Fruits are packed with vitamins and light on calories, which makes them a great go-to snack for your miniature schnauzer! Dogs cannot safely eat all types of fruit, though, so it’s important to be selective about the fruit that you share with your pup.
Some of the healthiest fruits that you can incorporate into your miniature schnauzer’s diet include apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mango, and pears.
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The 5 Key Benefits Of Fruit For Your Miniature Schnauzer
Adding fruit to your miniature schnauzer’s diet has some great benefits when done correctly.
- Fruit can help your pup to lose excess weight when substituted for calorie-dense commercial dog treats!
- Fruits are packed with vitamins that are just as good for your pup as they are for you!
- Fruits are also a great way to add new and interesting taste elements to your dog’s diet.
- Substituting organic fruit for commercial dog treats cuts down the number of chemicals and artificial ingredients that your dog is eating daily!
- Fruit will help to keep your pup at a healthy weight which will also keep joints from getting achy and sore.
Can Mini Schnauzers Eat Apples? How To Serve Apples To Them
Apples are rich in fiber, vitamin A and vitamin C, and they make a nice crunchy treat for your dog! Just be sure to cut out the core, as pips can contain small amounts of cyanide.
Cutting an apple into small cubes is a great way to create healthy treats! You can also use small diced pieces of apple in interactive toys like the Kong – just be sure to run it through the dishwasher once you’re finished!
Try to limit your pup to a slice or two of apple a day and avoid tart apples like Granny Smith’s and opt instead for something sweeter like the Fuji apple.
Feeding Your Schnauzer Bananas
Bananas are loaded with fiber, biotin, potassium, and copper, making them a great treat for your pup! Keep in mind, though, that this is a very sweet fruit, so do not overfeed banana!
Slice a banana into thin pieces and dry them for some crunchy healthy snacks! This is also a great way to introduce dogs to bananas when they have an aversion to the slippery feel of ripe bananas in their mouth.
A slice or two of banana is enough for your pup, which is why it’s best to dehydrate (or bake) banana chips so that the rest of the banana will keep.
Mini Schnauzers And Strawberries
Strawberries are rich in vitamin C and fiber, but they are another sweet treat, so keep strawberry treats to a minimum with just a strawberry or two!
When you give your dog strawberries, it helps to use your dehydrator again to prevent strawberry pieces from staining the carpet! If you prefer to feed regular strawberries, though, cut each berry into smaller pieces to make them more manageable.
Strawberries can give some dogs diarrhea because of their sugar content. If your pup gets diarrhea after eating strawberries try cutting up some cucumber into small pieces instead!
Can Schnauzers Eat Blueberries?
Blueberries are a great superfood to incorporate into your dog’s diet! These small fruits are anti-oxidant rich and contain vitamin C.
Blueberries make the perfect treat for dogs because they are already treat-sized without needing any special preparation and you can keep an open berry punnet in your fridge all the time!
Wash blueberries thoroughly before feeding them to your dog. While washing, feel for berries that are soft but not too soft. Avoid all hard berries as they will be tart and can cause diarrhea. Your dog also won’t enjoy the sharpness of not-yet-ripened berries!
Don’t get carried away giving your pup blueberries just because they are such a small fruit! Limit your dog to one or two for each treat replacement.
Can Schnauzers Eat Mango? Yes!
Ripe mango makes a great summertime treat that’s tasty and packed with a variety of vitamins including beta carotene, potassium, alpha-carotene, vitamin A, B6, C, and E!
ALWAYS completely remove the pit of the fruit before letting your dog anywhere near mango! Mango pits can cause serious obstructions in the digestive tract!
Mango is another fruit that makes great treats when dried! Mango is also delicious when sliced and given to your dog as a fresh treat!
This is a fruit that is high in sugars so limit mango to one or two slices a day and be sure that the fruit is ripe to avoid leaving a bitter taste in your dog’s mouth!
Pears For Your Miniature Schnauzer?
Pears are a good source of vitamin C, copper, fiber, and vitamin K., but always remove the inner pips (seeds) because they contain trace amounts of cyanide.
Pear is best when cut into small cubes and given to your pup as a fresh treat. Just try to avoid the pears that are overly ripe because the texture can put off some pickier eaters!
Avoid feeding your dog canned pears. Canned pears lack many of the healthy vitamins found in fresh pears and often include sugary syrups and artificial preservatives that can increase the chances of obesity and lead to dental decay!
Never Feed Your Dog Grapes!
There are many dog-safe fruits out there, but there are also some particularly dangerous ones.
One of the most dangerous fruits for all dogs is grapes. Unfortunately, many pet parents (including our family when I was growing up) toss a grape or two their pup’s way while snacking, but these small sweet treats can cause major problems!
Veterinarians aren’t quite sure what it is in grapes or raisins that causes them to be so toxic to dogs, but they do know that both fruits are toxic and potentially deadly. Grapes (or raisins) can cause sudden kidney failure in dogs, and in smaller or less healthy dogs, only a small amount can cause significant problems.
Three other fruits you should never give your miniature schnauzer include:
- Avocado
- Cherries
- Raisins
5 Great Methods To Add Fruit To Your Miniature Schnauzer’s Diet
While you do want to encourage healthy snacking habits in your miniature schnauzer, you don’t want to instill bad habits, so avoid giving your pup fruit after begging. Reinforcing begging behavior will only encourage it and eventually, this can become a real problem for everyone in your home.
There are various methods of incorporating fruit into your miniature schnauzer’s diet, however:
1. Fruit As Treats
The easiest method of introducing fruit into your dog’s diet is to use small pieces of fruit as a substitute for treats. This may sound tricky, but you can keep small baggies of fruit in the refrigerator, you can give your dog frozen fruit pieces, or you can use dehydrated fruit!
Whenever you might normally give your pup a treat – for example, at bedtime – give them a piece of fruit instead!
2. Fruit As Rewards
Fruit is also a great option for saying “job well done!” The next time you go through a training session with your pup, once they’re finished, try rewarding them with some fruit pieces!
3. Fruit For Hydration
Fruit doesn’t just serve as a snack, it can also be a good way to rehydrate on hot days! Freeze some small pieces of fruit in ice cube trays and offer them as a snack when the mercury is on the rise! You can even create large ice “toys” by freezing fruit in a bowl of water so that your dog can lick their way through the ice to get to the snacks!
4. Use Fruit As A Meal Topper Or Mix-In
If your dog isn’t so keen on trying something new, try adding some smaller pieces of fruit like blueberries to their meals.
5. Add Fruit In Organic Natural Yogurt
Another way to add fruit to your mini schnauzer’s diet is to mix some smaller pieces of fruit into a tablespoon or two of plain organic yogurt. This helps to disguise the fruit, but it also introduces some great probiotics into your dog’s gut flora for healthier digestion!
Will Fruit Make My Miniature Schnauzer Sick? 3 Questions To Ask
If you feed your miniature schnauzer dog-safe fruits in moderation, you shouldn’t expect to see any signs of sickness or discomfort.
If you notice any signs of digestive upset after giving your dog fruit, you may have given them too much. Too much fruit can cause diarrhea. You may also have given your pup a fruit that just didn’t agree with them. Just like us, our dogs can have individual reactions to foods.
If you do notice any signs of digestive upset after giving your dog fruit, consider how much fruit you fed them.
- Did they eat enough to give them a stomach upset? If so, they could just be feeling uncomfortable.
- Do they have a sensitive tummy anyway? Dogs with sensitive stomachs don’t always get along with foods that aren’t on their “approved foods” list.
- Do they have the same reaction with different types of fruit? For example, if they have digestive upset after eating apple, does banana cause the same reaction? If so, fruit may not be a good option for your pup. If not, avoid the apple next time!
Always Pay Attention To Your Schnauzer’s Diet
As with any new addition to your dog’s diet, be mindful of what you are feeding them and how much of it you are offering. Yes, even too much fruit can be a bad thing!