Can Dogs Eat Vegetables? Vet-Verified Nutrition Facts, Safe Options & Benefits

The post Can Dogs Eat Vegetables? Vet-Verified Nutrition Facts, Safe Options & Benefits by Chris Dinesen Rogers appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.

Domestication has profoundly affected our canine companions. They have gone from carnivorous predators to pampered pets. Roughly 95% consider them members of their families. That’s huge for an animal we once considered a competitor. The gray wolf is the closest ancestor to the one these species diverged from 27,000 years ago.

Despite millennia of selective breeding, dogs remain facultative carnivores, benefiting most from a diet biased towards animal meat, fat, and by-products. As facultative carnivores though, dogs can indeed metabolize carbohydrates and starches, as you’d find in vegetables. Dogs can eat vegetables, although there are some notable exceptions.

Why Dogs Can or Can’t Eat Vegetables

Digestibility is the overriding factor in deciding whether dogs can eat vegetables at all. Fundamentally, all macronutrients consumed by your dog – protein, fat, and carbohydrates, are eventually broken down to a simple sugar: glucose. Glucose remains the fundamental energy source that the various cells all over your dog’s body use for growth, repair, division, and function.

However, not all plant matter is the same just because they contain carbohydrates which can be broken down into said glucose. This phenomenon has been explored in research involving canines.¹ In addition, dogs have poorer protein digestibility when fed diets containing plant matter compared to those with animal proteins.²
Dogs do process plant matter better than cats in many aspects, and have a lower protein requirement than cats do. However, they still do best on a diet of a carnivore rather than an omnivore and have a natural instinctive affinity for animal based foods over plant based options.³
Dogs can eat some vegetables. Homemade diets often use some vegetables to balance diets for dogs, but these are often in lower quantities than animal meats and organs in the diet. The other concerns with vegetables rest with the toxicity of some varieties. Sometimes, what is safe for us to consume can be toxic or even lethal for your pup.

Benefits and Dangers of Feeding Vegetables to Dogs

Whether or not dogs can eat vegetables isn’t always clear like how it is with chocolate (a big no-no for dogs). Meanwhile, vegetables can fall into good, okay, and bad categories. One of their benefits is fiber and the other nutrients they provide. Carrots, for example, are an excellent addition to your pup’s diet as a low-calorie treat. They are high in vitamin A and potassium. You’ll even see them in commercial dog foods.

We recommend getting advice from a veterinarian if you have any questions or concerns regarding adding any vegetables to your dog’s diet.

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