If you’re wondering whether or not dogs can have pineapple, wonder no more! The quick answer is YES, they can. However, it should ideally be offered puréed.
In this blog post, you’ll find out why along with other interesting facts about the tasty tropical fruit!
I personally enjoy it most with a few servings of non-fat greek yogurt and a teaspoon of chia seeds. The good news is that you can share all 3 with your pup in small quantities!
Are you ready to learn more? Let’s dive right in!
Benefits of Pineapple for Dogs
Generally speaking, pineapple is a healthy food for dogs because it’s rich in Vitamins B & C, as well as in minerals.
But wait, there’s more!
Digestive & Anti-Inflammatory Benefits
A great side effect of the tasty pineapple is that it contains bromelain. That’s a sulfur-rich proteolytic enzyme which helps with digestion because it breaks down protein.
Bromelain also has anti-inflammatory qualities. Because of these, it’s a great nutritional add-on for dogs suffering from the degenerative disease osteoarthritis.
Helps With Coprophagia (Poop Eating)
Pineapple is said to help stop the nasty habit of poop eating. While it tastes great GOING IN, it’s believed to add a foul taste to what comes BACK OUT.
By the way, the medical term for dogs eating their own or other animals’ feces is coprophagia, and can have various causes.
I personally haven’t had to deal with extreme cases of poop eating, so I can’t say whether pineapple is truly a deterrent.
One of the reasons why dogs DO eat poop is that their diet may be lacking in nutrients, so my advice would always be to invest in a healthy, nutritious diet.
Great Food Topper For Picky Eaters
Giving your pups a tasty fruit treat every now & then is a nice change from store-bought treats, AND healthy on top of it!
It can also entice picky eaters to dig in, so try that approach if your pup falls into that category.
Back in my kibble feeding days, I used to top the pups’ kibble off with small pieces of pineapple, along with other fruits & veggies. They absolutely loved it!
However, I did notice that it never seemed to be fully absorbed when the pups did their #2 business. Meaning I’d always see pieces of pineapple in their poop.
Once I made the switch from kibble to raw dog food, I learned that dogs lack the enzyme that breaks down plant cell walls.
Huh!
That means that they best absorb plant matter like veggies and fruit when it’s been puréed (fruit) and/or lightly steamed (veggies).
How To Feed Pineapple To Dogs
So these days, I still offer pineapple, but purée it first before mixing it into the raw dog food.
As a result, I no longer see any pieces of pineapple in their poop.
Only offer your dog fresh, ripe pineapple and avoid the canned kind. The latter contains way too much sugar!
As far as sharing some of your dehydrated pineapple snacks with your pup , you probably shouldn’t because it’s likely that extra sugar was added.
Even if you were to dehydrate your own pineapple chunks, they wouldn’t be puréed meaning the cell walls would be intact.
As I mentioned before, this makes it a lot harder for your dog’s body to absorb the pineapple’s nutrients.
Tip: This should be a no-brainer, but don’t feed the rind of the fruit and only offer pineapple once it’s ripe.
How Much Pineapple Can I Give My Dog?
As a rule of thumb, dogs shouldn’t eat more than 10% of their overall food allowance in plant matter per day.
So if your kibble-fed dog eats 1 cup of dry food per day, don’t give him more than 1.6 oz of pineapple per day! 1 cup = 16 oz -> 10% of 16 oz is 1.6 oz.
Likewise, if your raw-fed pup eats 12 oz of raw dog food per day, don’t add more than 1.2 oz in pineapple per day.
Any Cons?
Yes, there’s one, and that’s the fact that pineapple is naturally rich in sugar!
With 16 grams of sugar per cup, pineapple ranks extremely high in fruits naturally high in sugar.
Dogs who consume high amounts of sugar have a 99.99% chance of getting diarrhea. That’s another good reason to go easy on the pineapple allowance!
Tip: Remember to introduce new foods very slowly in order to avoid upsetting your dog’s digestive tract.
Does your pup like pineapple? We’d love to hear from you in our comment section!
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I’m just curious…but I thought citrus should be avoided for dogs due to the high acidity? Does pineapple not count?
You’re right, citrus fruits shouldn’t be fed to dogs ~ although they’re not toxic per se, they DO contain a ton of acidity and would cause diarrhea.
Pineapples, however, are actually not citrus fruits ~ they belong to the Bromeliacea family, whereas citrus fruits belong to the family of Rutaceae.
Haha awesome! Thanks! 🙂
Great post – someone had JUST told me about pineapple and its benefits in stopping coprophagia!! I have not tried it yet (as our pup Hooch has taken on this disgusting habbit!) But I like that it is an all-natural remedy!
Aw, Hooch!!! Our pups have “snacked” on it-that-shall-not-be-named every now & then when they were less than a year old, mainly on walks & when hanging out on our apartment grounds. Thankfully, they have outgrown this phase ~ I wonder if it was just the texture or taste that triggered their interest?
Ugh! Hooch had no interest until the temperature dropped – and suddenly there were “poopsicles!!” We used to pick up in the yard once a day at the end of the day– but now we clean up immediately after Cello or Hooch relieve themselves in hopes hat when Spring and Summer are here, Hooch’s fascination with the “frozen stuff” will disappear with all this snow and ice !!
Mmmh, poopsicles…BOL! Ever since we’ve had a backyard we’ve also picked up their business immediately in order to discourage any funny business 🙂
That’s interesting, I’ve haven’t heard of pineapple as a poop-eating deterrent. Luckily, Haley’s never done that, but I know a lot of dogs do. Good to know!
Haley sounds like a well-mannered pup 😉
nummy I love pinapple, I don’t know if I could share. 🙂
HA! I hear you ~ I make sure I get the vast majority 😉