Safe Foods for Dogs to Eat

Dogs enjoy and benefit from a varied diet, just like humans. While their diet should consist mainly of meat and protein sources, they will enjoy fruits, vegetables and a small amount of grain (ideally, less than 20 percent of their diet). Dogs can eat almost everything you eat, with some exceptions.

  1. Warning

    • Never feed your dog onions, macadamia nuts, grapes, raisins, garlic, chocolate, alcohol, tobacco, yeast dough, potatoes, tomato leaves, hops, cooked chicken bones or fish bones, fruit pits, apple seeds or large amounts of liver.

    Warning about Chocolate

    • Chocolate is especially dangerous for dogs because it contains theobromine. Dogs can't metabolize theobromine, so it builds up in the brain, heart and liver and can prove fatal. Dark chocolate is the most dangerous, because it contains the highest levels of theobromine, but no amount of any type of chocolate is safe.

    Warning about Onions

    • Onions are also dangerous for dogs because of the risk of hemolytic anemia. This weakens the walls of red blood cells, causing them to burst before they can replicate.

    Expert Insight

    • A study headed by Dr. Kollath, of the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, revealed that dogs had better lifelong health when fed a diet of raw meat, which is closer to that of their wild ancestors. However, Dr. Rebecca L. Remillard, a veterinarian nutritionist, believes there are too many risks to feeding your dog raw meat, such as salmonella contamination. Many dogs have died from eating contaminated meat.

    Potential

    • Dogs can thrive on a homemade diet consisting of "people" food as long as it is balanced for their needs and made with fresh, whole foods.