Dog Treat Recipes - using walnuts and other dangerous ingredients
by Filomena
(brooklyn ny)
Qusetion
So far I've tried about 4 recipes and my coochie just loves them...
I've also came across the dangerous dog treat list and after looking it over I didn't realize some of the dangerous food/treats...one recipe in your listings has an ingredient that contains walnuts...i'm just wondering if it's cooked/baked is it still o.k. to give this to the dog...i've also seen like garlic powder and onion powder used in some of the ingredients in the cookies is this o.k. too since garlic and onion is also no good...i'm a bit confused. thank you
Answer
Hi Filomena, Thanks for your great question.
When I wrote the dangerous dog treats page I added all the things that might be poisonous to a dog.
But then I asked my Aunt (who is a vet) about it and she said that they weren't taught that onions or garlic were poisonous in college. She says that grapes and raisins are very toxic- and she has seen reports of them causing kidney failure in dogs. And she didn't know about walnuts (but I have later read that it is often a mold on the walnuts that cause the problem - not the walnuts themselves.)
So - we started using small amounts of onion/garlic in the recipes and our dogs have been fine. I still don't use walnuts in my recipes - the recipe you were talking about (here) was submitted by a reader and I hadn't spotted the walnuts. I will put a note on that page.
Sorry that I probably haven't been able to clear this up for you totally! I think it is probably best if you start with small levels of any ingredients you are worried about and make sure they don't cause a reaction in your dog. In any case, I would never give large amounts of these ingredients just to be on the safe side.
