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Can Dogs Eat Doritos? The Surprising Answer

Can Dogs Eat Doritos? The Surprising Answer

Just about every human loves Doritos as a snack, especially for Friday night movie time, or maybe they get that bag in their school lunch. when they need to relax for a while. We can also agree that our dogs are always lying across our lap waiting to nibble on one of the crunchy snacks…but is it safe for them to eat? Can dogs eat Doritos safely?

can dogs eat Doritos?

It may be tempting to share Doritos with your furry friend, but before you do, it’s important to know if they are safe for dogs to eat. Many human snacks don’t usually provide any nutritional benefits to dogs, but does that make them unsafe? Let’s take a journey to find out more about Doritos and your dog…

What are the ingredients of Doritos?

This really is the first thing to consider when looking at any human food or salty snacks that you want to share with your canine friend. Our furry friends simply can’t enjoy some of the traditional seasonings and spices that we are used to as humans. Add in grease or high fat items and you are on an entirely different level of “no.”

Cool Ranch Doritos chips have 34 ingredients.

Whew!

That alone tells you that these tasty snacks are not really one of the healthy options out there for anyone, with or without fur.

These are so much more than simple fried tortilla chips with added salt. When you add more and more ingredients it easily crosses from a healthy treat to a junk food worse than potato chips. I hate to tell you that the ones flavored with nacho cheese aren’t much better.

Let’s look at this list of ingredients in a bag of Doritos for a second:

a look at the ingredients on a dorito chip

Corn, corn oil, canola oil and/or sunflower oil, maltodextrin, salt, tomato powder, cornstarch, lactose, whey, skim milk, corn syrup solids, onion powder, sugar, garlic powder, monosodium glutamate, milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, dextrose, malic acid, buttermilk, natural flavor, artificial flavor, sodium acetate, Red No. 40, Blue No. 1, Yellow No. 5, sodium caseinate, “spices”, citric acid, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate.

A few bad things jump out as inherently bad for dogs instantly when looking at the main ingredients of this popular snack: fats, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. Personally, I wouldn’t even consider giving these to my Tazuna. The answer to can dogs eat Doritos should end here. No.

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Your Dogs and Doritos

Safe to say, Doritos are not perfectly fine to serve to your dogs. Doritos contain large amounts of sugar, sodium, and calories, so you want to watch out for that in your dog’s diet. Don’t panic if your dog snitches a few chips off when counter surfing or hoovers up those that hit the floor.

While an occasional chip or two won’t really hurt them, serving them as a general reward for your dog can cause a host of digestive issues. Too much in your dog’s diet and you can have pancreatitis attacks. Sodium poisoning is another concern as it even leads to liver damage. Dog owners who give salty foods like a lot of Doritos to their dogs are looking at a few other issues in the long run: heart disease.

Why even attempt to go after all of those empty calories when there are so many healthier alternatives for Fido?

can dogs eat doritos

Why Does My Dog Even Crave For Doritos?

Dogs are social critters and watch their humans closely.

Well, a dog’s sense of smell is one of the best you will ever come across, and the ground corn will entice your dog a lot. The chips are thin and easy to chew, so your dog won’t have a problem trying to eat them.

Dogs are also very social critters and when you share your food with them, it is a form of bonding. That pack-like mentality where they then crave the interaction with you more so than that whole bag of artificial flavorings.

468x60 Nutrition Plan

Are There Any Risks With Serving Your Dog Doritos?

Doritos are designed as a human snack and not made for. We already covered that the list of ingredients can cause a variety of different digestive problems or health issues, but there is one other thing to consider: their weight.

Just as humans can gain weight from eating a lot of excess crap – adding junk food to your dog’s diet means they have less room in their stomach to eat their own food.

Let’s add in the dyes used to color Doritos. These could cause their red blood cells to break down in their body. If this is not remedied, it could lead to kidney damage over time. The dye may also create stomach irritation, especially if your dog is highly sensitive to food coloring. A dog’s digestive tract is shorter than humans and many other animals, so it does not allow them to break down food dye, preservatives, and artificial flavors.

Some of the other, less obvious ingredients found in Doritos are toxic to dogs, such as cheese powder. Ingesting cheddar cheese could cause diarrhea in your dogs and if not careful, could lead to pancreatitis.

Skip the Dip

Another drawback to serving Doritos to your dog is that they are normally served with dips. While the chips are bad, dips like guacamole can be deadly for your dogs. Avocados contain an element known as persin, which is known to cause diarrhea and vomiting in dogs. Onion dip? Just no. Then there is queso… which is loaded with fat and off limits.

So, the next time you decide to have a game night, you might not only consider hiding your Doritos, but you may also want to keep the dip away.

skip the dip when feeding your dog

The Doritos Verdict?

The chip itself is not toxic for your dog, but all the crap they put on it to make us crave them pretty much is. This is not something you should be considering as a treat for your pup. If they sneak one or two, while they won’t be a problem for a healthy dog, they have way too much sale and too little nutritional value to consider as dog food.

We consider this the same for all the different flavors of Doritos – not just the Cool Ranch varieties.

Safe Alternatives

There are endless alternatives to Doritos you can give to your dog. Do they have a favorite fruit or vegetable to which they can never say no? Why not go for one of these options? We even prefer the occasional peanut butter on Tazuna’s favorite toy or her snack made from sweet potatoes.

Check out our list of vet-approved homemade treat recipes that make for a great substitution for corn chips:

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