Can dogs eat potatoes? Raw, cooked, fries

Can dogs eat potatoes? Cooked, with no salt, butter or seasoning, in small amounts, yes. Raw potatoes, green potatoes and sprouts, no, because they contain solanine. For a small dog that's a spoonful of boiled potato, not half a plate.

Raw vs cooked potatoes

Raw potato contains solanine, a glycoalkaloid that irritates the stomach and in larger doses affects the nervous system. Most of it is in green patches, the skin and sprouts. Cooking only partly reduces it, so green potatoes shouldn't be given to dogs at all.

A boiled, peeled potato is simply starch. It does no harm, but your dog doesn't need it either. In home-cooked diets it can be a carbohydrate source, but then a nutritionist should write the recipe.

How much potato can a dog eat

Boiled potato has about 86 kcal per 100 g. Treats should be 10% of your dog's daily calories at most, and potato should take half of that at most.

My maltipoo weighs about 4 kg. She doesn't get potato from our dinner.

Potatoes from human meals

Most potatoes on our plates don't suit dogs, because of what's added:

• mash: butter, milk, salt, sometimes garlic;
• fries and potato pancakes: fat and salt;
• buttered potatoes with herbs: fat, salt;
• crisps: salt, fat, onion seasoning.

A fatty meal in a small dog is a quick route to diarrhoea. With a lot of fat, pancreatitis is a risk too.

Potatoes in the cellar and garden

A sack of sprouting potatoes in the cellar, or potato plants in the garden, is a source of solanine that dogs, especially puppies, like to chew. Potato leaves and stems are as poisonous as tomato leaves. More in can dogs eat tomatoes.

Potato won't replace a meal

A dog on complete food doesn't need extras from your dinner. Table scraps are also the most common cause of fussy eating. If your dog skips its bowl, read what to do when your dog won't eat. The full list of forbidden foods is in what dogs can't eat.