Have you ever noticed that as soon as you pull out a piece of cheese, your dog runs up beside you trying to get a bite? Something about the smell of the cheese gets your dog pumped and ready to beg for a quick bite, but you might not know if your dog can safely consume it. The good news is dogs absolutely can eat cheese! While it’s not something they need to have every day, it offers several benefits. Most importantly, dogs seem to love the taste of different types of cheeses, so it’s a great way to reward your pet for its good behavior.
Can Dogs Have Cheese?
Dogs can have cheese! Not only can they have cheese, but they can also enjoy different types, such as mozzarella and American cheese. While many dogs love cheese, and it’s safe to feed your pet, you must do so in moderation. If you overdo it with the cheese, your dog is at risk of becoming obese. How exactly does cheese lead to obesity? Because it has a higher fat content, too much of it can cause your dog to develop fatty deposits when gaining weight.
When dogs become obese, they have a greater risk of pancreatitis, a life-threatening condition that can cause your pup to experience pain and discomfort. If you don’t want this to happen, monitor how much cheese you’re giving to your beloved pet. As long as you’re giving the right portion and not overdoing it, you can make sure your pet enjoys something it likes best – cheese!
Can Dogs Eat Cottage Cheese?
Cottage cheese is a clear winner if you’re looking for a type of cheese that your dog will enjoy that is even better for the animal. Because it has a significantly lower fat content
than other types of cheese, it’s good for dogs to eat as a healthy treat. It also has less sodium than other cheeses, which is important because too much sodium is toxic for dogs and causes them to experience different symptoms, including diarrhea and vomiting.
How Much Cottage Cheese Can a Dog Eat?
If you want to give your dog cottage cheese, consider mixing it in with their usual dry food instead of giving it to your pet by itself. A little goes a long way when you add it to dry food. With that in mind, the most you should give your pet is about a teaspoon of cottage cheese. If you have a larger dog, you can add two teaspoons of the cheese on top of its dry food. You don’t need to give your dog cottage cheese every day. If you want your dog to reap the health benefits associated with it, adding it to the food bowl once every other day would work best.
Which Types of Cheese Are Best for Dogs to Eat?
Now that you know it’s OK to give your dog some cheese, you’re probably wondering which kinds of cheese are best! Always go for low-fat options because you don’t want to increase your dog’s chances of becoming obese by feeding it options with more fat. Some of the best lower-fat cheese options include goat cheese, cottage cheese, and mozzarella.
If you like to buy mozzarella cheese sticks, you can slice them into pieces and add them to your dog’s food bowl or use them as a treat system when training your pup. For example, if you want to teach your dog how to give its paw, sit, roll over, and do fun tricks, you can use these pieces of cheese as a reward for easily mastering these commands.
When to Give a Dog Cheese
There are several good reasons to give a dog cheese. These are just a few reasons you might want to pull out the cheese and offer it to your four-legged friend:
Good Behavior – Let your dog know how much of a good boy or girl it has been by rewarding its behavior with a piece of cheese. It’s a great way to show your dog that good behavior is important in your household!
Training – Do you plan on training your dog? No matter what you’re trying to teach your furry friend, use cheese treats as a reward system for mastering different skills. The cheese will keep your dog motivated and wanting to learn!
Good Health – Of course, cheese does offer some health benefits. If you want your dog to reap those benefits, you can add a bit of cheese to its food bowl throughout the week. A little goes a long way, so you won’t need to put too much of it in the bowl.
While you can give your dog cheese whenever you feel it’s best to do so, these are a few instances in which cheese can truly come in handy!
How Much Cheese Can a Dog Have in a Day?
Although dogs can eat cheese, they don’t need much of it to reap its benefits. You can consider a few things when deciding how much cheese to give your pup, including how it typically reacts to consuming dairy products and its size. For example, a small dog would only need the tiniest bit of cheese because it already has a small stomach and likely doesn’t eat nearly as much as a big dog. However, if you have a dog that weighs 100+ pounds, you can give it a bit more cheese because it does have a larger stomach and can tolerate consuming more of the cheese.
If you have a cheese stick, you can cut it into pieces and give half of it to your large dog or half of a half to a smaller dog. When giving your dog cottage cheese, a teaspoon or less is sufficient for a small dog weighing 20 pounds or less. However, if your dog is on the larger side, you can add two teaspoons of cottage cheese to the bowl.
The Benefits of Cheese for Dogs
Cheese can benefit a dog’s health in several ways. It’s an excellent protein source, giving these animals more than enough energy. However, it also contains essential vitamins, nutrients, and fatty acids, each of which plays an integral role in the overall health and wellness of both animals and humans. By giving your dog cheese here and there, you can ensure it gets the vitamins and nutrients needed to stay healthy.
What Your Dog Can Eat Instead
There’s no shame in wanting to give our dogs whatever food will make them happy. There just happens to be many other choices out there that are much healthier and more nutritious than pretzels. Here is a list of all the junk foods that your dog can eat.
Fruits
There are many fruits that dogs can eat which are packed with vitamins, dietary fibers, and antioxidants. The best are berries like strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, and raspberries. Dogs can eat bananas, oranges, apples, melons, mangos, and pineapples. Make sure fruits with pits, stems, cores, and seeds have been ridden from these items. Several of them are choking hazards and peach pits can be toxic. Grapes of any kind are poisonous to dogs, and even raisins shouldn’t be given to them.
Seafood
When seafood is free from shells, tails, bones, and legs, they are safe for a dog to eat. Dogs can have lobster, shrimp, salmon, crab, tuna, flounder, and a variety of other fish that is lower in mercury. Fish with too much mercury fed too often to our dogs can cause mercury poisoning. Uncooked or undercooked seafood can contain harmful pathogens and bacterium like salmonella which can make a dog extremely ill. Always ensure that seafood is thoroughly cooked before feeding it to your dog.
Beans
Beans can be great sources of dietary fibers and proteins which are necessary for a dog’s health. Dogs can have a wide variety of beans, including lima beans, pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, soybeans, butter beans, kidney beans, navy beans, and even green beans. Beans should always be cooked thoroughly and fed to dogs in moderation to avoid tummy aches. Beans shouldn’t replace meat in a dog’s diet, since the meat they eat is a richer source of proteins.
Vegetables
As stated earlier, garlic and onions contain toxins that are bad for dogs, and even seasonings containing traces of these vegetables could cause problems. Avocado is another poisonous food because it contains a toxic chemical called persin. Other veggies are considered great sources of fiber and vitamins for dogs. Dogs can eat carrots, pumpkins, spinach, celery, brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, and many other vegetables instead.
Nuts
Most nuts aren’t toxic to dogs, save for walnuts and macadamia nuts. Other nuts aren’t necessarily poisonous, but they can contain lots of salts, fats, and proteins that are difficult to digest. They also aren’t very practical because they can be choking hazards due to their shapes, sizes, and shells. Cashews, almonds, and pistachios are fine for dogs to eat moderately, especially when they are made into butter which is safer to eat in terms of obstruction.
Conclusion
If you’re a cheese lover, you may be glad to know that you can share one of your favorite snacks with your four-legged friend. However, it helps to know which cheeses are the absolute best for dogs before you do so. Avoid cheeses containing too much sodium because excess salt is bad for these animals. Instead, go for cottage cheese or mozzarella, which are full of flavor and often enjoyed by dogs of all sizes. You don’t have to give your pet too much cheese to ensure it reaps the different benefits. A little bit of cheese throughout the week works wonders and will be thoroughly appreciated by your four-legged friend!
