Giving our dogs anything they want to eat might seem like a good thing because we make them feel happy and we want to show our love and affection to our furry friends.
However, this isn’t a healthy thing to do because we might be feeding them toxic and unhealthy foods or ingredients.
One food that dog owners may want to give to their pooches are egg salads.
But can dogs eat egg salad?
A quick answer to this is no. Egg salads contain ingredients that are harmful to dogs, such as mustard, salt, and onion, to name a few.
Don’t feed egg salad to your dogs. Instead, go for other healthier and dog-friendly treats for your canine.
Here, we are going to dive deeper into this so you’ll know why egg salads aren’t recommended for dogs. We will also dive deeper into the ingredients of egg salad, as well as answer some of the most common questions asked.
What is egg salad?
Egg salad is one of the most popular egg meal dishes and is an all-time favorite in Europe and in the US. The ingredients contain mustard, mayonnaise, minced onion, paprika, celery, and salt.
These are sometimes mixed with hard-boiled eggs alongside butter and other dairy products. Egg salads can also be served as a topping for green salads or as an egg sandwich filling.
What makes egg salad very popular aside from its delicious taste is that it’s very easy to make and also affordable. It can even be compared to ham and chicken salads because of its rich protein content.
But are these any good for dogs? Continue reading to find out.
What ingredients in egg salad are harmful for dogs?
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise isn’t really toxic for dogs, but it isn’t healthy for them.
These are very high in fats and cholesterol which can lead to serious health conditions for dogs such as heart disease, diabetes, and worse, cancer. Although they can take in small amounts occasionally, mayonnaise can cause unhealthy weight gain for dogs if given daily.
Your dogs also won’t get any nutrients from mayonnaise because most of it is just empty calories. Also, note that there are some mayonnaise products that are made from soybeans. And most dog breeds are allergic to soy.
Onion
Onion is another ingredient of egg salad that is harmful to dogs. It doesn’t matter if it’s cooked, powdered, fried, or minced, because regardless of the preparation, onion is still toxic to dogs.
Dogs that consume a medium-sized onion can experience anemia as a result of the onion toxicity.
This happens because onions have toxic chemicals that damage the red blood cells. This can then lead to hemolytic anemia which can greatly weaken your dog and shorten its lifespan.
Mustard
Your dog can experience digestive problems such as diarrhea and vomiting if they eat mustard.
In worse cases, mustard consumption can also lead to an inflamed intestinal tract and gastroenteritis, which needs further medical help from veterinarians.
Keep mustards out of dog’s reach at all costs. Although licking a small amount of mustard won’t have any adverse effects, it’s still best to keep this away from their reach because some dogs immediately gobble a whole bunch if you don’t keep an eye on them.
Salt
We, humans, love to add salt to our foods, right? Not only does this add flavor, but it makes our meal more sumptuous.
Unfortunately, dogs have lower salt tolerance compared to us humans. This is why you shouldn’t add salt to their food as this can lead to sodium poisoning which can prove to be fatal in worst-case scenarios.
Seasonings
Seasonings are a big no-no to our furry companions. A good example of this is paprika which is common in egg salads.
The digestive system of dogs can’t easily process spices because they aren’t made to eat spicy foods.
This can lead to burning lips, nasal irritation, and severe coughing. There are even some cases when dogs experience difficulty in breathing when they ingest too much seasonings.
Butter
The digestive system of dogs isn’t designed to process dairy products like butter. This can cause various stomach problems like diarrhea and vomiting. Your pooch might also experience loss of appetite.
Can egg salad kill dogs?
Eating a small amount of egg salad won’t be fatal to your dog. However, there is a high chance that they’ll experience indigestion problems, vomiting, and diarrhea for a number of days.
On the other hand, a dog eating large amounts of egg salad can lead to death especially if it has too many harmful ingredients like onion and mustard.
Are hard-boiled eggs safe for dogs?
Hard-boiled eggs are healthy and safe for dogs. These are rich in Vitamin A, folate, and iron, all of which are essential to a dog’s health.
But note that raw or undercooked eggs are dangerous for dogs because they can harbor Salmonella bacteria.
It’s also a different story with eggs because, unlike other foods that lose nutrients when cooked, eggs do the exact opposite. In fact, cooking eggs inhibits more of its vitamins and nutrients to come out so that your dog can take in all of these healthy components.
You also don’t have to worry about the cholesterol present in hard-boiled eggs because this won’t negatively affect dogs, unlike humans that are sensitive to it. This means that dogs can eat egg yolks.
But make sure they don’t overeat eggs because this can make them overweight if given large amounts.
How to prevent dogs from eating egg salad?
Stopping your dog from eating egg salad is simple.
Don’t give them egg salad in the first place. If there’s none around, then they obviously wouldn’t eat. You can also give them other healthier and more delicious treats so that they won’t always crave egg salads.
How to create a dog-friendly egg salad?
Making a dog-friendly egg salad is possible because its main ingredient is egg in the first place. And eggs are actually healthy for your dogs.
You just need to get more creative while getting rid of some ingredients that are toxic for canines such as pickles, bacon, onions, mustard, avocados, and even spices like salt, black pepper, and sugar.
You can even use Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise as these have lower fat levels. These also have more probiotics that can boost your dog’s digestive health.
Here are the ingredients you need:
- Hard-boiled egg
- Carrots
- Greek yogurt
- Chicken ham
The first thing you need to do is to boil the eggs, then peel them. After that, you can then chop the eggs.
Then chop the carrots after you’ve steamed them. Slice the chicken ham into multiple layers. After, mix all of the ingredients inside the bowl, then gently pour Greek yogurt.
Mix all of them for about 2 to 3 minutes. And you’ve just made a dog-friendly egg salad!
Can dogs eat egg salad?
The safe answer is no. Egg salads usually come with ingredients that are harmful and toxic to dogs, such as mustard, onion, and salt.
Even some of its other ingredients like mayonnaise aren’t really toxic, but this can make your dog overweight, especially if they eat egg salads regularly.
If you really want to give egg salad to your dog, then you can try making a dog-friendly egg salad that doesn’t have mustard, onion, and salt. Or you can just give them other treats out there.
Nonetheless, there are a lot of healthier and more delicious treats you can choose from that your furry companions will surely love.