Can dogs eat Oreos?

Why Oreos are not a treat for dogs

Dogs should not eat Oreos, and the reason is in the wafer: the dark wafers are the chocolate. They are made with cocoa, and cocoa is where theobromine and caffeine come from. USDA FoodData Central's generic record for chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling (entry 172718) lists about 22.1 milligrams of theobromine and 0.6 milligrams of caffeine in one 12 gram Oreo-style cookie. The official Oreo label lists 3 cookies as 34 grams, about 11.3 grams each. Merck gives theobromine a half-life of about 17.5 hours in dogs, so cookies eaten across an afternoon add up.

The chocolate is only part of the problem. The rest of the cookie is made for people, too:

• Sugar: flour and sugar are the first two ingredients on the US Oreo ingredient list, and a rich snack can bring on vomiting and diarrhea even below the chocolate thresholds.
• Fat: the same list names palm oil and soybean and/or canola oil next. A dog that licks out only the white creme, the Oreo cream or icing, still gets wafer crumbs, and the Merck Veterinary Manual notes that the high fat content of chocolate products may trigger pancreatitis in susceptible animals.
• Packaging: dogs that raid a pack often chew the plastic tray or wrapper. That is a separate problem from the chocolate and can lead to an intestinal blockage, so tell your vet whether any of the tray, sleeve or wrapper is missing, even if the cookie count seems small.

So can dogs eat Oreos as a treat? No: there is no Oreo that is good or safe for dogs, so if you want a cookie to share, choose dog cookies made for dogs. For chocolate in general, see can dogs eat chocolate.

What to do if your dog ate Oreos

What happens if a dog eats Oreos depends on the count and your dog's size, so start with the call. Call your vet, an emergency clinic, the Pet Poison Helpline at 855-764-7661 or ASPCA Animal Poison Control at 888-426-4435 now; consultation fees may apply. A small dog or puppy needs that call just as much as a large dog. While you talk:

• Move your dog away from the package and pick up any cookies, crumbs, wrapper and tray that are left.
• Count what is missing. If you are not sure, use the largest number that could be gone.
• Give the flavor, the time your dog ate them and your dog's weight.
• If it helps, enter the count and your dog's weight in the calculator at the top of this page, which starts on the Oreo-style cookie, so you can describe the exposure clearly.
• Follow the instructions you are given.

Do not induce vomiting at home or give any home remedy; leave that decision to your veterinarian. If your dog is vomiting again and again, trembling, panting hard, very restless or collapses, go to the nearest emergency vet now and call ahead on the way. For the first-hour steps after any kind of chocolate, see what to do when a dog ate chocolate.

What to tell your vet, and what care can cost

Gather these while you talk; the vet or poison specialist will turn your answers into a dose:

• Your dog's weight, age and health history, especially heart disease or past pancreatitis.
• How many cookies are missing, and from what: a sleeve, a family-size pack, a snack pack or a plate.
• The flavor and style: regular, Double Stuf, Thins, minis, mint, peanut butter, Golden, or fudge-covered and chocolate-dipped.
• Whether any of the wrapper or plastic tray is missing.
• When your dog ate them, and any signs so far.
• Whether your dog also got into other chocolate, candy or sugar-free products.

Your vet weighs the dose, the time since eating and your dog's health before deciding on care. A low dose reported early may be handled with advice by phone. A larger dose may mean a clinic visit, where treatment can include decontamination, IV fluids and heart monitoring. Can a dog be saved after eating chocolate? Chocolate poisoning can be treated, and timing matters: VCA Animal Hospitals notes that the sooner treatment begins, the better the prognosis and the less costly the treatment.

A policy bought now will not cover cookies your dog has already eaten, but it can cover future accidents and illness. Our pet insurance planner walks you through the options and lets you get a personalized Lemonade quote, and our guide to emergency vet costs explains what drives the size of a bill.

How many Oreos is too many for a dog?

How many Oreos can a dog eat before getting sick? Any number is too many to feed on purpose. The table below uses the same USDA generic-record value and Merck thresholds as the calculator: about 22.7 milligrams of theobromine and caffeine per Oreo-style cookie, with mild signs possible from about 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, heart effects from about 40 and seizures from about 60. These are not safe amounts, and some dogs react below them.

Since no number of Oreos is a treat, hand over something made for dogs at snack time instead. Small single-ingredient treats such as Vital Essentials freeze-dried beef nibs let you share the moment while the Oreos stay on your plate.

In practice:

• A 5 lb dog, such as a small toy breed or a young puppy: one cookie is already about halfway to the 20 milligrams per kilogram line. About 2 cookies reach it, 4 reach the heart-effect line and 6 reach the seizure line.
• A 10 lb dog: about 4, 8 and 12 cookies reach the three lines.
• A 30 lb dog: about 12, 24 and 36 cookies.
• A 50 lb dog: about 20, 40 and 60 cookies.

Single ingredient

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For a dog between rows, enter its exact weight in the calculator at the top of this page. Most raids happen while nobody is home, so keep cookie packs in a closed cabinet and wrappers in a lidded bin; strap locks such as MyPet Safety Paws Mischief Minder strap locks hold both shut.

My dog ate a sleeve or a family-size pack of Oreos

If your dog ate an entire box, sleeve or family-size pack, count from the label once you are on the call. The Nutrition Facts panel lists the serving size as a number of cookies and the servings per container; multiply the two, then subtract what is left, and use the largest number that could be missing. Crumbs or a piece of one Oreo still count. Minis and Thins are smaller, so give the vet the product and the grams gone; the USDA record uses 12 grams per cookie, and the Oreo label works out to about 11.3.

Then compare the total with your dog's row: for a 5 or 10 lb dog, a total past a dozen cookies is in the seizure range, and for a 30 lb dog, past two dozen is in the heart-effect range.

Double Stuf, mint, peanut butter, fudge-covered and Golden Oreos

Flavor changes the risk less than the count does. Start with the cookies that keep the chocolate wafer:

• Original and Double Stuf: Double Stuf uses the same kind of chocolate wafer, but USDA has no separate value for it, so count each as at least one Oreo-style cookie. The extra creme adds sugar and fat.
• Mint and peanut butter: these keep a chocolate wafer and change the creme. With no separate USDA value, count each as at least one cookie and tell your vet the flavor.

If peanut butter is what your dog really wants, use a spread made for dogs instead. A lickable treat such as Poochie Butter Peanut Butter Pumpkin, spread on a lick mat or inside a chew toy, keeps your dog busy without a cocoa wafer. Our guide to peanut butter for dogs covers the label checks.

Locks the pantry and the bin

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Fudge-covered, Golden and sugar-free cookies

These change the picture more, so read the package while you are on the call:

• Fudge-covered and chocolate-dipped: the whole cookie sits inside a chocolate coating. USDA FoodData Central lists slightly less theobromine per gram for chocolate-coated sandwich cookies than for regular ones, but each coated cookie is heavier and fattier, so count each as at least one cookie and say it was coated.
• White fudge-dipped: white chocolate has no cocoa solids, but the wafer inside is still chocolate. Our guide to white chocolate for dogs covers the coating.
• Golden, lemon and other vanilla Oreos: the wafer is vanilla, not cocoa, so the chocolate math mostly drops away. They are still not OK or safe as a treat, because of the sugar and fat, and some Golden varieties pair the vanilla wafer with chocolate creme, so check the package.
• Sugar-free and keto-style sandwich cookies: regular Oreos use sugar and high fructose corn syrup, but sugar-free cookies from any brand may contain xylitol (a sweetener found in some sugar-free gum), a separate and serious hazard; see xylitol and dogs.
• Oreo desserts: Oreo ice cream, milkshakes and cheesecake add dairy and sugar; see ice cream for dogs. Other chocolate cookies follow their own math, covered in dog ate chocolate chip cookies.

Xylitol-free

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How many Oreos can kill a dog?

Will Oreos hurt or kill a dog? Eating enough of them can be dangerous or even fatal, but there is no single poisonous number, because it depends on your dog's weight and health. The Merck Veterinary Manual reports that seizures can occur at 60 milligrams per kilogram or more, about 6 Oreo-style cookies for a 5 lb dog, 12 for a 10 lb dog and 60 for a 50 lb dog. Published LD50 figures were measured for theobromine and caffeine as individual agents, so they are not a lethal threshold for a cookie or for any one dog, and dogs vary, so call early. See how much chocolate can kill a dog for what the published figures do and do not mean and the chocolate toxicity calculator for other chocolate.

Signs to watch for after a dog eats Oreos

How long after a dog eats chocolate will it get sick? Signs usually start 2 to 12 hours after eating, according to Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Merck Veterinary Manual describes onset within 6 to 12 hours. After Oreos, the first signs often look like an upset stomach:

• Vomiting or diarrhea.
• Increased thirst and urination.
• Restlessness, pacing or panting.
• A bloated belly.

As the dose climbs, Merck lists hyperactivity, a racing or irregular heartbeat, wobbliness, tremors and seizures. Effects can last up to 72 hours in severe cases, so a dog that seems normal the evening of a cookie raid still needs a call. If any of these signs appear, go to an emergency vet now. Our guide to what happens when a dog eats chocolate walks through the full timeline, and the suspected poisoning checker helps you sort signs while you call.

Can cats eat Oreos? No: any chocolate a cat eats is a reason to call now, and our guide to chocolate and cats explains why.