These Common Foods Are Toxic to Dogs
Our pets are in our power, so we must make sure they are safe. This can be challenging at times, because many seemingly harmless everyday foods can be toxic to our animals – especially dogs, which can’t tell the difference between a tasty snack and a one-way ticket to the vet.
Your best bet is probably to assume that any human food is potentially dangerous to your pet, but this drawing from Bark is a handy guide to the most common foods they might come across:
Some of them are pretty amazing. For example, grapes (and raisins) seem harmless enough for your dog to fumble right away, but unfortunately, both fresh and dried grapes can cause acute kidney failure . Onions and garlic can also be toxic to dogs, causing damage to blood cells or even anemia when consumed in large quantities.
This figure does not cover every potentially hazardous human food that a dog may encounter. A complete list of foods, plants, medicines, and other products that are poisonous to pets can be found in this database on the Pet Poison Hotline. It allows you to search for foods, medicines, household chemicals and other potential poisons by name and tells you how dangerous their effects are for various types of pets.
Hopefully you never need the Pet Poison database, but if your dog swallows something he shouldn’t, it might help you understand how serious the situation is. Your family veterinarian should always be your first call, but for questions regarding pet poisonous substances, you can call the two national phone lines at any time:
ASPCA Pet Poisoning Hotline: (888) 426-4435
National Pet Poisoning Helpline: (800) 233-6680
This article was originally published on August 25, 2015. It was updated on May 21, 2021 with the addition of a new photo, alternative text for Barca’s infographic, information on the national anti-poisoning hotline, and to reflect the current Lifehacker style rules.