Bananas are a real treat for many dogs. But are bananas just as healthy for dogs as they are for people, and when is it better not to feed this fruit? In this article, you’ll find the key information on the question: “Can dogs eat bananas?”.
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Many dogs love ripe bananas.
Bananas grow in clusters in warm tropical and subtropical regions. They are a popular fruit worldwide and can therefore be found in almost all conventional supermarkets.
However, it’s not only people who benefit from bananas – dogs do too. After all, this exotic yellow fruit contains plenty of minerals and fibre:
The plant-based fibre in bananas not only has a positive effect on intestinal movement and therefore on your dog’s digestion, but also on the bacterial microbiome in the gut.
Thanks to their high fibre content, bananas are suitable as part of a bland diet for diarrhoea. They help firm up loose stools and therefore contribute to healthier bowel movements.
As part of a bland diet, bananas are even said to help with chronic constipation. However, please note that too many bananas can also lead to constipation.
Minerals are involved in many metabolic processes in the body. Bananas are particularly rich in potassium and magnesium. Both minerals play a role in heart muscle and/or nerve function.
The flesh of the banana contains the neurotransmitter serotonin. This is involved in brain activity and can influence your dog’s wellbeing. Serotonin is therefore also known as the “happiness hormone”.
As long as your dog does not react allergically to bananas, you can give them bananas from time to time. It’s important that the peeled banana is ripe, which you can recognise by the slightly brown spots on the outside of the skin.
At this stage, the starch in the unripe banana has already been converted into sugar, making it easier for dogs to digest.
Banana chips for dogs are a crunchy alternative to plain fresh banana. So you can occasionally treat your dog to natural banana chips (without any additives).
However, because banana chips are dried, they contain more calories. To help prevent weight gain, only offer them to your dog now and then.
Puppies can generally eat bananas too. However, as they’re more sensitive than adult dogs, they should be given even fewer bananas than their grown-up companions. A small piece once a week is plenty.
Note: If your dog shows any signs of intolerance, you should stop feeding immediately. This is especially important for puppies!
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Banana skins may be nutritious, but they’re hard for your dog to digest. Whether whole or chopped into pieces, banana peel isn’t suitable for your dog to eat.
To prevent a bowel obstruction (ileus), you should always feed bananas peeled.
Bananas generally contain relatively high calories. This is due to their high starch content, which is converted into a high sugar content during the ripening process. Bananas are therefore less suitable for overweight dogs or those that get very little exercise.
Bananas provide plenty of nutrients and energy. They are therefore particularly suitable for animals suffering from gastrointestinal problems. However, in healthy dogs, eating too many raw bananas can lead to constipation.
Due to their high potassium content, eating too many bananas can cause heart problems in dogs. If your dog is known to suffer from a heart condition, you should therefore discuss with your vet which foods are suitable for them and which are not.
Bananas contain a lot of purine. This is a key building block of nucleic acids, which determine genetic information. In healthy dogs, purine is converted into urate after eating and is then excreted in the urine.
However, there are also dogs with a genetic defect in which this metabolic process is disrupted – this mainly includes Dalmatians. Affected dogs excrete too much uric acid in their urine, which can cause kidney and bladder stones.
Note: Dogs with this purine metabolism disorder should not eat bananas.
Most dogs love bananas. For this reason, and because this exotic yellow fruit has a range of positive properties, you can happily feed bananas to your dog.
However, please bear in mind that bananas are relatively high in calories. It’s therefore better not to give your dog bananas too often.
This makes them more suitable as a tasty dog snack between meals or as a reward after a fun training session.
To offer your dog some culinary variety, you can also serve bananas in different ways.
For example, you can freeze pieces or purée of the flesh and offer them as a cooling snack in summer. You can also dry bananas and feed them as homemade chips.
At the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen I was extensively trained as a veterinarian and was able to gain experience in various fields such as small animal, large animal and exotic animal medicine as well as pharmacology, pathology and food hygiene. Since then, I have been working not only as a veterinary author, but also on my scientifically driven dissertation. My goal is to better protect animals from pathogenic bacterial organisms in the future. Besides my veterinary knowledge, I also share my own experiences as a happy dog owner and can thus understand and enlighten fears and problems as well as other important questions about animal health.
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