The Best Dog Ice Cream for Canine Summer Fun
Due to its high sugar, fat, and dairy content as well as artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives, sharing your favorite summer treat with your furry friend is not recommended. If you find it hard to resist those puppy eyes while licking away at your cone, we’ve got the perfect dog-friendly alternative for you. The tastiest dog ice cream in 2024 will have your pet licking away at his own treat allowing him to share in the fun without ingesting any harmful ingredients. It’s always important to check the ingredients when feeding your pet and start by giving them a small amount initially … that is if you can stop them from devouring it all and licking out the tub for every last delicious drop. Here are our top pet-approved dog ice creams.
Hoggin Dogs
Best Overall
We love Hoggin Dogs’ pet-friendly ice cream because the brand truly has your pup’s best interest in mind when it comes to healthy, dog-friendly food. With no sugar or sugar alternatives, your pet can enjoy deliciousness on summer days without any harmful ingredients. The pack contains four ice cream mixes in cheese, bacon, peanut, and banana flavor. With a year shelf-life, the powder mix can be kept at room temperature until you want to use it. Only once blended with water does it need to be frozen.
Puppy Scoops
Runner-Up
Puppy Scoops produces pet-approved lactose-free ice cream for dogs in five different flavors. The brand didn’t want your pup to miss out on chocolate deliciousness and therefore created a dog-friendly alternative. Carob is the next best option for dogs since the components in chocolate are harmful if ingested. Carob is completely safe for your pup, and it smells and tastes like chocolate. Other flavors include peanut butter, maple bacon, vanilla, and birthday cake. Simply mix the powder with water and freeze for 5 hours to prepare this delicious summertime dog treat.
Smart Scoops
Best Flavor
Smart Scoops has created a pet-friendly ice cream using goat milk. Although goat milk does contain lactose, the level is lower than that of cow milk making it much easier to digest. If your dog has severe lactose intolerance, this may however not be the best option. The ice cream ingredients include blueberry, beets, gelatin, and salt. We love the simplicity of the ingredients, that there is no added sugar, and reviewers’ pets highly approve too. To make the ice cream, blend the indicated quantity of ice cream powder with 2/3 cup of water until smooth. Pop it into the freezer for around 5 hours or until frozen and you’re good to go. The frozen treat will last up to 6 weeks in the freezer.
Frosty Paws
Best Value
Frost Paws come in a 4-pack of ready-to-eat treats. That means no mixing or waiting before your pup gets to dig in. Each cup constitutes a single serving which makes it easy to serve and keep track of how much you have left. The dog-friendly frozen treats are fortified with vitamins and minerals and contain high-quality protein making it a nutritious and delicious snack. It is free of artificial flavors, colors, dairy, and doesn’t contain any added sugar.
Best Dog Ice Cream Buying Guide
Everyone loves ice cream on a hot day, and that probably includes your best furry pal too. With dog ice cream now becoming more easily available, your pet can share in the fun in a safe and healthy way. With a range of pup-loving flavors available, there’s a whole new world of post-exercise treats to look forward to. Even if the ice cream or ice cream mix is labeled to be specifically formulated for dogs, there are still a few things you should check when choosing the best dog ice cream. Here’s what you need to know about what makes dog ice cream different and why it is preferred over dairy ice cream.
Reasons Why Dogs Shouldn’t Eat Dairy Ice Cream
If you’re wondering whether it really is that bad to give your dog regular dairy ice cream, we’re here to clear things up.
Obesity and diabetes
Just like humans, dogs can develop and suffer from obesity-related health issues and diabetes. Their bodies are smaller than ours, so they don’t require quite as much food, but they still need balanced and nutritious meals. Ice cream is high in both sugar and fat which makes it an unhealthy option. Heart disease, osteoarthritis, blood pressure irregularities, and skin allergies can all develop due to excessive consumption of high-fat, high-sugar foods.
Xylitol poisoning
You might be wondering whether your favorite sugar-free ice cream is not a better option to share with your pup. Unless it is specifically formulated for dogs with no alternative sweeteners, then, it may be an even worse option than regular ice cream. Xylitol is a sugar alternative used in sugar-free candy and desserts. It is, however, toxic to dogs. Giving your dog anything that contains xylitol can be very dangerous, so always make sure to check the label.
Lactose intolerance
Once puppies are weaned, their bodies reduce lactase production since they no longer need to break down milk proteins when they start eating solid foods. Their bodies are therefore not efficient at breaking down dairy products such as cow milk. Many adult dogs also have lactose intolerance.
Feeding dairy products to your dog when they’re unable to process lactose efficiently can result in mild to severe gastrointestinal problems. This may include vomiting, gas, loose stools, itchy skin, pain, rashes, and diarrhea. High-fat dairy products such as cream or ice cream can also lead to pancreatitis.
There are better alternatives to dairy ice cream for a dog treat. Choosing frozen treats that are natural and don’t contain sugar, sugar substitutes, dairy, or a high amount of fat are always a healthier and safer option.
Toxic flavors
Even if your dog seems ok with a little dairy, most ice-cream flavors can be harmful for them to eat. Some fruit-flavored sorbets that are dairy-free and don’t contain artificial additions, or xylitol, can occasionally be okay for your pup, but steer clear from chocolate, coffee, macadamia, and raisins. Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine. Both these components can be toxic to dogs.
What Is Dog Ice Cream?
Dog ice cream generally comes in a powdered form that needs to be mixed and frozen. There are also ready-to-eat frozen types but these pose a problem when shipping online orders to certain areas since they need to be kept at certain temperatures.
The powdered form generally lasts up to one year at room temperature. To make the ice cream you simply need to mix the powder with water and then freeze the blend for 5 hours. The frozen treat will last up to six weeks in the freezer.
Dog-Friendly Flavors
Vanilla is a safe flavor for dogs, but chocolate can cause severe problems. Carob is a great chocolate alternative since it is naturally safe for dogs and is free of caffeine, theobromine, and dairy. It smells and tastes a little like chocolate and although it is naturally sweet, the natural sugars don’t spike blood sugar as chocolate does. Other popular dog ice cream flavors include bacon, maple bacon, peanut, cheese, and banana.