Can Beagles Eat Chicken?

Beagles are often chosen to pet over other breeds of dogs because of the ease in feeding them. They never show reluctance to any type of food, and actually, you have to make a diet chart and control their food intake to prevent the risks of obesity. Overweight can make your beagle’s health worse. Therefore, it is essential to create a balanced diet chart for your beagle. Dogs are carnivores, and thus meat is an essential component of their diet.

Beagles can generally eat chicken. Chicken is a source of protein. You can include chicken in the daily diet plan of your beagle to meet its protein requirements. However, some beagles are allergic to chicken.  A food elimination diet will help you identify whether it is safe to feed chicken to your beagle.

Beagles are extremely loving and caring. They are also easy to feed. You don’t have to worry much about their feeding habits. They go well with most of the meats including chicken. However, some dogs may get allergic to chicken meat. Therefore, as a dog owner, you should essentially know about the allergy symptoms that may appear. You can find everything you need to know about feeding chicken to your beagle in this article.

Is Your Beagle Allergic To Chicken?

Although beagles can eat chicken, certain individuals among them show an allergic reaction to chicken. Most of us are really scared to feed our doggie if it is a newbie to the house. You can go for a food elimination diet for your beagle to know whether they are allergic to chicken.

A food elimination diet is usually introduced in dogs to find their intolerance or sensitiveness to a particular food. The two steps involved in the food elimination diet are elimination and reintroduction of food items.

Let us check how to do a food elimination diet to find whether your beagle is allergic to chicken. Here is a stepwise guide for the same:

• Eliminate chicken from the daily diet of your beagle for up to 2-3 weeks.
• Reintroduce chicken into the diet of your doggie.
• Look for allergy symptoms. Consult a doctor if you find any symptoms in your dog to confirm that chicken is the culprit.
• The doctor can confirm or find the allergen by doing some blood tests.

It would be better to start a food elimination diet with the proper guidance of a doctor as there are chances for dangerous allergic conditions.

The common allergy symptoms shown by beagles are:

• Loss of fur or hair.
• Skin rashes and itchiness.
• Stomach upset.
• Coughing.
• Ear inflammation.
• Excessive eye discharge.
• Wheezing noises.
• Chewing on self.

Can Beagles Eat Raw Chicken?

Humans can’t eat up raw chicken, but don’t think your doggie to be the same. You can obviously feed raw chicken to beagles as they are naturally carnivores. Are you wondering what makes dogs deal with raw chicken when humans can’t?

The raw or under-cooked chicken might contain bacterias that can cause diseases in living organisms. The acidity level of the stomach in humans is too low to destroy these bacterias. Thus, eating raw chicken is not definitely recommended for humans as it is obvious that the microbes in it would multiply and cause diseases.

At the same time, the dog’s stomach has a higher acidity level. The bacterias cannot live in such high acidic levels and are thus destroyed the moment they enter a dog’s belly. Therefore, raw chicken is recommended for dogs. However, it would always be better to feed fresh and raw chicken to your dog as older the chicken more the bacterias if not properly frozen.

Cooked chicken is much safer than uncooked. The disease-causing organisms like Salmonella cant survive in high temperatures and easily get destroyed while cooking up. This reduces the chances for your dogs to get affected by certain diseases.

Cooked Chicken For Your Beagle?

Feeding cooked chicken doesn’t cause any problems in the majority of beagles. However, the reaction differs upon each individual. Some may quickly eat cooked chicken while a few other beagles would hesitate to.

Unseasoned cooked chicken is safe for beagles. Seasoned and fried are not very much recommended for your doggie’s health. Oil and spices would upset your Beagle’s stomach if they are not used to it. You can also try out feeding them unseasoned grilled chicken.

You should take special care not to give chicken bones to your beagle. Chicken bones, especially the cooked ones, splinter easily and may cause damage to the gastrointestinal tract of your doggie.

So, take off the bone every time you feed chicken to your beagle. Splintered chicken bone can even take off the life of your beagle.

How Much Chicken Can Your Beagle Eat?

Obviously, chicken is good for your beagle’s and is rich in proteins. But remember, proteins are not the only thing your beagle might need for maintaining good health. They cant for sure lead a healthy life with just proteins.

A healthy dog should be fed 30 calories for every pound it weighs. This means that you should feed 600 calories if your dog weighs about 20 pounds.

The chicken you feed your dog should not really exceed more than 10% of the whole portion. Make sure you also include enough fibers and veggies in the diet plan of your beagle.

Beagles are very much prone to obesity. Overweight will for sure make the life of your beagle worse. Therefore, better not to overfeed your beagle with chicken dishes.

Also, don’t introduce a large portion of chicken meat suddenly into your dog’s diet. Go for smaller proportions first. Start with a small piece and gradually you can increase the quantity.

Conclusion

Beagles can of course eat chicken. Dogs are carnivores and they love different kinds of fresh meat including that of chicken. But it would be better to feed them chicken to prevent the entry of disease-causing microbes in the body of your beagle.

Also, you should be beware of chicken bones. Always take off bones from the chicken as it would damage the internal tracts of your doggie.

You should also be aware that your dog won’t get enough nutrients from chicken alone. Don’t overfeed your beagle with chicken. It might lead them to overweight and severe obese-dependent life problems.

You can seek the help of a veterinarian to prepare a proper diet plan for your Beagle such that it gets all essential nutrients from the diet. Go for nutrient supplements if they are found with some deficiencies.