Tomato Sauce and Dogs: Safe Consumption and What to Avoid

The green portions of tomato plants contain significant quantities of the toxic alkaloid tomatine — bad for dogs — but ripe, red tomatoes contain very little. Ripe red tomatoes are essentially harmless for dogs. However, do not feed your dog ketchup or pasta sauce, as they contain several other ingredients that are bad for him, such as onions, chives, and even garlic in large doses.

Tomato plant profile

Tomatoes are members of the deadly nightshade family (Solanaceae), which includes tobacco, eggplant, potatoes, and tomatillos. Tomatoes and their relatives possess several dangerous alkaloids, although they are not present in all parts of the plant. While the plant's ripe fruits, which are technically a type of berry, are safe for dogs, all other portions of the plant — leaves, stems and vines — are toxic.

Dogs who eat these portions of the plant may exhibit drooling, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased heart rate, tremors, seizures, irregular heartbeat, lethargy, dilated pupils or paralysis. Take your dog to a veterinary hospital immediately upon observing these symptoms.

Veterinary advice on tomatoes

It's generally considered wide to refrain from feeding your dog table scraps or other table food except as rare treats and when you are sure that the foods do not appear on the list of toxic foods for dogs. In the case of tomatoes, ripe, red tomatoes are harmless for dogs, although they may cause digestive upset to those with sensitive stomachs.

The Pet Poison Hotline states that tomatoes are "barely poisonous and generally pretty safe to feed dogs." The Merck Veterinary Manual includes pages dedicated to six toxic foods — avocado, bread dough, chocolate, macadamia nuts, raisins and the artificial sweetener xylitol — but makes no mention of tomatoes.

Toxins in tomatoes

Tomato plants contain a chemical called alpha-tomatine concentrated in their green portions. Ripe tomatoes possess small amounts of the chemical. Tomatine can be toxic to your pet's heart, but a dog would need to eat "massive" quantities of tomatoes to ingest enough of the toxin to cause problems.

Tomatoes are harmless for cats as well, despite popular sentiment to the contrary. Part of the reason they are not harmful is that the intestine does not absorb tomatine very well. Accordingly, tomatoes are considered safe for canines and felines to eat. The amount of tomatine in a tomato decreases over time as the fruit matures and metabolizes the chemical. Therefore, the riper tomato, the safer it is for your dog.

Dogs and tomato sauce

Even if tomatoes are safe for your dog to eat, dogs and tomato sauce are a bad combo thanks to the garlic, chives and onions that are also usually in tomato sauce. These vegetables can be toxic for your pup in large doses, although the level at which toxicity occurs in each is not well understood. Garlic powder is an ingredient in many dog treats, and some authorities suggest that small quantities of garlic are beneficial.

However, it is difficult to know how much garlic is in a given tomato sauce. Onions are not safe; small quantities may be dangerous. Ingestion of these foods can lead to anemia and permanent kidney damage. Contact your veterinarian if your dog eats any of these foods.