Foods Toxic to Cats and Dogs: The Full Reference
Most of what follows will never come up. But the ones that do come up, come up suddenly and at the worst possible time, usually on a Sunday. Worth knowing which ones mean a phone call and which mean watching.
The serious ones
| Food | Affects | What it does | Call the vet? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grapes, raisins, sultanas, currants | Dogs mainly | Acute kidney failure. The toxic dose is unpredictable: some dogs react to a handful, others don't | Immediately, any amount |
| Xylitol (sugar-free gum, sweets, some peanut butter) | Dogs | Massive insulin release, then collapse. Liver failure at higher doses | Immediately, can act within 30 minutes |
| Chocolate | Dogs and cats | Theobromine: heart arrhythmia, tremors, seizures. Darker is worse | Yes, with the wrapper |
| Onion, garlic, leek, chive (raw, cooked or powdered) | Cats more than dogs | Destroys red blood cells; anaemia develops over days | Yes, symptoms lag by 2–4 days |
| Macadamia nuts | Dogs | Weakness, tremors, hind limb collapse | Yes |
| Alcohol, raw bread dough | Both | Dough ferments in the stomach and produces alcohol, plus expands | Immediately |
| Lilies (all parts, including pollen) | Cats | Kidney failure. Brushing past one and grooming the pollen off is enough | Emergency, immediately |
Chocolate, by type
The variable is theobromine content, which rises with cocoa solids. A Labrador that eats a milk chocolate button is in a different situation from a terrier that eats a bar of 85 percent dark.
| Type | Relative risk | Rough problem threshold |
|---|---|---|
| White chocolate | Negligible theobromine | Fat and sugar are the issue, not poisoning |
| Milk chocolate | Moderate | Around 3.5 g per kg of body weight |
| Dark / 70%+ | High | Around 1.3 g per kg |
| Cocoa powder, baking chocolate | Very high | Small amounts are serious |
Those are rough guides for triage, not permission. Ring the vet with the dog's weight, the type, and the amount, and let them decide.
The ones that cause upset rather than emergency
- Milk and cheese: most adult cats and dogs are lactose intolerant. Diarrhoea, not danger.
- Fatty scraps and trimmings: a genuine trigger for pancreatitis, which is serious and often follows Christmas.
- Cooked bones: splinter and can perforate the gut. Never cooked. Raw is a separate debate with its own risks.
- Avocado: persin is a real concern mainly for birds; the bigger risk to dogs is the stone as an obstruction.
- Caffeine: tea, coffee, energy drinks. Similar mechanism to chocolate.
- Corn on the cob: not toxic, and one of the most common intestinal obstructions vets operate on.
Foods for birds specifically
Companion birds have their own list, and it's shorter and stricter.
- Avocado: genuinely dangerous to birds, more so than to dogs. No part of it.
- Chocolate and caffeine: as above, and birds are small, so doses that matter are tiny.
- Apple seeds, cherry and stone fruit pits: contain cyanogenic compounds. The flesh is fine, the pits are not.
- Salt: birds have very low tolerance. No crisps, no salted nuts.
- Onion and garlic: same red blood cell problem as in mammals.
Symptoms that mean go now
Regardless of whether you saw them eat anything:
- 1Repeated vomiting, or trying to vomit and producing nothing. In deep-chested dogs the second one can be bloat, which is a surgical emergency measured in hours.
- 2Tremors, twitching, unsteadiness or seizures.
- 3Collapse, sudden weakness, or pale or bluish gums.
- 4Suddenly drinking and urinating far more than usual, or producing almost nothing.
- 5A swollen, hard or painful abdomen.
- 6Breathing that's laboured or noticeably faster at rest.
Save your vet's out-of-hours number in your phone now, before you need it. The Animal PoisonLine (01202 509000) is a UK service that will tell you over the phone whether what your pet ate needs a vet visit. It's a paid service and it's considerably cheaper than an unnecessary emergency consultation.
Reducing the odds
Most poisonings are opportunistic rather than deliberate feeding. Bins with a lid that latches, bags off the floor, handbags with gum in them out of reach, and chocolate stored somewhere a determined dog can't reach, which is higher than you think.
A dog that counter-surfs is a dog that will eventually find something. Enrichment reduces the scavenging drive that causes it in the first place, which is the part you can actually control.
This page is a reference, not a diagnosis. If in doubt, phone. Vets would far rather field a call about a dog that ate one raisin than see the same dog in kidney failure three days later.
Common questions
Grapes and raisins, xylitol, chocolate, onions and garlic, macadamia nuts, and alcohol or raw bread dough. Grapes and xylitol are the two where any amount warrants an immediate vet call, because the toxic dose is unpredictable.
Yes, and they're the single most important thing for cat owners to know. All parts including the pollen cause kidney failure, and pollen landing on the fur and being groomed off is enough. Don't keep lilies in a house with a cat.
It depends on cocoa content and the dog's weight. Roughly 3.5 g per kg for milk chocolate and 1.3 g per kg for dark, with cocoa powder more dangerous again. Ring your vet with the weight, type and amount rather than judging it yourself.
Not unless a vet tells you to. Some substances cause further damage coming back up, and home remedies can be harmful in their own right. Phone the vet or the Animal PoisonLine on 01202 509000 first.
Yes. Several of these have a delay of hours to days before symptoms appear, and onion toxicity typically lags by two to four days. Treatment is far more effective before symptoms start.
Sources
We’re a retailer, not a veterinary practice. Anything clinical on this page comes from these, and your own vet knows your animal.
The Kindral Team
Pet supplies buyers & product testers
We buy, unbox and use the kit we sell: beds, feeders, tanks, harnesses, the lot. We write about what holds up and what doesn't, and we say plainly when a product isn't right for a particular pet. We are not veterinarians: anything touching health, diet or medication is sourced to a qualified body and linked, and we'll always tell you to ask your own vet about your own animal.