Does People Food Cause Diarrhea in Dogs?

While most people feed their dogs commercial dog food, they do feed table scraps, which is considered “people food.” Some dog owners feed a cooked diet and some feed a raw diet. Both of these diets consist of “people food.” While there is no scientific research that people food is better for dogs, the many who do feed people food find that the dogs are healthier and happier with the varied diet.

People food may cause diarrhea in dogs if the dog is not used to a varied diet. If you have never fed your dog even a table scrap and the dog has a sensitive stomach, certain fatty foods may cause a bout a diarrhea in some dogs, while it will not bother dogs with hardy stomachs.

If you have always let your dogs lick plates and eat leftovers, converting the dog’s diet to people food usually does not cause a problem as they are used to the varied foods, including fatty foods.

Once you have decided to change your dog’s diet, whether to cooked or raw people food, you can approach the change in one of two ways. If the dog is used to eating different things (even different brands of commercial dog food), you can just start feeding people food to the dog. If you think you may have a problem, start out with one protein at a time. Problem dogs are dogs that have showed an intolerance to commercial dog food brand changes and dogs that have loose stools when fed table scraps.

Feed the single protein (i.e. chicken only, beef only, emu only) for a week. If the dog does not have diarrhea and does not itch, that protein is OK to continue feeding. You can then add a second protein. Keep adding proteins. If you notice the dog starts to get diarrhea after feeding lamb, for example, cut lamb completely out of the diet. If the diarrhea goes away, you can try adding lamb again. If there is still a problem, your dog is not going to tolerate lamb in the form you are feeding (if feeding raw; the dog may tolerate cooked).

Some dogs also get diarrhea when fed fatty meats. The skin and lumps of fat on chicken often cause dogs with sensitive stomachs to have diarrhea. You can feed just a bit of it at a time until the dog gets accustomed to the fat.




Feeding organs such as liver will also cause diarrhea in dogs. Start out with just a teaspoon of any organ and work your way up to about 10 percent of the meal as organ. A well-rounded “people food” meal will consist of about 10 percent organs every couple of days.

You can settle your dog’s stomach by cooking chicken and rice. Cook the chicken and rice together so that the rice is overcooked. Remove the bones from the chicken (the meat should practically fall off at this point). Strain the broth into a container (do not throw it away). Add a bit of the broth on top of the chicken and rice in the dog’s bowl. Put the leftover chicken, rice and broth in the fridge. For the next meal, lightly heat enough of the chicken, rice and broth for one meal.




Canned pumpkin (the kind without all the spices — it must be plain canned pumpkin) will also help firm up a dog’s stool. A teaspoon for a medium to large dog is enough. You can feed it directly to the dog, if it will eat it, or you can mix it right in with its food.