Chocolate
Chocolate is one of the most well-known toxic foods for dogs. It contains theobromine and caffeine, which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, rapid breathing, and seizures in dogs. Dark chocolate and baking chocolate are particularly dangerous due to their higher concentrations of these substances [1].
Grapes and Raisins
Grapes and raisins are highly toxic to dogs and can lead to kidney failure. Even small amounts can be harmful, and symptoms can appear quickly. Many pet owners have shared experiences of emergency vet visits after their dogs consumed grapes or raisins [4:3]
[4:5].
Onions and Garlic
Onions and garlic are also toxic to dogs, although the severity depends on the amount ingested. These foods can cause gastrointestinal irritation and damage to red blood cells, leading to anemia. While a small accidental intake may not be harmful, it's best to avoid feeding these to dogs altogether [4:4].
Xylitol
Xylitol, a common sugar substitute found in many sugar-free gums and candies, is extremely toxic to dogs. It can cause a rapid release of insulin, leading to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), seizures, liver failure, and even death. It's crucial to keep products containing xylitol out of reach of pets [2:1].
Macadamia Nuts
Macadamia nuts can cause weakness, depression, vomiting, tremors, and hyperthermia in dogs. The exact reason for their toxicity is unknown, but they should be avoided as even small quantities can have adverse effects [5].
Avocado
Avocados contain persin, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea in dogs. While some parts of the avocado plant are more toxic than others, it's generally safer to avoid feeding avocados to your dog [5].
Alcohol and Caffeine
Both alcohol and caffeine are harmful to dogs and can lead to serious health issues such as abnormal heart rhythms, seizures, and even death. It's important to ensure that drinks containing these substances are kept away from pets [2:1].
For any concerns about what your dog has ingested, consulting with a veterinarian is always recommended. Some online resources, like food checkers, can help determine the safety of specific ingredients, but professional advice is invaluable in emergencies [4:2].
As loving pet parents, we often feel tempted to share our favorite snacks and meals with our furry companions. However, many human foods that are perfectly safe for us can be dangerous—or even deadly—for dogs. Understanding which foods to avoid is vital to keeping your canine friend healthy and safe.
Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine, both of which are toxic to dogs. Dark chocolate and baking chocolate are especially dangerous. Even small amounts can cause vomiting, diarrhea, rapid breathing, and seizures.
These fruits may seem harmless but can cause sudden kidney failure in dogs. Even a small quantity can be toxic and lead to lethargy, vomiting, and dehydration.
Whether raw, cooked, powdered, or dried, onions and garlic can damage a dog’s red blood cells, leading to anemia. Symptoms might include weakness, pale gums, and an elevated heart rate.
Avocados contain persin, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea in dogs. While some dogs may tolerate small amounts, it's best to avoid this food altogether to prevent digestive upset.
Alcohol has the same effect on a dog's liver and brain as it does on humans, but it takes far less to do serious damage. Even a small amount can cause vomiting, difficulty breathing, and in severe cases, coma or death.
Found in sugar-free gum, candy, baked goods, and even some peanut butters, xylitol can lead to a dangerous drop in blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) and liver failure. Symptoms include vomiting, coordination issues, and seizures.
Macadamia nuts can cause weakness, vomiting, tremors, and hyperthermia in dogs. The effects can appear within 12 hours of ingestion and last up to two days.
Tea, coffee, energy drinks, and soda contain caffeine, which is highly toxic to dogs. It can lead to restlessness, rapid breathing, heart palpitations, and muscle tremors.
While raw bones may be safe in moderation, cooked bones can splinter easily and pose a choking hazard or cause serious internal injuries and blockages.
Many dogs are lactose intolerant, and consuming milk, cheese, or ice cream can lead to digestive problems such as bloating, gas, and diarrhea.
When in doubt, consult your veterinarian before feeding your dog anything outside of their normal diet. Prevention is the best protection when it comes to your pet’s health.
solid rundown on the no-go human eats for dogs—people seriously underestimate how toxic some “harmless snacks” can be. pro tip: beyond memorizing the blacklist, keeping an eye on your dog's mood and health after meals is clutch since symptoms often show up fast. if you ever get caught wondering whether that weird ingredient combo is safe, there are apps now that can help scan your dog and spot potential issues early on—pupscan is one ive been recommending; it uses ai to analyze photos for health and behavior clues so you can act before things get serious. just search pupscan in the app store and you’re good to go.
Can anybody provide a list?
Google this, look for vet source, too many to list,
It would be helpful to have a list here on Reddit so more people and their dogs will benefit.
There's millions of lists already. Do ur research If you searched reddit I'm sure ud find one already.
And if u want to rely on a reddit list rather than a vet source for what can kill ur dog, u need to do better.
Quite a few. According to HumaneSociety.
Alcoholic beverages Apple seeds Apricot pits Avocados Cherry pits Candy (particularly chocolate—which is toxic to dogs, cats, and ferrets—and any candy containing the toxic sweetener Xylitol) Chives Coffee (grounds, beans, and chocolate-covered espresso beans) Garlic Grapes Gum (can cause blockages and sugar-free gums may contain the toxic sweetener Xylitol) Hops (used in home beer brewing) Macadamia nuts Moldy foods Mushroom plants Mustard seeds Onions, onion powder and onion flakes Peach pits Potato leaves and stems (green parts) Raisins Rhubarb leaves Salt Tea (because it contains caffeine) Tomato leaves and stems (green parts) Walnuts Xylitol (artificial sweetener that is toxic to pets) Yeast dough
Thank you for posting this.
There’s plenty more info online about this! It’s a pretty extensive list beyond the one I posted. If you don’t know, always google or check with a vet if you’re concerned.
Onions, garlic,chocolate,grapes,raisins.to name a few...
Weird that it would have been much faster to type the exact same thing in Google and immediately had an answer. Who’d a thunk?
I stand by my original reply to another person.
Can anybody provide a list?
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The most common are chocolate, Grapes, Onions, Garlic, and Walnuts. Here is a good list https://www.battersea.org.uk/pet-advice/dog-care-advice/toxic-food-dogs
I heard about chocolate. I didn't know about those other ones.
This is good to know.
Grapes and raisins aren't on this list? They're highly toxic to dogs. Cause kidney failure.
You're absolutely right - grapes and raisins are highly toxic to dogs. It seems the list isn’t complete, but I came across their site and noticed they have a handy food checker where you can look up any ingredient to see if it’s safe
Had to take my dog to the ER since he got into some raisins a few years back. They had to induce vomiting and he was on a charcoal medicine for awhile to help prevent kidney failure. Luckily he's ok now, but I decided to stop buying raisins and grapes altogether after that.
I saw my cousin feed her dog a grape and mentioned this. She was super surprised "Oh, I always used to feed Lily (previous dog) them and she loved it"
Me: "Well, as long as she didn't die of kidney failure I guess you're guilt free hahahahaha"
Cousin: "....."
SO awkward. She no longer feeds this dog grapes though.
When I was in the process of adopting my dog Logan, the foster was saying how he loved eating practically anything and was listing off things he would feed Logan and one of those foods was grapes and we were all like “uh what??” He was a really nice and caring foster, but was just unfortunately uneducated with that lol
My ex is a vet and he said that some dogs can digest grapes just fine but most dogs cannot.
My aunt used to feed her dog frozen grapes, because she didn't know any better. 🤦
How many before it becomes dangerous?
My grandma fed our dog a grape, I kept saying how dangerous it was and the vet might be needed, but then nothing happened and they laughed it off.
I am a veterinarian. This list is kind of right. Dose makes the poison. This list does a good job splitting the foods into: safe (green), use with caution (yellow) and avoid (red). However the ranking within these broad categories seems arbitrary or nonsensical.
Garlic and onion, for example, are toxic, but accidentally giving it one time in a small amount is not harmful. It depends on the type of chocolate and quantity eaten; one Reese’s cup is not going to do anything to your Labrador but 8 oz of baker’s chocolate could kill your Chihuahua.
I just found out my cousin's dog treats have garlic in them. That didn't seem like a thing dogs should be eating. It's probably not a lot, but his dog was having issues lately and he figured it was the treats. Kind of fucked up if your a company that manufacturers treats to include an ingredient that's toxic.
this may or may not be accurate but it is marketing for a dog food company so I would take it with a grain of salt (just don’t give that to your dog) especially with things like fatty, salty, contains preservatives and omitting grapes.
What a stupid list if it doesn’t just outline the really dangerous stuff from things like high fat foods. And how grapes aren’t on here is just negligent.
I've been trying to figure out what things are safe to let my pup eat while supervised, but I'm seeing a lot of alarmist nonsense on the internet that has been very hard to sort through. Things like corn on the cob being listed as toxic to dogs because they could get a bowel obstruction if a large piece of the cob breaks off.
The only foods I've been able to ascertain are definitely poisonous are grapes, alcohol, onions, garlic, chocolate, avocado, macadamia nuts, and xylitol. As for plants, it seems like citrus plants, nightshade plants, bulb flowers (i.e. lillies, tulips etc), some palms, and azaleas/rhodenderons are poisonous? And then obviously things like medications, cleaning products, and lawn/garden products.
What else should I be aware of? I'm not looking for things that might hurt his tummy due to salt/sugar/fat content or cause a bowel obstruction if he eats too much or swallows large pieces, I am looking for things that will cause severe illness in small doses or are lethal. Actual poisons that I should keep far away from my dog so I can keep him safe :)
Our shihtzu once ate an entire box of chocolate covered malt balls. Upset stomach was the only side effect. I understand your dilemma though, Alexa tells me everything is potentially poisonous to my dog when I ask.
This is exactly what I mean; i would like to know what things would be an actual emergency if he got into them. I love my pup but I don't have the money to spend a month's rent on a vet visit every time he does something stupid
I follow a similar list to you but just add raisins and currants on there too and chicken bones, raw or cooked. And obvs very bony fish.
Depsite raisins literally being grapes i didn't even think of this, thank you!
Maybe ask over at r/askvet? It's not really a training-related question so you may get better information from vets.
A lot of these things need to be eaten in such large quantities the dog is likely to vomit anyway due to have eaten too much.
Hell, you’d need to give a golden retriever like half a pound of milk chocolate before they get a stomach ache let alone get into dangerous territory for organ failure. That much chocolate at once might kill me and I weigh 4x more than the average golden.
The other thing, is that these are very different recommendations depending on breed size.
I'm a vet tech. Yes, it's true that most of these involve high quantities, it's not so cut and dry that none of these should be ignored because "oh s/he only had a little"
The SPCA pet poison control has a calculator that shows you side effects to be expected based on chocolate consumption. A hundred pound retreiver could eat a whole tray of milk chocolate brownies, or a chocolate bunny, or some hersheys and be ok, milk chocolate has a very low concentration of the toxic substances found in cacao. Many chocolate candies done even contain actual cacao. The danger comes more when a small dog ingests any real quantity of chocolate or when any dog consumes dark chocolate and baker's chocolate. Every dog also has a different sensetivity to different things.
If your big dog licks your finished bowl of chili that has some onion and garlic in the sauce, it should be fine. If your small dog eats a whole bowl of chili there may be some problems, lots of variables go into what the biggest concern is. It also makes a big difference in frequency. A dog getting some chili sauce every now and then isn't too big of a deal, but a dog that is eating onions and garlic every day, in an actual measuable quantity other than "the sauce has some" (i.e. you make fried/ caramelized onions frequently and you give your dog a pile or four every time), that's when it becomes concerning. The big thing with this too is if your dog is eating onions that can lead to hemolysis and anaemia, and your dog presents to the vet with anaemia, there are a lot of tests to be done before we assume it's diet related. You're going to spend a lot of money on blood work and diagnostic imaging etc trying to rule out immune disorders and things like a ruptured spleen.
You’re spot on and that’s basically the point I was trying to make.
If you’re cutting up some avocado and drop a piece and your dogs gobbles it up, no big deal.
If your dog gets into a whole bowl of guac, maybe call your vet even if the pit is the real threat.
The danger is that our dog will gobble up anything and everything if given the opportunity. There’s basically no danger if they get a dropped piece of one of these things occasionally though with the exception of grapes being a choking hazard and same thing with other items with pits.
I can see this chart causing a bunch of unnecessary vet visits.
where is the metric bot when you need it?
There needs to be a differentiation between foods which are toxic to pets, requiring immediate treatment, and food which will make them temporarily sick if they eat too much of.
I’ve seen lists before which even included things because they “make cats fat which may or may not lead to other problems”.
Lol
So, food.
Or, no food.
These are both problems?
Man, pet ownership is getting too complicated.
I thought this just was in general, didn't see that it was for dogs at first. I was about to be like uh oh this is my entire quarantine diet
Me too. I had flashbacks about all the coffee I had today, before realizing it was about dogs.
Is there a cat one? Also a cat one for flowers would be very useful
Besides xylitol, coffee, and chocolate, this list should say things that might be dangerous in the right circumstances to your dog if they eat a metric ton of it.
Grapes and rasins should 100% be on this list. Most people are not aware because the reaction is so unpredictable. A 10lb dog could eat 100 grapes and be fine. A 100lb dog can eat a single grape and die of kidney failure.
I was fighting this one for a while just because of the shear rarity of it happening and lack of good studies of it actually being proven to be caused by grape/raisins and not something else in the home. I just found a good documented study on dogs in kidney failure, and only 15 of 89 of them reported recent raisin ingestion. I am still skeptical of this one because the method of toxicity is unknown, and it is so very rare it just would make sense if something else was going on. Hell my old dog ate raisin bran a hundred times, and my mother-in-law's dog drank wine with her almost daily (no, I don't condone this), but yeah definitely not worth the risk even if it's less than 0.1% chance, but the odds really are less than that.
If you catch your dog with a grape (or any other toxic food), you can give them hydrogen peroxide to make them puke it up. I did it after ours snatched up a grape from a rogue toddler, and it worked almost immediately.
Obviously only works if you catch it pretty quick though.
I share a candy bar with my dogs every hike. A Hershey kiss every now and then. Never had issue. Dogs have also lapped up my coffee if I leave it outside. I guess it depends on the dogs? 🤷🏻♀️
Cinnamon isn’t toxic to dogs
According to PetMD and PetPoisonHelpline it can absolutely be toxic.
Who upvotes this shit? A sourceless claim directly contradicting something listed in the post surrounded by other factual things and its top comment.
I mean it's toxic to humans in a high enough quantity too, but day to day it's fine.
You can feed your dog cinnamon cereals and you will not have a problem unless they are specifically allergic to it.
Literally in the article you posted
“A small amount of cinnamon isn’t toxic for dogs—unlike nutmeg, which is toxic to dogs. But if your dog inhales the spice, it can cause coughing, choking, lung irritation, and difficulty breathing.”
It word for word says “IT ISNT TOXIC FOR DOGS”
Yes it says don’t let them inhale powder or chew on a stick but that’s true with any powder or spiced stick. You should look at your sources before posting.
lol and the other one states this:
“It takes a larger amount of ingested cinnamon powder to cause problems in our pets (greater than 1 teaspoon of powder for most pets)”
Literally saying it isn’t toxic and unless consumed in concentrated form via oils it’s not a problem. Did you even read the articles you posted? You must be some sad troll coming in hot without spending 5 seconds to read anything.
Onions are pretty high on the list of bad for dogs though. All of the allium family is toxic to dogs.
A little bit isn't likely to do much, and there's a range of reactivity from dog to dog, but it's definitely something to avoid.
Broccoli isn’t on there but my bassets broccoli farts would peel the paint off walls
Did you know some common foods can be dangerous for your pup? Keep an eye out for these potential risks!
1. Grapes & Raisins
Grapes, raisins, and currants contain tartaric acid, which can cause toxicity in dogs. Early symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and lethargy. More severe signs may appear 24-48 hours later. There's no safe amount—so it's best to keep them off the menu.
2. Onions & Garlic
Large amounts of onions and garlic can damage red blood cells, leading to anemia. They can also cause stomach upset. The biggest danger comes from powdered forms found in foods like gravy mixes.
3. Nuts
Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs, causing vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, tremors, and fever. Other nuts are also high in fat and calories, which can lead to pancreatitis. Best to avoid nuts altogether!
4. Avocados
Avocados have a high-fat content that can cause stomach irritation and pancreatitis. The large pit is also a choking hazard and could cause an intestinal blockage requiring surgery.
5. Caffeine
Signs of caffeine poisoning include restlessness, hyperactivity, and excessive pacing. It can increase heart rate and blood pressure, leading to dangerous arrhythmias. Keep coffee, tea, and energy drinks far away!
6. Chocolate
Chocolate contains stimulants like theobromine, which can be highly toxic to dogs, especially in large amounts. Symptoms include hyperactivity, tremors, rapid heartbeat, and seizures. In severe cases, it can lead to coma or even death.
If you think your dog has eaten something harmful, contact your vet immediately! Keep your furry friend safe by staying informed.
One more thing to add: Don't feed tomatoes to dogs! Eating them in large amounts can also pose a risk of poisoning.
Yes! Tomatoes contain a substance called solanine, which can be toxic to dogs if consumed in large amounts. Most of the solanine in tomato plants is found in the green parts, such as the leaves, stems, and stalks.
this!
A lot of people I’ve talked to don’t realize how many foods are toxic to pets. Chocolate being a dangerous food for pets is very well-known, to the extent that it seems to overshadow the dangers of other foods.
Some common foods that are very bad for your pets:
It’s also a bad idea to give your grown pets milk, as they lack the ability to digest lactose and it can cause them diarrhea and stomach upsets.
Source: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/people-foods-avoid-feeding-your-pets
You say no milk, is this in large amounts or is sprinkling some cheese on my dog's food bad for him? ( he is a pretty big dog if that matters)
Sprinkling a little cheese on your dog’s food shouldn’t hurt them. It’s more when you start giving them actual milk or large pieces of cheese that it becomes a bit iffy, as far as I understand it.
Also tomatoes
foods that are toxic to dogs
Key Foods Toxic to Dogs:
Chocolate: Contains theobromine, which is toxic to dogs. Dark chocolate and baking chocolate are especially dangerous. Even small amounts can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and more severe symptoms.
Grapes and Raisins: Can lead to kidney failure in dogs. Even small quantities can be harmful, so it's best to avoid them entirely.
Onions and Garlic: These can damage red blood cells and lead to anemia. Even cooked forms can be harmful.
Xylitol: A sugar substitute found in sugar-free products (like gum and candies) that can cause insulin release, leading to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and liver failure.
Avocado: Contains persin, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea in dogs, especially in larger quantities.
Alcohol: Even small amounts can be dangerous, leading to vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and even coma or death.
Caffeine: Found in coffee, tea, and some sodas, caffeine can be toxic and lead to restlessness, rapid breathing, and heart palpitations.
Macadamia Nuts: Can cause weakness, depression, vomiting, and tremors in dogs.
Raw Dough: Yeast dough can expand in a dog's stomach, leading to bloating and potential rupture. The fermentation process can also produce alcohol.
Fat Trimmings: Can lead to pancreatitis, which is a serious condition.
Takeaways:
Recommendation: Consider keeping a list of toxic foods posted in your kitchen as a reminder, and always check labels for ingredients if you're unsure about a product.
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