Hi Dr. Becker, Just a note to let you know we celebrated the 10th birthday of our dog, Marcel! She wouldn’t have made it through the first year of her life without your good guidance (at Bourbonnais clinic) and organic recommendations for a healthy diet. Thank you!
My guess is that the term "birch sugar" is used to make it sound more "natural" as opposed to "xylitol" which sounds like a chemical. Both are sugar alcohols, not sugars crystalized from plant saps. Coconut sugar, like maple sugar, (and honey, when it crystalizes) are actual sugars. Not great for dogs, but not actually toxic - although they have negative health consequences over the long term.
A few years ago, a close friend who is a dental hygienist, proudly offered me her recipe for dog treats made with xylitol. She was accustomed to using it in tooth-cleaning protocols and seeing it in dental product ingredients, and naturally thought it would be better in homemade dog treats than sugar. When I told her about its toxicity to dogs, she was outraged because it is sold in health food stores in bags, like sugar, as a sugar "alternative." We both tried to get our local health food store to at least post warnings on the shelf about its dangers for dogs, but corporate headquarters refused. We did some "stealth" labeling on our own, but soon got caught. So we've published warnings in various popular places like FB and our websites. It's become pretty well known now, here. This new "birch sugar" should get the same exposure, wherever we can manage to put it out there. Now I always include a warning on the home-made recipes I share with my customers, and I'll add "birch sugar" to them, now.
And just as with us humans, dogs and cats develop a sweet tooth that increases as sweeteners increase in what they are fed. Home-made treat makers should avoid using sweeteners, and especially avoid sharing sweet treats with their pets. I used to take my dogs for the occasional ice cream at DQ. Not any more!
Thank you for this information, Dr. Becker. I had no idea about birch sugar. Will coconut sugar hurt dogs or cats? We use coconut sugar (I'm vegan; cane sugar (white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar) is not considered vegan due to the way it is processed), although I do not intentionally give coconut sugar to our animals!
If Xylitol is produced using Birch bark, how safe is it to use Sweet Birch odour for detecting in Scentwork .?
Hi Dr. Becker, Just a note to let you know we celebrated the 10th birthday of our dog, Marcel! She wouldn’t have made it through the first year of her life without your good guidance (at Bourbonnais clinic) and organic recommendations for a healthy diet. Thank you!
Lily Chelemengos
My guess is that the term "birch sugar" is used to make it sound more "natural" as opposed to "xylitol" which sounds like a chemical. Both are sugar alcohols, not sugars crystalized from plant saps. Coconut sugar, like maple sugar, (and honey, when it crystalizes) are actual sugars. Not great for dogs, but not actually toxic - although they have negative health consequences over the long term.
A few years ago, a close friend who is a dental hygienist, proudly offered me her recipe for dog treats made with xylitol. She was accustomed to using it in tooth-cleaning protocols and seeing it in dental product ingredients, and naturally thought it would be better in homemade dog treats than sugar. When I told her about its toxicity to dogs, she was outraged because it is sold in health food stores in bags, like sugar, as a sugar "alternative." We both tried to get our local health food store to at least post warnings on the shelf about its dangers for dogs, but corporate headquarters refused. We did some "stealth" labeling on our own, but soon got caught. So we've published warnings in various popular places like FB and our websites. It's become pretty well known now, here. This new "birch sugar" should get the same exposure, wherever we can manage to put it out there. Now I always include a warning on the home-made recipes I share with my customers, and I'll add "birch sugar" to them, now.
And just as with us humans, dogs and cats develop a sweet tooth that increases as sweeteners increase in what they are fed. Home-made treat makers should avoid using sweeteners, and especially avoid sharing sweet treats with their pets. I used to take my dogs for the occasional ice cream at DQ. Not any more!
Thank you for this information, Dr. Becker. I had no idea about birch sugar. Will coconut sugar hurt dogs or cats? We use coconut sugar (I'm vegan; cane sugar (white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar) is not considered vegan due to the way it is processed), although I do not intentionally give coconut sugar to our animals!