Cancer survivor spends £100 a month on ‘human food’ for her two dogs so they can be ‘healthy for as long as possible’

A Sunderland mother said she spends £100 a month feeding her two dogs the same “human food” she eats, prompting her son to joke she treats them “better” than he was treated growing up.

Mags Burns, 65, a retired civil servant from Cleadon, said her two golden retrievers, Luca, 10, and Ryder, one, are “fitter” than any of her six golden retrievers over the years and credited their human-grade diet of scrambled eggs on toast, porridge, fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables, and steaks on their birthdays.

She said her dogs are a “huge part” of her life, especially after her husband of 40 years, Denis Burns, died in 2025 from cancer.

The mother-of-one said she has “always” been a dog person but she fed her previous pets tinned dog food and kibble, with the occasional “scraps from the table” too.

The catalyst for Mags feeding them the same thing she ate was her stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis in 2011 at 50 years old that resulted in a double mastectomy, which gave her a “wake-up call” that made her “totally reassess” what she was putting into her body.

Mags told PA Real Life: “I cut out a lot of sugar and things that weren’t particularly healthy. And I made sure that I had fruit and vegetables.

“Once I was cancer-free, I still decided to eat healthier for myself and my family. And because I do that for myself, I do that for my pets too.

“Because, really, my dogs are part of my family. So if I was feeding a child, I would feed the child healthy food. I do the same with the dog,” she added.

Mags said a typical day involves her 13-month-old puppy, Ryder, getting out of his bed next to hers and waking her up to go outside around 7am.

After both Luca and Ryder have a play outside, Mags said she starts on breakfast for the three of them, which is usually scrambled eggs on toast or porridge with Greek yoghurt and dog-friendly fruit, like bananas or apples.

“They’ll have exactly the same as me,” Mags said. “And I just put it down in their bowls, then I’ll sit at the table and I’ll have my breakfast while they are having theirs.”

After breakfast, Mags said the three of them will go for a “lovely long walk” for at least an hour and a half in nearby hills or woods.

Mags said: “If we go to the beach, there’s a little cafe so I’ll get a coffee and they’ll get a sausage.”

After the trio return home, Mags said she will have a sandwich or some sardines on toast around 1pm, while Luca and Ryder might get a tin of sardines each, mixed in with kibble to bulk it up before another early afternoon walk.

At dinnertime around 6pm, Mags said she will have fish or chicken with vegetables and mashed potatoes, while Luca and Ryder will have “exactly the same” but with added kibble “to give it a little bit of weight to it”.

After dinner, Mags said they will go for one last 20-minute walk around the village before they come home and “all have a slice of toast” with butter before they go to bed. The only thing that differs is Mags will enjoy a hot chocolate alongside her toast, while her golden retrievers will have water.

Mags said she has a few caveats, including never cooking with salt or giving the dogs food like onion, garlic, frozen chips and gravy, as well as limiting foods for the dogs like plain pasta and cheese.

“Technology is wonderful,” Mags said. “If I’m not sure about something, then I will Google it.

“And if I’m still unsure after that, I just wouldn’t give it to them, unless I spoke to a vet,” she added.

A weekly food shop will often consist of lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, like green beans, sprouts, potatoes, broccoli, and carrots, as well as fresh meat from the local butcher, like liver and chicken.

“The ladies in the butchers absolutely love my dogs,” Mags said. “They’ll come out and give them some bits of meat.

“My dogs will sit outside the butcher’s window and just look in. The lady that works there can’t resist so she comes out and gives them offcuts of ham, pork and beef.”

On her process for deciding what to cook each week, Mags said: “I don’t think, ‘I’ll buy this for the dogs and I’ll buy this for me’, I just buy food that I think we’re all going to have that week.

“I don’t want to eat the same thing every day, so I don’t think the dogs want to eat the same thing every day either. And whatever I get, they get,” she added.

In total, Mags said she spends around £100 a month on the human-grade food she feeds her dogs and a further £100 on typical dog food, like a bag of kibble, Jumbone dental sticks, and “little treats” like ice creams. Mags spends more money on food for her dogs than she does on herself.

For their birthdays, Mags said Luca and Ryder get a “nice steak” and presents that they love to rip open, while their Christmas dinner consists of turkey, mashed potatoes, sprouts, broccoli, and parsnips: “They lick their lips and absolutely love it.”

According to new research from Pets at Home, 68% of dog owners add “human” superfoods to their dog’s meals, which Mags said she does for Luca and Ryder, citing salmon oil to make their coats shiny or carrots for their dental health.

Mags said her 10-year-old Luca has never been to the vet “for anything” besides routine injections and worming tablets, for which she credits the food she gives him and his exercise regime.

She said: “I personally believe that you are what you eat, and that must go for dogs too.

“They only really ask to be well treated and well fed but the amount of love you get back is tenfold,” she added.

Mags said her son, Graeme Burns, 38, will look after her dogs when she can’t take them on holidays with her and he will “cook from scratch” for them too. She added: “My son will say, ‘You treat the dogs better than you treated me! They get away with murder’.”

Mags said she understands not everyone can “afford” to do what she does with her dogs, then added: “You just do what you think is right for you and your family.

“I’m fortunate that I’ve got the time and the capacity to be able to do that.

“I wouldn’t want to preach to anybody else how they should look after their pets. It’s entirely up to them. But that’s what I do for mine.

“My dogs give me a huge amount of pleasure so I just want to make sure that they can be healthy for as long as possible,” she added.

Pets at Home has launched its own-brand dog food range, Ruff’s Recipes, inspired by home cooking and made with functional, nutrient-rich ingredients.