Some dog owners are very unsure about lychees. The tropical fruit polarizes.
That is why you will hear again and again that it is poisonous under certain circumstances. Can your dog eat lychees, or should you avoid them?
Is lychee toxic to dogs?
Lychee has been known in Central Europe since the advent of typical Chinese restaurants. Here they are usually served as a compote or baked as a dessert. You can now get fresh lychee fruit in any well-stocked supermarket.
To eat lychee prunes, you must first peel the fruit. After that, you can eat the pulp. The core is not edible.
You can eat the fruit raw or cooked as a compote. The small sweet and sour fruits contain a large amount of vitamin C and are rich in magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus. They hardly have any calories.
Ripe lychees are safe
In any case, lychees must be ripe if you want to eat them. Unripe fruit contains hypoglycin A. This amino acid can cause hypoglycemia. A few years ago, this caused hundreds of child deaths in India.
However, this effect is only dangerous if you eat large amounts of lychees while at the same time suffering from malnutrition.
Dogs are allowed to eat lychees
The lychee is by no means poisonous, as some people claim. So your dog can eat them if he wants to. The fruit must be ripe. Like any other fruit, you should only feed the small fruits in small amounts.
Avoid canned lychees at all costs. The manufacturers put these in pure sugar water. This makes them unsuitable for your dog.
When buying lychees, you should make sure that the fruits are not too soft. The shell must be undamaged and should be free of stains and dents. Lychee prunes can easily be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Lychees as an exotic fruit from Asia
The lychee is the fruit of the lychee tree, which belongs to the soap tree family. Their original home is not known. However, it is believed that lychee comes from the subtropical parts of China, Vietnam, and Malaysia.