Diabetes in dogs is more common nowadays. One in every hundred dogs developed diabetes when they reached the age of 12 years. If you recently come to know that your dog is suffering from diabetes, you wish to provide him more comfort and high-quality food and worried, “What human food can I feed my diabetic dog?” then this article/guide helps to find the human foods that you can feed to a diabetic dog.
Every human food high in fiber, medium in carbs & protein, and caloric restriction is good for a diabetic dog. Human food plays a critical role in regulating blood sugar in the dog. For better results, it must be paired with daily exercise and neutering your pet. We discuss the human food that diabetic dogs can eat in detail.
Diet in diabetes is a treatment. Regulating the blood glucose level is the most strong treatment, and it is possible with the diet. Without a proper and controlled diet, it is impossible to control the glucose level in the blood.
To control diabetes effectively, you need to become consistent in your dog’s food feeding. Like follow the schedule and maintain the quality and quantity of the food. This will help you find an optimal level of insulin to inject every day.
Human foods that contain simple sugar can be harmful to diabetic dogs. Avoid giving any table scrap and sweeteners to your dog and any high glycemic foods that quickly boost blood sugar, such as bread and white rice. It would help if you also educated your family members to follow the feeding advice strictly. Our human food list for a diabetic dog is an absolute answer to What human food can I feed my diabetic dog? Let’s move to the topic in detail.
But before moving forward please a look at our top recommended foods for diabetic dogs:
What vegetables (human food) good for diabetic dogs?
Many people believe that dogs can eat all of the human food, but this is not the case; here is a wise list of human foods that you can serve to your diabetic dog.
1. Winter Squash
Several human food squashes are good for diabetic dogs like pumpkin, butternut squash, and acorn squash because these squashes are high in fiber content. However, before serving, winter squash should be cooked.
2. Alpha Sprouts
It is a high fiber food that is also safe for dogs and very supportive to cure diabetes in dogs. For a diabetic-friendly dinner, mix it with rice, oats, and low-fat meat.
3. Carrots
Dogs love to eat this human food; according to many studies, naturally occurring sugar like sugar from carrots does not affect dogs’ bodies’ insulin levels. Either you served it in the raw or cooked form; It’s beneficial in both ways. To be safely swallowed, pulp the carrots, which becomes easy to digest too.
4. Parsley
This leafy green vegetable is low in sugar and high in fiber; It’s an ideal human food for diabetic dogs.
5. Garlic
For diabetic support, you can add garlic to any of the goods that you cook at home, or paste of garlic can be added to commercial food. It’s just an ingredient. Do not feed as a stand-alone vegetable. A high quantity of garlic may cause anemia in dogs. Consider serving a small dosage of garlic with other foods as a remedy, and on the safe side, do not cross the limit of three cloves daily.
6. Broccoli and Cauliflower
Both are known as low glycemic index human food. These green vegetables contain few sugars and very high in fiber. Both should be well pulped to make these digestions friendly and to get maximum benefits. The nutritional makeup of both vegetables is the same and ideal for diabetic dogs.
7. Green Beans
You can choose this human food to provide fiber to your pooch; it contains much fiber but not good in carbohydrates. You can serve it in raw form, pulped, or cooked with other vegetables. It is a must-have vegetable for a diabetic dog because it supports the dog to stay energetic.
8. Leafy Salad Greens
Kale, collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, lettuce, and all of your typical green salads are beneficial for diabetic dogs. Avoid spinach and Swiss chard.
9. Peapods
To get the maximum benefits of human food, you need to feed the entire pea in the pod. According to studies, this combination makes them balanced food for carbohydrates and fiber.
10. Beets
When you are cooking a multi-ingredient food for your dog, you can include beets to make your dog’s food colorful. This human food is high in sugar but good for moderation. You may add some beet green instead of red to balance the sugar level in food.
What grains from human food are good for diabetic dogs?
When your dog is suffering from diabetes, switching to grain-free food is not a good choice at all. To stay healthy and active in daily activities, dogs need vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Instead of starchy food, you should choose grains from the human foods for your pooch because whole grains are rich in fiber, minerals, and vitamins. Processed foods may contain added sugar and other toxic ingredients, but in pure form, these whole grains provide energy and support towards curing diabetes. You must look for under-listed human food whole grains to include in your dog’s diet.
- Bulgur (cracked wheat)
- Brown rice
- Triticale
- Whole wheat flour
- Wild rice
- Buckwheat
- Whole oats/oatmeal
- Whole grain corn
- Brown rice
- Triticale
- Millet
- Whole rye
- Whole grain barley
- Whole farro
- Quinoa
- Sorghum
- Whole rye
- Whole grain barley
- Whole farro
- Wild rice
- Buckwheat
When your dog has difficulty in digestion and diabetes, eliminating the whole grains can be a solution to keep him regular. But when he returns to normal health, you can include these grains in food. Many studies conclude that easy to digest starches are a reason to trigger spikes in the blood sugar level right after a meal. It also can lead to weight gain. You can add human food whole grain in your dog’s diet to reach the blood sugar goals.
If you are already feeding a diet that contains whole grains, then prefer to feed the same, but prefer to feed only whole grain diets because it also helps your dog in weight management.
There three most important in the list:
These three are not truly grains, but these are the best gain like human foods that you can feed to your diabetic dog. These foods contain fiber, protein, and other important nutrients, and the specialty is they will not increase the sugar level as much as true grains.
The list of these three may seem strange or new to you, but humans are eating them for hundred of years.
You might also like our recent post on the smallest collar available, and a blog post on can dogs eat collard green available on the separate post.
Are human foods safe for diabetic dogs?
We share our hearts and homes, then why not food? It depends on the food you choose to share/feed if you choose the foods listed above, cook and feed gently, and then no doubt human foods are safe for the dog. You can feed human food to dogs without any worry. For a diabetic dog, you need to become careful while selecting the food. Not all human foods are equally beneficial for dogs.
We carefully selected the above-listed food. You can use a few of them to make a balanced recipe for your dog and make sure to avoid the toxic vegetable and grains. There is nothing wrong with sharing human food with the dog but only those made with the above-listed ingredients.
Are human foods provide required nutrients for diabetic dogs
No doubt, human food provides all the required nutrients that a dog needs to perform daily activities and stay active and in good health. Whenever you make food for your dog at home, do not depend on one or two ingredients. To make a complete diet for your dog, you must include multiple ingredients like meat, vegetables, and whole grains. Balanced formula for dogs always has all of these ingredients. In fact, switching a diabetic dog to human food is really a good decision. In this way, an owner becomes satisfied that he is feeding a quality diet to help his pooch recover quickly.
If your dog has diabetes, he can still live a long and healthy life. Human food can help your dog to eat less and get all the required nutrients and make his immune system strong to counter the disease.
Are human food good to mix with diabetic dog food?
Yes, you can mix human food with commercial dog food to make them more appealing and delicious. Many dogs reduced their diet when they are caught in diabetes at the time. If you make their food more appealing and delicious while adding home-cooked food in the commercial dog food, that can attract more, and dogs finish their meals. It is a proven way to increase their diet.
Mixing homemade human food with commercial dog food also makes the food easy to swallow and digest. Because the most time it increases the moisture level in the dog food and healthy ingredients from the human food make the mixture easy to digest.
We try to cover each aspect of the topic “What human food can I feed my diabetic dog,” but still, if there is something you want to add, please do not hesitate to tell us in the comments.