Can dogs eat cinnamon?

The detail

Very few dogs are ever offered cinnamon on its own. It comes on a bun, in a biscuit, stirred through porridge or dusted on a latte, and the verdict on the page you actually need is usually the verdict on the raisins.

Taken alone, the powder is well tolerated. The Pet Poison Helpline puts the threshold for problems in most pets at more than a teaspoon of powder, which is a lot more than any recipe puts on a dog's share.

Two things do go wrong. Loose powder inhaled from a spoon or a spilled jar irritates the airways, and cinnamon essential oil is a concentrate that behaves nothing like the spice.

A sprinkle of cinnamon powder

A pinch stirred through food is not a poison. The Pet Poison Helpline says cinnamon is generally well tolerated and that it takes more than a teaspoon of powder to cause problems in most pets, which is far beyond a dusting.

Quantity is still the limit. Large overdoses have caused low blood sugar, liver disease, vomiting, diarrhoea and changes in heart rate, so a jar knocked over and licked up is worth a phone call.

Never let a dog sniff at loose powder. The same source says inhaled cinnamon irritates the lungs and can cause coughing, choking, difficulty breathing and bronchospasm, which is why the internet cinnamon challenge was a bad idea for people and is a worse one for dogs.

Cinnamon sticks

A cinnamon stick is not a chew toy. Dried bark splinters when a dog works on it, and the fragments are sharp enough to scratch the mouth and gut on the way through.

A whole stick is also the right size and shape to lodge in a throat or gut, particularly in a medium or small dog. If one goes missing, watch for gagging, retching, a hunched posture or refusing food, and ring your vet if any of that appears.

Cinnamon buns, biscuits and baked goods

This is the version most dogs actually get, and it is the version to say no to. A cinnamon bun is sugar, butter and white flour before the spice is counted, and a Chelsea bun or a fruited swirl usually holds raisins.

Raisins are the reason this matters. VCA Animal Hospitals says grapes, raisins and Zante currants cause kidney failure in dogs and names baked goods as a route in, so a bun with dried fruit in it is a vet call rather than a shrug. Our grapes page covers what to say when you ring.

Nutmeg is the other spice that sits beside cinnamon in the same recipes. The Pet Poison Helpline says its myristicin can cause hallucinations, disorientation, a raised heart rate, high blood pressure and possibly seizures, though it adds that recipe quantities are very unlikely to cause serious toxicity.

Ceylon, cassia and coumarin

Two things get sold as cinnamon. Cassia is the cheaper, darker, thicker-barked type that fills most UK supermarket jars, and Ceylon is the paler, flakier one usually labelled as true cinnamon.

Cassia carries far more coumarin, a compound that is hard on the liver in sustained high doses. European food safety limits for people work out at about 0.1mg of coumarin per kilo of body weight per day, which a heaped teaspoon of cassia can reach on its own.

That maths matters for a daily supplement, not for a dusting. None of the veterinary poison services flags coumarin in culinary cinnamon as a reason to keep it away from dogs, so treat this as a reason to skip long-term cinnamon dosing rather than a reason to panic about a sprinkle.

Cinnamon in dog treats and supplements

Cinnamon turns up in plenty of dog biscuits and in supplements sold for blood sugar or joints. At the levels used for flavour it is well inside what the Pet Poison Helpline describes as tolerated.

The claims attached to the supplements are the weaker part. There is no good evidence that cinnamon manages blood sugar in dogs, and a dog with a genuine blood sugar problem needs a diagnosis and a treatment plan from a vet.

If you do buy a cinnamon supplement, tell your vet what is in it. It matters most for dogs already on medication, and for any dog with liver disease.