Last Updated on March 9, 2023 by Woody Pet

Can Dogs Eat Cauliflower?

Ah, cauliflowers. Most of us know these fist-sized fluffy vegetables that look like the love child of a cloud and a cabbage. 

It is a vegetable that belongs to the Cruciferous family. Some cousins of cauliflowers are bok choy, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli. It would be fair of you to think these vegetables are related to one another since these veggies look eerily similar.

The bane of kids and some young adults, some of whom are willing to go to lengths and widths to avoid eating even a nibble with all sorts of reasons, excuses, and distractions. 

Could the same be said for our pet dogs? Can dogs eat cauliflowers?

The answer is definitely! But you must read more to find out, such as ways to prepare cauliflower and what you can add to complement it in your dog’s food and some other ingredients that you must avoid adding.

Cauliflower & Dogs – Could You Put Two And Two Together?

Apparently, most health experts and veterinarians agree on this. Why? Cauliflower is basically an oasis of what constitutes a perfect balance of nutrition and a little bit of tastiness if prepared and cooked right. 

One serving of about a hundred grams of cauliflower or so has about two hundred and ninety-nine milligrams of potassium, twenty-five to thirty calories, thirty milligrams of sodium (which is actually a fraction of the amount of Na present in the products claimed by the “healthier” alternative dog foods out there being touted by experts), five grams of carbs and two grams each on fiber, glucose, and protein. 

In terms of vitamin content, the largest chunk present on a basis of per hundred-gram serving is Vitamin C, with a whopping lion’s share of eighty percent, about ten percent of Vitamin B6, three percent is comprised of Magnesium, and the remaining four percent is equally divided among these two vitamins: Calcium and Iron. 

Cauliflowers basically floor most of the veggie opposition in terms of raw nutritional benefits alone, so for you as a responsible dog owner, it should not be a wonder why you would even hesitate to introduce such a good, healthy and delicious-if-done-right-and-correctly vegetable to your dog’s dietary regimen.

Cauliflower. Pizza. For. Dogs… Wait, Is This Legit?

People who are proud to call themselves “health nuts” (well, a noisy minority of them at least) would go out of their way and shove their “healthy lifestyle” into your faces if given the platform or even the opportunity to do so. 

Their influences, although for the sake of argument, do somehow make sense and are actually healthy if you were to only consider what they bring to the table, or in this case, our fridges. 

One of the things that they come up with is… Get this: 

Cauliflower Pizzas! 

Well, it is basically ordinary pizza dough made from scratch that contains an inordinate amount of cauliflower. Just search for “where can I buy cauliflower pizza” on your browser and you would most likely be able to find a place where you can buy one.

Granted, it is a bit expensive in comparison to your local pizza joint, but we all know health and wellness is a bit expensive compared to fast food sustenance.

Now, let’s say you’d want to utilize this “Vegan Godsent” of a culinary masterpiece for the benefit of your dog. How would you go about this endeavor?

The best thing to do would be to first acquire just a slice of cauliflower pizza, if the vegan joint in question sells those by the slice, then save a partially eaten slice for your dog and try to feed it. If it likes it, well and good. If it doesn’t, well, it was worth the shot.

Dogs are not really that welcoming in terms of being fed something new, which is why your approach to this should be careful. This applies not just to cauliflowers or cauliflower pizzas, but to everything else that your canine has not yet eaten. 

It’s a matter of trial and error. If your dog likes it, it will eat it. If it doesn’t, it will ignore it.

Forget The Pizza. I Just Want To Give My Dog The Old Cauliflower Power– Here’s How!

Let’s say you’ve ditched the idea of getting out of your way on finding a vegan pizza joint that has cauliflower pizza and would just want to do it the old-fashioned way.

“How about cauliflower that’s uncooked?” You asked.

Well, sure you can. If your dog whiffs a piece of raw cauliflower and eats it without flinching or gagging, no problem. 

But here’s why that isn’t such a good idea: Raffinose makes your dog expel hot gas like trucks on Monster Jam. 

Raffinose is basically sugar present in cauliflowers and other vegetables. When this gets in your dog’s intestines, bacteria do a really “crappy” job at digesting this so they waste their time and energy, give up and leave fermented gas which is expelled through the anus.

The best way to go about this is that the cauliflower must be cooked. Do not bother adding anything whatsoever since condiments like garlic and onions are unhealthy. 

Don’t even think about giving your dog cauliflowers in cans. Those are full of preservatives and are unhealthy.  

To wrap this up like pizza wrap, let us once again summarize and simplify why dogs can eat cauliflower and why it is definitely a good idea to consider putting it in your dog’s diet:

Cauliflowers are healthy due to all of the vitamins and minerals present, as well as the low-calorie content, thereby making it a healthy staple of food for your dog’s overall health and well-being. 

Trouble is, the raw kind in large doses does make your dog fart incessantly. 

So then, you’re supposed to only feed your dog enough cauliflowers so that it can get as much nutrients as it can without making your house smell like a dump site.

Canned or seasoned cauliflower is a no. 

Cooked cauliflower with nothing else in it is a yes.