At A Glance
Cookie dough’s basic ingredients include flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. While not individually toxic or poisonous to dogs, they can do harm when ingested in significant amounts. It’s best to keep cookie dough far away from your dog.
Last Updated on: Apr 13, 2022
Cookies are excellent snacks for humans, and the tantalizing scent of a batch fresh from the oven can waft throughout the house and make our mouths water.
Cookie dough can sometimes be more tempting—the raw, gooey, sweet mixture can look so inviting in a mixing bowl or when thawing from the freezer. And when your dog sidles up to you as you take a bite of cookie dough, you may wonder, “can you give your dog cookie dough?”
Are you wondering if you can give your dog a bit of cookie dough as a treat? Read on for the answer!
If you’re thinking about sharing a small dollop of cookie dough with your dog, we have to stop you right there. Dogs should not consume cookie dough because it contains ingredients that are harmful to a dog’s digestive tract.
Unless the cookie dough is made specifically for dogs (there are recipes for this!), it’s best to keep your pet away from it.
As a pet owner, it can be tempting to indulge your dog when it asks for treats. But you need to be very conscious about what your dog eats—human food will never be as nutritious or beneficial to pets.
Cookie dough is an uncooked mixture of flour, butter, white sugar, salt, eggs, and leavening. For flavor, vanilla extract, chocolate chips, nutmeg, cinnamon, macadamia nuts, walnuts, and other ingredients may be added. Cookie dough is meant to be divided into individual portions and baked.
Edible cookie dough is available in supermarkets or can be mixed at home. These recipes don’t contain raw eggs, and the flour is heated before mixing.
Cookie lovers will tell you that there can be a special kind of magic about cookie dough. The soft creaminess of the dough can be likened to ice cream—all you need is a spoon to enjoy its rich flavors.
Let us take a closer look at some of these ingredients and find out how bad is cookie dough for dogs.
If you are wondering, can dogs die from eating cookie dough? Yes, it is possible. In short, some cookie dough variations contain toxic ingredients that are life-threatening for dogs.
This contains no nutrients that a dog can benefit from, and it is a potential source for allergies. While some commercial dog food products may contain some flour, it should not be the main ingredient in anything your dog eats regularly.
The truth is that dogs have very little use for carbohydrates in flour. They are better off getting their energy from whole sources, such as potatoes, brown rice, peas, and oatmeal. These carb sources are easy for their bodies to absorb.
Too much flour in your dog’s diet can lead to weight gain or obesity, which can spiral into other health issues.
The high fat content in butter can lead to obesity and pancreatitis in dogs. Some dogs are lactose intolerant, so consuming butter can lead to stomach upset and other digestive issues.
Cookie dough contains very high amounts of refined sugar, which can be very bad for dogs. It can cause stomach upset and indigestion. Regular sugar consumption can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.
Weight gain can lead to other serious health problems down the line, such as joint pain, heart disease, difficulty breathing, kidney issues, and more.
This are fantastic sources of protein that can benefit your dog. However, the eggs in cookie dough are not cooked, so there is a considerable risk for salmonella or other bacterial infections.
This contains caffeine and theobromine, both of which are very harmful to dogs. The darker the chocolate, the more deadly it is. Chocolate can induce vomiting, thirst, fever, convulsions, and death in dogs.
Grapes are toxic to dogs, and their dry version, raisins, are especially so. Even just one small piece of raisins can potentially be fatal—the dog’s size, breed, nor age does not influence its body’s reaction to it.
Dogs can eat raw peanuts and cashews, but walnuts and macadamia nuts can be toxic to their systems. When ingested, these cookie add-ons can induce weakness, vomiting, tremors, and hyperthermia.
When cookie dough is ingested, it swells in the dog’s warm and moist stomach, much like it would in an oven. This can induce stomach bloating and even stomach twisting, commonly known as gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV).
The risk of the dough causing life-threatening GDV or intestinal blockage should not be underestimated.
Signs of dough ingestion include:
If you observe any of these signs, contact your vet immediately.
No. Sweet cookie doughs are full of refined sugar. Raw sugar cookie dough is not poisonous, but your dog would be better off not tasting it at all.
Dogs cannot properly digest refined sugar and simple carbohydrates, so the large amounts in cookie dough can lead to an upset stomach or allergic reaction.
Can dogs eat sugar cookie dough? If your dog consumes sugar cookie dough by accident, urge it to drink plenty of water and continue to feed it as usual. Keep a close eye on your dog and watch out for any symptoms of an allergic reaction or severe stomach problems. If your dog has diabetes, notify your veterinarian immediately about the excessive sugar consumption.
Yes, chocolate is extremely poisonous to dogs, and it can lead to serious digestive complications and even death.
If your dog has eaten chocolate chip cookie dough, keep a close eye on it and contact your veterinarian immediately if you observe diarrhea, vomiting, excessive thirst, tremors, restlessness, or a racing heart rate.
Canines do not have an intrinsic “dog defense” against raw food. They are just as likely as humans to become ill from raw cookie dough.
Will raw dough hurt a dog? Dogs should not consume raw cookie dough for the same reasons that humans should not. The uncooked eggs are a possible cause of salmonella poisoning, which can be fatal to your pet.
So, can you give your dog cookie dough? Definitely not the ones made for humans.
However, you can make cookie dough that your dog can ingest with no problem. You can find hundreds of wonderful recipes for fresh cookie dough for dogs on the internet. They contain no preservatives, sugar, or artificial ingredients, and are surprisingly simple to prepare. This simple treat is very enjoyable and will not harm your beloved pet.
Meet Paul, a devoted dog dad to the delightful French Bulldog, Cofi. With a flair for humor and a deep understanding of Frenchie quirks, Paul brings a lighthearted touch to his writings. His relatable stories and practical insights are a blend of laughter and valuable advice and resonate with fellow dog owners.
Through his words, Paul aims to celebrate the joys and challenges of being a dedicated pet parent, reminding you that life is simply better with a four-legged, snorting sidekick by your side.
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