Foods dogs must never eat
34 foods, grouped by how urgently you need to act. This page is designed to print onto a single sheet — worth putting somewhere visible if you have a dog that counter-surfs.
Poison lines
- +1 (888) 426-4435 — ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (US)
- +1 (855) 764-7661 — Pet Poison Helpline (US)
- 01202 509000 — Animal PoisonLine (UK)
- 1300 869 738 — Animal Poisons Centre (AU)
Do not wait for symptoms and do not try to make your dog sick unless a vet has told you to — some substances cause more damage coming back up. Have your dog's weight, what was eaten, roughly how much, and when, ready before you call.
Call a vet immediately
If your dog has eaten one of these, phone a vet or a poison line straight away — do not wait to see whether symptoms appear. For several of these, treatment given before symptoms start is what determines the outcome.
- Alcohol— EthanolNever give a dog alcohol. Dogs are far smaller and far more sensitive than people, and the dose that causes dangerous depression is much lower than most owners expect.Signs: stumbling and disorientation · vomiting · drooling · lethargy · low body temperature
- Caffeine— Caffeine, a methylxanthineNever let a dog have caffeine. Concentrated sources — coffee grounds, pills, energy drinks — are far more dangerous than a lick of milky tea.Signs: restlessness and pacing · racing heart · panting · vomiting · muscle tremors
- Chocolate— Theobromine, plus caffeine — together the methylxanthinesNever feed chocolate. It contains theobromine, which dogs clear far too slowly to handle safely. How dangerous a given amount is depends on the type of chocolate and the size of the dog.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · restlessness and hyperactivity · excessive thirst · panting
- Grapes, raisins, sultanas and currants— Tartaric acid and its salt potassium bitartrateNever feed grapes or anything dried from them. They cause sudden kidney failure in dogs, there is no known safe amount, and treatment works best before any symptoms start.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · lethargy · loss of appetite · abdominal pain
- Ibuprofen and other human anti-inflammatories— Non-selective COX inhibitionNever give a dog human anti-inflammatories. They cause stomach ulcers and kidney failure at doses close to a single tablet for a small dog.Signs: vomiting, sometimes with blood · black tarry stools · abdominal pain · loss of appetite · increased thirst
- Paracetamol / acetaminophen (Tylenol)— Acetaminophen and its reactive metabolite NAPQINever give a dog paracetamol. It is not a safe human painkiller to share, and it damages red blood cells and the liver. If your dog is in pain, ask a vet for a drug licensed for dogs.Signs: brown or muddy gums · swollen face or paws · laboured breathing · vomiting · lethargy
- Raw yeast dough— Ethanol from fermentation, plus mechanical expansionNever let a dog eat raw dough. It carries two separate emergencies at once: the dough keeps rising inside the stomach, and the yeast produces alcohol.Signs: swollen, tight abdomen · unproductive retching · restlessness · drooling · stumbling
- Wild mushrooms— Varies by species — amatoxins in Amanita, muscarine, ibotenic acid, gyromitrin, psilocybinTreat any wild mushroom a dog eats as an emergency. The dangerous species are not reliably distinguishable from the harmless ones, and the deadliest ones cause a deceptive recovery before liver failure.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea (sometimes bloody) · drooling · weakness · wobbliness
- Xylitol (birch sugar)— Xylitol, a five-carbon sugar alcoholA veterinary emergency. Xylitol causes a dog's pancreas to dump insulin, and blood sugar can crash within 10–30 minutes. Phone a vet before you read anything else on this page.Signs: vomiting · weakness and staggering · collapse · tremors · seizures
Poisonous — never feed
These are genuinely toxic. A small exposure is usually monitored rather than treated as an emergency, but call for advice, and never feed them deliberately.
- Cherry, peach, plum and apricot stones— Amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycosideThe flesh of these fruits is fine; the stone is not. Stones contain cyanide precursors and are also the right size and shape to block a dog's intestine.Signs: bright red gums · difficulty breathing · dilated pupils · shock · vomiting
- Hops— Unidentified; likely essential oils, resins or phenolic compoundsNever let a dog near hops, including spent hops from home brewing. They can trigger a rapid, dangerous rise in body temperature.Signs: very high body temperature · heavy panting · restlessness · racing heart · vomiting
- Macadamia nuts— Unidentified. Despite how consistently this syndrome occurs, the responsible compound has never been isolated.Never feed macadamia nuts. They cause a distinctive and alarming weakness in the back legs. Dogs almost always recover, but they need to be seen.Signs: hind limb weakness or inability to stand · tremors · fever · vomiting · wobbliness
- Nutmeg— MyristicinDo not feed nutmeg. In quantity it causes hallucinations and seizures, though the trace in a slice of pumpkin pie is not a poisoning risk.Signs: disorientation · hallucination-like behaviour · raised heart rate · high blood pressure · dry mouth
- Onions, garlic, leeks, chives and shallots— N-propyl disulfide and related organosulfur compoundsNever feed any allium, in any form. They destroy red blood cells, and because the damage builds over several days a dog can seem completely fine on the day it eats them.Signs: lethargy and weakness · pale gums · rapid breathing · fast heart rate · reddish-brown urine
- Raw and green potato— Solanine and chaconine, glycoalkaloidsDo not feed raw, green or sprouting potato. Cooked white potato flesh is fine — it is the green parts and the sprouts that contain solanine.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · drooling · lethargy · confusion
- Rhubarb— Soluble oxalatesDo not feed rhubarb, and keep dogs away from the leaves in the garden — they contain far more oxalate than the stalks.Signs: drooling · vomiting · diarrhoea · tremors · weakness
- Salt and salt dough— SodiumLarge amounts of salt cause brain swelling. The usual culprits are salt dough ornaments, homemade play dough and dogs drinking sea water.Signs: intense thirst · vomiting · diarrhoea · wobbliness · tremors
- Star fruit— Soluble oxalates, plus a neurotoxin (caramboxin)Do not feed star fruit. It is very high in soluble oxalate and can cause acute kidney injury.Signs: drooling · vomiting · weakness · tremors · reduced urination
Never feed — harmful, but not poisonous
These are not poisons. The harm is mechanical, microbial, or builds up over time — a splintering bone, an obstruction, a fat load that triggers pancreatitis.
- Bacon and cured porkAvoid bacon and other cured meats. The combination of very high fat and very high salt is a common trigger for pancreatitis.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · abdominal pain · excessive thirst · lethargy
- Cakes, pancakes and biscuitsAvoid sweet baked goods. Beyond the sugar and fat, they are a common delivery route for chocolate, raisins, macadamias, nutmeg and xylitol.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · hyperactivity
- Cooked bonesNever give cooked bones of any kind. Cooking makes bone brittle, so it splinters into sharp fragments that can pierce the gut.Signs: gagging or choking · drooling · retching · vomiting · black tarry stools
- Corn on the cobNever let a dog have the cob. Corn kernels are harmless, but the cob is one of the most common causes of emergency intestinal surgery in dogs.Signs: repeated vomiting, especially after eating or drinking · loss of appetite · lethargy · abdominal pain · straining
- Crisps, chips and salty snacksAvoid salty snacks. They are high in salt and fat and most are seasoned with onion or garlic powder.Signs: excessive thirst · vomiting · diarrhoea
- Fat trimmings and fatty leftoversAvoid fatty scraps. A sudden high-fat meal is the classic trigger for pancreatitis, which is painful, expensive to treat and sometimes fatal.Signs: repeated vomiting · hunched posture or 'praying' stance · abdominal pain · loss of appetite · diarrhoea
- Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and vinegar— Glucosinolates in mustard seedAvoid condiments. They are salty, often contain onion and garlic powder, and mustard seeds specifically cause vomiting.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · excessive thirst · abdominal pain
- Melatonin gummies and supplementsMelatonin itself is sometimes prescribed for dogs, but gummy versions are frequently sweetened with xylitol — which makes them dangerous.Signs: sedation · wobbliness · vomiting · collapse if xylitol is present
- Nutella and chocolate hazelnut spreadNever feed it — but the danger is the fat, not the chocolate. At ~7.4% cocoa the theobromine is low; at 30% fat and 56% sugar a stolen jar is a genuine pancreatitis risk.Signs: vomiting · greasy diarrhoea · abdominal pain · hunched or praying posture · lethargy
- PizzaDo not share pizza. Nearly every pizza contains garlic and onion in the sauce, on top of a lot of fat and salt.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · excessive thirst · abdominal pain
- Raw fish— Neorickettsia helminthoeca, carried by a fluke; also thiaminaseDo not feed raw salmon or trout, particularly in the Pacific Northwest — they can carry a parasite that causes a fatal illness in dogs. Cooked fish is fine.Signs: high fever · vomiting · diarrhoea, often bloody · swollen lymph nodes · loss of appetite
- Sausages, hot dogs and processed meatAvoid processed meats. They are high in salt and fat, usually contain onion or garlic powder, and often carry nitrites and other additives.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · excessive thirst · abdominal pain
- Spicy food— CapsaicinDo not feed spicy food. Capsaicin irritates a dog's mouth and gut, and dogs get no enjoyment from heat the way people do.Signs: drooling · pawing at the mouth · vomiting · diarrhoea · excessive thirst
- Sugar and sweetsSugar is not toxic, but there is no good reason to feed it — and sweets are the single most common way dogs are exposed to xylitol and chocolate.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · hyperactivity then lethargy
- Tums and human antacids— Bismuth subsalicylate in Pepto-Bismol; xylitol in some chewablesDo not give human antacids without veterinary advice. Pepto-Bismol contains an aspirin-like compound, and some antacids are xylitol-sweetened.Signs: black stools (which may be the drug rather than blood) · vomiting · loss of appetite
- White chocolateNever feed it, but it is not the poisoning risk dark chocolate is — white chocolate contains almost no theobromine. The real problems are fat, sugar and, in sugar-free versions, xylitol.Signs: vomiting · diarrhoea · excessive thirst · hunched posture and repeated vomiting (pancreatitis)
This list covers the foods most often involved in poisoning cases, but it is not exhaustive — plants, household chemicals and medications cause many incidents too. If your dog has eaten something that is not listed here, call a vet rather than assuming it is safe because it is absent.