Can Dogs Eat Celery: Important Facts You Must Know

Can dogs eat celery?

If you’re a dog owner, this question might have come across your mind a few times by now.

Don’t fret, the inquisition of dog moms and dads over which fruits and veggies their pets can have is a common occurrence. And for good reason.

While many foods are safe for us human beings to consume, it is not the same for our canine friends.

This is because many fruits and veggies- and even some types of meats, contain ingredients that are either immediately toxic to your dog or tend to pose health risks in the long run.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: Is It Safe?

So, back to today’s question of the day.

Can dogs eat celery?

The answer to this is: Yes.

There are, however, still a few things you should keep in mind before feeding it to your dog.

These “things” include the quantity of celery as well as the way it must be fed to your canine buddy.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: How Much Can They Eat?

If a dog likes a certain type of food, the correct question, technically, should be how much of it you should give them rather than how much they can eat.

When it comes to celery, the crunchy bites of it are something certain dogs will go crazy for. Regardless, you should never feed it to them as an official meal replacement.

Instead, try offering them a few chunks of it every now and then as a treat instead. Because that is just what celery is. A treat.

And nothing more.

When it comes to their actual food, dogs require something that can offer them a large number of required proteins. Food sources that will provide this are obviously, different types of lean meat.

But that doesn’t mean your pets can’t enjoy a few bites of celery as a snack every now and then.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: The Ten Percent Rule

But to give you a more precise idea of just how much of it you should be feeding to them on any given day, we’d suggest you stick to the ten percent rule.

As the name indicates, this rule suggests that a treat should consist of no more than 10 percent of your dog’s daily nutritional intake.

Any more than this, and you might upset their dietary balance, causing different health problems; most of which will start with an upset stomach.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: How Should Celery Be Fed to Dogs?

The best way, according to us and many other dog lovers, is that if you are going to feed your dog some celery, then you should do it by chopping the celery stalk into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

Doing so has two benefits.

Firstly, it will keep your dog from choking, which is a really important problem to avoid at all costs.

Secondly, it will ensure that your dog is able to eat the treats with ease and does not face any trouble while trying to get to them.

Many pet owners think that to enhance sensory engagement, a nice trick is to hide the treats in some puzzle or toy so that your pet really enjoys the treat.

While this may be true for cats, I’m afraid that doing so to celery (for dogs) might not yield the desired results.

Dogs are easy to train.

Simply get them to perform an activity and then use the treat as a guiding reward for good behavior. But the task can become overly complicated if you substitute behavior with a puzzle.

Of course, at the end of the day, the way an owner wants to go about giving treats to their pets is totally dependent on them, we’d still suggest that treats should not be given just for fun but reserved for good behavior.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: Potential Health Hazards

While the answer to “Can dogs eat celery?” is affirmative, yes; eating it might still pose a few health hazards which need to be dealt with head-on.

One of these, of course, is choking.

While big dogs might not have much of a problem, small dogs like chihuahuas might end up choking on large celery stalks.

Therefore, as mentioned earlier, the best feeding practices involve chopping the celery into smaller, bite-sized pieces that are safe for a dog to ingest.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: Best Way to Introduce Celery to Dogs

Dogs, just like human beings, have different choices and flavor preferences.

Thus, not all dogs will take an equal liking to something like celery. Some might love it and others might ignore its existence altogether.

If your dog does not like celery, then we’d suggest that you don’t push it. After all, a treat is something that is supposed to make your pets happy and not miserable.

And please note that there is no need to worry either. There are plenty of other, delicious and nutritious treats out there that you can substitute for celery when it comes to dogs.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: Nutritional Perspective

So, dog owners are allowed to feed this veggie to their canine buddies. But what about the nutritional perspective of things?

Is celery healthier than other snacks or is it the ultimate good food for your dog?

Let’s see.

Celery is rich in certain minerals and vitamins. These include vitamins A, C, and K. Folate and potassium are also present inside this veggie. Fiber and some levels of carbs are also present but the content of these is not as high as in other types of foods.

Therefore, celery is not a superfood since it does not contain the same level of protein as other foods might nor is its vitamin and mineral content any higher than other types of treats out there.

If you are looking for superfoods though, we would suggest looking at something like a cantaloupe which contains a lot of nutrition.

But please be sure to feed your dog plenty of lean meat since no food should ever replace meat in a dog’s daily diet.

Can Dogs Eat Celery: Fun Facts About Celery

Now that you know whether celery is safe for your dogs or not, let’s dive into a few cool facts about this vegetable.

• The production and cultivation of celery are said to have started 3000 years ago in the Mediterranean
• In ancient Greece, celery used to be given to winners of athletic competitions as a reward.
• One of the earliest known uses of it in medicine seems to have been in the field of insomnia treatment, hypertension and anxiety.

FAQs