A night sitting on the couch watching movies and eating popcorn is one of those little pleasures of life that we love to share with those we love. Sure, our best friends never stay out on this home-made show, but can dogs eat popcorn? Is this what many tutors ask when they see the face of? Ask? of his dogs looking at the jar of freshly prepared popcorn.
At Animal Expert we always encourage guardians to encourage themselves to offer a more natural and balanced diet to their dogs. For this reason, we also try to answer the most common questions from the owners, for example, whether a dog can eat bread or if their dog can eat eggs. Today we decided to talk about one of the most popular snacks in Brazil and the world, our infallible companion of movies and series: popcorn.
- To leave no doubt.
- I want to clarify.
- Right here in the introduction.
- That popcorn is not one of the foods that dogs can eat.
- Conversely.
- Excessive or unregulated consumption can cause serious digestive problems and harm the health of our best friends.
- And in this new article.
- I’ll explain in detail why popcorn is not part of dog food.
- Be?.
As you can read in the introduction, popcorn is not a dog-friendly food. So, it’s a myth that dogs can eat popcorn and you shouldn’t give them to your best friend.
Popcorn is not dog food for several reasons and the first is that it does not offer beneficial nutrients for dog feeding. If you want to include new foods in your puppy’s food, you should focus on those that contain nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fiber, which promote digestion and help strengthen dogs’ immune system. And of course, as we have always mentioned, it is essential to consult a veterinarian before introducing a new food or changing your best friend’s diet.
At this point, it is also important that we be more aware of our own diet. Many popular snacks, such as popcorn or chips, offer more empty calories and fats than nutrients that benefit our body. Does that mean we should stop eating popcorn? Not necessarily, but we must consume it very moderately.
Does that mean you shouldn’t give my dog popcorn? Yes. Because in addition to not benefiting your diet, popcorn can also harm your dog’s health. Read on to learn more.
To understand why you should not offer popcorn to your dog, first I want to point out that boiled, natural and preservative-free corn is already difficult to digest for dogs. As a result, there are more dog-recommended vegetables and cereals, such as brown rice, spinach, carrots, oats, well-cooked peas or pumpkin, which your dog can digest more easily and make better use of its nutrients.
In addition to hard-to-digest corn, popcorn is a snack that contains a lot of fat and salt. And these famous industrial popcorn we bought to make in the microwave still contain preservatives, artificial flavors and an exaggerated amount of spices and salt.
In addition to causing digestive problems, excess fat can cause rapid weight gain and high cholesterol levels in dogs. Excess LDL cholesterol (the so-called “bad cholesterol”) tends to promote the accumulation of non-soluble fatty plaques in the arteries, which promotes the development of cardiovascular disease. Excess salt is also harmful to dogs’ heart health and can cause canine hypertension.
You can think about the possibility of homemade popcorn, made in a pan with little oil or steam, without preservatives and without salt. Obviously, this snack would be much less dangerous or harmful to our fur than industrialized popcorn. But let’s face it and let’s say that almost no one makes popcorn without oil and salt, and the vast majority of people prefer microwave popcorn bags, which are the most harmful to our dogs because of the amount of salt and artificial substances.
Therefore, although popcorn is not always a forbidden dog food, they are not a safe or beneficial food for your best friend. To please or reward your dog during training, you can opt for more natural and healthy snacks.
If your dog has eaten a very small dose of homemade popcorn, made with little oil, preservatives and salt, this intake may be harmless and your dog does not present side effects. In any case, it is important that you offer a lot of water to your dog and pay close attention to its behavior during the 48 hours after the intake of popcorn, because that is more or less how long it will take your body to eliminate toxins. And drinking a lot of water will help in this detoxification process.
However, if your dog has eaten microwave popcorn or homemade popcorn with lots of oil and salt, you’re likely to have digestive problems such as gas, vomiting or diarrhea. It also makes sense that your dog is very thirsty and wants to drink a lot of water due to excessive consumption of salt and artificial aromas.
So if your dog eats popcorn, the best thing you can do is take it to the vet to rule out the possibility that this snack will harm your health. If the intake is light or harmless, your puppy will be under observation, with the experience of a veterinarian.
However, if your best friend develops side effects from this inadequate intake, you will have trained professionals who will evaluate the need for a stomach wash and offer you the most appropriate treatment to recover your well-being.
If you want to know if a dog can eat watermelon, check out this Animal Expert article.
If you want to read similar articles about Can a dog eat popcorn?, we recommend that you visit our Balanced Diets section.