Drinking tea with high caffeine content is harmful for your dogs’ health. But, if you share caffeine-free tea with him, occasional consumption of tea may not cause serious short-term or long-term problems to your pet and improve the quality of his life by preserving his health.
Why drinking too much tea is harmful to your dog?
Beyond the boundaries of origin, black tea has become one of the most popular beverages all around the world. People love to taste two or three cups every day because they love the refreshing and relaxing feelings coming after they drink tea.
Even though human beings get benefited from black tea, most pet owners are still reluctant to share tea with their beloved pet because they are aware of its bad constituents and their harmful effects listed as below.
To enhance the flavor and produce unique brown color, tea leaves undergo an oxidation process in black tea production. It results in an increase in caffeine and the reduction of beneficial active constituents of tea called catechin. Caffeine in the tea cause allergic reactions and even leads to detrimental effects in small-sized dogs.
Generally, milk powder is mixed with tea to give extra flavor. As milk contain a large amount of fats and sugar, feeding your pet with excess milk contributes the development of pancreatitis, loose stool and obesity. Even drinking small quantities cause pain in the abdomen and gas in lactose-intolerant dogs. Sugar is added to give sweetness to tea. Similar to people, dogs also can addict to sugary drinks. The regular intake of tea with sugar stimulates tooth decay, diabetes, and overweight problems in dogs. Therefore, regular consumption of tea as the staple drink or treat is bad for the health of your companion.
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Can dogs drink green tea? Green tea for dogs
Tea is not an essential part of your dog’s daily diet. Mineral water is the only fluid that needs dogs to keep their body fully hydrated and helps to cool down your pet body during the summer season.
Dogs also don’t like to replace their incredible drink with any other mankind beverage
Another recent trend that has emerged from the dog food and beverage industry is herbal drinks. The caffeine-free herbal drinks like peppermint and chamomile are promoted for easy digestion in canines.
Caffeine content is still high in green tea and be ranging from 30mg to 50mg in a cup of 230mL. So, daily intake of green tea in large quantities can be harmful to the health of dogs.
Due to its antioxidant properties, anti-cancer properties, anti-Flammarion properties, and potential of fat burning and lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases, green tea has become one of the most popular herbal drinks in the world.
Both black tea and green tea are produced from the shoots of the same tropical evergreen plant called Camellia sinensis. The main difference between black tea and green tea is that the tea leaves undergo zero or minimum oxidation in the production of green tea. As a result, green tea receive lighter color than black tea.
The benefits of green tea for your dog
The inclusion of a small portion of green tea into your beloved friend’s daily diet can be beneficial for boosting his health and preventing serious illnesses. Since green tea production involves a low level of oxidation, the high content of catechins in tea leaves is still preserved in green tea.
Anti-cancer fighter
Free radicals that are formed in the body due to various chemical reactions are highly reactive and stimulate the development of cancer cells by damaging cell DNA. Catechins in green tea equip with antioxidant properties that avoid mutations in DNA by inhibiting the action of free radicles. Thereby green tees reduce the development of malignant tumors in the canines’ bodies.
According to a scientific study, a middle-aged Labrador suffering from lymphoma was unable to respond into antibiotics and other treatments. But, after ingestion of green in several times caused the swollen lymph nodes to reduce into their normal size.
Medical studies in humans have proved that green tea has the power to reduce the occurrence of certain cancers including breast and intestinal cancers. So that, researchers believe that green tea gives similar cancer-fighting properties on dogs.
Boosting immunity
Empowering the immunity system of dogs improves defense against infectious diseases. Consequently, it improves the quality of your loving dogs and reduces the pressure as dog owner because it reduces the costs associated with veterinarians and drugs.
Anti-inflammation properties
Constituents in green tea help to reduce the inflammation in the digestive tract, especially liver. It works as an excellent remedy for dogs undergoing hepatitis or enteritis.
Fat burning properties
Green tea has been added an antioxidant agent in pet foods for many years. But, recent research interest is focused on exploring the weight reduction capabilities of green tea. It has been found that ingestion of green tea with an empty stomach causes adverse toxic effects on dogs and hinders the useful properties of green tea. So, it is advised to feed the dogs with green tea after their meal or extremely small quantity is prescribed.
Epigallocatechin gallate (ECCG) and many other in Catechins green tea promote weight loss by increasing the metabolic rate in the body. Thereby it reduces gradually fat storage in body tissues and blood vessels in your pet body. It results in lower the blood pressure and reduces the risk for the heart attacks.
Products of green tea
Green tea is available for dogs in various forms. Pet owners can share small dosage of their green tea with dogs. But, it is important to give decaffeinated green tea for dogs to prevent toxic effects. When purchasing feeds for your canine friend, products that have listed green tea extract as an ingredient in labels can be chosen. Manufacturers has issued chewable tablets of green tea into the markets.
How to make green tea for your dog
Add 1L cold water into a glass jar. Mix one tablespoon of finely powdered green tea leaves to the water or simply put one bag of green tea. The use of cold water is not necessary if you use decaffeinated green tea because green tea with high caffeine tend to release more of it when the green leaves boil in hot water.
Remain it for around 10 to 15 minutes.
If tea bag is used, remove it from the solution.
This solution remain in fresh condition for at least three days if the sealed solution is placed in the refrigerator.
The dosage and frequency of feeding green tea vary with the body size of the dogs. It is recommended that 1/8 of a green tea cup should be given with meals twice a day for small dogs. Half of cup should be added to medium-sized dogs’ meals twice a day. In the case of large dogs, one cup should be mixed into feeds twice a day.
