For many families, the weeks surrounding Christmas and New Year’s Day mean delicious foods and seasonal fun with loved ones – both humans and pets. However, while sharing special treats with pets may come from a place of kindness, many classic holiday dishes can pose significant dangers or toxicity if ingested by dogs. It’s very important during the festive period to know what Christmas treats to avoid for dogs. Read on to know what you can share and what you can’t.
Foods with Xylitol
Xylitol is a common artificial sweetener used in many human foods, especially sugar-free snacks and dishes. However, it is extremely toxic to dogs, even in small amounts. Xylitol can cause a rapid and dangerous drop in blood sugar levels, as well as potential liver damage and failure.
Be extremely careful to keep packs of chewing gum, mints, breath strips, and opened bags of candy out of your dogs’ reach. These products very frequently contain xylitol as a sugar substitute and just one piece can pose a significant poisoning risk to dogs. Many people enjoy baking holiday cookies, cakes, pies and other homemade treats to share. However, recipes for sugar-free, diabetic-friendly, or low-carb desserts may include xylitol as a sweetener instead of sugar. Just a bite or a lick of uncooked dough with xylitol could cause rapid and life-threatening hypoglycaemia in dogs.
Many varieties of toothpaste intended for human use contain xylitol since it inhibits plaque buildup and bacteria growth. Dogs should never have access to toothpaste tubes, as ingestion can be dangerous and fatal at significant dosages.
Some brands of peanut butter and other nut butters have begun using xylitol as an ingredient in recent years. A small tip for Christmas treats to avoid for dogs is to always check labels before sharing people’s food with pets. Even a spoonful might lead to toxicosis depending on the dog’s size and the product’s xylitol concentration.
Fatty and Rich Foods
Dogs’ digestive systems have difficulty processing high volumes of fat and oil. Feeding dogs fatty scraps from holiday meals can therefore lead to extremely painful inflammation of the pancreas, called pancreatitis. Potentially fatal, some symptoms include vomiting, abdominal pain, weakness, diarrhoea and loss of appetite.
You should protect your dogs from splattering grease or consuming pan drippings after roasting holiday ham, turkey, or goose. The concentrated fats can overwhelm the dog’s pancreas and the same goes for leftover gravy and meat glazes which are high in oils. Delicious fried holiday specialities like doughnuts, latkes (potato pancakes), and fritters contain immense amounts of grease, often derived from lard or shortening. This level of fat is hazardous for dogs, putting them at risk of lipid inflammatory disease.
Another range of Christmas treats to avoid for dogs includes desserts. Holiday desserts are often extremely dense with fatty ingredients like butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and eggs. These include classics like pumpkin pie, cheesecake, custard tarts, rum cake, and some cookie varieties.
Overindulging dogs with leftovers from Christmas feasts is an accepted norm among thoughtful pet owners with nice intentions of including pets in the festive season. However, most holiday dishes contain far higher fat percentages than dogs should consume. So, to be safe, you should stick to pet food instead of scraps from the holiday table as some Christmas treats to avoid for dogs, no matter how tempting.
Chocolate
A more known food to be kept away from dogs is chocolate. Chocolate is abundantly present around the house during Christmas time in the form of candy, cookies, fudge, baking supplies, and more. However, chocolate in all forms – especially dark chocolate – contains dangerous toxins called methylxanthines that can cause serious harm to dogs.
The methylxanthines theobromine and caffeine are stimulants found in cacao products that dogs cannot effectively metabolize. If ingested, these compounds can overstimulate the nervous system, cardiovascular system, and kidneys. Just a few ounces of chocolate can cause hyperactivity, panting, vomiting, diarrhoea, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures, or even death. Chocolate toxicity risks for dogs exist all year but increase substantially around Christmas when candy and cocoa-heavy foods fill countless holiday dishes and gift baskets. Chocolate advent calendars should especially be one of the Christmas treats to avoid for dogs.
While milk and white chocolate can still present risks, the highest concentrations of dangerous theobromines are found in dark baker’s chocolate or cocoa powder used for baking. Due to more cacao and less milk and sugar, an ounce or two can be lethal for small dogs.