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Can French Bulldogs Eat Bananas? Is It Safe For Frenchies?

Can French Bulldogs Eat Bananas? Is It Safe For Frenchies?

While there are many fruits and vegetables that can be healthy for both people and pups to eat, bananas are arguably one of the best.

Bananas can even be soothing if your French Bulldog is suffering from any kind of stomach upset or gastrointestinal disturbance.

However, because bananas are high in sugar, you will want to moderate how much banana you offer your Frenchie in one sitting. This is important to make sure your dog takes in most of their daily calories from complete and balanced dog food.

Can French Bulldogs Eat Bananas?

The short answer to the question of whether French Bulldogs can eat bananas is a resounding "yes." French Bulldogs can benefit from the vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and dietary fiber that bananas have to offer. And as a whole fruit treat, bananas are free from additives, fillers, and processed ingredients that many commercial dogs treats often contain.

Watch a French Bulldog Eagerly Eat a Tasty Banana

There are plenty of cute videos that feature French Bulldogs chowing down on bananas but this owner-made YouTube video is one of the best.

In the video, you will notice the owner has properly prepared the banana for her Frenchie by removing the tough outer peel and dicing the banana into manageable chunks for safety.

Are Bananas Good for French Bulldogs?

As the American Kennel Club (AKC) highlights, bananas are actually very good for dogs when they are fed as a treat food and in proper moderation.

In other words, you don't want to over-feed bananas to your French Bulldog. But you can safely add bananas to your dog's regular rotation of different treat foods as long as your dog seems to tolerate them well.

There are two caveats to this general guidance. The first is if your French Bulldog is still a puppy (less than 12 months old).

Because the puppy digestive tract takes a year or more to mature and can be sensitive to sudden food changes or additions, your canine veterinarian may not want you to feed treat foods until your Frenchie reaches adulthood.

The second caveat is if you have a French Bulldog senior who is less active. Be sure to reduce the calories accordingly to keep your pup trim.

Are Bananas Healthy for French Bulldogs?

Bananas have a lot of benefits to offer to both you and your dog. In particular, as Michelson Found Animals charity explains, bananas offer each of these nutrients that can play an important part in your Frenchie's lifelong health and wellness.

Dietary fiber

Dietary fiber can be a particularly important part of a companion canine's diet. Insoluble dietary fiber is often called prebiotics. Prebiotics are like food for the healthy "good bacteria" or probiotics that break down food in your dog's stomach.

Adding more dietary fiber to your dog's diet can help regulate digestion and elimination.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that can fight cell oxidation (cell damage) and also boost immune system function and ward off illness, infection, and disease.

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6, or Pyridoxine, is known to be especially vital for cardiac health, brain function, and helps maintain muscles, fur, skin, teeth, nails, and other structures.

Potassium

Potassium is one of the most important electrolytes your dog needs to maintain proper fluid levels, heart function, and blood pressure.

Potassium is also important to help the bones retain calcium throughout life.

Manganese

Manganese is an important trace mineral your French Bulldog needs to help regulate the growth of both bone and cartilage.

Manganese is also important to help regulate the production of hormones from the thyroid gland.

Magnesium

Magnesium is a major building block for your dog's muscles and for healthy bone maintenance and growth.

Folate

Folate can be especially important when your French Bulldog is still a puppy and also if you decide to breed your French Bulldog female.

Biotin

Biotin is very important to help keep your dog's skin and coat healthy. Biotin is also known to keep nails strong, support energy levels and overall mood, support brain and liver health and benefit the overall nervous system.

Copper

Copper is an important trace mineral that absorbs iron. Your dog needs to be able to absorb sufficient quantities of iron to resist anemia.

Are There Any Risks of Feeding Bananas to French Bulldogs?

This is a particularly smart question to answer whenever you are dealing with a fruit that comes in its own handy packaging.

Risk: banana peel and stem

In the case of bananas, that packaging is the dense, thick, and tough outer peel and the stem that connects a bunch of bananas to the tree.

Even large and giant breed dogs with massive jaws should not eat the banana peel and stems, as these are incredibly difficult for the canine digestive system to break down and digest.

In smaller breed dogs and dogs with short muzzles like the French Bulldog, the risks are even greater for choking or internal impaction as well as gastrointestinal issues.

As you likely noticed in the YouTube video you watched here earlier, the French Bulldog was eating a plain banana that had been peeled and cut up into bite-sized rounds.

This is the only safe way to feed banana to your Frenchie. You should also always observe your dog while they are eating their banana treats just in case anything goes wrong.

Risk: banana portion control

As Preventative Vet points out, the vast majority of your French Bulldog's daily caloric intake should be coming from a whole and complete small breed puppy, adult dog, or senior dog food.

Only about 10 percent of your dog's daily calories should be coming from treat foods.

Bananas have almost no water and are very dense. They have a relatively high percentage of starches and sugars compared to many other fruits like melons, which are high in water

So bananas can pack in some calories even in small portions.

As an example, according to Healthline, a medium-sized whole banana contains about 105 calories.

Because the French Bulldog is a small breed dog that typically weighs less than 30 pounds in adulthood, you will definitely want to pay close attention to the portion size you offer your dog as well as the frequency of offering banana in the treat rotation.

Healthline offers some additional guidance for managing your Frenchie's banana intake:

  • 1 cup of sliced bananas (like what you saw in the YouTube video): 134 calories.
  • 1 cup mashed bananas (a great choice for puppies or senior Frenchies): 200 calories.
  • Banana (less than six inches long): 72 calories.
  • Banana (7 inches long): 90 calories.
  • Banana (8 inches long): 105 calories.
  • Banana (9 inches long): 121 calories.
  • Banana (10+ inches long): 135+ calories.

So here you can see how your dog could take in quite a lot of calories from just a single banana if you aren't carefully watching. Since French Bulldogs are prone to weight gain as it is, always aim for moderation in serving size.

Here is an example just to give you something to benchmark off of:

Let's say your French Bulldog is eating 500 calories per day in total. This means that no more than 50 calories, or 10 percent of the total daily calorie allotment, should be coming from treat foods like bananas.

This would mean that even one very small banana would be too caloric to feed the whole. Rather, you might want to dice up the banana and feed half of it and save the other half for later.

How to Feed Bananas to French Bulldogs?

The best way to feed bananas to your French Bulldog is always to proceed with caution the very first time you offer this treat food.

As Dr. Kraemer's Vet4Bulldog Rescue explains, French Bulldogs can have food allergies.

While bananas are not typically considered to be a triggering fruit for Frenchie food allergies, the only way to know for sure is to give them a test.

Start by feeding your French Bulldog a single banana round – no stem, no peel, just the plain fruit. Wait 24 to 48 hours and just make sure you don't see any signs of your dog experiencing any allergic reaction or gastrointestinal issues.

Things to watch for include skin itching, licking paws or scratching at ears, scratching or biting at paws or skin, panting, elimination issues like vomiting or diarrhea/constipation, stomach upset, or other signs of discomfort.

Sometimes dogs will do just great with very small portions of bananas but have some stomach upset with larger portions because of the sugar and starch content, as Dogs Naturally Magazine explains.

If this happens, just cut back on the portion size and see if the issues resolve on their own.

If 48 hours pass by and you don't see anything to worry you, then you can offer another banana round. Wait 48 more hours.

If your French Bulldog still seems to be tolerating banana just fine, you can go ahead and add banana to your dog's regular treat rotation.

Good Ideas for How to Feed Bananas to French Bulldogs

Of course, you already know that feeding bananas peeled and sectioned into rounds are one of the best ways to offer bananas to your French Bulldog.

Because, as you learned in an earlier section here, bananas can be a particularly high-calorie treat food, they are best served in moderation and certainly no more than once per week or so.

Yet bananas are full of beneficial nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and beneficial dietary fiber, so you don't want to leave them out of your French Bulldog's diet just because they happen to be kind of caloric.

One great way to cut the portion size of the bananas you feed is to combine them with other treat foods in canine recipes. Here are some fun ideas for ways to combine bananas with other beneficial foods at treat time.

Cinnamon Banana Chips

This fun recipe from Snoot and Toebeans features just three ingredients: bananas sliced thinly, Ceylon cinnamon, and a splash of orange juice.

Just slice the banana very thin, coat each slice in the orange juice, and lay them on parchment paper. Sprinkle the tops with the cinnamon and bake at 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

It may take three to four hours of baking so be sure to set a timer and flip the chips mid-way through.

Let them cool for a bit after they finish baking and then you can let your Frenchie sample the chips.

Banana chips offer a great crunch that will keep your pup busy for longer but reduce the caloric intake considerably.

Frozen Banana Yogurt Cubes

Blend up one-half banana with some nonfat Greek yogurt and a splash of water or coconut or nut milk. Pour the mixture into an ice cube tray and freeze.

Pop-out a cube at treat time and give your dog a healthy mix of beneficial prebiotics and probiotics all in one low-calorie serving.

Oat Banana and Peanut Butter Treats

This is another simple three-ingredient recipe courtesy of Flora & Vino.

You need one banana, rolled gluten-free oats or oat flour (you pick), and some xylitol-free (VERY important!) plain peanut butter or other nut butter of your choice.

Just add the three ingredients together in a 1:1:0.5 ratio, adjusting to add a little more nut butter if the batter is too dry.

Then roll the dough out and either uses cookie cutters or make small balls and flatten them with a spoon. You can bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes and cool for 15 minutes, then serve.

Armed with these tasty banana treat ideas, you will have lots of fun ways to serve bananas to your French Bulldog.