Thanksgiving foods dangerous to dogs

✓ Reviewed against PDSA, Blue Cross & Animal PoisonLine guidance · Last updated: 2026-07-05

The most dangerous Thanksgiving foods

🚫 Stuffing

The single highest-risk item on the Thanksgiving table. Stuffing contains onions, garlic, leeks, or chives — all alliums that destroy red blood cells and cause haemolytic anaemia. Effects are often delayed 1–4 days, so a dog that seems fine on Thanksgiving may become seriously ill by the weekend. Packet stuffing is worse — the alliums are concentrated. See: stuffing.

🚫 Turkey bones (cooked)

Cooked turkey bones splinter into sharp shards that can pierce the oesophagus, stomach, or intestines. This is a genuine surgical emergency. The turkey meat itself — plain, skinless, unseasoned — is fine in small amounts. See: turkey, bones.

🚫 Onion and garlic in any form

Any dish cooked with onion or garlic (mashed potatoes with onion gravy, green bean casserole, turkey basted with garlic butter) transfers allium compounds. The dried/powdered form is more concentrated per gram than fresh. See: onions, garlic.

🚫 Pecan pie

Pecans contain juglone and are prone to mould (which produces seizure-causing mycotoxins). Pecan pie adds extreme sugar, corn syrup, and butter. Any pie with a sugar-free filling may contain xylitol. See: pecan pie, pecans.

⚠️ Cranberry sauce

Very high sugar; many recipes or canned versions use grape juice (toxic) or are sugar-free with xylitol. Skip it for dogs. See: cranberry sauce.

⚠️ Turkey skin and drippings

Very high in fat — a classic trigger for acute pancreatitis, particularly in at-risk breeds (Schnauzers, Cocker Spaniels, Labradors). Symptoms develop 1–4 days later: vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain. See: fatty foods.

⚠️ Mashed potatoes with butter and milk

Plain potato is OK for dogs; Thanksgiving mash is not — it's loaded with butter, cream, salt, and often garlic or chives. The dairy causes GI upset in lactose-intolerant dogs (most adult dogs are). See: potatoes.

⚠️ Pumpkin pie

Plain pumpkin is one of the best things you can give a dog with GI issues. Pumpkin pie is not — it contains nutmeg (toxic in sufficient quantities), sugar, and cream. See: pumpkin.

⚠️ Gravy

Turkey gravy made from drippings contains onion stock, fat, and salt — none appropriate for dogs. A lick is unlikely to be fatal but it's not worth sharing. See: gravy.

What dogs CAN eat from Thanksgiving

Plain cooked turkey (no skin, no seasoning, no bones, no drippings), plain cooked sweet potato (not the casserole with marshmallows), plain cooked green beans (not the casserole), plain cooked carrots, plain cooked peas, plain pumpkin (not pie). Everything should be served separately, with no seasoning, sauce, butter, or salt.