Hey, Reggie here. I’m here to put your mind at ease today and let you know whether your fun-loving dog can eat crackers safely or not.
Us dogs love anything that our owners have on your plates, but whether it’s good for us or not is a different story.
Never fear – Reggie here has all the answers. Dog’s love the smell of a good cheese and cracker board with grapes on the side, but is it okay for you to sneak some under the table for us?
Don’t get me wrong – the food sneaking humans are the best kind. But when they offer us something harmful to our bodies, we don’t have the willpower to turn away from such a kind offer.
So humans have to be smart and know what we can eat.
Are crackers okay for dogs?
The good news is – crackers are not toxic for dogs. However, don’t go giving us a whole bowl of crackers for our dinner, because they should only be fed in moderation.
A couple of crackers here and there won’t do anything bad to us, but overfeeding us crackers can have an adverse effect on our health over time.
A lot of crackers have a high salt content which can be dangerous to dogs in some cases. If you’re going to feed us some crackers, the best kind to look for are unsalted crackers. However, just because they’re unsalted doesn’t mean that we can eat an unlimited amount of them!
Also, be wary if the crackers have butter on them. Butter has a high-calorie content and contains fat that isn’t necessary to our diet.
If the cracker has butter on it, make sure that it’s unsalted. We’re looking out for your health as much as our own here!
Will saltine crackers hurt a dog?
Saltine crackers are exactly what they say on the tin. They’re crackers loaded with salt to give humans a delicious flavor to the crackers.
Saltines are actually loaded with 102mg of sodium per large cracker and 31mg per regular cracker.
This excess sodium might be a tasty treat to humans, but it can be very dangerous to dogs like me. Sodium makes us incredibly thirsty and therefore we’ll want to drink a lot of water. If this is not available, we could get very dehydrated and sick.
Too much sodium might even lead to sodium poisoning in dogs, which can result in death in some serious cases. Symptoms of sodium poisoning include vomiting, diarrhea, fever, seizures, and body tremors.
If you see us suffering from these symptoms, make sure that you get us to the vets (shudder…) right away.
Can a dog eat Ritz crackers?
Ritz crackers don’t contain as much sodium as saltine crackers so they’re marginally better for us than the alternative.
Ritz crackers are mostly made up of fat, salt, and carbohydrates, so they’re not the most nutritious treat you can feed us.
We dogs do need fats and carbohydrates to get our energy from, but we should be getting enough of this from our food.
Adding Ritz crackers to the mix is simply adding unnecessary fat to our diets, which can lead to obesity and pancreatitis.
So, we can eat Ritz crackers but make sure not to feed us too many. Again, the same applies to buttered crackers.
Can a single grape kill a dog?
Getting back to those cheese boards that we were drooling… I mean talking about earlier. It’s common knowledge now that dogs can’t eat grapes because they are highly toxic to us. Unfortunately, it’s still not clear which part of the grape holds the toxic substance.
This means that we should not be consuming any part of the grape, no matter whether it’s seedless or peeled. Grapes are one of the most toxic foods that dogs can eat, and eating one or two can even be enough to put us in danger.
How large your dog is will determine how many grapes they can eat, as larger dogs tend to have a higher tolerance than smaller dogs. However, no one has ever found out how many grapes we can eat because it’s so dangerous.
If your dog eats even one grape, talk to your veterinarian as soon as possible to get their professional advice. Try not to find out how many grapes we can eat, either.
Is cheese bad for dogs?
Not necessarily, although it is full of fat that can lead to our weight gain. No matter how much we beg for the delicious, creamy cheese, don’t give us too much as it is not the healthiest food for us.
Some cheeses also constrain herbs or other ingredients that can be toxic to us, such as onions, garlic, and chives. If your cheese contains these do not give them to us!
Lactose intolerance is also a common issue in many dogs which can make us very sick, no matter how small the piece of cheese is. So, if you see us acting strangely after consuming dairy, it might be down to us being lactose intolerant.
In moderation, cheese can even benefit our health! Finally, something positive in this entire article! Cheese contains calcium, essential fatty acids, and various vitamins that can aid our bodies and keep us feeling young.
All in all, cheese is generally safe for us dogs as long as the cheese is not full of toxic ingredients. Just make sure that we’re not having too much of a good thing!
Summary
To sum up, from your delicious cheese board you can sneak us an unsalted cracker with or without unsalted butter, and a small chunk of cheese. Under no circumstances should we be fed grapes or saltine crackers.
As long as you’re feeding us these safe-to-consume crackers and cheese in moderation, we should be fine and we’ll even thank you for the yummy treat. Just make sure that we have a fresh bowl of water waiting for us when the cracker makes our mouths all dry.
