Can dogs eat ketchup?

Is ketchup toxic to dogs?

Ketchup is commonly used as table sauce for dressing and additive flavoring of snacks. Originally ketchup was made up of mushrooms, egg whites, grapes, oysters, mussels, or walnuts. Nowadays, the traditional recipe is replaced by modern day tomato ketchup or also known as red sauce that is made up of tomatoes, sugar, and vinegar, with spices and seasonings. The sweet and tangy taste make tomato sauces/ ketchup attractive taste choice among dogs. However, tomato ketchup isn’t principally healthy for dogs due to the presence of additives such as salt, sugar, artificial flavours, vinegar, seasonings, spices and chemical preservatives etc. However, eating a little occasionally would not have any adverse effect on your dog health.

What happens if a dog eats ketchup?

Ketchup is an essential part of every kitchen and regularly added to many food items. Thus, it is more likely that your pet has the tomato catchup / sauce quite often. Regular consumption of tomato sauce will do nothing bad in the beginning except some stomach upset, vomiting and diarrhoea. However, it is important to know that regular and large-scale consumption of this popular condiment is not suitable for dogs and soon they will develop health related concerns. Therefore, it is always advisable to avoid adding and sharing regular ketchup in your dog’s food. If your dog really like tomato ketchup taste it will be better if you give your dog homemade pure tomato sauce.

Is ketchup harmful to dogs?

Whether a ketchup is harmful or not depends upon the amount, frequency and type of ketchup eaten by your dog. Usually, ketchup is not harmful if given occasionally and in limited amount. However, if you make it habit to your dog or pup it can be harmful. Nowadays you can find a growing number of ketchups in grocery stores and most of them contain a lot of doubtful components. The first and foremost concern is the presence of a lot of sugar (i.e. ~4 g of sugar per tablespoon). The second concern is the presence of flavouring agent, spices, high salt and preservatives in the commercial ketchups (i.e. xanthan gum, Sriracha Flavour, Jalapeno and hot and spicy ingredients). The third concern is allergies to ketchup or its ingredients. In some dogs, it has been observed that ingestion of ketchup can cause severe allergic reactions including hemolytic anemia.

My dog swallowed ketchup packets. Now what?

Besides the harmful component in tomato ketchup the most serious concern for dogs is the danger due to the ketchup packets. Due to a high temptation to eat ketchup, sometimes dogs eat an entire packet including the plastic used for packing. Besides this, dogs can also eat the leftover ketchup packs laying around the house.  If your dog eats ketchup packets call your vet immediately and, in the meantime, look after your dog.

Does ketchup have xylitol?

Xylitol (an alcohol) is naturally present in trace amounts in numerous plant products such as fruits and vegetables. Since, in nature it is present in trace amount and therefore does not cause any health problem for pets if they eat fruits and vegetables. However, nowadays xylitol is extensively used in wide variety of food as a sugar substitute including ketchups. Most of the tomato ketchup do not have xylitol as a primary ingredient, only certain ketchup (sugar free alternative for people with diabetes, allergies and ADHD) such as brand called Zapp manufactures sauces that have xylitol. However, it is clearly mentioned on the bottle with a label “made with xylitol”. What you need to do is to look at the ingredients list on the label. It is always advisable to look carefully the list of all ingredients before giving it to your dog.

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