Can Dogs Eat Powdered Donuts?

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Can dogs have powdered donuts? ¹

Doughnuts are one of the most popular desserts in the world, and have been around for hundreds of years so far.

One of the first records of donuts was in the 1750s! 

This treat made out of leavened fried dough has made its way into many homes, and it has many different varieties including powdered doughnuts.

Powdered doughnuts, if you haven’t ever heard of them before, are essentially just doughnuts covered in powdered sugar.

But even though humans love doughnuts, could dogs even try them?

If you’re a pet owner, you’ve probably asked yourself this question because there’s nothing more dog parents like than to share things with their pets. 

It’s natural to wonder if it’s safe, and specifically powdered doughnuts may seem concerning because of the added sugar.

So can dogs eat powdered doughnuts, and should they even if they can? Let’s find out…

Nutrition in powdered donuts

Firstly, we need to discuss what nutrition is present in powdered doughnuts, as this will help you decide if powdered doughnuts are even worth giving to dogs nutritionally speaking.

Keep in the mind that the following values are per one-hundred grams of powdered doughnut.

So each one-hundred grams of powdered doughnuts contains 354 calories and 13 grams of fat (5.1 grams of saturated fat), 13 milligrams of cholesterol, 456 milligrams of sodium, 56 grams of total carbohydrates (1.3 grams of dietary fiber, and 27 grams of sugar), 5.1 grams of protein, 25 milligrams of calcium, and 1.8 milligrams of iron.

What are the ingredients in powdered donuts?

Now that we’ve discussed the approximate nutrition of powdered doughnuts, we need to get into exactly what goes into them. 

The ingredients are going to differ somewhat depending on if the powdered doughnuts were processed or homemade, and for this reason I’ll only be listing the main ingredients that are present in most powdered doughnuts.

This list includes flour, eggs, sugar, baking soda, butter, and milk. 

Flour isn’t particularly healthy for dogs but it won’t hurt your dog to consume either. Eggs can actually be really good treats for dogs to eat occasionally and they contain some great nutrients. 

Sugar isn’t an ideal thing to add to your pets diet as it can cause a variety of problems ranging from obesity to dental issues. Baking soda can be toxic to dogs if ingested in large amounts, but the amount of baking soda that would be used in doughnuts wouldn’t be enough to affect your dog at all.

Butter is much like flour in the way that although it isn’t toxic for dogs, it also provides no health benefits. And milk should be safe to give your dog in small quantities, such as the quantities that would be present in doughnuts.

One thing to keep in mind is that if your dog has some sort of allergy or intolerance then any of these ingredients could affect them in a negative way. It is especially common for dogs to have lactose intolerances in which case things like milk and butter could cause them to get sick.

Why are chocolate donuts toxic to dogs?

As I mentioned earlier in the article, there are many different varieties of doughnuts. And one of the most popular are chocolate doughnuts. The only issue is that it’s common knowledge that chocolate is toxic to dogs, so does that mean that chocolate doughnuts are as well?

The answer to this question is yes, because unfortunately there is no safe way for dogs to ingest chocolate. There are two chemicals present in chocolate that are to blame for this and they are theobromine and caffeine.

These two chemicals are very similar to each other, and dogs can’t metabolize them the same way that humans can. This leaves dogs very vulnerable to their effects, and can cause serious illness and in some cases even death.

Some signs that your dog is experiencing chocolate poisoning are excessive thirst and urination, panting and/or restlessness, vomiting and/or diarrhea, and a racing heart rate. More severe symptoms may include things like muscle tremors, seizures, and possibly even heart failure.

Although all types of chocolate can cause these symptoms, typically the darker and bitter the chocolate is the more toxic it is. This is because darker and more bitter types of chocolate have higher concentrations of theobromine. Common milk chocolate has the lowest concentrations of theobromine and is therefore the “safest” type.

Even with milk chocolate which is the safest, one ounce of chocolate per one pound of body weight will be toxic. So for a ten pound dog, ten ounces of chocolate would be toxic. Depending on how much chocolate is on the doughnuts it would usually take about two to three of them to become toxic to a ten pound dog.

Powder vs glazed vs cinnamon donuts

Now that we’ve covered why chocolate doughnuts shouldn’t be given to dogs, let’s talk about some of the other popular variations of doughnuts and whether or not they are suitable for dogs. As well as which ones would make the best choice.

The glazed doughnut is probably the best option for dogs because it contains less sugar and calories than powdered or cinnamon doughnuts. Cinnamon doughnuts might not be the best idea because although it isn’t fatal, more than a teaspoon of cinnamon can produce negative side effects in dogs. And the powdered doughnut is somewhere in the middle of these two, more unhealthy than the glazed doughnut but more healthy than the cinnamon ones.

Dog friendly donut recipes…

There are some doughnut recipes online that are formulated with dogs in mind, these are more likely to have ingredients that provide nutritional benefits for your pet and less likely to have ingredients that would harm them.

One recipe called for bananas, peanut butter, coconut oil, honey, eggs, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and greek yogurt. This recipe takes about 25 minutes to complete and you come away with a dozen doughnuts with peanut butter frosting.

Another recipe called for whole wheat flour, olive oil, eggs, fresh rosemary, water and cream cheese. This rosemary based recipe results in six doughnuts and takes about 23 minutes to prepare.

Ultimately it’s up to you which variation of the dog friendly doughnut that you choose, but a recipe formulated for dogs will always beat out a recipe meant for humans. So if you’re going to give your dog a doughnut then this is the way to go.

What other common ingredients in baked goods are toxic to dogs?

And while we’re on the topic of baked goods and dogs, it’s a good time to raise awareness for a few things that are common in baked goods that could prove very toxic for dogs. So without further ado, here we go…

Xylitol, which is a common sweetener that can be found in many baked goods, is extremely toxic to dogs and even small amounts can prove fatal. It is very important that you make sure your dog never ingests anything containing xylitol, so it’s always a good idea to check the ingredients list of products before giving it to your dog.

Raisins and grapes are also ingredients that can be found in a lot of baked products, but they can cause kidney failure in dogs. Alcohol is yet another substance that is extremely toxic to dogs even in small doses, and is found in many baked goods as well.

Just make sure before you give your dog a baked treat to be informed of the ingredients present first, it’s better safe than sorry.

Should I give my dog a sip of coffee?

It’s no secret that most of us love to sip on some coffee while we snack on our doughnuts, so this article probably also brings up the question: “Can dogs share our coffee”? The answer is no, because there is so much caffeine in coffee. And as mentioned earlier in the article, dogs can’t metabolize caffeine the same way we do and so it is very unsafe for them.

Can dogs eat powdered donuts?

So to conclude this article and answer the original question… Unless your dog has some sort of allergy or intolerance, and as long as you make sure that the doughnuts you’re giving them don’t contain any poisonous ingredients such as xylitol, it is safe to give your dog a powdered doughnut.

But there are far healthier snacks you could be giving your dog, and overall it’s probably best to just enjoy the doughnuts yourself. The only exception to this is if you’ve found a dog friendly doughnut recipe in which case it could be a nice to thing to add to your dog’s diet occasionally.

Photo credits

¹ Photo by Roland Tanglao on Flickr

James Grayston

My name is James and I love dogs. have owned four Golden Retrievers in the past 15 years. Currently I own two "Goldies"- a five year old and a seven month old. The photo shows me with our youngest when she was about 7 weeks old!