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Can my dog eat human food? What "people food" is safe for them?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Is it okay to feed my dog "people" food?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Christie Long, DVM

Veterinarian, Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist

Published on April 5th, 2018

Ideally, a high-quality commercially-prepared diet should make up 90% of a dog’s diet, with nutritious treats making up no more than that last 10%. Commercially-prepared foods are formulated to provide proper balances of vitamins and minerals, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Nutritional deficiencies or imbalances can lead to a host of health conditions.

There are some dogs or pet parents who prefer home cooked diets over the commercially available options. In these cases, the recipe for the home cooked food must be carefully balanced to account for any lacking nutrients, and are best formulated by specialists in veterinary nutrition. Examples of such recipes can be found at www.balanceit.com. However, occasional treats of people foods, such as boiled white meat chicken, cooked sweet potatoes, turkey, green beans, or carrots are perfectly fine!

593Pet Parents found this answer helpful

Related Answers from Veterinarians

Answered By Rebecca, DVM
Veterinarian
Published on September 9th, 2017
If you feed a high quality dog food, then it is nutritionally balanced and complete for the dogs life span. Dogs on high-quality food such as science diet, Purina pro plan, iams- just a few- have been shown in studies to live longer than pets on less balanced diets, which includes people food and table scraps. There are veterinary nutritionist available if you prefer to do a home cooked diet for your pet, www.balanceit.com is one such service. Is an occasional bite of white meat chicken going to hurt your dog, probably not. However we have created dog breeds that are far removed from their wild ancestors. Our pets are at risk of developing disease and imbalances with large amounts of fat, processed foods, spices that we as humans typically enjoy with our food. Wild canines typically also live an average of under 10 years where some of our domestic dogs can live into their late teens or even 20s. In general veterinarians are going to recommend no table food due to all of the complications and even deaths that we have seen from table food.
The more treats or additives that you may give a pet means that their diet is no longer balance. Dog foods are highly researched to provide adequate nutrition for their target species and age group. Which is why the premium foods have so many options for growing dogs, adult dogs, senior dogs, working dogs etc. in general feeding a high quality dog food will extend your pets life. If you prefer a home cooked diet, I beg you to please use this service such as balance it or a true veterinary nutritionist to develop The appropriate diet for Soska.
I hope this helped, thank you for using PetCoach.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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What human foods can my dog safely eat or use in homemade treats?

Great question! I'm glad to hear that Ideal Balance is the basis of Cassie's diet, so adding on home cooked treats in moderation is perfectly fine. Commonly used protein sources for dogs include: chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, salmon, pork, lentils, or eggs (all cooked, of course). Some examples of commonly used vegetable and grain sources include: Black beans, pinto beans, green peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, quinoa, and white or brown rice. Use fruits more sparingly due to the sugar content and greater likelihood of gastrointestinal upset, but apples, bananas, and canned pure pumpkin. For a more comprehensive list of safe ingredients, you can look at www.balanceit.com, which is a website from the veterinary nutritionists at the UC-Davis veterinary. I hope this helps!

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What human foods are safe for my dog to eat as occasional treats?

The best food to feed Bentley is a high quality puppy formulated food such as Royal Canin, Hills Science Diet, or Purina ProPlan. That's all he needs to be healthy. It's not recommend to feed him human food on a daily basis, as that can lead to obesity and further health problems. I will give you a link to a website that shows human foods dogs can have on an occasional basis: http://www.akc.org/content/health/articles/human-foods-dogs-can-and-cant-eat/

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What human foods can my cat eat safely, and which should I avoid?

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Are homemade treats safe for puppies? What human foods can they eat?

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Is feeding my dog only cooked meat safe? What about homemade meals?

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What's the best diet for my dog: dry, human food, or a mix?

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Is my dog's human food diet healthy and nutritionally balanced?

Hi there. No, this is not okay - Rio needs to be on a nutritionally complete and balanced diet designed for dogs. What you are describing is not healthy for him, and puts him at risk of developing a variety of different health problems due to nutritional imbalances and deficiencies. I would recommend feeding a good quality commercial dog food from a reputable company such as Purina, Hills, or Royal Canin. If you prefer to cook for your dog at home, that's fine - but it needs to be a diet formulated to meet his nutritional needs, not something you make up yourself. In that case, you can use the website www.balanceit.com to put together appropriate recipes using ingredients of your choosing, or consult with a veterinary nutritionist about formulating a custom diet for him. You can find more information on how to do this here: https://acvn.org/nutrition-consults/

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

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