Skittles are delicious candies, usually even for dogs. Does this mean that they are safe for dogs to consume?
Even if you feed Skittles to your dogs, you should ensure that you do not overdo it with the quantity and frequency. You can go through a detailed explanation of this below.
Is It Safe for Dogs to Eat Skittles?
If your dog eats a Skittle or two on an extremely rare basis, this is unlikely to cause any kind of harm. As long as you stick to this rule and only provide Skittles to your dog once in a long while, it can be safe for your dogs to eat these candies.
This is mainly because Skittles is primarily made from sugar, which is relatively safe for your dog in small quantities. The problem, however, tends to arise when your dog ends up eating too many Skittles at once or even eats one nearly every day.
This can end up causing health issues for your dogs that you should seek to avoid no matter what.
Moreover, in some cases, it is possible for your dogs to have a distaste for Skittles or develop some kind of allergy or digestive issue even with a small quantity. In this case, you should stop feeding Skittles to your dogs.
Safe Quantities
You should not feed more than 10 mg of candies to your dogs at any given time. You should also limit this small quantity to around once a week or even once a fortnight.
Anything more than this might cause health issues. Make sure you also observe your dog for digestive issues or any kind of reaction, even with this small quantity.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Jelly Beans?
Are There Any Health Advantages of Skittles?
There are no health advantages of Skittles. They do not have any kind of nutritional value and can only serve as a delicious treat once in a while for your dogs.
Risks Involved
While you can sometimes feed Skittles to your dogs, you should ideally avoid it as much as you can. This is because there are several risks associated with giving Skittles to your dogs, most of which are associated with large quantities and frequent feeding.
High Sugar Content
Skittles contains nearly 75 grams of sugars per 100 grams. This makes sugar the main ingredient that Skittles constitutes, so this is exactly what your dogs will be consuming if you feed them Skittles.
While this is fine in small portions, your dog might face issues if your dog ends up eating these Skittles too often. Without any kind of control, your dog’s blood sugar levels might increase, resulting in diabetes.
This kind of high sugar content can also end up making your dogs gain weight, often leading to obesity if left unchecked. This can then give way to other chronic issues like heart diseases.
Choking
Skittles candies come in round or slightly elongated shapes, with each candy being bite sized. While the size of each bite might serve humans well, they are a bit big for dogs to eat in one go, not to mention that they are also a bit hard to chew.
This can become a real choking hazard for your dogs since their tracts tend to be a bit narrow. If they end up swallowing the Skittles without chewing them properly, the piece might get stuck in their throat, leading to discomfort, pain and trouble breathing.
This can end up being fatal if you do not get the piece removed as soon as possible.
Digestive Troubles
Digestive issues are some other consequences of Skittles that your dog might have to deal with. Due to the sensitive nature of the gastrointestinal systems of dogs, Skittles can sometimes be unfavorable to your dog, resulting in issues like diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, pain, gas or nausea.
They can also simply make your dogs uncomfortable for a prolonged period of time. You should look out for these symptoms while also ensuring that your dog isn’t feeling too drowsy, depressed or tired.
If you notice these, stop giving Skittles to your dogs and take your dog to the vet as soon as you can.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Gummy Bears?
Dental Issues
Because of the excessive levels of sugar in Skittles, eating them might lead to dental issues for your dog, especially if they commonly eat these candies.
For instance, your dogs might end up developing cavities in their teeth or they might experience tooth ache. The latter can occur even with a single piece of candy, so make sure you are careful about feeding it to your dog.
The difficulty chewing can also result in issues. Tooth decay and teeth falling out can occur over time.
Addiction
If you make it a habit of feeding your dog these candies, they might become too addicted to it. Even if you use it as a frequent treat, chances are that your dog might come to expect this treat every time they complete a required behavior or action.
This is because dogs usually enjoy foods full of sugar. Learning that their behavior comes with a reward might cause them to repeat the behavior, but it can also lead to behavioral issues if you stop rewarding them with this treat.
Limiting the quantity and changing up the treats can help avoid this. You can also opt for healthier treats.
Xylitol Poisoning
Xylitol poisoning is unlikely to occur with the regular Skittles, but it definitely can occur if you feed the sour version of this candy to your dogs. This can then result in vomiting, weakness, fatigue, staggering, seizures and other such symptoms.
It can also be fatal with excessive quantities.
See the vet immediately in this case.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Frozen Yogurt?
The Bottom Line
Dogs technically can eat Skittles since it is primarily made from sugar. However, they should ideally only eat it on a rare basis as a treat and not too much or frequently as this lead to issues like obesity, diabetes, choking, vomiting, nausea, dental issues and poisoning.
There are no health benefits of Skittles, so you can also completely avoid feeding them to your dog.