Most Chinese food meals in the United States come with a fun dessert—a classic fortune cookie. Fortune cookies are fun to eat, and the fortunes are a charming way to cap a greasy meal. People often end up with way too many fortune cookies after they are done eating, which makes it tempting to feed any extras to their dog. But can dogs eat fortune cookies? Are they safe for dogs to eat? Usually, fortune cookies are safe for dogs, but that doesn’t mean you should start tossing these treats to your pup willy-nilly. However, if your dog accidentally sneaks a bite, it’s usually nothing to worry about. Here is everything you need to know about feeding fortune cookies to your dogs.
Can Dogs Eat Fortune Cookies?
Technically, yes, dogs can eat fortune cookies. Fortune cookies are basic foods with few ingredients, and it is safe to give them to your dog in most circumstances. However, fortune cookies are not necessarily good for dogs. Dogs do not need to eat processed foods and sugars. It is okay to give your dog a fortune cookie sparingly, but you should not make it a regular part of your routine. Do not use fortune cookies as regular treats and avoid giving them more than one at a time. If you want to give your dog an extra fortune cookie from your Chinese meal every once in a while, it should be perfectly fine.
Fortune Cookie Ingredients
Fortune cookies are relatively simple foods. They only contain a handful of main ingredients. Most fortune cookies include the following ingredients:
- Egg whites
- Salt
- Sugar
- Flour
- Vanilla extract
The cookies are then baked at high heat to make them nice and crispy. None of these ingredients are inherently harmful to dogs. However, none of these ingredients are great for dogs, either. Dogs do not need flour, sugar, or vanilla in their diets. That is why a fortune cookie is okay as a treat every once in a while, but you should not be feeding your dog multiple fortune cookies at once or multiple fortune cookies during a week.
Even though most fortune cookies are simple and safe, not all of them are. There are still some things that you need to be aware of before feeding fortune cookies to your dogs.
Are Fortune Cookies Safe for Dogs?
In most cases, fortune cookies are safe for dogs. If you feed your dog a fortune cookie once in a blue moon, you should not have any issues. However, there could be some dangers lurking that you need to be aware of. One of the problems with fortune cookies is that the ingredients and nutrition facts are often not readily visible. That is especially true if you get most of your fortune cookies with your Chinese takeout order. Before blindly giving your dog a fortune cookie, you should take these things into consideration.
Watch the Fortune
First, you should remove the fortune from the cookie before giving it to your dog. The fortune is often printed on a small slip of paper. One tiny piece of paper is unlikely to cause any real issues with your dog, but it is not advisable to feed your dog paper of any kind. You don’t want to accidentally eat your fortune, and neither does your dog.
Be Wary of Xylitol
Another thing to be aware of is the potential dangers of xylitol poisoning. Xylitol is an artificial sweetener used in things to make them “sugar-free.” The problem is that xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs. Small amounts of xylitol can be fatal for dogs, so it is critical to make sure that you don’t accidentally feed it to your dog. Fortune cookies rarely contain xylitol, but it is possible that this artificial sweetener could be lurking when you least expect it. If you are worried, try to find the ingredient list and look for xylitol. If anything contains xylitol, it should never be fed to your dog.
Final Thoughts
One of the best ways to ensure that fortune cookies are completely safe for your pups is to make them yourself. However, that is not feasible for everyone. If you feed your dogs fortune cookies you get from a restaurant, make sure to only give them one and don’t do it very often. Try not to feed the fortune to your dog and be wary of accidentally giving your dog anything with the toxic chemical xylitol in it. Fortune cookies should be an infrequent treat, if given at all, but if you do catch your dog eating a fortune cookie, you shouldn’t panic, they will be fine in most cases.
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Featured Image Credit: Nikiko, Pixabay
