Is it Safe for Dogs to Eat Pork?
Plain, cooked pork is safe for dogs to eat, as long as you keep it simple and leave off the bells and whistles people tend to cook with. Seasonings and spice rubs that contain the following ingredients are extremely dangerous because they are highly toxic to dogs if ingested:
Avoid feeding your dog food cooked in condiments such as barbecue sauce. Many sauces are high in salt and sugar and contain added flavoring, such as garlic and onion. If your dog happens to eat a piece of pork covered in barbecue sauce, keep an eye out for any unusual symptoms that may arise; if they do develop a reaction, contact your vet immediately.
How Much Pork Can a Dog Eat?
Like any other food you try out for the first time, feed your dog a small amount to see if there’s any reaction. Certain meats, including pork, rabbit, and lamb, may cause allergic reactions.
Pork is also rich with a type of fat that is difficult for dogs to digest, which can lead to indigestion and inflammation of the pancreas.
Pork is often considered to be a processed fat-laden meat because of particular cuts such as sausages and bacon. These processed pork products can be rich and fatty and often contain lots of salt, which a dog’s stomach is not equipped to handle. Providing an influx of pork in the form of table scraps may pose a problem and cause your dog to get an upset tummy. Further, pork intended for human consumption often contains other ingredients such as seasoning and spices, which can be highly toxic to dogs.
Feeding dogs bones is not always safe. Cooked bones can be fragile and may splinter, which can damage your dog’s mouth, throat, or internal organs if swallowed. While uncooked bones are stronger, there is still a risk that they might break or fracture the thin enamel layer on a dog’s teeth. There are much safer alternatives to bones, including dental chews.
Pork is a commonly fed meat which appears near the top of vets’ lists of foods associated with allergic responses in dogs and cats, so James Wellbeloved excludes pork along with beef, soya, eggs, wheat and dairy products from its recipes and from our production facility due to the hypoallergenic nature of our diets.
As uncooked pork can contain the parasite trichinella spiralis larvae, you should only feed your dog cooked pork. Symptoms of a trichinella spiralis infection include vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, lethargy and stiffness; although sometimes dogs may not show symptoms. If your dog has consumed raw pork, take them to the vet as a precautionary measure.