Can Dogs Eat Candy Canes? Why We Skip Them and What to Do

People ask us can dogs eat candy canes every December, and our answer is skip it. A candy cane is hard sugar with peppermint flavor, usually in a plastic sleeve, and we cannot think of a form of it that suits a dog.

This page covers why we skip them and what to do if your dog got one anyway. It also covers the sugar free kind and the canes that hang on the tree at nose height, and it ends with what to hand over instead.

Can dogs eat candy canes, even a lick

A candy cane is sugar boiled until it sets hard, then pulled into a rope with red and white stripes and bent into a hook. The flavor is peppermint oil. The stripe is food coloring. That is close to the whole list, and none of it is food for a dog.

The hardness matters as much as the sugar. A person lets a cane dissolve. A dog tends to crunch it, and a crunched cane breaks into hard pieces with sharp edges, the same as any hard candy. Those pieces are small enough to swallow and sharp enough that we would not want them going down.

So the verdict is skip it. Keep the cane on your plate, or better, out of reach.

The wrapper is the part that sends people to the phone

Most canes come in a clear plastic sleeve. A dog that grabs a cane usually grabs the sleeve along with it, and a wrapper swallowed whole is plastic in a place plastic does not belong.

If you find the cane whole and the sleeve torn open on the floor, you know where you stand. If the sleeve is missing and you cannot find it, that is the detail to remember. We come back to it in the section on what to do.

Sugar free canes

Some candy canes are sold sugar free, and the ingredient list is where to look. Some sugar free candy is sweetened with xylitol, so read the label before you decide anything. ASPCA Animal Poison Control writes in its list of people foods to avoid: "Xylitol can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and potentially liver damage." Their full page is here.

A regular cane is reason enough to skip it. A sugar free one with xylitol on the label is the case where you stop reading and make the call.

Canes on the tree

Most canes end up hooked over a branch, and the low branches sit right at nose height for a dog. A cane on a high branch is a decoration. A cane on a low branch is within reach of anything with a mouth. Hang the real ones up high.

Canes also turn up crushed on top of peppermint bark, cocoa and cookies, and those usually come with chocolate. Our chocolate guide covers that side of the table.

If your dog got one

Take away whatever is left and look at what you have. Is the cane whole, is the wrapper there, and was the cane sugar free? That is the order we would check, and it is the order to say it in if you do call.

If the wrapper went down, or the cane was sugar free, call your veterinarian and read them the label. Either way, take the rest of the candy out of reach and keep an eye on your dog for the rest of the day. Keep the empty sleeve or the box so you can read the ingredients to whoever answers.

What to hand over instead

Christmas dinner is when a dog parks next to the table, and a few pieces of something that belongs to the dog gives the hovering a purpose. We make Freeze-Dried Cheddar Cheese Dog Treats in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The only ingredient is cheddar cheese, and it comes in one 8 ounce bag.

The pieces are small, and freeze-drying makes the cheese crunchy and non-greasy rather than soft. We score the crunch 4 of 5. It needs no refrigeration once dried, so a handful rides in a pocket or a treat pouch without leaving a mark. Two things to know. It contains dairy, so it is not suited to dogs with dairy sensitivities. And it is rich at about 153.7 kcal per ounce, so hand out small pieces: a few for a small dog, a few more for a large one, counted as part of the day's treats. The label reads: "Feed as a treat or reward. Not a complete diet. Provide fresh water and supervise while snacking."

Our Christmas dog treats collection has more to choose from. For what is actually on the dinner table, we wrote a separate guide to Christmas foods dogs can eat.

Candy cane questions

Is one lick of a candy cane a problem?

A lick is not the same as a whole cane, but we still would not offer one. Run the same checks as above: whole or broken, wrapper, sugar free or not. If the answer to either of the last two is yes, make the call described in the section on what to do.

What about peppermints and starlight mints?

Same answer. A hard peppermint is sugar with peppermint flavor, and a crunched one breaks the same way a cane does. Check the label of anything sold as sugar free for xylitol, as above, and skip all of it.

My dog ate the wrapper. What now?

That is the detail we flagged in the section on what to do if your dog got one. Make that call and say the wrapper is missing. Have the cane's packaging in your hand so you can describe it.

Can I hang candy canes on the tree if I have a dog?

Hang them high. A low branch is at nose height for most dogs, and a cane is easy to pull off a hook. Anything you hang low is something a dog can pull down, so keep the low branches for ornaments that are not food.

Is a candy cane dog toy the same thing?

No. A toy shaped like a candy cane is a different object from the candy, and this page is about the candy. Check the toy's own listing for what it is made of and how it is meant to be used.

Does the freeze-dried cheddar need to stay cold?

No. Once dried it needs no refrigeration. Reseal the bag after opening and store it cool and dry.