I often get the question from readers/customers. Can a dog eat pork or not?
The main reasons that most people buy pork dog treats are that they are relatively cheap and long lasting and you can get them from your local supermarket.
Unfortunately, all of those things should be red flags and something that most people would not consider when buying food for themselves.
Can Dog Eat Pork Or Not
Pork treats have the advantages of being hard (so long chewing) and are relatively loaded with animal nutrition (as opposed to the harder to digest plant matter for a carnivore dog). For instance, pigs ears include the skin nutrition and the inner layers of flesh meaning that the protein and fats are mostly similar to what you rind in the rest of the body providing all the pork skin benefits. So you don’t have to buy pig skin individually.
If you get a lot of beef and chicken into your dog in their normal food diet, using pork dog treats adds a different protein profile to your dog’s nutrition.
Most pork products like pig’s ear strips or pig skin rolls are long chewing, but not as hard as bones or bully sticks, so if you are concerned about wear to teeth for heavy chewing dogs, these are a nice halfway house solution.
The main downside to pork is that some dogs can have allergy issues with the fat, and the fat tends to be saturated fat that is likely to cause weight gain in dogs.
Unlike rawhide dog treat products raw pig meat has some flesh and a better class of proteins involved. Only feed your dog rawhide if they are a big chewer, you don’t want any nutrition benefits and you can’t be bothered feeding your dog leather.
