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I get a lot of questions about this one. After all, apple seeds do contain potentially lethal cyanide. As a result, a quick internet search could leave you sleepless.
So here are the surprising facts on how toxic those apple cores (and seeds) really are...
Oh the internet can be a wonderful place. Search 'apple seeds' and 'dogs' and you won't sleep for a week.
So here are the facts. The very bitter seeds of an apple do contain a compound called Amygdalin which when chewed or digested can convert into hydrogen cyanide. Cue hysteria. Yes, the very same cyanide seen in James Bond movies.
But before we all bite down on our own cyanide capsules out of panic, the important thing to look at is the amount of cyanide in apple seeds. It’s incredibly small.
In fact, even if dogs do swallow an apple core where the seeds reside AND they’ve chewed the seeds to release the problem chemical then it’s still not enough cyanide to cause a problem.
In fact, a 10 kg dog (Cavoodle size) would need to eat around 1000 seeds to be poisoned. And with a standard apple containing about 10 seeds, that’s around 100 apples. For a Labrador, that increases to around 300 apples in order to have problems. That’s a lot of fruit and obviously gut aches of extraordinary proportions would kick in before that time.
So while apple seeds have the scientific potential to cause a toxicity, the reality is the risk is extraordinarily small. In case you’re wondering, the same goes for us. Yes, when it comes to this piece of fruit and Fido, she’ll be apples.
