Our Corgi Teeny has been a big part of our family for almost 3 years. When Teeny was a puppy she had to have stomach surgery to remove a food item she should not have eaten. I’ll tell you more about what happened later in this article but first I want to let you know about a few common foods Corgis can not eat. I can’t list every thing a Corgi might want to eat because dogs often find everything and anything tasty. Instead, I want to tell you about items we have been unsure whether we could feed them to our Corgi and things that you should never let your dog eat.
Some of the main foods a Corgi shouldn’t eat are foods containing Xylitol, corn on the cob, chocolate, drinks or food containing caffeine, grapes and dried grape products and salt. All these foods shouldn’t be eaten by your Corgi because some can harm their stomach and cause blockages or are poisonous and can dehydrate a dog.
Please consult with your vet before feeding your dog any food item to make sure your dog isn’t allergic and that it is safe for them to eat in their current health condition.
Things Corgis can not eat
Here is a list of some items Corgi’s and other dog breeds can’t eat.
| Name of item | Reason why dog’s can’t eat it |
|---|---|
| Chocolate | It’s yummy for humans but even a small amount can be very toxic for dogs. |
| Corn on the cob | The Cob can cause intestinal blockages. |
| Milk | Causes diarrhoea / upset stomach. |
| Coconut water | High in potassium / not suitable for pets |
| Avocado | The leaves, pit and skin contain toxins. |
| Xylitol ( often found in sugar free chewing gum) | Xylitol is very dangerous and can cause low blood sugar, liver failure or seizures. |
Why can’t Corgi’s eat certain foods
There are a number of reasons why Corgis cant eat certain foods. Here are some of the main reasons:
- Blockage: Small chicken bones and corn on the cob are 2 foods that can cause blockages or intestinal damage.
- Poisonous: Chocolate, Xylitol ( often found in sugar free chewing gum), alcohol, coffee, tea, avocado, grapes and raisins.
Some food items are poisonous to your Corgi and should be avoided completely. Other food items, such as foods with a lot of sugar and salt should also be avoided according to a number of other dog health websites including the American kennel club, and Pet Md.
Corgis and salty foods
Salty foods can quickly dehydrate your dog and may cause diarrhoea and other stomach problems according to a number of sources. However we didn’t take their word for it and decided to take a look at a few studies and consider whether Corgis are affected in any negative way if they eat salt.
The UK vet times researched dogs eating salty foods using a number of veterinary articles as their sources. Their findings are interesting. Here I’m going to summarise a few of their findings to give you a little insight into how salt might affect your Corgi. There is a difference in salt levels between dry and wet dog food, with dry dog food containing a little less salt then wet dog food. However It seems that this isn’t an intentional addition of salt to improve flavour because a study by Delaney conducted in 2006 found that salt might not improve the taste of dog food for dogs.
The study thinks this is because dogs don’t have taste systems that are sensitive to salty foods. Overall the UK Vet times article found that there wasn’t any strong evidence to back up the often quoted fact that salt is bad for dogs. In contrast, another study published on research gate found that a certain amount of salt can increase how much water a dog needs to drink by up to 25% and that salt can have a negative affect on dogs with heart disease.
We feed our Corgi Teeny a raw meat and vegetable diet and we avoid any food items with added salt. The findings about whether a dog can eat salty foods aren’t clear but there are clearly some concerns so we think it’s wise to not feed your Corgi too much salt.
Corgi eating Corn on the cob – Our experience
I have experience with a corn and the cob and dogs because Teeny managed to eat some of the cob from a corn on the cob and this led to her having to have stomach surgery to remove it. Corn itself has some nutritional value but if a dog eats the cob in the centre this can cause intestinal blockages and be very dangerous for dogs to eat.
In 2019 We took our Corgi Teeny on a road trip in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces in China and during breakfast at our dog friendly hotel, Teeny managed to eat a small piece of corn on the cob. A day later she suddenly began vomiting frequently for a few hours in the night. There wasn’t any sign of blood but the frequency of the vomiting was much more than we experienced any time she was sick before.
We were hundreds of km’s from the nearest vets and in the early hours of the morning she stopped vomiting. The next day we drove several hours back home to our Vets where they performed an x-ray of her stomach and took some blood samples. The X-ray found a small piece of something stuck in Teeny’s stomach close to where food moves through to the intestines. The image below is one of the x-rays taken at the vets showing the size and location of the corn on the cob in Teenys stomach.
The vet was concerned because if the corn went through into the intestines it could become lodged in and cause a blockage which would be more difficult to unblock. We decided to try an endoscopy and the vet spent more than half an hour trying to dislodge the corn on the cob but it was too slippery and they couldn’t remove it from her stomach. At this point the only option was to perform stomach surgery.
This is a common procedure but seeing teeny lay there on the operating table was upsetting and worrying. Stomach Surgery was successful and we felt relieved when she woke up and eventually began to return to her fun and playful self. It was a challenge with her not being able to eat for a while after surgery but thankfully she recovered well. Any time I see corn on the cob on the floor in the park or any public place I throw it in a bin quickly. I never knew this vegetable could be so dangerous for dogs.
Can Corgis eat fruit?
Corgis can eat most fruits but some fruits should be avoided. Our Corgi Teeny loves eating fruits and we feed her small pieces of some fruits as a treat every so often. Some of the fruits she can eat and that shes loves are banana, blueberries, mango and strawberries. There are many more fruits your dogs can eat but when searching for which fruits our Corgi can eat we found that apricots, dates, cherries, avocado, peaches, plums, figs and grapes shouldn’t be fed to your Corgi
Don’t let your Corgi eat anything they find outdoors.
Many breeds of dogs are scavengers by nature as they once had to find their own food. Dogs evolved with an excellent sense of smell and can sniff out anything edible a long way away. The biggest danger for your Corgi eating something they shouldn’t eat is when you are taking them out for a walk. You can control where your Corgi can go in your home but you can’t control the leftovers people might drop outdoors or plants and food items growing in the areas where you walk your dog.
Be sure to train your Corgi using reinforcement training and reinforcing an alternative behaviour such as walking alongside you making eye contact or doing another activity that stops them being able to eat at the same time. In some cases, your Corgi will still try to eat something on the ground. If you can get your dog to drop it using a learned command or by reaching into their mouth carefully ( only do this if you know when or whether they are about to bite you) it can help cause any problems later as you might not know whether the food item was something dangerous.
If your Corgi is stubborn, or your first dog, then you might find it difficult to stop them scavenging, in which case you could think about using a muzzle. We wouldn’t recommend a muzzle though because they are so restrictive. It is now possible to get a thin mesh that is similar to a muzzle and will prevent your dog eating without restricting them as much.
A list of household food items that are toxic for dogs
I did some research and found this study about the effects of certain household foods on dogs to be useful. The following headings list a number of household food items and ingredients that might be toxic for your Corgi and other dog breeds and a brief summary of why they might be toxic for your dogs.
Allium – Garlic, onion, leek and chives
Allium is found in Garlic, chives, onion and leek. Vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and depression are all common clinical signs found in dogs who have eaten food containing allium. The study found 69 cases of dogs being poisoned by allium based food items and that there is no antidote to stop the poisoning. I would definitely make sure your Corgi isn’t eating any of these common household food items.
Grapes
Grapes and the dried product of grapes including sultanas, currants and raisins have been found to cause renal failure in dogs. A lot of snacks, including cakes and bakes goods contain some kind of grape so be sure to make sure your Corgi can’t eat any food waste from your bin. The Pet Medical database said that they believe dogs cant metabolise some of the substances in grapes and this can lead to kidney damage. If your Corgi eats grape products you’ll have to take action fast and get them to your nearest vet.
Xylitol
The problem with Xylitol according to the ASPCA is that it can sometimes lead to the fast release of insulin and this causes your dogs blood sugar levels to drop which can lead to hypoglycemia. Xylitol could also cause your Corgi some liver damage, especially if they manage to eat a lot of it. Our Corgi once ate a piece of chewing gum and we worried for a while about whether or not it had Xylitol in, but luckily it didn’t. This is how we found out that sugar free gum can be dangerous for dogs.
Final thoughts about which foods to avoid letting your Corgi eat
Please always check with your vet before feeding your dog any food items. When we walk our Corgi we often come across food items on the floor and also wild fruits and plants. Teeny loves to eat grass, especially to ease stomach ache but sometimes grass is sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals to keep insects away so it can be potentially dangerous and we would always avoid letting her eat any food found lying around or growing outdoors.
Chocolate is one of the most widely known foods that is harmful for dogs but only through our bad experience with Teeny getting sick, did we learn to avoid Corn on the cob. We also researched other food items and it was interesting to learn about sugar free chewing gum and Xylitol being so dangerous, along with grapes and so many other foods we all often have in our kitchen.
My final thoughts and suggestions for anyone worrying about what Corgis shouldn’t eat would be to make sure you train your Corgi as best as possible to avoid eating anything other than the food you give them in their dog bowl and any treats you use for reinforcement training.
If you found this article useful, click here to join our newsletter and learn lots more about Corgis.
Useful Resources about what dog’s can’t eat
Here are some resources I found useful when researching this article and when deciding what to feed our Corgi.
https://www.caninejournal.com/foods-not-to-feed-dog/
www.akc.org/expert-advice/nutrition/fruits-vegetables-dogs-can-and-cant-eat/
https://www.vettimes.co.uk/app/uploads/wp-post-to-pdf-enhanced-cache/1/sodium-chloride-tripolyphosphate-or-nitrite-do-dogs-really-need-salt.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4801869/
https://www.aspca.org/news/updated-safety-warning-xylitol-how-protect-your-pets