Last Updated on March 8, 2023 by Woody Pet
Ah, ginger. You often find these yellow, strong-flavoured root crops on all kinds of exotic cuisines to be the main component of a popular drink: ginger ale.
Ginger is also beneficial as a home remedy for humans. They are good for pain relief on toothaches as well as a soothing tea for sore throat.
But the query that we are going to attempt to answer is this:
“Can dogs eat ginger?”
“What vegetables can dogs eat?”
As safe as they are for humans, dogs are safe to consume gingers as they see fit. However, the question to ask is not if dogs can eat ginger, but if dogs will eat ginger.
Gingers are not known for their edibility due to their rather strong and repelling flavour. They taste a bit of spicy yet bitter and actually feels disgusting when eaten raw and are preferred to be boiled over a pot of boiling water to extract the juices and be drank in the form of tea.
My Dog Seems To Love Ginger – How Do I Go About Feeding Him Some?
If for some odd reason or another, you find your dog slobbering over a piece of ginger, the ideal way for you to feed him some would be to first, peel away the rough exterior skin with a peeler, and make sure to remove roots and hard, bumpy parts of ginger as these parts are inedible.
The second step would be to rinse the ginger clean with running water. The next thing you should do is to use a mortar and pestle to grind the ginger to a pulp, and using your hands you can separate the ground ginger into smaller, bite-sized pieces that you can then give to your dog.
Ginger can also be used as a complementary addition to your dog’s daily dietary food regimen. Simply sprinkle some grounded-up pieces of ginger on top of your dog’s food bowl. If it prefers, you can also put the grounded-up ginger in a separate bowl for it to eat alongside its usual daily meal.
It would also help much in the direction of eating the ginger efficiently if you boil the ginger over a pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes, just enough to render the ginger soft enough for ease of consumption.
Health Benefits of Ginger – Here’s Why Ginger Is Good For Your Dog!
You would miss out on a lot when you do not consider including ginger somewhere in your dog’s diet, so it is imperative that we must look deeper and more keenly as to what gingers have in store for you and your dog’s overall health and well-being.
One tablespoon of ripe ginger contains approximately a tenths of a gram’s worth of Sugar and Fructose, somewhere between four to five Calories, less than tenths of a gram’s worth of Fat, just one gram of Carbohydrates, a tenth of a gram’s worth of protein, and around a tenth of a gram’s worth of Fiber.
In lieu of vitamins and minerals, it contains Calcium with about one percent of the Daily Value, Vitamin C with eight percent of the Daily Value, Iron with three percent of the Daily Value, Vitamin B6 with ten percent of the Daily Value, and Magnesium with ten percent of the Daily Value.
Ginger does not contain any Vitamin A, Vitamin D or Cobalamin.
Ginger As A Home Remedy!?
Ginger has long been touted as a good alternative home remedy since ancient times. The Chinese have made different kinds of herbs and concoctions that have ginger as the main ingredient.
Ginger all throughout history and society has been known as an anti-inflammatory herb even to this day.
One such practical application for ginger is to help in the alleviation of toothaches. If your dog has recently gotten its tooth removed either due to an unfortunate accident or extraction due to infection, you can either dab some ginger onto the empty gum socket or you can boil ginger over a pot of boiling water, wait for it to cool for a bit before placing it in your dog’s water bowl and let your dog sip on it.
Another practical application of ginger highlighting its anti-inflammatory properties is if your dog has arthritis or is suffering chronic pain from hip dysplasia or other similar ailments.
The same application of letting your dog sip some boiled ginger should do wonders against your dog’s arthritis and inflammations that are causing it discomfort and pain.
Another health benefit that gingers are apparently good for is cancer. There have been studies that show that gingers, as well as other vegetables, help suppress the growth and spread of cancer cells not only in humans but in dogs as well.
After much deliberation and discussion as to the query that this topic wishes to tackle and delve deeper into which is: “Can dogs eat ginger?”
We have come to a singular consensus which is yes, dogs can definitely eat ginger, and are highly encouraged to eat so, albeit not on an everyday basis.
Gingers are root crops that have been known since history as a condiment to add flavor and spice to all kinds of food, helping to amplify and enhance the aromas of cuisines from all across the globe, and yet still somehow find a beckoning from dogs as a preferable meal of sorts.
In terms of health and wellness for dogs, gingers have a lot to offer and much more. Gingers barely contain any fats, sugar, or sodium yet contain lots of vitamins and minerals.
Gingers have been known as a home remedy not just for humans but for dogs as well. It is a good anti-inflammatory herb and is good in curing or aiding ailments such as arthritis, toothaches, or anything else that has inflammation.
Gingers can be given to dogs raw, boiled over water, or ground up and added as complementary to their daily meals.
As with any other kind of food, feed ginger to your dog in moderation.
