Can dogs eat taro? The answer is yes.
How much to give, how to provide well, precautions, etc.
Taro is one of the traditional health ingredients used in various dishes, mainly East Asian food.
Some of you may wish to share the deliciousness of taro with your pet. However, I wonder whether it is safe to give to dogs.
My aim in this article is to explain in detail the ingredients of taro, the precautions, and how to give it to your child.
Is taro good for dogs?
If you are feeding your dog taro as a part of homemade rice or snacks, taro is a safe ingredient.
There are, however, some caveats that must be taken into account before giving.
Can dogs eat raw taro?
It is never a good idea to give your dog raw taro.
If you give it raw, calcium oxalate crystals may cause taro poisoning, so always give it after heat treatment.
If your dog eats a large amount of taro raw, or even if he feels sick after eating a small amount of it, you should take him to see a veterinarian as soon as possible.
Is raw taro harmful to dogs?
Taro contains a large amount of calcium oxalate in part close to the skin, and the crystals (one bottle is about 0.1 mm long) resemble needles.
These crystals, when eaten raw, stimulate the mucous membranes in the mouth, throat, and stomach, causing poisoning symptoms such as vomiting and drooling.
People also experience itchiness when peeling or washing taro due to this ingredient sticking to their skin.
It is possible to suffer symptoms from calcium oxalate even with a small amount of ingestion.
Furthermore, if ingested in large quantities, irritation of the throat and gastric mucosa may occur, and in some cases, breathing problems may occur.
There is also a lot of it in the stems and leaves of taro, so you need to be careful with those.
The main ingredient, starch, is also difficult to digest if eaten raw, so digestive symptoms may occur.
The following symptoms are likely to occur when eating raw taro:. There is a perception that dogs and people may cause similar symptoms, so make sure you take precautions.
- Mouth or throat soreness
- Skin disease
- vomiting
- diarrhoea
- Slowly deteriorate
- Digestive disorders
- Deficiency of oxygen
Taro for dogs and cooking tips!
The process of boiling taro makes it easier to remove it from your dog, so pre-treat it in the same manner as people eat it.
Calcium oxalate, a combination of oxalic acid and calcium, is concentrated near the skin.
Calcium oxalate is significantly reduced if the skin is peeled and boiled, and then the slime is removed.
Moreover, people often prefer the texture of the large size, but for dogs, there is no need to cut each one into small pieces before giving it to them.
In dogs, food is swallowed whole and not chewed well to make digestion easier.
Giving it as is will make it clogged or difficult to digest, causing nausea and vomiting.
Taro recipes for dogs
The recipe we will provide you will also include a recipe that we recommend when using taro to make a feast for your dog.
If you’d like to use it for some fun or as a topping, please do so.
Salmon and taro mushroom soup are delicious.
Warm soup made from taro, which thickens when the taro is crushed. Additionally, it is recommended for toppings on cold days and to ease eating for elderly dogs.
Dogs can be given a certain quantity of taro.
As a snack or ingredient for your dog’s regular food, keep taro at about 10~20% of the total calories you should consume daily.
For example, a 5-kg adult dog generally needs “about 330 kcal” calories to survive daily.
Taking this as an example, if we compare it to the calories in a 100-piece of taro [53 kcal], it will come out that:
10% of the total daily calories = 33 kcal minutes = the appropriate amount of taro per day [about 56g]
Thus, it comes to be.
In terms of weight, a medium taro is about 40 grams, and an L taro is about 70 grams.
So you might think eating one medium taro is small, but that is not the case.
Despite this, dogs are smaller than humans, and most are given treats with ingredients other than taro, so think “less” is the right amount.
It is also necessary to reduce the leading dog food by that amount.
When giving taro to dogs, be careful.
Infection with urinary tract infection
When oxalic acid and calcium meet, it becomes a hard stone in the body, and there is a disease called urolithiasis, which damages or obstructs the urethra and bladder.
If you eat taro occasionally, there is usually no problem. However, dogs that have had calcium oxalate stones in the past should avoid them to prevent a recurrence.
Aside from avoiding taro, you should consult your veterinarian if you plan to give your pet anything other than a special therapeutic diet.
allergy
When your body reacts negatively to a portion of food, you may experience symptoms of a food allergy.
As taro and related species such as taro are generally not eaten in Western culture, they are not commonly given to dogs from a global perspective.
Taro does not cause food allergies in dogs, but acetylcholine found in taro causes reactions similar to allergies in humans (phantom allergies).
These allergies cause itching and redness around the mouth.
Food allergies in dogs include itching, reddened skin, diarrhoea, and loose stools.
Intestinal problems (e.g., in puppies and older dogs),
Aside from indigestion and taro poisoning caused by raw feeding in puppies,
The function of the gastrointestinal tract is not developed enough, so even if it is boiled or cut into small pieces, digestion may not keep up.
Often, it is caused by a decline in the digestive and absorption functions in older dogs due to an ageing process.
For puppies and elderly dogs, diarrhoea, loose stools, and vomiting can hinder their growth and deplete their strength.
Make sure not to feed them something they are not used to eating.
Taro provides health benefits to dogs
Ingredients contained in taro
- Intake of dietary fiber → Constipation improvement
- Contains glucan which Enhances immunity and prevents cancer
- Phytosterols → reduce cholesterol absorption and prevent cancer
- Vitamin B1: Recovery from fatigue
- potassium, a diuretic
- Glucomannan → Increases immunity
- Vitamin C and E → Anti-aging
Taro contains a slimy ingredient known as galactan.
Which is a type of sticky dietary fibre that is said to protect the mucous membranes of the stomach during digestion.
Additionally, it promotes digestion, enhances the function of the liver and kidneys, and relieves constipation.
Taro contains many other ingredients that are beneficial to health.
But these are all human claims, and it is still unclear which ingredients are beneficial to dogs, but some may be similar to humans.
It contains a lot of water and less sugar than potatoes, making it a relatively low-calorie and easy-to-give food.
The families mainly eat homemade rice and want to CONSUME a lot at once to consume an appropriate amount of taro to prevent obesity.
A summary
It has been said that taro originated in India and spread to Southeast Asia.
It is said to have been a staple food in the Jumon period.
As a result of its historical importance, it is considered to be an excellent health-promoting ingredient.
The taro root cannot be eaten raw by humans or dogs.
It is one of the best dog ingredients if it is ground into a soft paste after heat treatment.
You should also be aware of the adverse effects of calcium oxalate.
The owner and the dog who cook and incorporate it into your daily diet.
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