it in half, separate the seeds (don't need to be that picky about getting all the stringy bits out), scrape out the flesh from the skin, and puree. For pie I cook the pumpkin/squash until it's REALLY soft (helps caramelize the sugar, makes the flavor denser), but I wouldn't think that dogs would care.

[nancy]

I used to let each of the 3 kids carve a pumpkin. And put a candle in it.

 

The next morning, I'd cut up the things. Then scrape out the soot and other detritus. And cut so that I could trim where they'd carved. And bake the pumpkin, which I then mashed and used for pies.

 

If I got the almost yellow pumpkins, I had to drain a ton of water out after I baked and scraped the meat. But the water worked fine in my yeast breads. The dark orange pumpkins had way more meat to water.

 

Hey, I'm a New England Yankee - no matter where I live now. We don't waste anything!