Is Cheese Unhealthy For Dogs?

michaela

January 3, 20080 found this helpful

I hope not my dogs (all 4 of them) eat more cheese than the people in my house. They love it. LOL

Darlene

January 3, 20080 found this helpful

I think cheese is ok for them in small bites but dairy products usually give animals diarrhea. Cats are not supposed to drink milk either.

Dogs love cheese, but too much might cause constipation. Best to check with your veterinarian. I don't know how much is too much or which cheese is good and which is not.

doshe

January 3, 20080 found this helpful

my vet said cheese is a no-no, contributing to high cholesterol just like in humans. My vet said to cut it out.

Kim Churchman
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January 3, 20080 found this helpful

I use cheese for rewards when I'm trimming toenails. Too much is high calorie, that's the only caution I know. Yes, it has saturated fat, but then how long do dogs ever live anyway.

Beth
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January 4, 20080 found this helpful

Like everything else, it's probably okay in moderation.

I give a cheese cube to my dog as a reward after we come in from going potty outside. He is older and has had several teeth pulled so it is hard for him to eat the usual dog treats. He eats at least 4-5 cheese cubes per day and it does not seem to negatively effect him. I have heard it is unhealthy but so far so good.

Chris

January 18, 20080 found this helpful

Cheese is fine especially low fat, skim cheese. Most trainers recommend using string cheese because you can carry it in your mouth and it gets the dog to focus on you because they know when they are treated it comes from you face forcing them to look at you.

Several people here a partly correct in many ways.

Cheese is a major ingredient in home cooked dog food and raw diets.

Yes too much fat can cause problems, but balancing the fat in cheese with the fat in the rest of the diet will help control the fat intake in the diet.

As for milk products being a 'no no', not so true. Many home cooked dog food recipes have all sorts of dairy products. Eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese. The issue with dairy is the fat content. Choosing skim and low fat is the best at least as low as 2% dairy products, lower is even better. Dairy is a good source of protein. The other issue of dairy is lots of people choose ice cream as the dairy of choice and the fat and sugar content is the bad in this product.

Yes dairy in general can cause diarrhea. The key is to introduce it into your dogs diet gradually and keeping it low fat. Once your dog gets used to the dairy their system will adapt.

Yes, too much cheese could cause constipation after your dogs system is used to dairy, but this is generally in large quantities over a short period of time.

One plus is dogs need more calcium in their diets then we do, so dairy is a great natural source. In the wild, dogs get most of their calcium from eating bones, but domesticated dogs don't have access to as much bone, nor is it always safe. Cooked bones can splinter off, all bones if broken in too large a piece can choke the dog, fresh raw bones need super vision for both these reasons and for spoiling. Raw bones should always be supervised and not left our to spoil.

All food and treating issues with feeding your pets is just like humans......'moderation' is the key and slow introduction of new things.

In the long run the food you eat, cooked correctly can be better for your dog then any processed food you buy in the store, even the expensive "all natural" foods. The only thing is to make sure that the meals are balanced and contain proper nutrition, which may mean adding supplements.

I hope this pulls it more together.