Can Dogs Eat Cucumber? Yes, and It Is Mostly Water

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Quick Facts

This is our own research, not veterinary advice. For nearly every food there are many sources, and they do not always agree with each other. We check each claim against the veterinary and poison control sources, and we say plainly where they disagree. Even so, if you are in any doubt, contact a vet and do your own research before you feed anything to an animal in your care.

Cucumber is safe for dogs and it is the lightest treat you can hand one, because more than 95% of it is water and 100 grams comes to about 15 calories. It crunches, it is cold and fresh, and dogs genuinely seem to enjoy it. Cut it lengthways into quarters rather than into coins, and skip the pickle entirely, because that one is about the brine rather than the cucumber.

I have given a piece of cucumber to a dog and it loved it. There is a freshness to it that seems to land, a bit of chew, a bit of crunch, and a lot of liquid. As a treat it does almost nothing and the dog enjoys it, which is a rare combination.

I would not put cucumber in the same category as a proper treat. But the more time I spend with dogs the more I notice that they will eat almost anything and be thoroughly happy about it, so a little bit of carrot or cucumber here and there seems to me to be a good thing rather than a wasted one.

The version to avoid is the pickle, and the reason is everything in the jar except the cucumber. If a dog has got into something it should not have, what to do when a pet eats something dangerous covers the sequence.

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Can Dogs Eat Cucumber? Yes, Raw and Plain

Cucumber is safe for dogs, and that includes puppies. The whole thing is a crunchy bag of water, and the small amount of vitamin and mineral in it does not amount to much, but there is nothing in it to worry about.

It is over 95% water and about 15 calories per 100 grams, with almost no sugar. That makes it one of the lightest things you can hand a dog, and it is the reason it turns up so often as a suggestion for a dog that needs to lose weight.

The one thing to do is wash it, because it is a raw vegetable going straight from a shop or a garden into a dog. And as with any new food, give one piece first and watch. Some dogs are intolerant to things that are fine for others, and a small piece is a cheap way to find out.

How to Cut It, and Why the Shape Matters

The published guidance is to cut cucumber into slices no wider than 2.5cm across and about 6mm thick. The reason is shape rather than size: a whole cucumber, or a big round chunk of one, is exactly the sort of thing that lodges in a throat or goes down and causes a blockage, and small dogs are the ones at risk.

I cut it lengthways into quarters instead, which gets you the same result with less knife work. A long strip is easy for a dog to take a bite from and hard to swallow by accident, and it does not present a round face to the back of the throat.

Two parts of a cucumber are worth knowing about. There is a compound called cucurbitacin in the plant, which is what makes a cucumber taste bitter, and it concentrates in the ends and the peel. In the amounts a dog would eat it does not cause a problem, but if a cucumber tastes bitter then cutting the ends off and peeling it is the sensible move. And the seeds are not toxic, but some dogs and puppies find them hard to digest, so scooping them out is a reasonable precaution rather than a necessity.

Pickles Are the One to Skip

A pickle is not toxic. A dog that snaffles one off the floor will most likely be fine, with at best a slightly unsettled stomach. That is not the same as it being a good idea, and the reason is the brine.

Pickles carry a very large amount of sodium, which is the actual problem. Not from one pickle, but the salt is the thing that would cause harm if a dog got through a lot of them. On top of the salt, jars routinely contain onion, garlic, spicy peppers, nutmeg and sometimes xylitol, all of which are on the do-not-feed list for their own reasons. Sweet pickles add sugar on top.

Pickle juice is the genuinely dangerous one. A dog that drinks brine can take on enough salt to cause salt poisoning, which is a real emergency rather than a stomach ache. If that happens, ring a vet and take the jar with you so they can read the ingredients.

The irony is that dill itself is fine for dogs, and is even said to be good for them. It is the liquid it sits in that is the problem. So the answer is to give the cucumber and leave the jar alone.

My own instinct here matches the guidance, which is not always the case. I have never had a dog get into a jar of pickles, and I would not have offered one anyway, because pickles so often come with garlic and other things that I do not think agree with a dog. On this one the sources and I are in the same place.

The Cat and Cucumber Thing, Tested

You may have seen the videos: a cat eating, a cucumber appears behind it, the cat launches itself into the air. It is a whole genre, and the internet explanation is usually that the cucumber looks like a snake.

I decided to find out. We have a cat here in Portugal who is not easily rattled, and I dropped a cucumber down next to him while he was sitting there. He looked at it, and then he carried on sitting there. No reaction at all.

That is one cat, and one experiment, so it proves nothing on its own. But it fits the explanation that makes more sense than the snake theory: it is the surprise that gets them. Something appears where nothing was, silently and unexpectedly, while they are occupied with food. A cat that is already skittish will react to anything that does that, and a cat that is not will not.

Which is also why I would not make a habit of it. Frightening an animal for a video is not a good trade, and the cats that react hardest are the ones least able to shrug it off.

Chickens Love Them Too

A cucumber fact I did not expect: chickens adore them. Ours go mad for one, and they go for the seedy middle first, which is the part with the most water and the softest texture.

It makes sense of the whole vegetable. Something that is mostly water, cheap, and gives an animal something to work at is useful across species, and on a smallholding it is a good way to get liquid into birds on a hot day.

If you are sitting somewhere with a coop, our guide to sitting with chickens and ducks covers the rest of it.

How Much Cucumber

Cucumber is light enough that the quantity is not really about calories. It is about how much raw vegetable a gut wants to deal with in one go, and about the treat ceiling that applies to everything.

Treats should stay under about 10% of a dog's daily calorie intake, which is the standard most vets and the literature give. The published portions for cucumber are by dog size:

Frozen cucumber slices are worth knowing about as well. They are a cold crunchy thing for a dog on a hot day, and they last longer than a fresh slice does, which is useful if the point is to occupy a dog rather than feed it.

On a Sit: The Fridge Drawer

Cucumber is one of the easiest things to hand a dog on a sit, because the risk of getting it wrong is so low. It is in the fridge, it does not need cooking, and there is no portion arithmetic worth doing beyond cutting it sensibly.

It is genuinely useful in two situations. A dog that is pestering you in the kitchen while you are trying to cook can be given a quarter and everybody is happier. And a dog that is on a diet the owner is serious about is the one case where you want a treat that costs nothing, which is exactly what this is.

Where I am careful is with a dog on a prescribed diet. If a vet has put a dog on a specific food, I am not the person who decides to start adding vegetables to it, however harmless they look. I would follow the owner's routine, and if I thought a dog needed more, I would ask.

The habit that covers this and everything like it is asking before you improvise, and the pre-sit question list is where that starts.

Where This Research Comes From

The sources behind this page:

Conclusion

Cucumber is safe, cheap, and about as close to a free treat as a dog is going to get. Cut it lengthways, wash it, and give it to a dog that wants something to crunch.

Leave the pickles in the jar. Everything that makes a pickle a pickle is the part a dog should not have, and the cucumber was the only innocent thing in there.

Caro and I have completed 20 house sits across 12 countries, driven 19,000km across Europe in our 1998 VW T4, and saved over $26,500 in accommodation costs over three years of house sitting.

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Frequently Asked Questions

• Can dogs eat cucumber?

  Yes, raw and plain, and puppies can too. It is over 95% water and about 15 calories per 100 grams, which makes it one of the lightest treats there is.

• How should I cut cucumber for a dog?

  Lengthways into quarters, or into slices no wider than 2.5cm across and about 6mm thick. The shape matters more than the size, because a whole cucumber or a big round chunk is a choking and blockage risk.

• Can dogs eat pickles?

  They are not toxic, and one off the floor will probably do no harm, but they are very high in sodium and the jars often contain onion, garlic, sugar or xylitol. Give the cucumber instead.

• Can dogs drink pickle juice?

  No. Brine carries enough salt to cause salt poisoning, which is an emergency rather than an upset stomach. If a dog drinks it, ring a vet and take the jar with you.

• Why do cats freak out at cucumbers?

  It is the surprise rather than the cucumber. Something appears silently where nothing was while the cat is eating. I tested it on our cat in Portugal and she did not react at all, because she is not a skittish cat.

• Can dogs eat cucumber seeds and peel?

  The seeds are not toxic and the peel is not either. Some dogs find the seeds hard to digest, and cucurbitacin concentrates in the ends and the peel, so peeling and scooping is the cautious version.

• Is cucumber good for a dog on a diet?

  It is the standard suggestion, because it fills a dog up for almost no calories. If a vet has the dog on a prescribed diet, follow that rather than adding things to it, and ask the owner first.

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