Can Dogs Eat Durian Fruit?
As dog lovers tend to love to share their delicious food with their pets, it’s no surprise at all to ponder over the question of whether durians are safe for dogs to consume.
There is good reason to consider this.
While people who don’t find durians repulsive tend to love the fruit itself, there is always a reservation to how much one should consume.
This is because intuition tells us that no matter how heavenly durians taste like, such goodness must come with drawbacks.
In addition, durians are infamous among the Chinese to be considered as a very heaty food. Which is why some people who have eaten more than their limits can often suffer from sore throats the day after if they did not consume anything else to cool down and detox that heatiness.
So if we are so wary of the fruit itself, surely we must be more conscious of these health aspects when feeding it to our dogs.
After all, another heavenly food in the form of chocolates is known to be lethal and sometimes fatal to dogs.
So should you feed durians to your pet as it inevitably comes to you to investigate the smell when you are having it yourself?
Durian flesh is safe
The overall consensus is that it is safe for dogs to eat durian flesh.
However, the meaning of “safe” refers to it being non-toxic or poisonous to dogs.
The fruit’s flesh is found to contain high levels of sugar, calories, carbohydrates and fat. This implies that from a nutrients standpoint, it cannot be considered as a healthy food.
In fact, if we use a measuring stick with one end as healthy and the other being unhealthy, durian nutritional value would probably be on the unhealthy side of the stick.
Amusingly, various studies have found that durians contain zero to very low levels of cholesterol. That’s some good news indeed!
All these information means that if your dog is prone to obesity, or suffering from ailments linked to obesity, it should not eat too much durian.
Consider that some people with weak metabolism and immunity can suffer from durian hangovers the next day after eating as little as 3 fruitlets the day before, the chances are that your dog would have a much lower tolerance rate compared to human beings.
It’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to our beloved pets.
To be on the safe side, your dog should consume at most 1 durian fruitlet a week when it has no history of eating durians.
And if it is monitored to have suffered no negative after effects, then you can slowly increase the feeding incrementally.
The best way to feed it is to extract the flesh yourself and feed your dog with your own hands like how your would with a doggy treat.
Dog owners can sometimes also be prone to overfeeding their pets. It takes strong inner-strength to deny your loved pet when it enjoys durian so much.
Overeating can create a different problem altogether.
Signs of overeating include:
- Bloating
- Fatigue
- Vomiting
- Cramps
- Lethargy
- etc
If even the slightest thought come to mind that you might be overfeeding the dog, the odds are that you are already overfeeding.
The danger is in the seed
While durian flesh is found not to be harmful to dogs, that cannot be said of the durian seed.
These seeds are found to sometimes contain high levels of cyanide. The same poison used by spies to spike drinks in movies.
This can be extremely dangerous to dogs.
If you leave a whole fruitlet to your dog unattended, the odds are that it would start chewing, licking and sucking on the seed once the flesh is gone.
And if you don’t intervene at this point it might eventually eat the seed itself.
Signs of food poisoning from cyanide include:
- Going into shock
- Loss of breath
- Convulsions
- Vomiting
- etc
It goes without saying that you need to practice extra caution if your already know that your dog is allergic to various types of fruits.
Choking hazards are also as real as it gets.
And if your dog is strong enough to weather the poison, or lucky enough not to have swallowed a fatally poisoned seed, it’s still going to be in a bad condition as it won’t be able to digest it. Meaning the seed might have to be squeezed through the dogs digestive system.
It could be a really discomforting affair.
The point is that if you are going to feed your dogs durian, remove the seed yourself before gifting the prized yellow flesh to your dog.
Signs of bad reaction
As dog lovers could probably attest to, dogs pretty much eat any type of food as long as they don’t find the smell disgusting.
So even though you might find it funny and oddly satisfying to watch your dog savour durians and licking their lips for that little remaining flavour, you should pay extra attention to your dog’s behaviour in the immediate hours and the day after eating durians.
This is especially so if it’s the first time that it has eaten durians.
Just because they love it does not mean that their bodies can handle it.
The good thing is that dogs are the most expressive of animals. You would have to be a zombie not to notice something amiss with the behaviour of your pet.
While there are no known allergic reactions suffered by dogs due to durians, there are still possibilities of bad reactions.
Some signs of bad reaction and side effects include:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Lethargy
- Disorientation
- Moodiness
- Sugar rush
- etc
If you suspect something is wrong, take your dog to the vet and inform the doctor about the consumption of durians.
Nothing should be left to chance.
To summarise the answer to the question of whether dogs can eat durians, it can generally be said that it is safe for dogs to consume durian flesh. But the seed should not be eaten.
To prevent any carelessness of having your dog eating the seed, it is best to remove the seed yourself before feeding any durians to it.