24 Foods Toxic to Dogs to Keep Off the Counter
Dog Nutrition & Diet
Dogs eat first and think later. That is how so many foods toxic to dogs end up in their mouths: the grape that rolled off the counter, a bite of onion-heavy leftovers, a pack of sugar-free gum in a guest's bag. Most of the time it's a sore tummy and a messy night. Sometimes it's a lot worse. The 24 below are sorted by where in the kitchen they live, with the signs to watch for and the moment to pick up the phone.
What Makes a Food Poisonous to Dogs?
A dog's body just isn't built like a person's. Some compounds it can't break down at all. Grapes and raisins top the list because they can shut down the kidneys. Xylitol sends blood sugar off a cliff. Chocolate and caffeine overwork the heart, while onions and garlic quietly wreck red blood cells. Macadamias, alcohol and raw yeast dough aren't far behind.
Size matters. Half a cookie that a Lab shrugs off can flatten a Chihuahua. And a handful of entries here aren't technically poisons. They cause blockages, pancreatitis or infection instead.
Fruits Dogs Can't Eat
Most fruit is a lovely treat. With this group, it's usually the pit or the plant that causes trouble, not the bit you'd eat.
Grapes, Raisins, Currants and Tamarind
Grapes are a coin toss, and that's what makes them scary. One dog finishes a whole bunch and naps. Another eats three and ends up on a drip. The likely culprit is tartaric acid. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, more than one grape or raisin per 10 pounds of body weight may already put the kidneys at risk. Vomiting usually starts within 6 to 12 hours.
Raisins in a muffin count. So do sultanas, Zante currants, grape juice and tamarind, and cream of tartar has the same acid. This guide to why grapes are dangerous for dogs lists where they tend to hide.
Cherry, Apricot and Peach Pits
Crunch a cherry pit, or a peach or plum stone, and it releases a compound that becomes cyanide. Stems and leaves have it too. Pitted and cut small, the flesh is generally fine. Apple seeds carry a little of the same thing, so core the apple before sharing.
Avocado Pits, Skin and Leaves
Avocado's reputation comes from persin, which really is dangerous for birds and horses. Dogs cope with it much better. What worries vets is the big slippery pit, which a Lab can swallow whole and then need surgery for. The skin and leaves are a problem too, and so is all that fat. This guide to avocado flesh, pits and portions for dogs explains what's safe.
Green Tomatoes and Tomato Plants
A slice of ripe tomato is no big deal. The green ones, and the stems and leaves in the garden bed, hold solanine and tomatine. Expect drooling and maybe vomiting. Serious poisoning is rare.
While you're at it, look around the living room. Some popular house plants toxic to dogs sit right at nose height.
Rhubarb Leaves
It's the leaves you need to worry about. They're loaded with soluble calcium oxalates, which grab calcium in the blood and can hurt the kidneys. The stalks have less, but fence off the patch anyway.
Star Fruit
Same oxalates, same kidney risk. If a star fruit tree drops fruit in your yard, pick it up.
Vegetables and Mushrooms That Are Poisonous to Dogs
Onions, Garlic, Leeks and Chives
It doesn't matter how it's cooked. Fried, raw, dried, powdered: the whole onion family is toxic. Sulfur compounds break down red blood cells, and the anemia often shows up three to five days later. Garlic packs three to five times the punch of onion.
The powder is what catches people out. It's in gravy granules, stock cubes and most seasoned meat. These signs of onion poisoning in dogs are good to know before holiday cooking starts.
Wild Mushrooms
Plain store-bought mushrooms aren't the worry. Wild ones in the yard can be, because a handful of species, some Amanita mushrooms among them, cause liver failure. Nothing may show for 6 to 12 hours, which is exactly when people relax. Bag a piece, photograph where it grew, and call your vet.
Green or Sprouting Potatoes
That green tinge on an old potato is solanine, the same compound in green tomatoes. Sprouts and raw potato have it too, and a dog who raids the bag may vomit or get sleepy. Peeled, plain cooked potato for dogs is fine.
Sweets and Sugar-Free Snacks That Poison Dogs
Chocolate and Cocoa Powder
Chocolate holds two stimulants, theobromine and caffeine, and a dog takes ages to get rid of either. Mild signs start at about 20 mg per kilogram of body weight. The heart is affected at 40 to 50 mg, and seizures become possible from 60 mg. Cocoa powder has roughly 28.5 mg per gram and baking chocolate about 15.5. A semisweet dark bar is closer to 5.5, a milk chocolate egg about 2.3. White chocolate barely registers. Trouble tends to start 6 to 12 hours after the wrapper goes missing.
Got the wrapper? Put the chocolate type and your dog's weight into this dog chocolate toxicity calculator before you call.
Baking for your dog? Swap in carob for dogs. It melts and browns like the real thing, minus the stimulants.
Xylitol in Gum, Peanut Butter and Baking
On a label, xylitol may go by birch sugar or wood sugar. People hardly notice it. A dog's pancreas, though, floods the body with insulin, and blood sugar can drop within half an hour. Bigger doses can damage the liver. Sugar-free gum is the usual culprit, but some peanut butters, toothpaste, gummy vitamins and liquid medicines carry it too.
Drinks Dangerous for Dogs
Coffee, Tea and Energy Drinks
A used coffee pod or a tea bag fished out of the trash holds more caffeine than you'd guess, and dogs feel it far more than people do. A dog who got into one may pace and pant, shake, or in bad cases have a seizure.
Alcohol and Spilled Drinks
A few laps from a drink left on the coffee table can be enough. Within an hour a dog may be wobbly and vomiting, with low blood sugar, a low body temperature and slow breathing.
Hops From Home Brewing
Brew beer at home? Hops, fresh or spent, can send a dog's temperature soaring, and slow treatment can be fatal. Bag the waste and get it well out of reach.
Nuts and Pantry Staples Bad for Dogs
Macadamia Nuts
Strangely, dogs are the only animal known to react to macadamias. Within 12 hours the back legs often go weak, and there may be vomiting, shaking and a fever.
Black Walnuts and Moldy Nuts
Black walnuts that sit in the grass go moldy, and that mold can cause tremors. Horse chestnuts are poisonous as well, and this guide to sweet and horse chestnuts for dogs shows how to tell the two apart.
Nutmeg in Holiday Baking
A pinch in pumpkin pie? Fine. A dog who knocks over the spice jar is another story, because myristicin can leave them confused, with a racing heart, and in bad cases seizing.
Salt, Salty Snacks and Play Dough
Real salt poisoning rarely comes from a chip. The kids' homemade play dough is the usual suspect, along with salt-dough Christmas ornaments.
One stolen snack is a much smaller problem, as this guide to chips and salty snacks for dogs explains.
Raw Yeast Bread Dough
Raw dough keeps rising in a dog's warm stomach. That can mean painful bloating and, in deep-chested breeds, a twisted stomach. The yeast also makes alcohol, so a dog can end up drunk.
Baked bread is a different question, covered in this guide to which breads dogs can eat.
Leftovers and Table Scraps That Hurt Dogs
These aren't poisons, strictly. They still fill vet clinics after holiday meals.
Cooked Bones
The leftover chicken carcass is the classic one. Cooked bone goes brittle, so it splinters rather than crunches. Those shards can cut a mouth, lodge in the gut, or worse, pierce it.
Fat Trimmings and Fried Food
Turkey skin, bacon fat, drippings from the roasting pan. Any one can tip a dog into pancreatitis, and it hurts: dogs hunch up, vomit and refuse food. Miniature Schnauzers, Yorkies and heavier dogs get it more often, which is also why ham is a poor treat for dogs.
Moldy Food From the Trash
A dog nosing through the compost can turn up moldy bread or cheese, and some of those molds make toxins that bring on shaking, fever and even seizures. A bin with a lid prevents most of it.
Raw Meat, Fish and Eggs
Raw meat and eggs can carry Salmonella, E. coli or Listeria, which can make the people in the house sick as well as the dog. Anglers in the Pacific Northwest have one more worry: raw salmon or trout from those rivers can carry salmon poisoning disease, and it can kill an untreated dog. Cook the eggs through and they're a good treat.
Milk, Ice Cream and Dairy
Plenty of grown dogs can't handle lactose. A saucer of milk often ends in diarrhea.
Signs of Food Poisoning in Dogs
- Throwing up or diarrhea, worse if you see blood
- Pacing, panting, a heart that's going too fast
- Trembling, stumbling, or collapsing
- Gums that look pale, yellowish or bright red
- Emptying the water bowl, or barely peeing
How Fast Symptoms Appear
That depends on the food. Xylitol can hit in 30 minutes. Chocolate takes longer, often 6 to 12 hours. Grapes can take one to three days to damage the kidneys, and onion anemia three to five, so a happy dog tonight doesn't prove much.
My Dog Ate Something Toxic: What to Do
- Move your dog away and pick up whatever's left.
- Grab the wrapper and guess how much is gone, and when.
- Phone your vet, an emergency clinic or a poison line now, even if your dog looks fine.
Pet Poison Helplines in the US, Canada and Australia
In the US, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center is on (888) 426-4435. The Pet Poison Helpline covers the US and Canada on (855) 764-7661. In Australia, call the Animal Poisons Helpline on 1300 869 738, or 0800 869 738 from New Zealand.
Write these numbers inside the lid of a DIY dog first aid kit.
What Not to Do at Home
Skip the salt water and the hydrogen peroxide. Making a dog vomit is a vet's call, and both can do damage of their own.
How to Dog-Proof the Kitchen Against Toxic Foods
Push the fruit bowl back from the edge. Get a bin with a lid that clicks shut. Tell Grandma, nicely, that the dog doesn't get scraps. This room-by-room checklist for puppy proofing your home works just as well for older dogs.
Safe Treats to Share Instead of Table Scraps
None of this means your dog sits out dinner. A carrot stick, a few blueberries, some cucumber or a strip of plain chicken all work, in small amounts.
Sources
- Merck Veterinary Manual. Food Hazards.
- ASPCA Animal Poison Control. People Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Pets.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Paws Off Xylitol; It's Dangerous for Dogs.
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