For me, the nutritional properties of eggs are best summed up by the scene in the film Rocky, where he is eating raw eggs to boost his training.
In 1945, the average American ate 404 eggs per year.
In 1993, this figure had slumped to 229 eggs per person per year.
Eggs have since become more popular and in 2019 it is estimated that the average American had eaten 290 eggs or .80 of an egg every day.
What are the nutritional properties of an egg?
So why are eggs so nutritious?
In every 100g of egg, there is:
76g of water
13g (26%) protein
9.5g (12%) fat
0.7g (0%) carbohydrate
By the way, 100g of egg is the equivalent of two medium sized eggs.
13g of protein is also 26% of the recommended daily allowance.
9.5g of fat is 12% of the recommended daily allowance.
Whereas the 0.7g of carbohydrate is less than 1% of our recommended daily allowance.
These two eggs will provide an adult with 10% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin D and 10% of the recommended daily amount of iron.
These recommended daily allowances are based on the needs of an average man or woman who should be eating about 2000 calories per day.
But how can we possibly use these figures to find out how many eggs our dog should eat per day?
The truth is that we can’t.
But in the next section I’m going to show you a way that will enable you to make a reasonable guess.
How many eggs can a dog eat in a day?
Dogs are the most diverse range of mammals on the planet.
There isn’t another single species that varies so much in size and weight.
And so in answering the question, how many eggs can a dog eat a day? I’m going to use three different breeds of dog.
I will make a recommendation for a small sized breed, a medium sized breed and a large breed.
And I’m using the American Kennel Club’s most popular dog breeds of 2019 to guide me.
Although eggs provide a lot of “nutrition”, they are not a complete food.
Man, woman nor dogs cannot live on eggs alone because they don’t provide all the nutrients that we need.
It seems to me that 2 eggs per day seems a reasonable amount for an adult consuming 2000 calories per day.
And so we can use that measure for our dogs.
And this is done by using a free online dog calorie counter.
Now the one that I am using is only one of many online but I like it.
To me, it combines thoroughness with ease of use.
I used it to calculate that my youngest Golden Retriever, Sylvie, should be consuming around 1600 calories per day, as you can see in the results below.
To use the calorie calculator, eight different pieces of information.
And they are:
[1] Name of dog
[2] Breed of dog
[3] Age of dog
[4] Whether your dog is fully grown
[5] Whether your dog is neutered
[6] Weight of your dog
[7] The size and shape of your dog
[8] The amount of exercise that they have
Don’t be put off by any of my descriptions of the information.
It is very easy to do and will take you less than a minute to provide it- I promise.
According to the calculator, Sylvie should be consuming 1600 calories per day, which is roughly 460g of good quality kibble.
This is very close to what she actually eats- she gets about 500g of raw food everyday.
Which shows just how accurate the calculator is!
Running with this calorie estimate, it suggests that Sylvie could eat up to 1 large egg per day.
My next example is a French Bulldog, which looking at the AKC website, should weigh around 28 lbs and be exercised for less than an hour per day.
In terms of calories, a French Bulldog should be eating around 850 per day, which is about 250 g give or take.
And in terms of eggs, a French Bulldog could eat one small egg per day safely.
And now onto a Great Dane.
With an average weight of around 130 pounds and needing about 2 hours of exercise a day, these dogs will need to eat around 2700 calories per day and around 770g of kibble.
And they could safely eat two medium sized eggs per day.
How many eggs should a 15 lb dog eat everyday?
Just as another example, lots of people are asking how many eggs they can feed a 15lb dog?
Of course, there are many breeds of dogs that weigh around 15 lbs.
Bichon Frises, American Hairless Terriers, King Charles spaniels, larger Border Terriers and Dachshunds to name but a few!
Using the same calorie calculator that I used above, a 15 lb Spaniel should be eating about about 530 calories a day, which to me is about a medium sized egg every other day.
Now how did I work that out?
500 calories per day is roughly one quarter of an adult human needs.
If an adult human can have about two medium sized eggs per day, a 15 lb dog can have a medium sized egg every other day.
At what age can puppies eat eggs?
If you want to start feeding eggs to your puppy, I think that the safest time to do it is around the four month mark.
Puppies should be fully weaned at around eight weeks of age.
By the time that they are four months old hopefully they would be in a great eating routine.
They will be very familiar with their food and will be eating it properly- neither eating it too fast or just picking at it.
With this solid base you can start to make a few small changes, such as adding eggs to their diet.
If your puppy is a bit of a picky eater, I wouldn’t introduce eggs because it will just make them more fussy.
You need to work out why your puppy is such a picky eater.
If that means changing their kibble or their wet food, then speak to your vet or other friends with dogs.
Get your puppy to eat their main food regularly before you start going “off piste” with extras such as eggs.
Of course, it is best to start off with small amounts of egg.
And cook the eggs- maybe scramble them.
Cooked eggs will be easier for a puppy stomach to digest.
If your puppy is eating very well then you might want to introduce them to scrambled eggs slightly sooner!
Eggs are part of a diet not an add on!
Much earlier in this article, I showed you the nutrition data for eggs.
Something I didn’t mention earlier which is important to tell you now is that this data includes how many calories each serving contains.
If you are going to feed eggs to your dogs regularly then you should take the “egg” calories into account.
Let me give you an example.
A 100g serving of egg will provide 130 calories.
My dog Sylvie can eat around 1600 calories per day.
I suggested that she could eat about 1 large egg per day (about 60 -70 g.)
This would be equivalent to about 100 calories and so I would need to feed her less of her main food if I was feeding her eggs.
Raw vs boiled vs scrambled vs fried egg
Raw eggs
Raw eggs might contain salmonella, which is a potentially deadly parasite found in chickens.
Whilst there is no data for dogs, we do know that eating raw eggs causes around 79,000 Americans to get food poisoning from Salmonella- from which thirty people die.
Considering that ninety five million eggs are eaten in America every year, the chances of being poisoned are very slim, but why would you risk it?
Important safety advice to follow includes refrigerating eggs and eating them within a week of purchase.
And to cook them until the yolk and white are firm.
Which according to this site would take around 10 minutes.
So having decided that it is probably safest to not feed your dogs raw eggs, the easiest way to cook them is to hard boil them.
Hard boiled eggs
With hard boiling, you aren’t adding any seasoning or fat and the clean up process is very fast because you have just heated water in a pan.
The only faff is taking the shell off!
Scrambled eggs
Scrambled eggs are easily done in the microwave.
Don’t add milk but add a little water.
And no seasoning.
After whisking the egg, cook it in 30 seconds bursts and “fork” through the egg between these 30 second bursts.
Two medium eggs should be ready in about 1 minute.
Fried eggs
Do I need to explain why your dog shouldn’t be eating fried eggs?!
Can dogs eat egg shells?
Finally, I want to talk about feeding egg shells to your dog.
Only give them to your dog as an occasional treat.
If your dog eats eggs as a regular part of their diet, don’t get into the habit of feeding them the shell every time.
I know it is just much easier to place a whole raw egg in their bowl but it isn’t good for them.
We have already discussed the risks of salmonella and raw eggs.
The trouble with egg shells is that they are 40% calcium and half a shell might provide an adult human with their recommended daily allowance of calcium.
And so imagine what that amount would mean for most dogs?
It would be a big overdose!
But there have been studies carried out on arthritic dogs showing that eating egg shells does ease joint pain.
Another unhelpful side effect of too much calcium (either by eating bones or egg shells) is on their poop.
Too many egg shells turn my dogs poop into white powder.
I have just experienced this with my dogs after I fed them a few egg shells from a cake baking session.
And it makes the process of pooping physically much harder for the dog.
Almost the equivalent of constipation…
