No matter how clean people keep their houses, ants will somehow visit the houses without even an invitation or notice! More or less every household faces this problem which is undoubtedly very annoying. So, is ant in dog food safe to eat? And somehow, if they find a source of their food, nothing like it, right?
The whole group will attack together. An open bowl of pet food is a common scenario in most households. Pets always left little something in their bowls. While ants find their meal into dogs’ meal they turn into a part of dogs’ meal.
Some dogs do not like it when they see ants roaming into their meal bowls, but sometimes, they do not notice ants in their meal bowls and swallow them with the meal. Thus it became a significant concern to most of the owners. Now the question: Is it safe for dogs to eat ants with their food? What will happen if they swallow the ants? The answers are given below.
Is Ant In Dog Food Safe To Eat Or Harmful To Them?
If an ant finds the taste of the dog’s meal is good, it will go back to inform about the food to its whole family and friends. The ant group will come and find this as a store of their food. Where begins the trouble because nobody likes it. Ants become an added protein with vitamin C to dogs’ intake.
But that doesn’t mean that we need to let ants come or welcome them to visit our houses. They cause a nuisance to us, and their biting could be very irritating to both pets and owners, and who wants that kind of annoyance? Ants are a good source of protein with vitamins for any type of animal to intake. It can be a dog, cat, bird, or even human.
The black bear loves to eat ants, and it was suggested in a study of Oxford’s Journal of Mammalogy that some bear’s nutritional requirements are similar to dogs, so the answer is already revealed, right? Ants are into first primary sources of food for bears. Especially the ant eggs are mostly rich bunches of protein and fat.
But the red fire ants sometimes can be giving the worst toxicant bites. Keeping the dogs away from their bites is essential as it can cause significant irritation to our lovely paw friends.
How to Kill Ants in a Bag of Dog Food
Here are some tips on killing ants in a bag of dog food:
- Place the bag of dog food on the ground, and find a place for it where you don’t mind any ants or bugs crawling in it.
- Take your shoe or something flat and put it over one of the corners of the bag. It should be hanging over so that if an ant crawls up, it will fall off the ground and not be able to crawl back down into the bag.
- Put the bag of dog food on its side so that the opening is facing out instead of in. This will stop the ants from crawling back into the bag.
- When you need to feed your dog, open the bag and pour all of its contents onto your counter or floor, and check to see if any ants have been killed.
- If you find an ant, dispose of it in a bag of dog food.
- Wash the food out of the bag when you’re done with it so you don’t have ants crawling around the floor or counter, as that could be dangerous for your pets.
Effective Ways to Keep Ants Away From Cat and Dog Food
Ants are one of the most common creatures that invade homes and feast on pet food. Preventing ants from coming in contact with your beloved pets’ food can be a difficult task. Here are some helpful, practical tips to keep ants away from the cat and dog food:
How to deal with ant hills:
- Apply a thin layer of Vaseline around the perimeter of an ant hill to cut off their food supply.
- Use a spoon to collect the ants and put them in a container filled with soapy water.
- Sprinkle ground cinnamon around the ant hill to keep them away. The smell of cinnamon upsets their nervous system, preventing them from hiding in cracks.
- Mix half part water and half part vinegar in a spray bottle and apply it to the ant hills. Avoid spreading liquid near your pets’ food bowls or plants because vinegar harms most living organisms.
- Pour Borax in the ant hills and leave it overnight. The ants will eventually die from Borax poisoning.
- Ants cannot swim so you can drown them with a shallow bowl filled with water. If you don’t want to kill them, you can lead them to a water source outside your home.
- You can also attract them to areas away from your home by making trails of honey or syrup.
Some Of The Dog Foods Are Even Made From Ants’ Protein
Now the fantastic fact is here! There is a massive trend in the pet food industry of making foods from insect protein, mostly ants’ protein. It has been found from different studies that the taste of insect-based dogs’ foods is intensively positive. A study from the Journal of Nutritional Science says that dog foods made from insects are highly digestible and contain an excellent amino acid profile.
Amino acid is known as a vital element of protein. The study also shows that insect protein can be comparable to animal protein, for example, beef or chicken, and insect protein can be better than the animals’.
However, the study examined ants and different variations of insects, such as housefly pupae, six-spot roach, death’s head roach, and black soldier fly larvae, and so on.
High Nutritional Value Of Ants
Did you know that ants contain a rich volume of nutrients? The nutritional value of ants was also studied in different reports, and it performs as the best source of insect protein nutrients among all.
A study of the Food and Agricultural Organization of UN, with the Western Harvester Ant, said it had a good 66.3% crude protein. It also did well through a range of 10 essential amino acids including histidine, valine, lysine, arginine, and so on, which are essential for dogs’ health.
Possible Problems
According to vets, there is a minimal possibility of having problems for dogs eating living ants. Which are:
- An allergic reaction; and
- Little risk of stomach upset.
Although, it requires to consume lots of ants to arise these problems. But the ants in dogs’ meals may indeed try to bite the dogs’ which can cause a problem. It can cause lumps to the dogs’ faces and tongues. But it is very rare as dogs usually do not consume meals if they notice the existence of ants.
FAQS
1.Are Ants Attracted To Dog Meals?
Ans: Ants are attracted to dog food as dog food can be eaten by other animals, including ants. They can take nutrients by consuming from dog meals as they take it from leftovers food from wastes.
2.Can A Dog Die Due To Ant Bites?
Ans: Generally, ant bites do not harm much, but if the ants extremely bite dogs’, it can be dangerous. Ants bite with an alkaloid venom. Most pets get pain, redness, and lumps from their bites, but it’s not life-threatening. Still, for baby pets or old pets, or even those who have difficulty in moving or any other health problems or disabilities, ants bite can be very dangerous.
3.What Can Be Used To Get Rid Of Ants?
Ans: A spray bottle filled three portions with vinegar, and one portion with water can be used to get rid of them. Though pets do not like the solution’s spray, it will not harm them as well as it will keep away the ants.
4.How To Keep Away The Ants?
- The simple thing to follow is to never let any pieces of dog food out. Feeding the dogs on a fine schedule can be helpful here.
- It’s necessary to wash the bowls after every use and to throwing rotten foods.
- Most importantly, to keep the kibble dry as it provides a stronger smell when it is wet.
5.How To Get Rid Of The Ants?
Step 1
Ans: If ants are found in dog’s food, a shallow bowl of water needs to be placed, which will create a barrier. The container also needs to be stored and sealed correctly.
If the leftovers on pets’ bowls get attacked by ants, little petroleum jelly will work as a trap for them. Rubbing a tiny amount of the jelly on the bowl surface will help to prevent ants.
Step 2
But if the problem is minor, then keeping a large absorbent sponge soaked in sugar water near the ants’ path for a day will work amazingly. The ants will get attracted to it and get into the trap.
Step 3
A simple alternative way to keep ants away is to pat nearby places with a little bit of peppermint oil.
Using peppermint oil too much can be harmful to pets, so just patting on the surrounding carpet or curtain will keep ants away. They can’t take the aroma of peppermint.
There are some other options:
- Using food-grade Diatomaceous Earth.
- Creating an ant barricade with vinegar spray solution.
- Keeping home fresh
- Preventing the ants with Cinnamon powder.
- Using ant bait traps along with caution.
Conclusion
All in all, there are very few amounts of problems for dogs that can be arise due to consuming ants. Even nowadays, insect protein is very effective, said too many reports, which are already mentioned above. In the pet food industry, it becomes a trend so, it’s better to accept the ants and other insects to be a strategic source of food instead of worrying about it.
That will also be affordable, healthy, and sustainable for our pets. But still, pets are our beloved friends, our babies, so we must be very careful about them. We should make sure to get out of them what is harmful to them.
Biting from ants can give them irritation, so we must be careful about if they are consuming live ants as well as not considering it as a life-threatening issue. I hope now you know is ant in dog food safe to eat.
