Hmmm, this is a tricky question. First of all, I don’t really know what green is.
Everything I see is blue, yellow, or gray. I could pick out a yellow pepper but the red and the green would look the same to me.
Second of all, there are lots of kinds of green peppers. There are the juicy bell peppers, the spicy jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, chili peppers, and some really hot peppers.
To make things a bit simpler, let’s split these peppers into sweet and spicy.
Sweet Green Peppers
Sweet green peppers like green bell peppers are totally fine for us to eat. In fact, they are packed with vitamins A and C and antioxidants.
Bell peppers can act as anti-inflammatories which can make movement easier for aged dogs with arthritis.
As if that wasn’t good enough, green bell peppers can also make us less gassy! That means you can’t blame us for your stinky farts anymore!
We’ll happily eat bell peppers raw as a treat or sprinkled over our food. Some of my dog friends are a bit suspicious of veggies so you might need to bribe them by wrapping it in ham.
Spicy Green Peppers
These are a no-no. Spicy food cause spicy poops! If you don’t want to spend your days cleaning up poop and sick, don’t give us spicy green peppers. Our stomachs just can handle the spice.
I did some research, and it turns out that peppers are spicy because of something called capsaicin. This stuff really irritates every part of our body it touches.
Firstly, when we sniff it, it can make us sneeze. Our noses are much better than yours and that strong, spicy smell is super irritating!
When we eat the pepper, we don’t experience the taste the same way you do. You enjoy the spicy taste but to us it’s just unpleasant and stinging.
Usually, this makes us dive for the water bowl but sometimes we try to lick floors and walls to cleanse our tastebuds.
Once in our bellies, the capsaicin really gets to work. It can make us feel nauseous and cause sickness and diarrhea. These things can lead to dehydration which can become a serious problem.
It’s best we don’t eat spicy green peppers, or any foods seasoned with them. A small amount won’t kill us, but it will be unpleasant for us.
Can Dogs Eat Raw Peppers?
Yup! We’re not fussy about cooking our food. We can eat raw green bell peppers, or we can eat them cooked. It doesn’t really matter to us.
If you are going to cook our peppers, make sure you don’t season them with onion or garlic. Those herbs are really bad for us.
As I’ve already mentioned, we shouldn’t eat spicy peppers raw or cooked. This goes for chili peppers, jalapenos, cayenne peppers, or any other kind of hot pepper.
We also shouldn’t eat anything seasoned with spicy peppers.
What Vegetables Are Bad for Dogs?
I know that you think I’m only including this section to get out of eating veggies. I promise that’s only half of the story.
You see, some vegetables are really bad for us dogs. We have different digestive systems and different tolerances to you guys.
Here are some veggies that we shouldn’t eat.
- Onions and garlic – Ewww. These things are gross, and they can do lots of damage to our bodies. They actually stop our red blood cells from carrying oxygen properly which can cause anemia.
Pretty much any vegetable in the onion family is toxic to us. This means no chives, leeks, shallots, or garlic.
- Avocados – I don’t get the big deal with avocado. It seems to be super difficult to open and the middle just tastes like leaf mush!
It’s a good thing I don’t like the taste of avocados because they’re not particularly good for dogs. Avocados contain something called persin which is a toxin. You hoomans can process persin but most animals can’t.
Us dogs are better at processing persin than other animals, but it can still do lots of damage. So, keep your avocados to yourself.
- Mushrooms – I’m super good at finding mushrooms when I’m out for a walk. It drives my hooman crazy because I love to smush them and rip them up before they can stop me.
The problem with mushrooms is that lots of them can be toxic! Even the ones that you eat can hurt us dogs.
We’re probably ok with washed white mushrooms you get from the store, but it’s better to play it safe. Keep the fungi away from me!
- Unripe tomatoes – I know it seems pretty self-explanatory. If it ain’t ripe don’t eat it, right? Well, the problem is we don’t know if they’re ripe or not. Reds and greens look the same to us!
Unripe tomatoes contain tomatine which can play havoc with our nervous system. The same goes for the other parts of a tomato plant.
If you’re growing tomatoes, keep the plants out of our reach and only give us ripe tomatoes to snack on.
- Asparagus – These strange stalks are more of a nuisance than anything. They’re super chewy when they’re raw and they can give us stinky farts!
Cooked asparagus is easier to eat but it doesn’t really have any nutritional value which means that it’s a pretty pointless treat.
It’s probably simply better if we don’t eat the stinky fart sticks.
Final Thoughts
We might not be able to tell if a pepper is green or not, but we will certainly know if it’s a spicy pepper!
Keep the hot green peppers away from us and our food. We don’t need spice to enjoy our meals even if you do.
As for those sweet juicy bell peppers, keep them coming! They’re a great source of vitamins and antioxidants.
When it comes to vegetables, it gets a bit trickier. Most vegetables are safe for canine consumption but there are some that should be avoided.
