Can dogs eat cherries?

Why

The red flesh of a ripe cherry is not poisonous to dogs. It's mostly water and fibre with a little vitamin C and some natural sugars, and a dog who pinches a stoned cherry off the worktop is not in danger. The only real issue with the flesh itself is sugar: cherries are sweet, and a bowlful will upset a tummy or add calories a dog doesn't need, particularly if they're overweight or diabetic.

The stone, stem and leaves are a different matter. Like apple pips and the stones of plums, peaches and apricots, they contain cyanogenic glycosides — compounds that release cyanide when they're chewed, crushed and digested. Cyanide stops the body's cells using the oxygen in the blood, so a dog can be full of oxygen and still be starving for it at cell level. It's a fast-moving, genuinely serious poisoning. In practice it's uncommon from a single cherry, because an intact stone that's swallowed whole is fairly well sealed and often passes straight through. The risk climbs sharply with a dog who crunches stones, or one who has hoovered up a pile of windfall fruit under a cherry tree, or who has chewed the twigs and leaves.

The more likely accident is mechanical, not chemical. A cherry stone is small, hard and awkwardly round — a good size to lodge in a windpipe or, further down, to get stuck in the intestine. Small dogs and puppies are most at risk, but any dog who swallows several stones can end up with a blockage. Obstruction can take days to declare itself, which is why a dog who seemed perfectly fine on the day can go downhill later in the week.

Finally, the version of the cherry matters as much as the fruit. Tinned cherries and maraschino cherries sit in heavy syrup; pie fillings and cherry desserts add sugar and sometimes chocolate; and some sugar-free or 'diet' products are sweetened with xylitol, which is dangerous to dogs even in small amounts. Cherry-flavoured foods usually contain no cherry at all — they're just sugar and flavouring, and none of it does your dog any good.

How much is sensible?

Treat cherries as an occasional nibble rather than a regular snack, and keep all treats together under about a tenth of your dog's daily calories — the rest should come from their proper food. In practice that's a couple of stoned cherries for a Labrador and a single halved one for a terrier or a small breed, no more than now and then. Use fresh or plain frozen cherries, pull the stem off, remove the stone completely and cut the flesh in half so there's nothing round to choke on. If your dog hasn't had cherry before, give one piece and see how the next day goes — sweet, fibrous fruit can loosen things up in a sensitive dog. Skip cherries altogether if your dog is diabetic, watching their weight, or on a vet-directed diet, and check with your own vet first if you're not sure where they sit.

Signs to watch for

• A loose or runny tummy, wind, or a bit of sickness a few hours after too much fruit — the usual sign of simply over-doing it
• Gagging, retching, drooling, coughing or pawing at the mouth straight after eating — a stone may be stuck in the throat
• Repeated vomiting, going off food, a tense or painful tummy, and no poo coming through — possible blockage, and this can show up days later
• Unusually bright red gums, fast or laboured breathing, and dilated pupils — early signs of cyanide poisoning, usually after crushed stones, stems or leaves
• Wobbliness, weakness, collapse or seizures — a dog in this state needs emergency help immediately

If your dog has had too much

If your dog has eaten a little cherry flesh and simply has a soft tummy, keep fresh water down, offer their normal food in smaller amounts, and things should settle within a day — ring your vet if it goes on longer than that, if there's blood, or if they seem flat. If your dog has swallowed stones, or has been at the stems, leaves or windfalls under a cherry tree, don't wait to see what happens: ring your vet or an out-of-hours service and tell them roughly how many, how big your dog is and when it happened. Don't try to make your dog sick unless a vet specifically tells you to — doing it yourself can cause real harm, and a stone coming back up can lodge on the way. If your dog is choking, struggling to breathe, has bright red gums, is wobbly or has collapsed, that's an emergency: get to a vet or emergency clinic straight away rather than phoning around, and if you can, bring the fruit or a photo of the tree with you.

Serving tips

• Stone and de-stem every cherry before it goes anywhere near your dog, then halve the flesh — never hand over a whole cherry and trust them to spit the stone out.
• Stick to fresh or plain frozen cherries. Give tinned, maraschino, dried, syrupy and pie-filling cherries a miss, and check any sugar-free product for xylitol before it enters the house.
• If you have a cherry tree, sweep up windfalls daily in season and fence the trunk off if your dog is a scavenger — fallen fruit, twigs and leaves are where most of the trouble comes from.
• Put stones straight in a lidded bin, not an open bowl on the coffee table, and remind guests and children that the dog gets no cherries from the table.

Common questions