Can Dogs Eat Sardines? Yes, But They Are a Treat, Not a Meal

Home > Blog > Can Dogs Eat Sardines? Yes, But They Are a Treat, Not a Meal

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.

Sardines are safe for dogs and cats in small amounts, and they are one of the better fish to share because they are low on the food chain and carry almost no mercury. They are also small, oily and salty, which is what makes them a treat rather than a meal: a single sardine is about 50 calories, most of it fat, with 121mg of sodium. Rinse them, keep the piece to about a centimetre, and give them rarely.

Sardines are the one fish I actually give. I buy them for myself, in olive oil or in brine, and when I open a tin I rinse a couple off and hand out a small piece. Cats and dogs absolutely love them.

What I do not do is treat it as food. A sardine has a lot of calories, a lot of fat, and even out of brine it has been salted, so a piece about a centimetre long is the whole point of it. It is a taste rather than a meal, and it happens maybe once a month because that is how often I open a tin for myself.

If you want the wider fish picture, the salmon page covers cooked fish and why I never give that one, and the safe food list covers everything else.

If you are interested in getting into house sitting, our book Travel More for Less puts the whole process in one place: clear, step by step guidance from your first questions to your first confirmed sit, and the reviews that open the door to the next one.

Can Dogs Eat Sardines? Yes, as a Small Treat

Sardines are safe for dogs, and they bring real nutrition: protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium and selenium. That combination is why they turn up so often in lists of good things to share with a dog.

The one caveat on the omega-3 is worth knowing. Sardines are rich in it, but not rich enough to match a fortified diet or a supplement, and a supplement delivers more of it with fewer calories and less fat. So a sardine is a good food rather than a treatment for anything.

There are dogs who should not have them at all. If a dog has diabetes, is overweight, has kidney disease, or has ever had pancreatitis, this is the wrong treat, because the fat is the problem in every one of those cases. If a dog is predisposed to pancreatitis by breed, the same applies.

And as with any new food, start small and give it with a meal rather than on an empty stomach, so you find out how the dog handles the fat before you give a proper portion.

One Sardine Is About 50 Calories, and Mostly Fat

The numbers are what make sardines a treat. A single sardine, canned in oil and drained, comes to roughly 50 calories, 5.9g of protein and 2.75g of fat, with 91mg of calcium from the soft bones.

It is true that sardines are low in saturated fat, which is the line most articles lead with. It is also only one kind of fat. Add the rest together and a sardine is a high-fat food, which is the number that matters when you are deciding how many to hand over.

That is why the portion is a piece rather than a fish. Too much fat in one go is what causes vomiting and diarrhoea, and a dog that gets sardines regularly on top of a diet that is already rich is being set up for weight gain and worse.

So my own rule is a piece about 1cm long, sometimes 2cm for a large dog. Both animals could easily eat ten of them, which is exactly why I do not give ten.

Rinse Them, Because the Salt Is Real

A single sardine carries about 121mg of sodium, and that is before you count anything else the dog has eaten that day. A dog does not need added salt, and a small dog can take on a meaningful amount from very little fish.

I rinse them, and the reason is two-fold. It takes off some of the salt, and it takes off the oil the fish has been sitting in. Both are things I would rather leave in the tin.

The published advice on packing agrees with the oil half of that. Olive oil is not a problem in itself, but a sardine is already a fatty fish and olive oil adds more on top, so water is the better packing if you have the choice. If you have bought them in oil, the suggestion is to lift them out and let them drain on kitchen paper for a while.

On which tin to pick up: spring water, brine or olive oil are the three that are fine, and I would not go beyond them. The one to watch is sardines in tomato sauce, because a sauce is an opportunity for garlic and other things to get in, and garlic is not something a dog should have. If the tin has more than fish, salt and water or oil in it, put it back.

The Bones Question

This is the one point where I do not follow the guidance, so I will give you both positions and you can decide.

What the sources say: tinned sardine bones are small and may look harmless, but they can cause stomach irritation and in the worst case puncture the intestine, which is a life-threatening emergency. The advice is to remove all bones before feeding sardines to a dog.

What I do: the bones stay in, and always have. I eat them myself with no trouble at all, they are soft enough that pulling them out would be a fiddly job rather than a safety measure, and in years of feeding cats and dogs small pieces I have never had a problem with one. My honest read is that the risk in a tinned sardine is much smaller than the warning implies, because canning softens them well past the point where they are sharp.

I am not going to tell you the guidance is wrong, because I cannot prove that with anything except my own experience. If you are unsure, taking the bones out is the cautious option and costs you a minute. If you are comfortable, I do not think you are taking a serious risk.

Mercury Is Not the Problem Here

If you have read about mercury in fish and wondered whether it applies, this is the good news. Sardines are small, short-lived and low on the food chain as bait fish, which means they do not live long enough to accumulate much of anything.

That is the reason sardines are usually named as one of the safer fish for pets, and it is the reason I am comfortable giving them at all. The fish to be careful with are the big predatory ones that live for decades and eat other fish, and a sardine is the opposite of that.

How Much, and How Often

Treats should stay under about 10% of a dog's daily calorie intake, which is the standard most vets and the literature give. At 50 calories a fish, a single sardine is already the whole budget for a small dog, which is another way of arriving at the same conclusion: a piece, not a fish.

Getting portions right across a whole sit is its own problem, and feeding the wrong amount covers that side of it.

Those figures are our arithmetic on the published composition of a tinned sardine. A centimetre of fish is a rough slice of one, which is why the numbers are approximate.

My own frequency is simply rare. I open a tin of sardines for myself about once a month, and if there is a pet in the house it gets a piece. That is well inside any limit worth worrying about, and it is the natural way to do it rather than buying sardines specifically as dog food.

Cats are the same story. Mine will take one off a fork, and there is no reason not to give a small piece, on the same terms and for the same reasons.

On a Sit: The Tin in the Cupboard

Sardines are one of the better things to find in a stranger's cupboard, because they are the rare treat that is both genuinely popular with animals and easy to portion safely.

The check before you open a tin is the label, and the thing to look for is whether it is fish and nothing else. Spring water, brine and olive oil are all fine. A sauce is where the garlic and the sugar get in. And the piece you hand over should be a piece, not a fish.

If the owner has left instructions about fish, follow them. Some dogs are on low-fat diets for a reason, and a sardine is the wrong food for a dog with a history of pancreatitis however much it enjoys one.

The habit underneath all of 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

Sardines are one of the better treats you can share, on one condition: that you keep it to a piece. The fish is nutritious and carries almost no mercury, and everything that makes it a bad idea in quantity is fat and salt.

Rinse them, pick a tin with nothing else in it, and treat it as a taste rather than a meal. That is how I have always done it, and it is the reason a tin of sardines lasts me a month rather than an afternoon.

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.

DM us @housesittersguide, we answer everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can dogs eat sardines?

  Yes, in small amounts. They are a good source of protein, omega-3, vitamin D and calcium, and they carry almost no mercury because they are small and short-lived fish.

• How many sardines can a dog have?

  A piece about 1cm long rather than a whole fish. One sardine is roughly 50 calories and 2.75g of fat, which is already the whole daily treat budget for a small dog.

• Are sardine bones safe for dogs?

  The published advice is to remove them, because small bones can irritate the stomach or in rare cases puncture the intestine. I leave them in and always have, because canning makes them soft and I eat them myself, but it is a judgement call.

• Can dogs eat sardines in olive oil?

  The fish are fine but the oil adds fat to an already fatty food, so water or brine is better. If you have bought them in oil, drain them on kitchen paper or rinse them first.

• Can dogs eat sardines in tomato sauce?

  I would not. A sauce is where garlic, sugar and other additives get in, and garlic is not safe for dogs. Stick to spring water, brine or olive oil.

• Is mercury a concern with sardines?

  No. Sardines are small, short-lived and low on the food chain, so they do not accumulate mercury the way large predatory fish do. That is part of why they are a good choice.

• Can cats eat sardines?

  Yes, on the same terms as dogs: a small piece of a plain tinned sardine, rinsed, and not often. Cats tend to be very keen on them, which is exactly why the portion matters.

Related Guides