You are preparing that mouthwatering hummus dip, and your dog is eagerly staring at you, praying that you reward its loyalty with a fair piece of your hummus. As a loving dog owner, you would impulsively want to share a bit with your dog. But then, is hummus good for your dog?
Essentially, your dog shouldn’t be fed with hummus. This is because of potentially toxic components in the humus like garlic and lemon juice. If you can make plain hummus (devoid of garlic and lemon), your dog can eat minimal quantities of hummus without suffering significant health disruptions.
You wouldn’t blame your dog for salivating hummus; it is that delicious both on the tongue and on the eye. But what ingredients in the humus really make it dangerous for your dog? Can your dog eat hummus chips? How about eating pine nuts? Find us as we dig deeper in this insightful guide.
How Hummus Ingredients Affect Dogs?
Hummus owes its deliciousness to a mix of ingredients like chickpeas, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice.
These combine to make hummus a rich source of vitamin B6, dietary fiber, and manganese. Let us explore the healthiness of each of these ingredients for your dog.
Chickpeas Contained Humus is not Bad for Your Dog
It goes without saying that chickpea is the primary ingredient in your regular hummus. Chickpeas are noted for their versatility, going well with salads, stews, and soup. Chickpeas are healthy for you and your dogs.
Also known as garbanzo beans, chickpeas, when rightly integrated into your dog’s diet, supplies it with folate, potassium, magnesium, and protein. All these play critical roles in enhancing your dog’s health and aiding cell recovery.
Chickpeas are also beneficial to your dog for their blood sugar regulatory capabilities. The Vitamin A contained in chickpeas also enhances your dog’s eye vision.
Furthermore, Vitamin B and C in chickpeas fortify your dog’s immune system. The fiber packed in chickpeas facilitates digestion in your dog; however, excess chickpeas can result in excess gas.
Tahini in Hummus is also Good for Your Dog
Tahini is a staple in lots of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. A sesame seed paste, Tahini comes with zero gluten, vegan, with a delicious nuttiness.
So long Tahini is moderately consumed, it poses no health risk to your dog. Instead, it supplies your dog vital nutrients like healthy fatty acids, calcium, phosphorus, proteins, and zinc.
The sesamolin deposited in tahini helps manage your dog’s blood pressure by lowering its cholesterol to optimal levels. It is only when your dog consumes an excess of tahini that it causes digestive mishaps.
Hummus Comprising Lemon Juice is Bad for Your Dog
As humans, we love lemon juice, and we are right to. Come on, why shouldn’t we savor lemon when it is a wealthy depot of vitamin C, soluble fiber, aiding weight loss, hydration, digestion, and overall improving our sleep quality?
But here is where it gets interesting. Despite its gamut of health benefits for man, lemon is toxic for your dog, and you should never feed hummus containing lemon to your dog.
Besides giving next to nothing to your dog regarding nutrition, the aromatic oils and psoralen compounds in lemon can prove toxic for your dog, triggering stomach issues.
Such stomach upsets are not unconnected to the significantly acidic nature of lemon juice. Undoubtedly, this can unsettle the acid-base equilibrium in your dog. All these contribute to vomiting, fatigue, and diarrhea in your dog.
The good news is that on its own, your dog doesn’t fancy lemons. Lemon’s distinctive sour taste, characteristic of citrus fruits, means even an inquisitive creature like a dog wouldn’t go licking it.
Garlic in Hummus is a no-no for Your Dog
Truth is, it is hard – if not impossible – to prepare hummus without garlic. I mean, most of the spicy flavor of the humus is derived from the garlic cloves integrated.
When garlic is fed to your dog, as in the form of humus, the chances are high that your dog would be poisoned. Garlic’s high toxicity to dogs is typical of the allium family like onions.
Dogs metabolize foods differently than we do as humans. Garlic contains meaningful amounts of thiosulfate. Thiosulfate is not toxic when you ingest it but is highly toxic for dogs.
When your dog eats garlic, say in humus, the thiosulfate can damage its red cells (especially by oxidation), causing hemolytic anemia. Such hemolytic anemia can be identified from symptoms like dark colored urine, jaundice, and pale mucous membranes.
Garlic toxicity from ingestion in dogs can be demonstrated in symptoms like dehydration, depression, vomiting, gastrointestinal upset, and appetite loss.
Can Dogs Eat Hummus Chips?
We will not deny that humus chips are tasty. They are commonly made of chickpea flour, rapeseed, potato starch, rice, onion powder, creamy dill seasoning, herbs, and cornflour.
The bulk of hummus chips you would find in stores today don’t contain garlic. But does that essentially make them healthy enough for dog consumption?
No. Humus chips still contain onions, which still poses the threat of toxicity for dogs. Nonetheless, your dog can eat hummus chips, so long it is in minimal quantities at a time.
The chances are slim that your dog would be poisoned. However, if we were to advise you, we would tell you to keep hummus chips off your dog feeding regimen as salty snacks generally don’t suit your dog’s digestive systems.
Can Dogs Eat Roasted Red Pepper Hummus?
It is not healthy for your dog to eat roasted red pepper hummus. Doesn’t this sound contradictory, considering that bell pepper is recommended for dogs? Well, roasted red pepper is very different from your bell pepper.
Such roasted pepper retains a distinctive spiciness that makes it incompatible with your dog’s digestive systems. This makes roasted red pepper an assured harbinger of gastrointestinal upsets associated with vomiting and diarrhea.
Can Dogs Eat Pine Nut Hummus?
Pine nut hummus is not very toxic to your dog. But they should be fed in minimal quantities to your dog. This is considering the significant content of phosphorus and fat in pine nuts, which can be disruptive to your dog’s stomach.
Can Dogs Eat Chocolate Hummus?
The answer to this is obviously a resounding NO. This is because this hummus chiefly contains chocolate. Although chocolate hummus is not necessarily fatal to your dog, the chocolate in such hummus can get your dog really ill.
This is because of chocolate’s toxicity to dogs, no thanks to chocolate’s notable constitution of theobromine and caffeine.
While for humans, such theobromine and caffeine have diuretic benefits even up to muscle relaxation, theobromine is poisonous to dogs. The canines can’t metabolize caffeine and theobromine as efficiently as humans do.
Therefore, your dog becomes more sensitive to the negative chemical effects of theobromine. Take note that the toxicity of your chocolate hummus on your dog varies with the chocolate variant used in preparing the hummus. Hummus made with darker and bitterer chocolate is more toxic to your dog.
Can Dogs Eat Pumpkin Hummus?
Pumpkin hummus is fluffy, not too thick, and loaded with pumpkin flavor. Pumpkin hummus can be beneficial for your dog, depending on its mode of preparation.
If you can prepare your pumpkin hummus from scratch without adding garlic or lemon juice, it wouldn’t hurt feeding your dog such pumpkin hummus. This hummus also has the potential of helping a dog briefly struggling to achieve successful bowel movements.
How Much Hummus is Toxic to Dogs?
We can’t authoritatively establish a specific amount of humus as toxic for all dogs. This is because a dog’s sensitivity to various hummus ingredients can vary from dog to dog.
The main determinant of the toxicity of the regular hummus is the garlic content. If the garlic is more than appropriate, it is almost assured that the hummus would be toxic.
Studies have revealed that negative disruption can be introduced into your dog’s blood if it takes up to 15-30g of garlic for each kilogram of its body weight. To better demonstrate this margin, supermarket garlic’s standard clove has a weight spectrum of 3-7g.
This implies that your dog can eat small amounts of hummus without immediately experiencing the garlic’s toxicity. A plate of hummus may not have any significant negative impact on your dog. But when it eats up to a bag, expect trouble.
What Happens if My Dog Eats Hummus?
As said, minimal consumption of hummus may not be too dangerous, especially for a big dog. If it overeats humus, especially one with significant garlic content, you could notice your dog experiencing upsets like vomiting, excessive drooling, or sustained abdominal discomfort.
When these happen, it is advisable to take your dog at once to the vet. Take note that some dogs may not demonstrate the symptoms of gastrointestinal upset when they ingest excessive amounts of humus.
These dogs would only show the symptoms days or weeks later. Therefore, it makes sense to diligently monitor your dog if you discover it has ingested reasonable amounts of humus.
Alternatives to Hummus for Dogs
There are healthy alternatives to humus that you can feed to your dog. Basically, these alternatives focus on replacing the garlic and lemon juice with more dog-friendly ingredients like cashew, peanut, or almond butter.
There is the option of also replacing the said toxic ingredients with Greek Yogurt. This Greek yogurt, aside from enhancing your dog’s gut health, can furnish your dog with calcium and protein. The said nutrients are enriching to the dog’s bones and muscles.
However, we will add here that not all dogs are lactose tolerant, especially puppies. Another healthy alternative for your dog is mashing your chickpeas with some yummy carrot.
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Mike is the Founder of Familylifeshare. Mike is well-knowledged in marriage, parenting, dogs, blogging and committed to sharing his knowledge and expertise with his readers. Know more about Mike from here.
