I am a big proponent of feeding your dog real human grade food (and the good stuff too, not the stuff that's been sitting out on sale at Walmart for a week). But unfortunately dogs can have very unpleasant or even deadly reactions to certain foods that we consider healthy for ourselves or even deem "super foods". And it's likely that several of these unsafe ingredients are stocked in your pantry right now!Almost everyone has heard that chocolate is bad for dogs. But starting out as a new Dog Food Chef I was not aware of most of the others. I mean, Avocado?! Come on, that's basically advertised as one of the healthiest things you can eat lately. I've had at least 1 dog in my family for 20+ years and I had never heard that macadamia nuts or nutmeg were highly toxic until I started looking into it for myself.
If you search around for a few minutes you'll find that just about every "Do Not Feed Your Dog" list online is different from the next. Some are even contradictory, making it very hard to trust that you're doing everything right as a responsible pet owner. To prove how ridiculous this actually is, I did a quick experiment. Doing what a normal person would do, I Googled for "Foods That Are Bad For Dogs". But I didn't just take the word of the first link or two. I analyzed what each of the top 10 search results were saying about dangerous foods for dogs. I also included the opinion of CanIGiveMyDog.com (as I've found this site's opinions to actually be in line with the majority of results I've seen throughout my past research).
Aggregate Information From The Top 10 Google Search Results for "Foods That Are Bad For Dogs"
(Red = Stay Away, X = Site Indicated Dogs Should Avoid / O = Site Indicated It Was Good for Dogs in 'small amounts')| Food | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total | CanIGiveMyDog.com |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onions, Onion Powder, Chives | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | 9 | No | |
| Grapes, Raisins, Currants | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | 9 | No | |
| Chocolate | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | 9 | No | |
| Garlic, Garlic Powder | X | X | X | O | X | X | X | X | X | 8 | Very, Very Little | |
| Avocado | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | No | ||||
| Alcohol | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | No | ||||
| Coffee, Tea (Caffeine) | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | Only Tea if decaf | ||||
| Milk, Yogurt, Cheese (Dairy) | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | Mild Cheese or Yogurt on Occasion | ||||
| Macadamia Nuts | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | No | ||||
| Candy, Gum, Toothpaste, artificial Sweeteners (Anything with "Xylitol" in it) |
X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | No | ||||
| The Seeds of Any Fruit | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | All Fruit Seeds are bad, the Fruit is OK | ||||
| Yeast Dough | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | Not Listed | ||||
| Salt or Salty Foods | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | No | ||||
| Fat or Grizzle | X | X | X | X | 4 | Avoid Extra Fat, Normal Amounts Are Fine | ||||||
| Mushrooms | X | X | X | X | 4 | Only Store Bought are OK | ||||||
| Almonds, Peacons, Walnuts | X | X | X | X | 4 | No | ||||||
| Citrus | X | X | X | 3 | Not Bad but Not Good For Dogs Either | |||||||
| Hops | X | X | X | 3 | Not Listed | |||||||
| Raw Potatoes | X | X | X | 3 | Not Raw, Cooked Are Fine | |||||||
| Cat Food | X | X | 2 | No | ||||||||
| Raw Salmon or Trout | X | X | 2 | Only If You Trust the Source | ||||||||
| (Most) Human Vitamins | X | X | 2 | No | ||||||||
| Marijuana | X | X | 2 | No | ||||||||
| Rhubarb (specifically the leaves) | X | X | 2 | Not Listed | ||||||||
| Sugar | X | X | 2 | Not Listed | ||||||||
| Tobacco | X | X | 2 | Not Listed | ||||||||
| Nutmeg | X | 1 | No | |||||||||
| Baking Soda / Baking Powder | X | 1 | Not Listed | |||||||||
| Coconut / Coconut Oil | X | O | 1 | Not Needed | ||||||||
| Cinnamon | X | 1 | Not Bad But Not Good For Dogs Either | |||||||||
| Mustard Seeds | X | 1 | Not Listed |
*Sites Tested in the Data Above (Results as of 4-2-2016)
Here are my 3 rules I think about before I feed my dog something:
Rule #1 - "If you wouldn't feed it to a baby, don't feed it to a dog"
Safe to say you should use common sense and skip the marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, hops and caffeine. Baby's done need candy, gum or artificial sweeteners either. Stay away from items that say they are "low-fat" as most contain the toxic Xylitol.
Rule #2 - "Stay away from seasonings and condiments"
You're not adding any nutritional value by putting in added salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic powder or anything else from the spice cupboard. There is also no value coming from sauces or dips. Dogs have far fewer taste buds than humans and love the flavor of real foods as they are without adding anything to spice it up.
Rule #3 - "Don't plant seeds (or nuts) in your dog"
While there are some very good exceptions to this rule (pumpkin and sunflower seeds are great when ground up), the majority of seeds or nuts are either toxic or a choking hazard for dogs. Double check if you're looking to add a specific seed or nut into your dogs diet but otherwise, you eat it.What would the Dog Food Chef do?
Anything in the list that I've marked in red certainly does not go into my dog's food or treats. For the rest of the items that are more questionable, this is what I do:
Fine With Me
Coconut Oil
I've used coconut oil in several recipes before as it does contain nutrients and good fats but it is certainly not a large part of my dogs diet.
Yogurt / Cheese
A good quality whole plane yogurt is the only kind I will put on my dog's food as an added treat occasionally. There are health benefits depending on your dogs diet but it isn't an ingredient that I want to include as a staple in my dog food recipes. Absolutely no low-fat or no-fat yogurt.
Cheese I will use as a treat. I keep to the mild cheeses like mozzarella. But if I'm making dinner I'll usually provide a small reward of whatever I'm using for good behavior in the kitchen (not standing under my feet).
I Don't Avoid
Fats
Animal Fats - I use high quality chicken (mostly dark meat) or grass fed beef and have no concern about the fat from the cuts of meat coming from these animals. These are high quality healthy fats and tend to be leaner or well marbled meats due to the nature of how they were raised.
Vegetable Fats - I will use coconut oil, eggs, cheese (for a treat), full fat yogurt (for a treat), fish, crushed sunflower seeds, etc.
Mushrooms
My rule for mushrooms is: If you wouldn't eat them yourself then neither should your dog. I've not yet needed to use any mushrooms as part of a recipe.
No Thank You
Garlic
Most sites all agree that garlic is bad but occasionally you'll run across someone that says a little bit is healthy. I'm personally not going to risk stomach pains or gas in my dog with it but there will of course be some dogs that have no issues.
Vitamins
The only vitamins or medicine I will give my dog I clear with my vet first. Each brand has different ingredient amounts or extra ingredients thrown in as filler that dogs can react to differently than people. Supplements are in the same boat but I'll talk more about those in relation to your dogs daily diet in separate post. (Last week I saw that a bottle of Turmeric said "contains gluten" on the back...)
The Doggy Bag
The take away from this is that you can't really take the word of these articles you read about pet health. Look for the ones that are backed up by facts and let you make the decision. Luckily you can safely make fully nutritious homemade dog food and/or treats without the need for any of these ingredients. If you're looking to add an ingredient to your dogs diet, please check multiple references. Even if the majority say it's fine, your dog might not agree with it. Always introduce a new food item to them slowly to see if they have a reaction. And the next time you're letting your dog eat what falls on the floor, think twice about what it's made of. Keep the "bad stuff" in your mouth and out of theirs! (Especially those healthy Avocados)Remember, it's up to you to keep your pets safe and healthy. Thanks for reading!
