🍓 Can Dogs Eat Jelly?

Summary

No dogs should not be given jelly. It is made from fruit, while this may sound healthy, it's not. Many fruits contains too much sugar and not enough nutrients for a dog. Too much sugar can have negative health impact such as dental issues, hyperactivity and aggression.

There are some good fruits, watermelon being a great example!

Is it bad for dogs?

As mentioned above, whilst a small amount won’t harm your dog, it’s certainly not ideal. Many manufacturers include ingredients such as xylitol, preservatives, artificial flavouring and artificial colouring, even harmful fruits such as grapes, cherrys, limes or lemons along with a boat load of sugar. Always check the labels of these products to make an informed decision.

Grape jelly

Don’t give your dog grape jelly, whilst many don’t actually include grapes or a small amount of grape juice, it’s still not worth the risk. Grapes are highly toxic and can result in kidney failure in severe cases. We would recommend contacting your vet if your dog has ingested a quantity of any grape or raisin product. Signs of toxicity include:

• Increased thirst
• Vomiting shortly after eating
• Loss of their appetite

From the scientific literature, it’s still not known what chemical or substance within grapes causes such a reaction within dogs to be so highly toxic, in the meantime, keep your pup away from them!

Strawberry Jelly

Whilst strawberries aren’t a toxic food and in fact, are a delicious and nutritious treat for your dog, this can’t be said about the jelly version. The vast majority of commercial brands are still loaded with high amounts of sugar, artificial flavors, and very little actual strawberry. If you’re going to give your dog strawberry, stick to the real thing.

Other types

It turns out any jam, even marmalade aren’t great for your dog mainly due to their high sugar content as mentioned above, another reason why it’s not a good idea to feed your dog jelly is because it’s made with artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. Dogs can get sick from artificial ingredients such as xylitol can be poisonous to your dog which we’ll discuss below.

Ingredients

Let’s go through a breakdown of Smucker’s Squeeze Strawberry Jelly, serving size 20g:

• ⏲Kcals: 50
• 🧈Fat: 0g
• 🍞Carbs: 13g
  • Sugars: 12g
  • Incl 9g added sugar
• 🥩Protein: 0g
• Sodium: 5mg

Pay attention to:

❌ Sugar

The first thing to note is over 50% of the serving is sugar, and for this particular brand, most of this is from high fructose syrup (HFCS) which has been shown to increase inflammation. Like humans, this can cause dental issues, weight gain and diabetes. In addition, sugar can move through their digestive tract too fast, causing a sugary overload that can lead to vomiting, diarrhoea, and other gastrointestinal problems. 

❌ Xylitol

This is a sugar substitute commonly used in many foods for humans, it’s class as an artificial sweetener and can be found in products such as ice cream, gummy bears and grape jelly. It’s very bad for dogs, ingesting this sugar can result in a range of issues such as hypoglycemia, signs for this include drooling, vomiting and drowsiness, without treatment hypoglycemia can result in liver

❌ Lack of nutrients

In this product there are no fats, proteins, fiber or vitamins. There’s much better things for your dog to consume.

Our final word

Sugar is far from essential for your dog’s diet and essentially this is close to mostly that. The sugar spikes can cause your dog to become irritable or hyperactive which can lead to undesirable behaviors such as biting. It is important to keep your dog’s blood sugar at a normal level, they’re simply not build to deal with it.