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With many households making the switch from peanut butter to almond butter a common question is beginning to appear across the internet and we’d like to help raise awareness.
Can Dogs Eat Almond Butter? Yes, When you buy an almond butter that contains 100% almonds and nothing else, you may share this type of almond butter with your dog. However, if your almond butter contains added palm or hydrogenated oils or sugars, do not give it to your dog. And if it contains Xylitol, consider removing this dog toxin from your home permanently.
Companies are increasingly making peanut butters (link to dog safe peanut butter list) and almond butters with xylitol which is perfectly safe for humans, but this artificial sweetener kills dogs, and it kills them relatively quickly.
And though you may not have given it much thought, it’s well worth looking into switching to an almond butter that is plain and simple – 100% Almonds and nothing else.
Why Do Companies Add Other Oils and Sugars to Nut Butters?
There are 3 reasons companies are adding extra ingredients to our otherwise pure and healthy almond butter.
- American Tastebuds
- Consistency Expectations
- Keep Cost Lower
American Tastebuds – Just like companies sweeten a perfectly fine almond milk, they will sweeten almond butter in order to appeal to the masses. That’s because most people (adults and children) really like and expect nut butters to taste sweet. And when they don’t taste sweet, people complain about the flavor or don’t buy it again.
Consistency Expectations – For some reason, we don’t like to stir things before being able to use it and getting a good consistency out of almond butter is kind of hard to accomplish. That’s why most companies that manufacture almond butter add palm oil or some other hydrogenated oil to help call it “smooth” or “creamy” and it eliminates the need for stirring.
Keep Costs Lower – This stands to reason; we all know how expensive almonds can be. If a company can put lower cost ingredients in the jar, it helps keep the cost low and that ultimately appeals to consumers.
What this really boils down to is that your protein-punch snack may not be as healthy as you think and you should avoid giving it to your dog when it has these extra ingredients.
Perhaps you can tolerate hydrogenated or palm oils or added sugar, but your dog’s digestive system and organs might have a lot of extra work to do in order to process these foreign ingredients.
Almond Butter Brands with Xylitol
Do not feed your dog the toxin xylitol which is put into almond butter by these brands;
- Go Nuts
- No Cow
- P28
- Nutts n More
How to Find Pure Almond Butter for Dogs
Yes it’s hard to find a pure almond butter but not impossible. It’s not very likely to be sitting in the peanut butter aisle, but it might be in the organic section of your grocery store food aisles. Just make sure to read the labels.
Alternatively, you can have this 100% pure almond butter shipped to your door. The ingredient list is: Dry Roasted Organic Almonds…that’s it! The brand is Whole Foods Market 365 (product link) and it’s usually cheaper and definitely more pure that what most supermarkets are offering.
Summary – Giving Almond Butter to Dogs
Remember the word xylitol. If you have a dog, never allow this product into your home. Whether it’s in a nut butter, sugarless gum, candy…your dog can get into this product and suffer severe illness or even death.
Dog’s can eat almond butter when you buy 100% almond butter that contains no other ingredients.
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