You may be feeling guilty looking at your pooch’s wide puppy eyes while chowing down on some teriyaki chicken leaving you wondering if you can share the deliciousness with your dear best friend.
Then you wonder if it is good for dogs to eat teriyaki chicken or teriyaki anything for that matter? Take a look at this article to find out if teriyaki is good for dogs or not.
What Is Teriyaki?
Teriyaki is the name for a sauce from Japanese cuisine that is immensely popular in the United States because of its mild and tasty flavor. Many versions of teriyaki sauce or teriyaki-inspired sauces exist in the country today, each with its own special touches and additions.
Traditionally the sauce is made by heating soy sauce and adding cooking alcohol like sake or mirin (another alternative in some recipes is wine) with sugar or honey. This concoction is then boiled and simmered till it is reduced to a medium to a thick consistency. In some cases, a sugar-free version of the sauce is made substituting xylitol for sugar.
This sauce is then used to marinate chicken, pork, beef, fish, or other seafood and sometimes vegetables as well for some hours before grilling or broiling the produce. Some recipes also make it as a dipping or pour-over sauce with fried meats like chicken and fish.
Can Dogs Eat Teriyaki Sauce?
Unfortunately no, the ingredients in teriyaki sauces, whether homemade or store bought, are toxic and harmful to dogs. In the store brought versions especially the added preservatives and flavorings are not good at all for your precious pet dog. Here is a breakdown of the common individual ingredients and how they are harmful to dogs.
Soy Sauce
Soy sauce is another Asian staple in countries like Japan, China, the Philippines, Korea and more. It is used in different recipes for cooking and as a sauce on its own as well. Soy sauce itself contains a multitude of ingredients mainly consisting of soybeans, salt, wheat and some fermenting sources like mold or yeast.
The thing about soy sauce is that is a very salty condiment and it is harmful even to humans in large quantities so you can imagine how toxic it is for dogs even in the littlest of quantities.
Soy sauce also contains a large amount of sodium from salt which as you know is very harmful to dogs in large amounts like in soy sauce. Too much salt in your dog’s diet can lead to a disease called salt poisoning which is not just harmful but actually fatal to dogs.
Common symptoms of salt poisoning include a lack of appetite, lethargy, tremors, seizures, diarrhea, vomiting, excessive thirst and urination, coma among others. If not caught in time, salt poisoning can also lead to the death of your beloved pooch.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Bran Flakes?
Sugar
While sugar, in general, is not fatally toxic to dogs, it can cause a range of different problems for them. Too much sugar can lead your dog to become obese which can shorten their lifespans and lead to a number of different diseases itself like diabetes and periodontal disease.
Sugar is also bad for your dog’s metabolism and can impair its different functions. It also adversely affects your dog’s skin and coat, much like how too much sugar is one of the causes of acne and pimples in humans.
Honey, however, is safer for dogs to ingest but in small quantities only. Natural unprocessed honey has only natural sugars and plenty of vitamins and minerals which are all good for dogs. Again, in small quantities only!
Xylitol
This chemical is a common substitute for sugar in different recipes, packaged foods and sugar-free food variants. Xylitol is one of the ingredients in sugar-free teriyaki recipes and variants and is extremely fatally toxic to dogs in any amount.
It starts by causing a drop in their blood pressure leading to low blood pressure in your dog within a few hours of ingesting it. After a few days, if left untreated, it damages your dog’s liver to the point where it causes liver failure.
So teriyaki sauces or products with xylitol are completely out of the question for your dog and be sure to avoid giving him or her any food or drink with xylitol in it as well.
If your dog ever eats something with xylitol in it, take them to the emergency room immediately for treatment. Common symptoms of xylitol poisoning in dogs that you should watch out for are shock, lethargy, deficiency in coordination, low blood sugar, vomiting, seizures and collapse.
Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Jelly Beans?
Garlic
Any member of the allium family but especially garlic is harmful to dogs. This is because of the compound called n-propyl disulfide which dogs and cats cannot digest.
It has the highest concentration in garlic, and this compound causes oxidative damage to your dog’s red blood cells causing hemolytic anemia in your pooch.
If left undetected or untreated then this can lead to kidney failure or even death depending upon the breed of your dog since some breeds like Shiba Inus and Spitz are more prone to garlic toxicity than others.
What to Do If Your Dog Ate Teriyaki?
What should you do if your furry friend decided to make a snack of your unattended plate or take a dip into the garbage for a snack? That depends on the amount of teriyaki sauce he has consumed and of what kind, take a look at the different scenarios.
Normal Teriyaki Sauce
If your pooch has eaten some normal teriyaki sauce but in a smaller amount, think licking the takeout container or stealing a couple of pieces of chicken from the plate, then you might be okay without a vet visit.
If your dog has eaten a small amount of teriyaki sauce or teriyaki chicken then he or she will experience diarrhea and vomiting for a few hours. This is a natural reaction to your dog expelling the uncomfortable food out of his or her system as their stomach is not used to this kind of food.
If your dog has eaten a larger amount of teriyaki sauce or teriyaki foods you will get to know that because the vomiting and/or diarrhea will continue to happen for over 24 hours unrelentingly.
At that time you need to take your pet dog to the nearest vet hospital for treatment immediately. He or she will need to be checked for complications and other issues arising from the teriyaki ingestion.
Sugar-Free Teriyaki Sauce
In this scenario, any amount of teriyaki chicken or teriyaki anything is extremely fatal to your dog if it has xylitol as a substitute for sugar in it. Please take your dog to the emergency care facility immediately as soon as you realize that they have eaten it.
Over there your vet will probably have your dog regurgitate the xylitol through induced vomiting and help him or her with further treatment with activated charcoal and energizing fluids.
Also Read: Can Dogs Drink Yakult?
Final Thoughts
So now you know that no matter how big the puppy eyes get from your dog, that teriyaki is something that you should never feed your furry best friend for their own well-being and health.
