Dogs will eat absolutely anything they can get their paws on, and that includes spicy foods such as Takis chips. As a huge fan of spicy flavors I know this only too well… I dropped a couple of Takis on the floor last week which our dog soon gobbled up. But can dogs eat Takis, and what would happen if they ate too many of them? I decided to find out…
Can dogs eat Takis? Dogs should not eat hot Takis. Spicy foods can be toxic for dogs and can cause stomach upsets. Takis have no nutritional value, contains high salt and chili levels, so should never be fed to a dog, unless by accident.
What will happen if a dog eats a Taki?
Spicy foods are known to be bad for dog’s stomachs. Some dogs (but not all) will suffer with diarrhea, flatulence, and gastro-intestinal pain. The hot chili could even burn their throat and insides.
Due to the high salt content in spicy food like hot Taki chips, eating the in large volumes can also result in excessive thirst, with possible vomiting. Takis chips also contain traces of onion which, along with garlic, is a toxic ingredient to canines.
Another thing to consider is the smell. Dogs have a sense of smell that’s said to be 40 times greater than a human (view source).
Consider that Takis have a very strong smell, and how that could be bad for your dog. If hot spice makes your eyes water, imagine what that could do for poor old Fido.
The non-friendly dog ingredients in Takis
But why can Takis make a dog ill?
It’s all down to the spicy hot ingredients in Takis chips, high salt content, oils, sugar, and onions. Here’s what in a packet:
Ingredients in hot Takis Fuego chips: Corn masa flour, soybean and/or palm and/or canola oil, iodized salt, sugar, natural and artificial flavor, citric acid, soy protein, yeast, monosodium glutamate, maltodextrin, sodium diacetate, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, artificial colors, onion powder, hot chili pepper, sodium bicarbonate, sodium guanylate, sodium inosinate, silicon dioxide, antioxidants).
Is there anything on that list you would really want to be feeding your dog?
No, of course not… but that didn’t stop this idiot in the video I found on YouTube below.
The rumors about Takis being cancerous
A few years ago, there were rumors doing the rounds that Takis can cause stomach cancer and ulcers in kids. I think this is probably one of the main reasons people ask if it’s safe to feed dogs Takis.
However, the rumors about Takis not being safe to eat was debunked by the Snopes website (read it here).
What is true is that humans eat lots of spicy food, then yes, it is possible to get stomach pain and gastritis. But what isn’t true, is how just eating hot Taki chips can result in people getting cancer.
And you can probably apply the same reasoning and logic to dogs… Takis will not give your dog stomach cancer.
Can I feed my dog Takis?
If you’re still not sure, then I really don’t know what more I can say. Of course, you can feed your dog Takis all you want. Does it make you a bad person? I would say yes.
Your dog might eat some hot Takis by accident. That happened to our dog, but we would never feed Takis to our own pooch deliberately.
If you still have some overwhelming desire to feed your dog Takis, perhaps believing your dog has a thing for spicy food, then think again. Dogs don’t have as many taste buds as humans (1,700 versus 9,000) and probably won’t even taste the spice like we do.
But, they will feel those spicy flavors in their digestive systems, and not in a good way.
Why dogs eating Takis will have calorific consequences
Aside from the spicy flavors and the unhealthy ingredients, you should also consider how many calories are in Takis, and what this means for your dog’s diet.
To get a better idea on this, I looked at two of the most popular breeds of dog; French Bulldogs and Labradors. I then calculated how many calories an average dog from each breed should eat each day.
- Dogs should only eat 25 calories for each pound they weigh each day.
- Dogs should only have treats as 10% of their total daily food intake (the 90/10 rule).
This means the following:
- Average French Bulldog is 25 pounds: Should eat no more than 625 calories daily.
- Average Labrador is 70 pounds: Should eat no more than 1,750 calories daily.
When we now consider how many calories each of these dogs should be eating each day, it lets me crunch the numbers on the chips, to show how bad Takis can be for a dog. For example:
- Takis Fuego flavor (230 calories): 37% French Bulldog / 13% Labrador daily intake.
- Takis Outlaw flavor (230 calories): 37% French Bulldog / 13% Labrador daily intake.
- Takis Xplosion flavor (250 calories): 40% French Bulldog / 14% Labrador daily intake.
That means that if my French Bulldog Claude was to eat a packet of Takis Fuego chips, he would have consumed a massive 37% of his recommended daily calories! That’s way over my 90/10 rule when it comes to giving my dog a treat each day!
Conclusion
The bottom line is you should never feed your dog anything unhealthy that isn’t designed for their diet, and that includes hot and spicy snacks like Takis… or even similar chip snacks like Doritos – it’s all the same really. Even tamales with their heavy meat content can be too spicy – you can read more about them in this guide.
Thankfully my dog was ok, and he didn’t get the nasty diarrhea and gas that I was honestly expecting. It could have been very different though, so I will be taking extra special care in the future!
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Please don’t be tempted to feed your dog food that is not intended for their diet. I’ve researched into other common junky foods that some humans are tempted to let their dogs have, including the consequences: