Fascinating Feeding Facts Explained: Can Dogs Eat Jicama?

Jicama is a healthy vegetable with so many nutritional values and benefits for both dogs and humans and every animal low in calories.

Rich in antioxidants and other vitamins and minerals, jicama is a healthy dog food to include in a balanced diet. The benefits of this great potato substitute plant include it reduces the risk of cardiovascular problems, keep our bones healthy, strengthens our immune system, helps you and your dog in weight loss, helps in digestion, good for the brain and body, regulates blood pressure, improves blood circulation, and helps in the formation of good bacteria in the body.

The vegetable jicama is known differently over various places. You might have heard various names for the vegetable jicama like Mexican turnip, Mexican yam, or even a Mexican potato. The tuber comes from the Pachyrhizus erosus family and is also known by the name yam bean. The vine that is leguminous of the pea family of Fabaceae is what is grown to eat as food. The local crop tuber is grown in the regions for it is sweet and starchy root flavor, which could be quite resembling an apple and a water chestnut. After reading about the potential health benefits of this root vegetable for the digestive system of your dog, do check here on Kidadl, do dogs taste spice and can dogs sense pregnancy?

Can dogs eat raw jicama?

Mostly the vegetable jicama plays a role in salads and such dishes as our food. Sometimes you could even cook jicama and eat it like tapioca. Even though some people eat young seedpods of the jicama plant, the mature seeds, skin, stem, and leaves are highly toxic and are used in insecticides due to a chemical named ketone in it.

Therefore, even we humans eat only the flesh of the jicama and not the poisonous leaves, skin, seeds, or stems. Jicama can be eaten raw or cooked after proper washing. Raw jicama can be seen used in a lot of salad variety foods as it is rich in fiber, especially prebiotic fiber. So, many pet parents want to know that can dogs eat jicama? One of the things to note is, you need to peel off the tough dark-light brownish colored skin of the plant to consume, as the skin is poisonous and toxic. The white inner root tuber flesh is the part of the vegetable that is edible or can be consumed. A dog can eat jicama as raw or cooked. But you need to make sure that they are given the edible root tuber parts of jicama plant only.  In the below sections, you can see how feeding different parts of the plant have different effects on the health of dogs.

How to prepare jicama for dogs?

Introducing new and healthy foods to your pets that are rich in minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants and especially your dogs is a good way to keep them healthy and fit. Jicama is one such good option for you and your pet to change into health benefits eating foodstyle. But if you find anything unusual in your dogs after eating cooked or raw jicama, consult a vet or a veterinary doctor.

Dogs can have fresh jicama roots to eat as food. And it is totally safe to give the fresh jicama washed for them to eat. You can either serve them fresh or raw or can even cook it a little bit or fry it in your pan after peeling off the skin. The same that you do with potatoes, you can make with jicama. The only difference is that potato skin isn't poisonous, but jicama is toxic to dogs. Also if you are planning to give your furry friend a part of your jicama food or salad, try not to give them jicama with more heavy spices and salt on it. Also, avoid giving garlic or onions to your dog to eat. You can prepare jicama for dogs to eat like peeling off the skin and washing it and cutting it into a small number of sticks for them to eat. Also, you can cut them into even small pieces and add or mix them with their food. With a lot of nutritional benefits, the root tuber vegetable, jicama, is a portion of healthy food.

Can dogs eat jicama leaves?

We have just now realized that it is totally safe for your dogs to eat the root of the jicama plant. Well, what we are seeing here is what will be the effect of other parts of the plant on dogs, if it eats them. The roots are what is considered to be the only edible part of the plant till now.

So the answer to all the other questions, like can your dog eat jicama leaves, or can your pet eat other jicama plant parts without any possible risk is the same. That is, it is toxic for both dogs and humans, and other animals as well. Never allow your dogs to get their mouth near any other parts of the jicama plant other than the peeled tuber root that you give your dog yourself to eat.

Jicama leaves are poisonous and can make your dog sick. Well, no other part of the plant is good to consume for any animal. The plant's only safe edible part is the root bulb. The root bulb can only be consumed after peeling off the skin, as the skin could also be having the toxic substances of the plant. Talking about jicama sticks, it is none other than the slices of raw and fresh jicama tuber root bulb. Slicing the big bulb-like structure of the tuber into small sticks makes it easier for dogs to eat them. Also, you can cut them even smaller and add them into their dog foods and give them to eat. But the most important thing to note is to first peel the skin of the potato-like tuber. The chemical called rotenone, and pesticides in the skin of the tuber vegetable causes poisoning in you and your dog. Also, you can give your dog these healthy jicama sticks after giving it a slight roast or toast or saute. And make sure you use dog-safe spices only.

The Benefits Of Feeding Jicama To Dogs

Just like for humans, jicama is good for dogs as well. The vegetable jicama contains rich fiber and other micronutrients with fewer carbs or low in calories making it good for a dog. For humans and dogs, the high prebiotic fiber content in the vegetable helps to cure or solve the problem of constipation. Unlike junk foods, this healthy mineral-rich plant or root bulb is also good for the dog's heart and dog’s digestive system. The low calorie and high fiber content make your dog become free from diabetes or other health issues or problems. The high content of nutrients like potassium and vitamin c is good for your dog's immune system and immunity.

Apart from the richness in vitamins, fibers, minerals, vitamin c, potassium, and all, it is all present in the root bulb that is the only part of the plant that we and our dogs can consume. The other parts of the jicama plant, the seeds, skin, leaves, and stem are poisonous and toxic to dogs and humans, and other animals. Every other part except the root bulb is bad and dangerous for dogs if they consume it. So try to keep them away from your dogs.

The high fiber content makes it a good choice to use in your salads as healthy foods, which could cure and solve the problems related to constipation. Also, the nutrients and vitamins, and minerals like potassium, iron, and vitamin c, make this root vegetable beneficial for the health of your dog. Also unlike junk dog food, the healthy tuber does not increase the dog’s blood sugar level and causes diabetics and cancer. So it not only becomes a great choice of dog food to avoid overweight and obesity but also to avoid getting diabetics for your dog.

Precautions To Take When Feeding Jicama To Your Dog

On the opposite side of the good face, the jicama plant has a toxic part as well. Only the root bulb or the tuber is safe to eat or is edible. The other parts of the plants like the leaves, the stem, vines, flowers, and even the skin contains toxic chemicals or substances called rotenone. The toxins are poisonous and are sometimes used to make pesticides.

If your dog ever tastes any other part of the jicama plant other than the edible fleshy root bulbs or portions, take your dog to a veterinarian or a veterinary doctor for medical care immediately as there can be hard side effects and symptoms for the toxins on the dog's body. The toxins like rotenone can cause a barrier in the blood-brain and cell membranes and can form free radicals that may damage your dog's DNA, fatty acids, and other important components of the mitochondria of the cells. So always make sure and take precautions before giving your dog jicama to eat. You should make sure that you remove all the toxic poisonous parts of the plant like the stem, seed buds, leaves, even skin before giving your dog jicama root to eat. While small amount of jicama plant will be beneficial for your dog, if you see any adverse reactions, consult a vet immediately.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for can dogs eat jicama then why not take a look at can dogs have Zyrtec or Icelandic Sheepdog Facts.