Can dogs eat turkey?

Why

Turkey is lean muscle meat and dogs digest it well. There is nothing in the meat that is toxic to them, which is why turkey turns up as a main protein in a great many commercial dog foods. If your dog is well and eats a normal balanced diet, a little plain cooked turkey is a genuinely nice treat rather than something to worry about.

The skin and the fat are a different story. Skin holds most of the fat, and it has usually soaked up butter, oil, salt and whatever the bird was basted or brined with. A sudden load of rich fat can tip the pancreas into inflammation — pancreatitis — which is painful and can be serious. It is one of the commonest reasons vets are called out over the festive period. Dogs who are overweight, older, or who have had a bout of pancreatitis before are more vulnerable, but any dog can get it.

Cooked bones are the other classic injury. Cooking dries bone out, so instead of crushing it splinters into sharp shards. Those shards can lodge in the throat, tear the gullet or gut, or pack together and cause a blockage on the way out. Turkey bones are thin and hollow and splinter particularly readily — and the carcass sitting in the kitchen bin is exactly what a determined dog goes for once the house has gone quiet.

So the honest answer is that plain turkey and Christmas dinner turkey are two different foods. Gravy and stuffing are usually built on onion or garlic, which damage dogs' red blood cells and have no safe amount; a brined or seasoned bird carries a lot of salt; and string, netting, skewers and foil come off the joint and go down whole. Judge the plate, not the bird.

How much is sensible?

Think of turkey as a treat rather than a meal. All treats together should stay under about a tenth of your dog's daily calories, which in practice means a few small pieces for a Labrador and one or two shreds for a terrier — and slightly less of their dinner that evening to make room. Serve it plain: cooked right through, skin off, bone out, no oil, butter, salt, herbs or gravy, cut small enough that it isn't bolted whole. Carve their portion off the plainest part of the breast before the bird is basted or seasoned, not from the finished plate. Introduce it gradually if it's new to them, and if your dog has had pancreatitis, has kidney disease, or is on a diet for a food allergy, have a quick word with your vet before adding turkey at all.

Signs to watch for

• Gagging, retching, drooling or pawing at the mouth straight after eating — a sign something sharp has gone down
• A rumbly, gurgling tummy, lip-licking, and turning their nose up at their normal dinner
• Being sick, or loose, greasy, foul-smelling stools the next day
• A hunched back, a tucked-up belly, or stretching with the front down and the bottom in the air — that posture means belly pain and needs a vet
• Flat, quiet, off their food, sometimes drinking more than usual — the picture that goes with pancreatitis
• Straining to pass anything, or bone fragments or blood appearing in their stools

If your dog has had too much

If your dog has had a modest amount of plain turkey and is bright, eating and just a bit windy, keep an eye on them, keep fresh water down and go back to their normal food — it will usually settle. Ring your vet the same day if they are being sick repeatedly, have watery or greasy diarrhoea, seem painful or hunched, or go quiet and off their food. Don't wait it out if they have swallowed bone or bolted a large fatty helping of skin and trimmings — phone your vet and describe what they ate, roughly how much, and when; that call is worth making before symptoms start. And don't try to make your dog sick, at home or with anything you've read about online, unless your vet specifically tells you to — bringing up bone shards does as much damage on the way back up.

Serving tips

• Carve your dog's share early, before the bird is basted, brined or seasoned, and set it aside. Once turkey has met the gravy it isn't a dog treat any more.
• Bin the carcass properly — a lidded bin behind a closed door, or straight out to the wheelie bin. The overnight bin raid is the classic emergency, not the piece handed over at the table.
• Check the joint for string, netting, skewers, foil and pop-up timers before anything goes near the floor, and count them out as they come off.
• Tell your guests, kindly but plainly, that scraps are off the menu — and keep plates off low tables. Most festive tummy upsets come from four different people each giving 'just a bit'.

Common questions