Read this guide before feeding roast beef to your dog, whether you make your own dog food or just want to share a few slices of the delicious meat with your furry friend.
Can Dogs Eat Roast Beef
As pet parents, we want nothing but the best for our canine companions. It’s only natural for us to question whether or not it’s wise to feed our dogs raw or cooked roast beef.
In a nutshell, yes, roast beef is safe for canines to eat. You can make it a regular part of their diet. Aside from the other healthy foods you feed your dogs, this may be a good option if it is made with dog-safe ingredients.
Limit your dog’s exposure to roast beef. Don’t give them a ton at once because of all the fatty acids.
Can Dogs Eat Roast Beef Deli Meat
When shopping for cold cuts, exercise caution. Sometimes the roast beef in a deli will have salt, onion powder, and garlic powder sprinkled all over it.
The salt content is a concern regardless of whether you buy the seasoned or unsalted variety. There is 250 mg of sodium in 2 ounces of plain roast beef.
A daily salt intake of less than 200 milligrams (mg) is recommended for dogs. Consuming excessive amounts of salty foods can cause sodium ion poisoning.
Beef contains essential nutrients, but rather than giving them salty deli meat, it is preferable to prepare the beef at home without salt.
Is Roast Beef Bad For Dogs?
Dogs can benefit greatly from eating plain roast beef as a treat. Homemade dog treats made with lean roast beef are inexpensive and provide your pet with a wealth of nutrients. It shouldn’t be used as a regular part of your diet and instead enjoyed occasionally as a treat.
The vitamins, minerals, proteins, and other nutrients your dog needs to stay healthy can be found in a high-quality, balanced dog food.
Roast beef is a healthy, natural supplement for your dog because of its high levels of the following vitamins and minerals:
- B12 and B6 Vitamins
- Iron
- Zinc
- Phosphorous
- Niacin
- Selenium
There are leaner and fatter roast beef cuts available from the cow. Leaner beef cuts are a better option for your dog’s health.
Thankfully, leaner beef cuts are typically the cheaper ones. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) classifies the following cuts of beef as “extra lean,” and these cuts are also among the cheapest.
- Steak cut from the sirloin’s side, or the tip
- Steaks and roasts made from the top round
- Beef and pork roast from the round eye
- Steaks and roasts made from the bottom round
Roast beef makes a great treat for your dog if you prepare it very simply with a small number of safe ingredients. Not meant to replace their regular food source.
About 10 percent of your dog’s daily calorie intake should come from treats. Take this number into account when deciding how much roast beef to give your dog, along with everything else they’ve eaten that day.
Your dog’s life will be better off with the addition of treats to their diet, which can and should be used as a supplement to their regular food.
It’s not the beef itself that causes problems when feeding your dog roast beef. The ingredients used to prepare the snack are usually the culprits when it comes to making it unfit for your dog to eat.
Roast Beef For Dogs: Ingredients To Avoid
Every single roast beef recipe calls for salt. In fact, salt is present in or on the vast majority of our meals.
Due to its role as a sodium source, even trace amounts of salt are required by the vast majority of living organisms. However, in the pursuit of flavor, the average person consumes far more salt than their bodies need.
Your dog probably shouldn’t eat roast beef because it can be very salty. This is especially true of lunch meat made with beef, which has many other issues besides salt.
Please remember that your dog is (probably) much smaller than you are. It only takes a few salty bites of roast beef for a dog to consume far more sodium than he should have all day.
Before feeding the roast beef to your dog, you should carefully consider the amount of salt you used in its preparation, which includes checking for sources of salt you might not think of, such as premixed seasonings and rubs.
There are many common ingredients that could be used in a roast beef recipe, sugar being one of them. In the same ways that sugar causes hyperactivity, gastrointestinal distress, lethargy, weight gain, dental caries, diabetes, and dehydration in humans, it has these same effects on dogs.
However, given its smaller size, your dog will experience the ill effects of sugar ingestion much more quickly than a human would. Any kind of sugar should be avoided when feeding your dog.
You should be able to tell pretty quickly if you’ve given your dog too much sugar because brown sugar and honey are standard ingredients in beef roasts.
However, sugar sneaks its way into many different ingredients you may not immediately recognize, such as barbeque sauce, ketchup, canned fruit like pineapple, and even mustard.
You shouldn’t feed your dog roast beef if you’ve used any of these things, as it contains far more sugar than a dog needs.
See below for a list of potential additional seasonings and sugars that could have gone into your roast beef, in addition to salt and sugar. The roast beef that you should never give to your dog contains the following potentially lethal components:
- Almonds and macadamias
- Chocolate
- Cinnamon
- Garlic
- Onions
- Chives
- Avocado
- The fruits of the vine; grapes or raisins
- Coffee
- Tea
You could use any of these in a dry rub, a sauce, or even just the pan you cooked the roast beef in. Caffeine, theobromine, and N-propyl disulfide are just some of the potentially lethal chemicals found in the aforementioned ingredients.
Whether or not you can feed your dog some roast beef depends on what you know about your dog’s dietary restrictions.
Help out your pal by feeding them. If you’re thinking about feeding your dog more home-cooked meals, Better, by Rick Woodford, is a great reference book to have on hand. He writes about the importance of feeding your dog a diet rich in whole foods and simple, healthy ingredients, and even includes a roast beef recipe for canines.
It’s best to err on the side of caution and not feed them any roast beef if you don’t know where it came from or what was done to it.
Other Reasons Not To Give Your Dog Roast Beef
Portion Control
No matter how full they are, dogs will continue to eat something delicious, especially if it’s roast beef.
The dog will not be the one to make the right choices about how much food they get, so it is up to you to control their intake.
It wouldn’t take much roast beef for your dog to get “too much” and potentially get sick, but a dog will eat until it gets sick.
Dole out a small amount, no more than 10 percent of your dog’s total daily food intake, and say “No” firmly if your pet begs for more.
Temperature
I hope it goes without saying, but never give your dog food or water that could cause them to scald their mouths. Dogs don’t have the cognitive capacity to assess the temperature of a tasty treat before putting it in their mouths, so wait for it to cool down.
Bad Behavior
This is the most crucial consideration after deciding to feed your dog roast beef.
Your dog’s routine could be disrupted by anything out of the ordinary, leaving them open to trying out novel strategies to achieve their goals.
It’s obvious that roast beef is more appetizing than a plate of dry kibble. If you introduce roast beef to your dog, you might notice some unexpected changes in his behavior.
Some dogs may look at you with pleading eyes, while others may bark and bay insistently until you give in to their demands.
Regular feeding can lead to annoying habits like following you around whenever you pick up a plate because they know more food is on the way.
While it may be tempting to invite Fido to join the family for roast beef night, doing so is risky because even the best-trained dogs may exhibit undesirable behavior.
When feeding your dog roast beef, keep these things in mind.
- Don’t ever give them the leftover roast beef from dinner.
- This only leads them to believe that the food on the table is meant for them as well. Now that they know food is on the table, they may begin constantly begging or trying to sneak it.
- You might be able to control this behavior, but well-meaning visitors or children might be fooled and reward it by giving your dog a treat from the table.
- Give them some roast beef after you’re finished eating.
- If not, they will eat the treat quickly and waste the rest of their meal searching for more.
- Teaching your dog to patiently wait for a treat is a great way to instill in them the discipline they need to behave well in other situations.
- It’s best to avoid having them eat in the kitchen.
- You should find a convenient spot to feed them, such as close to their bed or the area where you keep their toys. There’s a risk they’ll only associate the kitchen with food if that doesn’t happen.
- If you have a dog, don’t let it into the kitchen, where it could get hurt or make things more difficult for you. Instead, teach it to wait for its meal elsewhere.
- Get them to earn it.
- If your dog begs for a treat, don’t automatically give it to them.
- Instead, have them practice self-control by sitting and staying put or doing something else that challenges their brain.
- When introducing high-value treats like roast beef, the most important thing to do is to teach restraint.
- Do not excuse their inappropriate actions.
- Roast beef and other high-value treats can bring out the worst in your dog as they try to get their paws on more of the delicious morsels.
- Roast beef should not be served if they refuse to sit when told to do so.
- You deserve some credit for making or paying for this special treat. For example, if you tell your dog to sit before feeding it roast beef, it should sit.
- Once again, instilling self-control is crucial unless you want a demon dog the size of a roast beef sandwich.
Is Roast Beef Good For Dogs
When it’s not seasoned, roast beef can be a healthy option for canines.
Roast beef can be safely fed to dogs if the fat is removed and the beef is prepared without the addition of garlic or onion powder.
Meat provides a great deal of essential nutrients for canines. Animal protein is essential for a dog’s health and muscle development.
Dogs can reap many benefits from eating plain roast beef. It’s a great way to get your daily dose of iron, B12, B6, and zinc.
Is Roast Beef Safe For Dogs
When properly prepared, roast beef is a healthy and safe option for canine diets. As roast beef typically has more fat than other cuts of meat, it is recommended that raw feeders remove the excess fat before feeding it to their dogs.
Roast Beef For Dogs
Dogs whose owners adhere to a raw food diet have stronger immune systems, according to their owners. Even if this is the case, you still need to be cautious about the food you eat. Before feeding it to your dogs, check that it is free of any bacteria that could make them sick.
Final Thoughts
When prepared properly, roast beef can be a healthy treat for your dogs. Never feed your dog garlic, onions, or any other member of the allium family. Additionally, the roast beef should be cooked thoroughly, and you shouldn’t feed your dog deli meat because of the high salt content.
In moderation and after proper cooking, you can feed your dog human meat.