Dogs can enjoy the majority of food that you are consuming daily, but when it comes to spices, they cannot. There is a general perception that dogs are more sensitive to taste than humans, but facts prove it wrong. A normal human being has 9000 taste buds, while a dog only has 1,7000, limiting its capabilities. Let move on toward our main topic can dogs eat spicy food?
No, Dogs cannot eat Spices or food containing chilly, hot sauce, hot pepper, Onion, Garlic, Salt, etc. Spices can be poisonous for the dogs and can disturb their digestion system, cause thrust and inflammation, have a bad effect on kidneys and liver, and lead to many gastronomical ailments. Dogs are incompetent to bear the heat of species.
There is nothing on earth that can differentiate between a baby and a dog. Dogs are our closest companions and friends, but there is one thing you need to know. Despite being our favorite, there is a significant difference between a dogs’ digestion and a human’s. In terms of feeding, we have to be very careful.
No matter how much you want your dog to taste your favorite spicy dish, do not even think of feeding it that poison, not even a bit of it. As a pet owner, you may want your dog to enjoy every food in the world. You may wish to dine in with him during breakfast, lunch, and dinner and feed him those tasty dishes that you make at home, but you have to stop right there!
Dogs may be man’s best friends, yet they are entirely different from him. Although, just like human beings, it is hard for them to feel satiated when it comes to food and are easily tempted by the delicious aroma, yet they cannot eat everything that a man can eat. Hot sauce, hot peppers, hot spices, all these things are synonymous with poison when it comes to feeding them to your dogs.
If you find that your dog is prone to heart diseases or diagnosed with a heart problem, then you need Dog Food Recipes for Congestive Heart Failure that can prevent health threats associated with heart diseases.
Why Spicy Foods are Off-Limits for Dogs
Feeding your dog spicy isn’t worth it at all. Not only can it become the reason for a great many complications for it, but your dog may also not be able to taste it at all. You may feel that the dog will enjoy spicy food, but this may not be the case. Here is what you need to know.
- Lessor Taste Buds: unlike human beings, which contain 9000 taste buds, dogs have only 1700 taste buds. Because of the limited taste buds, they are not able to taste spicy food as we do.
- Less Sensitive to Flavors: dogs are not nearly as sensitive to flavors as human beings.
- Spice Create Havoc: although dogs may be unable to feel the spice, their effects can be disastrous for their stomach. Feeding them constant spicy food means creating havoc in their digestive system.
- Incapable Digestion System for Spice: their gastrointestinal tracts can turn sour because of spice as well.
As a pet owner, you must be familiar with the fact that some foods are entirely off-limits for dogs, and spicy food is precisely one of them. Even if you want to give your dog a little bit of spicy food, it is never a good idea. Naturally, dogs have more room to taste and digest sweet flavors and sweets, but their capability to digest and taste spices is quite limited.
What Spicy food do to Your Dog?
One of the most frequent symptoms that have been observed in dogs who were fed spicy foods is an upset stomach. An upset stomach is by far the mother of all diseases for your little pet, as it will make him feel uneasy throughout the day. But for the side effects of feeding spicy foods, do not take a break here. There is a whole list of adverse effects that spicy foods can cause!
- Trigger Watery Stools: these loose motions may continue for weeks or even months if left untreated. During this period, there will be a significant loss of water from the body of your pet.
- Inflammation of the Pancreas: pancreatitis is another disease that spicy foods bring with them. The syndrome includes inflammation of the pancreas that can become a life-threatening ailment for your dog.
- Thrust Trigger: spicy foods also have intense thrust triggers in dogs of all ages and sizes.
You may see some different symptoms in your dog if you feed him spices more than that he can consume; symptoms and reactions basically depend on the age and size of dogs. Many breeds can digest the spices when given in the right quantity as they like it sometimes.
Can Dogs Eat Okra? Yes, dogs can eat okra, the summer vegetable that originated from Nigeria, they can consume this nutritious, and mineral-rich vegetable in cooked, semi-cooked, and raw form.
What Ingredients do Spicy Foods Contain that Can Harm Dogs?
Most spicy foods contain hot chili peppers, hot sauce, and even other ingredients that are entirely intolerable for dogs, like:
- Hot Sauce: is entirely, totally, and utterly unacceptable for your furry friend. Hot sauce sets off irregular bowel movements and causes an uncontrollable thirst in your dog, making him feel sick throughout the day. Also, it may lead to vomiting and gas, as well. Hot sauce can create a lot of stomach issues as well for your furry friend.
- Hot Peppers: can prompt a burning sensation in your dog’s stomach, intestines, and even throat. Just like hot sauce, it can also become the reason for an irritable bowel movement in your pet. This burning sensation can cause a lot of trouble for your dog. It may not tell you what is bothering it and suffers excessively at the hands of spicy food.
- Garlic & Onion: apart from these main spicy ingredients, spicy foods also contain garlic and onion that should be entirely off the hook for dogs. Garlic and onion are poison for a dog, and it shouldn’t have it at all.
- Onions: contain N-propyl in them, which is highly toxic for dogs. It causes the breakdown of red blood cells that further leads to anemia in dogs. If anemia is not handled properly, it can lead to the death of your dog.
- Garlic: contains disulfide and thiosulphates, which can become the cause of hemolytic anemia, Heinz body anemia, and methemoglobinemia. In short, garlic damages the red blood cells of your little pet.
- Salt: unlike humans who consume salt in everything, a dog cannot have it because it causes increased thirst, urination, leads to dehydration, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, especially when digested in large quantity. Deeply seeing into it, salt contains 40% sodium, and a normal dog with 30 pounds of weight can only consume 200mg sodium daily.
- Cocoa Powder: It contains a compound similar to caffeine that is bad for the dog’s nervous system, kidney, and heart.
- Nutmeg: it can damage the nervous system of the dog; after consuming it, your dog may become exhausted or drained. Nutmeg and Mace, which are derived from the same plant, are highly dangerous for dogs.
Keeping all these factors in mind, the only possible solution to avoid these from happening is never to feed your dog any spicy food whatsoever.
Can Dogs Eat Mustard? No, dogs cannot eat mustard; it contains toxic compounds coming from Mustard seeds.
Can Dogs Tolerate Chili Heat?
There are different varieties of chilies that can produce 0 to 2 Million SHU (Scoville Heat Unite) concerning their varieties. Simply dog’s stomach is too sensitive to chilies, and they feel the spices excessively when they are coming directly from the chilies.
There is no specific study that has been until now that what amount of chili heat dogs can bear, so, therefore, it is a good idea to keep chilies away from your dog.
What to do if Your Dog Ate Spicy Food?
At the very most, you must keep the spicy foods away from your pet as they have no sense of the harmful effects of spicy foods on their health at all. No matter how dangerous it is to them, they will eat it for sure if they find it near them. So the best you can do is to keep such stuff as far away from them as possible.
If, by any means, your dog ingests something spicy, be it pepper, hot sauce, or some spicy dish that you have prepared for Thanksgiving, then there are some steps you can follow to keep things sane. If your dog has eaten anything spicy and is feeling uneasy, then:
- Feed Some Milk: in the case of spices, milk has a calming effect, especially to overcome chilies’ heat.
- Give him Bread: it also helps to reduce the heat of spices and overcome the side effects of spices.
- Give Water to Drink: give an adequate amount of water to relieve the pain caused by the spice; it’s better to five water after little intervals.
Although spicy foods can cause discomfort in your dog, if your dog has accidentally eaten it for once, it should not create that big a problem. Just wait for your dog to pass the spice out in its stool.
Even after taking all these measures, your dog shows no sign of being healthy, then take him to the vet.
Any Benefits?
There are most certainly no benefits of spicy food for your dog. They may be excited to see the spicy food first, but once they taste it, they will stop feeling excited about it.
One of the reasons is that they may find it hard to acknowledge the spice’s taste and that the discomfort that the spice has in store for them may not be something that they will want to experience again and again.
Final Words
To play it safe, you must keep the spicy foods away from your little best friend as it is a poison in disguise for them. No matter how much you love them and how much you want them to taste those fiery and flaming hot Korean noodles, you must not give in!
It would help if you acknowledged the fact that not everybody is the same. When it comes to dogs and human beings, they are most certainly completely different from each other in every aspect of life, especially in their diets. No amount of spice is good for your dog at all!