🥓 Can Dogs Eat Chorizo? - Reasons Why

Summary

Ingredients

With Chorizo being made from pork, it can be quite high in calories, here is a breakdown of a 100g

• ⏲Kcals: 454
• 🧈Fat: 37.8g
• 🍞Carbs: 1.8g
• 🥩Protein: 23g

If you have a small breed, we advise only giving a small amount (less than 10g) due to the high kcal of the meat. If you’re giving your dog some, you should cut off parts of the meat that are the spiciest. You should also cut off the skin.

How is Chorizo Made? 

It is usually made with chopped pork meat and fat which means there aren’t many preservatives added into them. This makes them very easy to make yourself but if you want to buy some ready-made ones then lookout for these terms on the label such as natural sausage and No artificial colours/flavours/preservatives.

Why is chorizo so bad

One of the most common used by the manufacturer to flavor the sausage is garlic. Garlic has many medicinal properties but its use in processed foods like chorizo poses serious risks to your dog’s health. It causes severe allergic reactions in dogs. These allergies may lead to vomiting, diarrhea, hives, itching, breathing problems, seizures, coma, and death.

The sausage also contains other harmful ingredients such as paprika which we’ll go over below, these products can result in Heinz body anemia which can destroy red blood cells in dogs, thus resulting in anemia. 

Is raw meat ok?

You shouldn’t feed any raw meats to your dog unless specifically recommended by their vet. Raw meat contains bacteria that could cause illness in your pet. The same goes for bones. Bones contain calcium phosphate which can build up in the stomach of your pet causing a blockage. They will also get stuck in your dog’s intestines and cause an obstruction. So always keep this away from your dog!

Also don’t feed your dog anything too hot because it might burn their mouth. Also, avoid feeding them food containing caffeine since it can affect their heart rate. And lastly, never leave your dog unattended while eating something. Your dog needs constant supervision when eating.

Ingredients to watch out for:

❌ Sodium

The tasty sausage has a lot of salt so if you have a dog that has a heart condition, you shouldn’t give it to your dog, or a dog that has kidney disease. High sodium will also impact your dogs blood pressure causing it to rise which isn’t good, especially in order dogs. You should also avoid giving it to your dog if it has any health problems.

❌ Paprika

The other important ingredient found in chorizo is paprika. Paprika has been proven to have antioxidant properties in humans. This means that it helps prevent free radicals from damaging healthy tissues. It also prevents cancerous tumours from growing. So, it is very useful for preventing certain types of cancers. Unfortunately, this is toxic to dogs and you should avoid giving them paprika. It can cause skin irritation and gastrointestinal irritation.

❌ Sugar

Sugar is another harmful ingredient found in chorizos. Dogs cannot digest sugar properly and therefore it ends up getting stored in their body. When this happens, it leads to obesity. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes and liver diseases.

What should I do if my dog ate a Chorizo?

If you find out that your dog has eaten a large amount of chorizo, immediately take him/her to vet. Do not give them anything else until they get their health checked first. You will need to keep track of what he eats so that you know how much was given to your dog. Avoid giving your dog food containing onions, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, etc.     

Final Thoughts

We haven’t seen any studies on whether dogs are allergic to chorizo, but it’s easy to avoid that problem via giving your dog a very small amount of chorizo and waiting 24 hours, this should give you a good indicator if it’s ok for him/her but please check the packaging for garlic and other toxics. You should make sure that it’s a fresh piece. Don’t give your dog a piece of chorizo that you have kept in the fridge for a few days. The chorizo can get moldy when it’s kept in the fridge, and we don’t recommend feeding it to your dog in this state.

We can’t condone or recommend giving this to your dog.