Can Dogs Eat Celery?

Celery might not sound like the most exciting thought when it comes to food for you and me, but some dogs just love it. And, if you’re anything of a health freak like I am and like to buy some celery every now and then to “get back on track with your diet”, then you’re more than likely to have thought about feeding your dog some as well.

If it’s healthy for you and I, wouldn’t we think that it’s also healthy for our dogs too?

Now, if you’re chopping up some celery to use for a certain meal you’re preparing, you might find your dog right beside you looking at you with that look that says “give me some, please!”.

But before you proceed to giving your dog celery to eat, you have to ask yourself “can dogs eat celery?”.

Can Dogs Eat Celery?

To put in nice and short, YES your dog can safely eat celery!

But before you feed your dog celery, you should make sure that you cut them down into really small pieces so your dog can easily chew and digest them properly.

You should also remove any leaves, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, we’ll be talking about all of this and more in a section below.

How Much Celery Can Dogs Eat?

If you feed your dog celery in limited amounts and in moderation (only a few small, tiny cut pieces), you’re good to go.

Feeding your dog too much celery can cause them to have stomach upset, diarrhea and urinate excessively.

If you see that your furry friend starts to have stomach issues and display signs of sickness after eating celery, refrain from feeding them any celery again in the future.

Although consuming celery is completely fine for dogs to do as an occasional treat, you should always remember that the majority of your dog’s diet (around 90-95%) should be made up of quality dog food, and not human foods like fruits and vegetables.

Dogs don’t have the same dietary needs we do – while we may thrive on vegetables like celery, the bodies of our dogs won’t benefit from them nearly as much.

Last but not least, you should introduce celery to your dog’s diet slowly at first if they’ve never eaten some before, to avoid any potential health problems or adverse reactions.

Celery For Dogs – Why Is It Good?

If you’ve ever been to a dietitian or looked up a few diet tips online, you’ve probably came across celery in most (if not all) of the diet programs, since celery is that much of a super diet food.

Most of this is because of the tremendous health benefits that celery have to offer us, coupled with the fact that it’s super low in calories and high in fiber – meaning that you’ll be feeling stuffed a long time before you’d have consumed a significant amount of calories.

But, this article isn’t about dieting nor is it about you and I, it’s about our dogs – so here are some health benefits that celery has to offer your pooch.

Celery:

• Is rich in vitamin A
• Is rich in vitamin B
• Is rich in vitamin C
• Is rich in calcium
• Is rich in potassium
• Is rich in phosphorous
• Is rich in iron
• Is rich in magnesium
• Contains organic sodium that is essential for your dog’s well being
• Is a great source of essential amino acids
• Greatly improves the heart health of your dog and combats cardiovascular diseases
• Helps in lowering blood pressure
• Helps in lowering cholesterol levels
• Helps in improving the oral condition of your dog and freshening their breath
• Is an excellent low calorie treat for your dog that doesn’t risk fattening them with unneeded calories
• Is a great source of dietary fiber, which helps in regulating your dog’s bowel movements
• Helps dogs who suffer from joint pain or arthritis, thanks to its anti-inflammatory characteristics
• Helps keep your dog’s immunity system in excellent shape.
• Helps get rid of toxins in the body
• Promotes good kidney health
• Promoted good urinary tract health

How Can Dogs Eat Celery?

First of all, you should string the celery before giving it to your dog, because that might lead to blockage in your dog’s intestine.

The celery strings are tremendously high in fiber as well, and while fiber is very much known to be a good thing for us and our dogs, the amount of fiber found in the celery strings can prove to be a little too much, especially if your dog eats a whole celery while you’re not actively monitoring.

One of the most favorable ways dog owners like to feed their dogs celery, and dogs like to eat celery, is by covering the piece of celery in a little bit of peanut butter.

Giving your dog pieces of celery as is, without anything to go with them, isn’t the most common way dogs prefer to eat their celery.

Just like you and I don’t like to eat celery on its own and prefer to have it included in a meal we’re eating instead, our dogs are just the same (most of the times).

This is something you might want to experiment on your own with small amounts of celery, just for curiosity’s sake.

It’s really important that you don’t give your dog celery sticks to eat as is, but you cut them down into very small and tiny pieces of celery so they can safely consume them without choking and digest them properly.

For anyone who has tried to properly prepare celery for their dog to eat this way before, you know first hand how much of a time commitment all of this is, which is why celery isn’t touted around as the ultimate treat recommendation for dogs.

It just takes way too much time preparing it, while you could go with an alternative that would be all ready in under 2 minutes. But, that’s for you to decide, not me.

As for whether any celery you feed your dog should be served to them raw, cooked, boiled or whatever else you could think of – this one is really up to you, you’re free to feed your dog celery in any way you see fit.

All ways will go down relatively well with your dog and none will specifically cause too much trouble that others won’t, but it’s always preferred that you cook the celery for your dog before they eat it in order to help make it easier for them to properly digest.

(Hint: You may even want to consider cooking some celery, mashing it up a little and adding some to a portion of dog food your buddy will be eating).

Raw celery (just like many other raw forms of vegetables) is always a little bit harder on the digestive systems of dogs to properly process.