What foods are poisonous to dogs and cats?

This list exists to tell you what to keep out of reach, and it is worth reading before anything happens rather than after. Poisoning cases in pets are overwhelmingly accidents in ordinary kitchens: a bag left on a chair, a Christmas cake on a low table, a peanut butter jar that turned out to be sweetened. Knowing which items matter is most of the prevention.

Safety

What you'll need

• Your vet's phone number saved in your phone
• A high cupboard or a lidded bin (optional)

Step by step

1. Chocolate — dogs especially.The active compound is theobromine, which dogs clear far more slowly than people. Dark and cooking chocolate carry far more of it than milk chocolate, and white chocolate almost none. The risk depends on the type, the amount and the size of the dog, which is exactly why a vet needs the wrapper and the weight rather than a guess.
2. Xylitol, also sold as birch sugar or E967 — dogs.Found in sugar-free gum and mints, some peanut butters, protein bars, some medicines and some baked goods. It can cause a sudden and severe drop in blood sugar in dogs, and liver damage, from very small amounts. Read the label on anything sugar-free before it goes anywhere a dog can reach.
3. Grapes, raisins, sultanas and currants — dogs and cats.These can cause kidney failure, and the striking thing is that there is no reliably safe amount: some dogs are affected by a very small quantity and others are not. That unpredictability is why any ingestion is treated as urgent. Mince pies, Christmas pudding, fruit cake, cereal bars and hot cross buns are the usual routes.
4. Onions, garlic, leeks, shallots and chives — dogs and cats, cats more sensitive.They damage red blood cells and the effect is cumulative, so repeated small amounts in leftovers matter as well as one large one. Cooked, raw, dried and powdered forms all count, which brings in gravy, stock, stuffing, onion bhajis and many takeaway leftovers.
5. Macadamia nuts — dogs.Cause weakness, tremors and an unsteady back end. Other nuts are mostly a choking, fat or mould risk rather than a specific poison, but macadamias are their own category.
6. Alcohol and raw bread dough — dogs and cats.Alcohol affects pets severely at doses that would barely register in a person. Raw dough is worse than it looks: it rises in the warm stomach and ferments, producing both a physical obstruction and alcohol at the same time.
7. Caffeine and blue cheese — dogs.Coffee grounds, tea bags, energy drinks and caffeine tablets are all significant. Blue cheeses can contain a substance produced by the mould that causes tremors and seizures in dogs, so the cheeseboard is not a safe leftover.
8. Cooked bones and corn cobs — dogs.Not toxins, but among the most common emergencies. Cooked bone splinters and can perforate the gut; a corn cob passes down but does not break up, and typically requires surgery to remove. Treat both as urgent if swallowed.
9. Lilies — cats. This one is not food and it is the most dangerous item here.All parts of true lilies and daylilies are severely toxic to cats, and pollen brushed onto the coat and then groomed off is enough to cause kidney failure. Do not have them in a house with a cat, and check bouquets before they come indoors.
10. Antifreeze — dogs and cats.Sweet-tasting, commonly spilled on drives and in garages, and lethal in tiny amounts, particularly to cats. Any suspected contact is an immediate emergency, because treatment is extremely time-critical.

Tips

• Prevention is nearly all of this: a lidded bin, bags off chairs and worktops, handbags with mints in them hung up rather than left on the floor, and visitors told not to feed the dog.
• Save your vet's number as a contact rather than relying on finding it. In an emergency, the search is the part that goes wrong.
• The Animal PoisonLine is a 24-hour telephone service for owners run by the Veterinary Poisons Information Service, which charges a fee per call. It can tell you whether what your pet has eaten needs a vet — but if you are already worried, ring the vet first.

Common mistakes

• Waiting to see whether the pet becomes unwell — For several of these, treatment is far more effective before signs appear. By the time a dog looks ill after eating raisins or antifreeze, the useful window has often closed.
• Trying to make the animal sick at home — It is dangerous, and some of the methods circulated online cause serious injury in their own right. Only a vet should make a pet vomit, and only when it is appropriate for what was eaten.
• Assuming a small amount is fine — For grapes and xylitol in particular there is no reliably safe quantity, and for onions the damage is cumulative across repeated small amounts.

Questions people ask