Dogs love food and can even gulp down the greens. Where does bok choy fall in terms of whether or not dogs can and should eat it?
Through this informative guide, you can learn more about feeding bok choy to dogs along with its benefits and risks.
Can Dogs Eat Bok Choy?
Dogs can certainly eat bok choy. In fact, this Chinese cabbage variety is a green leafy vegetable that has several nutrients that can benefit your dogs.
Provided that you offer this bok choy to your dog in small pieces and quantities while also controlling the frequency with which you feed it to them, you can help your dog glean many benefits from this vegetable.
Another thing to note here is that you must maintain an otherwise balanced diet for your dogs without relying too much on the bok choy.
As beneficial as bok choy can be, sometimes it is possible that your dogs might not like them at all or might be allergic to them. In the case of the former, you can replace it with another vegetable or include it as part of some mixed foods, but ensure that you do not force your dog to eat it.
Benefits of Feeding Bok Choy to Dogs
Bok choy is full of nutrients that can have a beneficial impact on your dog’s health. As long as you feed it to them as part of their balanced diet and maintain a proper lifestyle for your dog, your dog can end up benefiting considerably.
You can go through some of these benefits below.
Cardiovascular Health
Bok choy contains a good amount of folate along with a bit of vitamin B-6. These can prove to be beneficial for improving your dog’s cardiovascular health.
Vitamins and minerals like magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin K and phosphorous can help with this too.
Eyesight
Bok choy can be a great way to strengthen and maintain your dog’s eyesight. This is because it contains plenty of vitamin A that can support this.
Bok choy is also full of antioxidants that can improve your dog’s vision along with your dog’s overall health.
Bone Strength
Since bok choy contains a good combination of vitamins and minerals, your dog’s bones (including their teeth) can benefit significantly. These mainly include vitamin K, phosphorous and magnesium.
Vitamin K can also support the absorption of calcium by the body.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Pumpkin Seeds?
Immunity
Due to the antioxidants present in bok choy, mainly due to the vitamin C content, your dog’s immunity can become stronger and more able to fight against harmful cells and diseases.
The existing cells can also become stronger.
Thyroid Function
Bok choy has a lot of fiber. This can maintain the functions of your thyroid gland, thus strengthening your metabolism.
Even if your dog already has thyroid issues or diseases, you can feed bok choy to help provide it with fiber.
Digestive Health
The fiber and water content in bok choy can aid the process of digestion while also easing symptoms like constipation and nausea.
Risks to Watch Out For
Generally, bok choy is pretty safe to feed to your dogs. However, there are some situations in which they might cause an issue.
Let’s take a look at these so that you can avoid these circumstances as far as possible.
Choking
In case your dog accidentally eats the stalk of the bok choy or even an entire leaf, this can lodge itself in the throat and lead to choking. This can then restrict easy breathing, so make sure you visit the vet immediately if this happens.
Allergies
Your dog might be allergic to bok choy, which you might be able to identify due to rashes, itching, vomiting and other similar signs. Seek veterinary support if you notice these signs.
Toxicity
If you do not wash the bok choy properly, the bacteria and chemicals might prove to be toxic and poisonous for your dog.
Digestive Issues
Too much fiber and water are not good for your dog. If your dogs eat too much bok choy, they might end up suffering from diarrhea and vomiting.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Jicama?
Safely Feeding Bok Choy to Dogs
There are some steps you should follow to safely feed bok choy to your dogs.
Wash the Bok Choy
Make sure you properly wash and rinse the bok choy so that you can get rid of any dirt or particles on them. This can help prevent your dogs from catching any bacterial disease and can also keep their digestive systems safe.
This can also help remove any chemicals that might be present on them if they were sprayed with fertilizer and insecticide during their production.
You should also use fresh bok choy since older and rotting bok choy might have too many contaminants like bacteria that can make your dog fall ill.
Cut the Stalk
Bok choy tends to come with a white stalk at the base. This is something you should completely cut off before feeding the bok choy to your dogs.
This is because the stalk can be quite big and tough, making it difficult for your dog to ingest. Accidentally ingesting the stalk can also lead to choking, which is something you should try to avoid at all costs.
Chop Into Tiny Pieces
Once your bok choy is clean and contains only the leafy bits, you will also need to chop the leaves into tiny pieces. This can make it easier for your dog to chew the bok choy and swallow them without the risk of choking or lodging in the throat.
Make sure the pieces are tiny enough for your dogs so that even if they do not chew them, they will not end up getting stuck in your dog’s narrow tracts.
Avoid Mixing Things
You should ensure that you leave the bok choy raw. Mixing things like salt and seasoning along with other vegetables is not a good idea here as some of them might end up harming your dogs while also reducing the benefits of the bok choy.
If you do want to mix your bok choy with other foods, you can do so with dog food, treats or any other kind of food that is a common part of your dog’s diet.
Observe Their Reaction
After you feed the bok choy to your dog, take some time to observe how they react to it. If they seem to spit it out, they probably do not enjoy the taste.
Bok choy might also simply not suit their systems sometimes, in which case you should stop trying to feed it to them.
Maintain Moderation
Even though bok choy tends to be pretty healthy and safe for dogs, you should never overdo it. Too much of anything is unsuitable for dogs, especially because their gastrointestinal tracts might not be able to handle it.
You can feed it to your dog twice or thrice a week in small pieces and quantities.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Mulberries?
Concluding Remarks
Dogs can eat bok choy since this vegetable is usually quite safe and healthy for them. It can improve their immunity, eyesight, heart health, bone strength, digestion and thyroid health.
If given in large quantities or without preparing it well enough beforehand, however, bok choy can carry the risk of choking, allergies, poisoning and digestive issues, so make sure you only provide clean and small bok choy leaves to your dogs.