Oranges

[Donna K & Quincy]

My doodle loves oranges although I thought dogs didn't like citrus. Is it ok to give him a little every now and then?

[Adina P]

I tried a long explanation about 2 hours ago and then my computer got heartburn. So here I try again.

Stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) is much more acidic than any food a person would ever eat. Acidity is rated on a pH scale where 7 is neutral and anything higher is basic and anything lower is acidic. But the difference between whole numbers on this scale is orders of magnitude. So a 6 is not just a bit more acidic than a 7, it is 10x more acidic than a 7. And so on.

Oranges range between somewhere in the 3's to somewhere in the 4's (I had to look this up). Whereas stomach acid is about a 2. Hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) is highly corrosive and even used for pickling steel (getting rust off, etc). It is powerful stuff.

So how come hydrochloric acid doesn't eat up the stomach entirely? That's because of the mucous lining that coats the stomach. As you may know...even some powerful industrial acids that will burn through concrete and metal won't harm certain plastics--otherwise you'd never contain them in anything. So there are things stomach acids don't hurt...like stomachs. Except in the case of ulcers, etc.

That said, oranges and lemons, etc...can be bad for tooth enamel if one eats a lot of them. I knew someone who loved to suck on lemons and those lemons did damage her teeth to some degree.

Okay...then why do people with acid reflux claim that they can't eat oranges? I honestly don't know. The literature (that I learned in nutrition school) never supported the idea that oranges contribute to reflux. But they do seem to irritate the esophagus of those people who have a lot of reflux. And like many other foods, they do stimulate secretion of stomach acid. Protein lowers the esophageal sphincter pressure and so does mint. Highly fatty foods also exacerbate reflux. But we're not talking about dogs with reflux.

Heck eat too many oranges and YOU'LL end up with diarrhea...and it's not due to acidity.

But all this doesn't tell us whether DOGS should eat oranges. I'd say unless there is some toxicity information about oranges for dogs, small quantities would probably be fine. But I don't know dogs GI tracts very well.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thanks, Adina.
I was one of those kids who liked to suck on lemons, and my father the doctor used to go ballistic when he saw me do it, for the very reason you mentioned. Fortunately, my teeth survived in very good condition.
But somewhere in the universe, my dad is nodding his head and saying, "See, I told you so!"

[Lorraine Bromley]

I had an orange outside last summer and as part introducing him to stuff I let him smell the rind. He took it and carried that thing around for days maybe weeks. He would get it out and take it to Jazzy to smell and she wouldn't want anything to do with it. Then he would take it and bury it in his special hole in the sand that he kept his treasures. He would take it out all the time and put it back in his hole after he was done. It was unrecognizable as an orange rind anymore.