Plain pasta

Cooked pasta is flour, water and sometimes egg. Boiled plain, a small amount is safe for a dog. Safe is not the same as useful, though: pasta is a starch that duplicates the carbohydrate already in a complete diet and adds essentially nothing your dog is missing. Two steps in the cooking decide whether it stays harmless. The first is the salted water. Pasta for people is boiled in heavily salted water, so if you plan to share, boil the dog's portion separately with nothing in it. The second is the sauce, which is where the real risk lives. Marinara, alfredo, pesto and aglio e olio are all built on garlic and onion. Merck notes that Allium toxicosis in dogs is most commonly associated with concentrated forms such as dehydrated flakes, powders and dry soup mixes, and that garlic is three to five times more toxic than onion. Scraping the sauce off does not remove what soaked into the noodles. Cream sauces and mac and cheese add fat and lactose on top of that. Some dogs do not tolerate wheat. VCA lists wheat gluten among the most common food allergens in dogs. If pasta is followed by itchy skin, paws and ears or persistent soft stool, the answer is an 8-12 week elimination diet trial with your veterinarian rather than a different brand of noodles. Keep the portion inside the 10% of daily calories that treats and toppers should take up, which for a 20 lb dog is about a tablespoon of cooked pasta. Cut long strands short so they are easy to swallow. Do not hand over dry uncooked pasta: it is hard enough to risk a tooth, and a large amount swallowed dry absorbs water and swells in the stomach. Extra gas or a softer stool after a taste just means cutting the amount. If the pasta came with garlic or onion sauce, note how much and when, call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435, and watch over the next three to five days for lethargy, pale gums or red-brown urine. Do not induce vomiting at home.