The short answer: plain cooked turkey meat with no skin and no bones is fine. So are plain cooked carrot, parsnip, green beans, a sprout or two, and plain potato with nothing on it. What is genuinely dangerous is chocolate, anything with raisins, sultanas or currants in it, anything made with onion or garlic, blue cheese, macadamia nuts, alcohol, cooked bones and mouldy leftovers. Keep any of it to a small amount and take it off their daily ration, because the commonest problem vets see over Christmas is not poisoning. It is a dog who has eaten far too much rich food.
It is early November, which is exactly the right time to read this. Not because the dangerous bit of Christmas starts now, but because the first box of mince pies arrives in the house roughly this week, and it will sit on a low table within reach of a nose for the next seven weeks.
The never list, and the reason for each one
| Food | Where it hides at Christmas | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate | Selection boxes, tree coins, advent calendars, tins left open | Theobromine, which dogs clear far more slowly than we do. Darker chocolate is worse. Cases peak in December. The wrapper is a second problem, because foil and plastic can block a gut. |
| Raisins, sultanas, currants, grapes | Christmas pudding, cake, mince pies, stollen, chocolate-coated raisins | Can cause kidney failure, and dried fruit is more dangerous than fresh grapes. There is no established safe amount, which is the whole problem. A single mince pie is worth ringing the vet about. |
| Onion, garlic, leek, shallot, chives | Sage and onion stuffing, gravy, sauces, anything braised | Damage red blood cells and can cause life-threatening anaemia. The signs can be delayed by days, so a dog who seems fine that evening is not proof of anything. |
| Blue cheese | The cheeseboard, every year, at about four o'clock | Contains roquefortine C, which can cause muscle tremors and seizures, and those can last up to two days. |
| Macadamia nuts | Nut bowls, luxury biscuit assortments | Cause weakness, especially in the back legs, plus wobbliness, vomiting, tremors and lethargy. Nobody knows why, which does not make it less real. |
| Alcohol | Glasses left at floor height, cream and egg based drinks, trifle, brandy butter | Dogs are much more sensitive to ethanol than we are. Small amounts can cause drowsiness, low body temperature, low blood sugar, seizures or coma. Creamy drinks are the ones dogs actively want. |
| Cooked bones | Turkey carcass, goose, chicken, the bin bag by the back door | Cooked bone splinters. It can obstruct a gut or puncture it. Raw feeding is a separate debate; cooked is not. |
| Fatty and rich food | Turkey skin, pigs in blankets, goose fat, sausage meat, cream, buttery mash | Vomiting and diarrhoea at best, and a large high-fat meal can trigger pancreatitis, which is painful, sometimes serious and genuinely common at this time of year. |
| Mouldy leftovers | The bin, the compost, the forgotten plate in the utility room | Mould toxins can cause tremors and seizures. A dog raiding the bin on Boxing Day is a classic. |
| Anything sweetened with xylitol | Sugar-free sweets, some peanut butters, some baked goods | Can cause a dangerous drop in blood sugar. Read the label on any sugar-free product in the house, particularly peanut butter, which people put in toys. |
Keep your vet's out-of-hours number somewhere you can find it at eleven at night, because that is when you will want it.
What is genuinely fine, in small amounts
Plain is the operative word throughout. No butter, no gravy, no salt, no honey glaze, nothing roasted in the same tin as the onions.
- Turkey meat, cooked, no skin, no bone. This is the good bit and dogs know it.
- Carrot and parsnip, cooked plain, or raw carrot if they like it.
- Green beans and peas, plain.
- Brussels sprouts, one or two, plain. More than that and you will regret it for reasons that are not medical.
- Potato, boiled or mashed with nothing in it. Not roast potatoes, which are cooked in fat.
- Plain cooked salmon, no bones.
- Pumpkin or butternut squash, plain and cooked. We have a whole guide to pumpkin for dogs if you want the detail.
The rule that makes all of this safe rather than merely survivable: whatever you give them comes off their dinner. A dog who has their normal full bowl plus a plate of turkey has eaten a day and a half of food, and that is how an ordinary Christmas afternoon turns into a bad Christmas night.
Their own Christmas dinner, done properly
The version that works, and that we actually do, is to make their meal look different without making it richer.
Take their normal portion. Warm a quarter of a tin of something they love and stir it through, which makes a kibble bowl smell like an event. A single-protein tin is the sensible choice here because it does not drag a new ingredient into the week: Pure Ostrich is £4.79 for a 400g tin, Pure Kangaroo is £4.35, and Pure Sensitive Horse and Pure Sea Fish are £3.85. Add a spoonful of plain cooked carrot. Serve it at the same time as everybody else sits down.
That is the whole trick. They get the occasion, you get an evening without incident.
One warning if you are planning something more ambitious. Christmas is a terrible week to change your dog's food, because if something goes wrong you will not know whether it was the new food or the stuffing somebody slipped them under the table. If you are moving them onto something new, do it before mid-December using our ten-day switching plan, or leave it until January.
The hour that actually causes the trouble
Not Christmas dinner. The hour after it, when the table is unattended, the bin is full, the back door keeps opening, and there are eleven people in the house, four of whom think a bit of turkey skin is a lovely present.
Two things help more than any amount of vigilance.
Tell people, out loud, once, early: nobody feeds the dog anything, and here is the pot of their own treats if you want to give them something. Guests overwhelmingly comply if you ask before the wine rather than after it.
And give the dog a job for that hour. Something that takes real time to work through is worth more than any instruction you give a room full of relatives. A Metatarsus Ostrich Bone at £5.39 is a single-ingredient natural chew that keeps a dog genuinely occupied, and a dog with a bone under the table is a dog who is not under the table for other reasons.
The things on the list that are not food
- The string and netting from the turkey. It smells of turkey, which is exactly the problem. It goes in an outside bin.
- Cocktail sticks and skewers from canapes. Count them, bin them properly.
- Wrapping paper, ribbon and tinsel. Ribbon in particular can cause a serious obstruction.
- Chocolate decorations on the tree, which from a dog's eye level are simply food hung at nose height.
- Advent calendars left on a sofa or a low shelf. A dog can clear all twenty four doors in about a minute.
- Christmas plants. Holly, ivy, mistletoe and poinsettia can all cause stomach upset, and the berries are the part dogs go for.
- Batteries, from the pile of new toys. These are urgent, not a wait-and-see.
If they have already eaten something
Ring your vet, or an out-of-hours service, straight away. Do not wait for symptoms, particularly with chocolate, dried fruit or anything containing onion, because with those three the treatment is far more effective early and the signs can be delayed.
Be ready to say what it was, roughly how much, when, and what your dog weighs. If you still have the packet, keep it. The UK's Animal PoisonLine is a telephone triage service that can tell you whether a trip to the vet is needed, which is useful at two in the morning.
Do not try to make your dog sick yourself. Home remedies for inducing vomiting, including salt water, can do real harm and can make the situation worse. That decision belongs to a vet.
And the easiest rule of all
Keep their routine. Same food, same portions, same walk, same bedtime. Christmas is loud, full of strangers and short on normal hours, and the dog who copes best with all of it is the one whose own day has barely changed.
If you want ideas for what to actually give them instead of your dinner, our guide to healthy dog treats covers what to look for, and the Christmas Gifts collection has the presents. For the humans in the house, there is a separate Christmas gift guide for dog lovers, sorted by budget.
Browse the full dog food range. Free UK delivery on orders over £30.
Frequently asked questions
Can dogs eat turkey at Christmas?
Yes, plain cooked turkey meat with no skin and no bones is fine, and most dogs love it. The skin is too fatty, cooked bones splinter and can obstruct or perforate a gut, and anything cooked in the same tin as onions or roasted in fat should be left off. Keep the portion small and reduce their normal meal to match.
Can dogs eat Brussels sprouts, carrots and parsnips?
Yes, plain and cooked, in small amounts. One or two sprouts is plenty. Avoid anything roasted in goose fat, glazed with honey, or cooked with bacon or onion.
What Christmas foods are poisonous to dogs?
Chocolate, grapes and all dried vine fruit including raisins, sultanas and currants, onion, garlic, leek, shallot and chives, blue cheese, macadamia nuts, alcohol, xylitol-sweetened products and mouldy food. Cooked bones are not a poison but are a serious physical risk. Fatty food can trigger pancreatitis.
My dog has eaten a mince pie. What do I do?
Ring your vet now, even if your dog seems completely well. Mince pies contain dried vine fruit, which can cause kidney failure in dogs, and there is no established safe dose. Many also contain alcohol and suet. Do not wait for symptoms and do not try to make your dog sick at home.
Can dogs eat Christmas pudding or cake?
No. Both are built on raisins, sultanas and currants, usually with alcohol and a lot of fat, which makes them one of the worst things in the house for a dog. The same applies to stollen, fruit cake and chocolate-coated raisins.
Is cheese safe for dogs at Christmas?
Blue cheese is not, because it contains roquefortine C, which can cause tremors and seizures lasting up to two days. Other cheeses are not toxic but are fatty and salty, so a very small piece at most, and none at all for a dog prone to an upset stomach.
How much Christmas dinner can I give my dog?
Think in terms of a small addition that replaces part of their normal meal rather than a plate on top of it. A few pieces of plain turkey and a spoonful of plain vegetables, with their own portion reduced accordingly, is the safe version. The commonest Christmas problem vets see is simply too much rich food at once.
Featured in this guide: Pure Ostrich (from £4.79) · Pure Kangaroo (from £4.35) · Pure Sensitive Horse (from £3.85) · Metatarsus Ostrich Bones (from £5.39). Free UK delivery over £30.
General information, not veterinary advice. If you think your dog has eaten something harmful, contact your vet immediately rather than waiting for symptoms.