Can Dogs Eat Peas? And Are Peas Good For Dogs?

You can like ’em, or you can hate ’em, but you can’t argue that they are some of the most healthy and nutritionally beneficial mother nature produce you will ever come across.

Nowadays, Peas are an extremely popular food item among people of the fitness community, because of the fact that not only is this food an excellent source of complex carbohydrates that the body absolutely loves to benefit from, but it’s also a rich source of protein.

So that way, you’ll be getting two excellent deals in one food!

And you’re never stuck with just one type of peas, you’ve got a very wide variety of peas to choose from in case you prefer one over the other.

For example, you’ve got Garden peas (which you can further segment down to Spring peas, Survivor peas, Wando peas, etc ..), Snow peas (which you can further segment down to Snowbird peas, Gray Sugar peas, Avalanche peas, etc ..) and Snap Peas (which you can further segment down to Sugar Bon peas, Sugar Snap peas, Sugar Ann peas, etc ..).

Peas And Dogs

As you can see, there’s an abundance of options for you to choose from, so no excuses on not going healthy!

Peas are a personal daily staple in my diet, but let’s not digress about the main purpose of this article today ..

Today’s article concerns every dog owner that has ever fed, or ever thought of feeding, their dog any peas as part of their overall diet or mixed them in with some of their food.

This article also concerns every responsible dog owner that has made an effort to read a dog food label, saw that peas were a part of the ingredients list and got concerned about whether or not dogs can eat peas safely.

So, without further ado, let’s look at whether dogs can eat peas without anything bad happening to them, and whether or not peas have any positive health effects on our dogs the same way they have on our health and our bodies.

Can Dogs Eat Peas?

To answer this question in short, YES, dogs can eat peas safely and peas are nutritionally beneficial to our dogs the same way they are to us.

With that being said, don’t get too excited about this, because dogs don’t exactly benefit from peas to the same extent that we do, mainly because our two digestive systems function differently.

You and I have specific dietary needs and nutritional requirements, while our dogs have quite different ones, and both of our digestive systems process all the food we eat in different ways.

How Can Dogs Have Peas?

If you’re feeding your dog any kind of premium or high quality dog food made by respectable brands that have a name for themselves in the market, have a look at the ingredients list and you’ll soon enough notice that peas are found in decent amounts in the majority of these formulas and recipes.

So, besides the fact that your dog will already be eating peas if you’re feeding them high quality dog food brands, you can also manually add in some peas to any meal they’re having and mix the two together.

If you do decide to feed your dog peas on your own, refer to the introduction of this article where we talked about some of the different types of peas available for you to choose from, and do your research on each so you know which one would be best for YOUR dog.

Not all dogs are the same, and you know your dog more than anyone else could (besides your veterinarian, of-course).

All of these options have some differences in between them, so it’s up to you to do your research on each and decide which one you want to go with.

A Note About Canned Peas And Frozen Peas

If you’re shopping around for some groceries and thought about getting some canned peas or frozen peas from the supermarket so you can later have some yourself and feed some to Fido, please think again.

Canned peas and frozen peas are FILLED with sodium, which is very bad for your health and can be DEADLY to your dog.

Unless you later on plan to soak these peas in water so you remove all the sodium from them (or whatever else technique you know and can use to remove all that sodium from them), please don’t just go with a frozen pea bad or canned pea option just to save a few bucks.

It’s not worth it and you’ll end up paying back for it in spades as you’ll see with your veterinary bills.

A Note About Pea Pods

When it comes to feeding your dog peas, you’re going to face the dilemma of whether you should feed your dog the pea pod or not if they’re toxic or harmful to them.

In all honesty, this topic could require an article alone because there are so many different varieties of peas, which all come in different pea pods, so we can’t give a one size fits all answer here.

Some of these pea pods can be safely eaten by your dog if properly cleaned and cooked (some can even be eaten raw), while other pea pods should NEVER make their way into your dog’s system.

Just to make this easier for you to deal with, your dog will be getting the bulk of their nutrients and health benefits from the pea itself and not the pea pod, so you can do away with the pea pods without being upset about it.

However, if you really want to feed your dog some pea pods, then run a quick search about the specific kind of pea you have at hand, and its pea pod of-course, and find out if it would be fine to feed your dog or not.

Generally speaking, if a pea pod has been found to be okay for you and I to consume, the same will hold true for our dogs, and vice versa.

One last word of caution about pea pods, and why it’s best that you avoid feeding them to your dog, is the fact that they can easily get stuck in your dog’s throat, block their air passage and cause them to choke.

Meanwhile, this will never happen with peas because they’re so small to cause any harm (unless you have your dog swallow a whole bag of them all at once, that is).

How Much Peas Can Dogs Eat?

As we talked about above, your dog is already getting all the peas they need if you’re feeding them a high quality diet that’s centered around high quality, premium dog food brands, as the manufacturers of these brands already take this into consideration and include adequate amounts of peas in their foods to boost their nutritional profiles.

For that reason, there’s no need for you to be actively trying to feed your dogs peas in their diet, unless you’re feeding them a dog food brand that refrains from including peas as part of their ingredient list.

You can feel perfectly fine about giving your dog some peas now and then as a treat, but keep in mind that the majority of your dog’s diet shouldn’t be any vegetable or fruit, their diet should mainly consist of protein-rich meats.

If you’re adamant about manually adding peas into your dog’s diet by feeding them to your dog alone or by mixing them in with some of the food they’re already having, please only do so gradually.

By gradually increasing the amount of peas you feed your dog you can immediately notice when a certain amount of peas proves to be too much for your dog to handle and an adverse reaction takes place, in which case you should decrease that amount down a notch and make sure to not exceed it.

What Are Peas For Dogs Good For?

Generally speaking, peas are:

– An excellent source of carbohydrates for our dogs that are packed with dietary fiber (which makes them a very low calorie food) and ones that help your dog keep up their high energy levels throughout the day

– An excellent source of dietary fiber that helps your dog a lot when it comes to staying regular with their bowel movements and keeping constipation as far away as possible

– An excellent source of proteins (which is very important because the most important macro-nutrient in a dog’s diet is protein)

– Loaded with beneficial vitamins that tremendously boost the health of our dogs and prolongs their lifespans.

– Excellent immunity system boosters

– Packed with anti-inflammatory properties that tremendously help dogs that suffer from joint problems and help prolong the lifespan of dogs

– Rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, manganese, folate, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc and potassium.

– Excellent blood sugar regulators, which goes a long way in helping prevent your dog developing diabetes

When Are Peas Bad For Dogs?

Besides when your dog is allergic to peas, in which case you obviously shouldn’t be giving any to them, peas can also be harmful to dogs when they have kidney problems and should never be fed to them if this is the case.

Peas can also cause some trouble with dogs that have sensitive stomachs and sensitive digestive systems, whereby these dogs tend to vomit and have diarrhea if they were to eat peas.

7 COMMENTS

  1. My dog will not eat dogfood. I have been feeding her chicken and rice and beef and rice ( white rice ) is this good or bad for her? I was thinking about adding peas and carrots .Is this a good or bad ideal.

  2. I feed my dog the same, I think brown might be more healthy but white occasionally is fine & veggies mixed it like carrots, unsalted peas, green beans, & other small amounts of any pasta mixed in & occasional white potato, boiled & cut up , no seasoning, I don’t do corn cause it’s hard to digest, just my opinion I’m not a vet:)))))/

  3. I give my dog a combination of dry dog food & my own ‘chicken stew’. I have a Dalmatian & they lack en enzyme to digest certain foods that contain purines. I make a sort of chicken soup & add sweet potatoes, carrots (sometimes) & green beans. When everything is cooked, I add some rice (I use white rice – the brown rice makes him fart more lol) & oatmeal to thicken it up some. He loves it & it’s cheaper than the good brands of limited ingredient cans of dog food. His skin is great, his digestion is good & he is full of energy. If you ONLY feed your dog ‘people food’, you should probably supplement with vitamins; I don’t because I mix his food with a good quality dry dog food which has all the vitamins he needs.

  4. To Anonymous who makes ‘chicken stew’ for your Dalmatian….. would love to try you recipe. Would you mind telling me your measurements. How much do you feed each serving?

  5. I make my German Shepherds food for her and use chicken, brown rice, unsalted black beans, peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower. Cook it in the crock pot for about 4 1/2 hours and it makes enough to last about 3 days. I add probiotics and Omega 3’s to it once a day for her. She has a problem with the way dry dog food is processed but this works great for her. Her weight is stable at 75 lbs. and her bloodwork always comes back fine at the vet.

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