Can Dogs Drink Anything Other Than Water

You can never go wrong with feeding your dog water. With other fluids and juices, there is a need for caution as some of them can be harmful to your dog, might contain additives that are toxic to dogs, or some dogs may be allergic to a particular fruit drink.

With water, however, you can never go wrong. Water is actually the safest fluid to feed your dog in order to keep him hydrated. You can feed any dog water without having to worry about any potential health risk. Does this mean that dogs cannot drink anything other than water? Find out the answer to this question and more in this article. Let’s go!

Water is essential for your dog’s healthy living and your dog needs to take in lots of water (about 4 cups in a day, depending on his level of activeness) to keep him well hydrated. Water has lots of health benefits for dogs including regulating your dog’s body temperature and helping all his muscles and organs function properly.

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Can Dogs Drink Anything Other Than Water

It is equally the safest of all the drinks to give to your dog. Even though water is the safest drink to feed to your dog without any side effects, your dog can have other drinks besides water, all in small quantities. Let’s take a look at the drinks that are safe for your dog instead of water.

What Kind Of Juice Can Dogs Drink?

As we earlier established, dogs can have a number of other fluids other than water so let’s get into the details of what juices dogs can have besides water.

Nut milk

Nut milk is a healthy alternative to whole milk. Nut milk has been known to provide dogs with several health benefits like preventing bad breath, provides your dog with the necessary amount of daily calories needed, boosts your dog immune system, amongst other benefits.

This drink is perfect for dogs who are lactose intolerant and cannot take whole milk. Nut milk contains less lactose and more nutrients. However, you must ensure that your dog doesn’t have nut allergy and make sure to feed your dog nut milk in moderation and not in excess as soy and almond milk have high levels of calories.

Fruit juices

While fruit juice is a great drink to feed your dog, you must be sure not to feed him store-bought fruit juices as most of them contain preservatives, artificial sweeteners and flavors that are harmful to your dog’s health.

If you have to feed your dog any fruit juice, homemade fruit juice made from only dog-friendly fruits. Avoid giving your dog juice made from citric fruits, grapes, berries and sour fruits; these fruits are highly toxic to dogs.

Vegetable Extracts

Carrot, celery, spinach, kale and beetroot are vegetables packed with lots of nutrients like vitamins and minerals, amongst others. These vegetables do not cause any known adverse effects in dogs, have very low levels of calories and so are very healthy snacks for dogs.

In the same vein, extracts and juices from these vegetables are just as healthy as the vegetables themselves and they provide dogs with the same nutrients. Kale and spinach can be boiled and sieved to get their juices but for all the other vegetables mentioned above, they can be juiced in food processors.

Chicken Or Beef Broth

As you know, plainly cooked beef and chicken are healthy meals to feed your dog. Well what healthier juice can they get than the juice of their healthy food? The juice or stock gotten from cooked beef or chicken are suitable for dogs to drink.

The beef or chicken broth are as nutritious as the beef and chicken themselves. You can either feed your dog the broth plain or add use it to make their regular meals. The broth is a great remedy for GI tract upset.

Coconut water

Coconut water contains lots of vitamins, mineral and electrolytes that are essential for your dog’s growth and overall health. This is why the coconut water is one of the highest ranking when it comes to alternatives to water for dogs.

The combination of all the nutrients in coconut water provides your dog with many benefits such as removes bad breath and improves your dog’s fur quality and skin health.

What Kind Of Drinks Can Dogs Not Have?

It is important for us to spell this out. That your dog can have other drinks asides water does not mean he can have all other drinks.

There are drinks that are a definite no to feed your dog because of their level of toxicity while there are others that must only be given to your dog in very small quantities as they are unhealthy if consumed in large quantities. Here are a few of them:

Soda or Any Drink With Caffeine

Soda contains high amounts of sugar, tons of artificial additives and caffeine. These ingredients are in no way beneficial to your dog, rather they can lead to health issues like stomach upset, weight gain bloating and other GI issues.

Consuming even the smallest amount of caffeinated drinks could result in caffeine poisoning in your dog, which can cause dehydration due to excessive urination, diarrhea, vomiting, restlessness and even seizures.

Caffeinated drinks to keep away from your dog include coffee, chocolate-flavored milkshakes, tea and energy drinks. All of these are highly toxic to your dog.

Alcohol

Dogs are smaller than humans and do not have strong digestive systems like humans. Where humans can have several bottles of alcohol before they begin to react, a dog only needs to have a tiny bit of alcohol to get wasted. Keep your alcoholic drinks far away from the reach of your dog at all times.

More so, dogs’ liver are not built to process any alcohol so consuming any amount of alcohol can be harmful to your dog.

Citrus Fruit Juice

Citrus fruits like oranges, lemon, grapes, and the likes contain citric acids and are highly toxic to dogs and feeding your dog with their juice extracts can be harmful, resulting in stomach upset, vomiting, diarrhea, and so on.

Whole Milk

Since majority of dogs develop an intolerance for lactose after their puppyhood, this is not a recommended drink for dogs. Dogs with lactose intolerance will experience stomach upset, gassiness and diarrhea if they take any dairy. While not all dogs will react negative to dairy foods, it is best to avoid giving your dog whole milk at all.

Can Dogs Drink Sprite?

According to Pet Poison Helpline, dogs react in a more severe way than humans when they consume caffeine. The wise thing to do is avoid giving your dog any soda or caffeinated drinks, one of which is sprite.

Consuming caffeine contained in tea, soda and coffee can be very toxic for your dog so you should not feed your dog sprite or any other soda at all. Sprites and other carbonated drinks also contain artificial flavors that are toxic to dogs.

Can A Dog Drink Milk?

If your dog is lactose intolerant or has a history of digestion issues, milk is not a healthy drink option to feed to him. There are other dairy products with lesser levels of lactose than cow milk and other whole milk.

Some of these dairy products include cheddar cheese, cottage, and so one. However, if your dog has neither lactose intolerance or any history of digestion issues, you can feed small amounts of milk to your dog.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What Flavor Can I Add To My Dog’s Water?

Fruity flavors, homemade chicken or beef broth, peanut butter powder, vitamins, liquefied canned food, carbonated water, and other flavors are well loved and enjoyed by dogs. Instead of feeding your dog plain water, you can add any of these flavors to give you dog fluid variety.

How Can I Hydrate My Dog Without Water?

Ice cubes are a perfect means of keeping your dog hydrated without feeding him any water. Not only do ice cubes provide your dog with the water that they require, it also gives them something to chew on; they love to chew on things.

You can give your dog several ice cubes as many times as necessary throughout the day to keep him fully hydrated.

Conclusion

While it okay for dogs to have other drinks and fruit juices, it is important that you feed your dog enough water every day. Water is an essential for healthy living so technically, none of these other drinks can really replace water and its health benefits to your dog. This is why you must also make water available for your dog, alongside the fruit juice.