Honey for Dogs

When flowers start blooming, it means it’s almost honey harvesting time! Honey is delicious, but is honey good for dogs? The answer is yes. Dogs can eat honey, and it’s actually quite healthy for dogs. As with all healthy foods, moderation is key to reaping the benefits of honey for dogs.

Before grabbing a bottle of honey at your local grocery store, learn which honey is best for your dog (and you too). Plus, learn the health benefits of honey and serving tips.

Benefits of Honey for Dogs

Honey is packed with antibacterial properties, antifungal properties and antioxidants, and it tastes amazing too! The sweet substance has been known to soothe upset tummies, calm scratchy throats, suppress mild coughs and keep allergies at bay. It also works wonders for skin. You can use it to moisturize skin as well as protect and heal small wounds.

Raw Honey vs. Processed Honey

Raw honey is unpasteurized, unfiltered, unprocessed, and exposed to little or no heat. Due to the lack of processing, raw honey maintains its natural vitamins, antioxidants and enzymes opposite to processed honey.

When shopping for raw honey, you’ll notice that raw honey looks different than processed honey. Raw honey is usually in a jar. It has a white tinge to it and is thicker than processed honey. Unlike those squeeze bottles, you have to spoon out raw honey.

Best Honey for Dogs

Choose local raw honey for your dog. Many pet owners swear feeding their dogs local raw honey daily reduces their dogs’ allergies over time. It makes sense when you think about it.

Honey and bee pollen are produced from local trees, grasses and plants. If you think pollen is causing your dog’s allergies, slowly introducing your dog to local bee pollen should reduce your dog’s allergic reaction—similar to allergy shots. Note that every dog is different. Some dogs have success while others don’t. However, giving your dog bee pollen is certainly worth a try.

How Much Honey?

Honey is mostly sugar, but it’s beneficial in moderation. It’s safe to feed small dogs ½ teaspoon, medium-sized dogs 1 teaspoon and large dogs 1 tablespoon of honey per day. Start introducing honey slowly in small amounts, and increase it over a period of 7-10 days.

When using honey topically (on skin), add a small dollop (size of a dime) of honey into your dog’s shampoo to moisturize his skin and coat.

Don’t feed obese, diabetic and young puppies honey—not even local raw honey. Remember, honey is sugar and can pack on extra calories for obese dogs and cause major issues for diabetic dogs. The FDA doesn’t recommend feeding honey to children under one year of age due to honey’s bacteria content, so use caution when feeding honey to very young puppies. When in doubt, consult your holistic veterinarian.

How to Feed Your Dog Honey

This is the easy part because dogs love honey. They’ll gobble it right up! Add or mix honey into your dog’s daily meals or add honey in food stuffed toys. Smear honey inside a rubber toy, such as a Kong, and give it to your dog as a snack during the day.

Stuffing honey inside toys works well for coughing dogs too, as the toys slowly dispense honey as dogs lick away. You can also mix honey with yogurt, stuff the mixture into a Kong and freeze overnight. Honey does an excellent job of hiding yucky tasting medicines and powders too due to its sweet taste.

Honey is healthy for dogs in moderation. 🙂