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Most Chinese food in the United States comes with a fun dessert—a classic fortune cookie. Fortune cookies are a charming way to cap a filling meal. Some diners end up with too many fortune cookies after eating, making it tempting to feed any extras to their dog. But can dogs eat fortune cookies? Are they safe for dogs to eat? Usually, fortune cookies are safe for dogs, but that doesn’t mean you should start tossing these treats to your pup. However, it’s usually nothing to worry about if your dog accidentally sneaks a bite. Here is everything you need to know about feeding fortune cookies to your dogs.
Can Dogs Eat Fortune Cookies?
Technically, yes, dogs can eat fortune cookies. Fortune cookies only have a few ingredients, and it is safe to give them to your dog in most circumstances. However, fortune cookies are not necessarily suitable for dogs. Dogs do not need to eat processed foods and sugars. Giving your dog a fortune cookie sparingly is okay, but you should not make it a regular part of your routine.
Do not use fortune cookies as regular treats, and avoid giving them more than one at a time. If you want to give your dog an extra fortune cookie from your Chinese meal occasionally, it should be perfectly fine.
Fortune Cookie Ingredients
Fortune cookies are relatively simple foods. They only contain a handful of ingredients. Most fortune cookies include the following ingredients:
- Egg whites
- Salt
- Sugar
- Flour
- Vanilla extract
The cookies are baked at high heat to make them nice and crispy. None of these ingredients are inherently harmful to dogs. However, none of them are beneficial to dogs, either. Dogs do not need flour, sugar, or vanilla in their diets. That is why a fortune cookie is an okay treat every once in a while, but you should not be feeding your dog multiple fortune cookies at once or during a week.
Even though most fortune cookies are simple and safe, not all are. You must be aware of the ingredients before feeding fortune cookies to your dogs.
Are Fortune Cookies Safe for Dogs?
In most cases, fortune cookies are safe for dogs. If you feed your dog a fortune cookie once in a blue moon, you should not have any issues. However, there could be danger lurking that you need to be aware of. One of the problems with fortune cookies is that the ingredients and nutrition facts are often not readily visible.
That is especially true if you get most of your fortune cookies with your Chinese takeout order. Before blindly giving your dog a fortune cookie, you should consider these factors.
Watch the Fortune
First, remove the fortune from the cookie before giving it to your dog. The fortune is often printed on a small slip of paper. One tiny piece of paper is unlikely to cause any real issues with your dog, but it is not advisable to feed your dog paper of any kind. You don’t want to accidentally eat your fortune, nor does your dog.
Be Wary of Xylitol
Another concern to be aware of is the potential dangers of xylitol poisoning. Xylitol is an artificial sweetener used in foods to make them “sugar-free.” The problem is that xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs. Small amounts of xylitol can be fatal for dogs, so it is critical to make sure that you don’t accidentally feed it to your dog.
Fortune cookies rarely contain xylitol, but it is possible that this artificial sweetener could be lurking where you least expect it. If you are worried, try to find the ingredient list and look for xylitol. If anything contains xylitol, it should never be fed to your dog.
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Final Thoughts
One of the best ways to ensure that fortune cookies are completely safe for your pups is to make them yourself. However, that is not feasible for everyone. If you feed your dogs fortune cookies you get from a restaurant, only give them one, and don’t do it very often. Try not to feed the fortune to your dog, and be wary of accidentally giving your dog anything with the toxic chemical xylitol. Fortune cookies should be an infrequent treat, if given at all, but if you catch your dog eating a fortune cookie, you shouldn’t panic; they will be fine in most cases.
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Featured Image Credit: Nikiko, Pixabay
