Can Dogs Eat Honey? Or Is Honey Good For Dogs?
Being a dog lover, it’s the common tendency of people to feed their dog anything; after all, who can deny those cute puppy eyes. But that’s not a good habit, as feeding some food items to your dog may lead to severe health issues. Thus it is important to analyze the food item, its advantages, and disadvantages for your dog. The answer to the question “can dogs eat honey” Is “yes” the adult dogs can eat honey but make sure that you serve them a low amount of honey.
You must have heard about the advantages and disadvantages of raw honey for humans; similarly, for dogs, honey serves some advantages and disadvantages.
Honey is a thick sweet substance produced by honeybees from the flowers. It is used to add a sweet flavor to food. It contains about 65 calories per spoon, carbohydrates, 17g carbs per spoon with a negligible amount of protein but does not contain fat. Raw honey also contains vitamin C, Vitamin D, and vitamin K, antioxidants, and a few minerals like Zinc and magnesium.
Raw honey also contains antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial properties. Whether and how these properties apply to common canine health issues is the main matter of debate.
Nutritional value of honey
Honey is a sweet substance and contains varieties of beneficial nutrients, like:
- Fructose and glucose
- Enzymes to accelerate chemical reactions
- Zinc
- Iron
- Manganese
- Phosphate
- Calcium
- Copper
- Sodium
- Magnesium
- Potassium
- Vitamin B
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
- Phenolic acid
- Flavonoids
- Pollen grains
Advantages of raw honey for dogs
Raw honey helps in treating many health diseases in dogs:
Allergies
As we all know, it is very hard and frustrating to treat allergies that occur in dogs. However, in addition to medications, prescriptions, and diet, honey can be the best choice to treat allergies in dogs.
Honey contains pollen grains collected from honeybees which helps in desensitizing the immune system of dogs and improves the allergic symptoms.
Wound care
The wound contains minor burns, infections, spots, pressure sores, and it is not possible to treat them just by prescription so, if your dog is suffering from the wound, then serve him, honey.
However, it is recommended to first confirm this with the veterinarian as consumption of honey depends upon the health of dogs.
Pure raw honey helps in fighting with bacteria, infections, inflammation and also regrow healthy new skin.
Kennel cough
Kennel cough is a respiratory infection caused by inducing pathogens that are bacterial in nature.
In this kennel cough, manuka honey clears the respiratory pipe and soothes the throat.
Digestion
As we all know that digestion is a common problem in dogs due to the intake of hard or sweet food, but luckily, honey is safe for dogs and even helps in digesting food.
Honey helps to fight gastrointestinal diseases, like gastritis, colitis, irritable bowel disease, and the main overgrowth of bacteria as honey contains antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that help in improving the digestion process in dogs.
Energy booster
Honey boosts the energy level in dogs because dogs love to eat sweet food, and honey is sweet in taste.
So, when the honey is served, the dogs themselves become very energetic.
Read more- Can dogs eat cream cheese?
Common side effects of honey
Everything has its positive and negative effects, which applies to honey too. It has various advantages and disadvantages for dogs. To know the side effects of honey on dogs, read the following points carefully.
Diabetes
Honey is sweet in taste, so it can raise blood sugar which eventually may lead to diabetes in dogs.
Honey for puppies
If you have a pup, then do not serve honey to him because their immature gastrointestinal system is not able to fight with bacterial spores that can contaminate honey.
So, wait till your dog becomes old, then add honey to the diet. Also, if your old dog does not have a strong immune system, then do not serve honey because the dog will not be able to digest it.
Allergies to bees
If your dog is hypersensitive, then you should not serve him honey because it can create allergies to bees.
Obese dogs
A dog that is overweight can not eat honey because honey contains many calories, which are not good for the obese dog.
How to serve honey to dog
Avoid serving processed honey stick to the dog because raw honey has more benefits as compared to processed honey.
There are many ways to serve honey to dogs. You can add honey to your dog food or can serve with a spoon, but why not serve honey to your dog in a different way.
You can make a cake for dogs as we all know, dogs love cake.
Honey Cake Recipe for Dog
- One egg
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup oil
- One spoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup of honey
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup whole wheat or white flour
- One tablespoon baking soda
Steps to prepare:
- Keep the oven at 350°F
- Grease 6-ring mold
- Combine egg, peanut butter, oil, vanilla extract
- Mix the ingredients
- Add honey
- Mix well
- Add carrots and stir
- Mix flour and baking soda, then make a dough
- Add carrot mixture to the dough
- Transfer the dough into the baking pan
- Bake the cake for 40 minutes
- After 40 minutes, let the cake become cool
- Once cool, cut the cake into small slices
- Serve to your lovely dog
Read more- Dog Tattoo- Symbolism, Meaning, and Ideas
The bottom line
It’s quite common for dog lovers to want to feed everything to their beloved dog; however, to ensure the good health of your loyal friend, it is very important to keep notice of what you feed him.
Before feeding any food to your dog, ask yourself the question of whether you should feed him that food or not, analyze its nutritional values, advantages and disadvantages.
In the above post, we have mentioned all the details you might need to decide: can dogs eat honey? Similarly, we have many other posts analyzing the different food items for the dogs. Keep reading for more such articles. And let us know in the comment section below what food item you want us to write about next.
