Yes, dogs can eat sweet potatoes, as long as they are cooked, plain, and served in small amounts, the same checks you would run on any food before it went in your own body. Raw sweet potato is a no: it is hard to chew, hard to digest, and can upset the stomach. This post covers how to prepare it, how much to give, what to leave out of the pot, and the one place where sweet potato in dog food has raised questions.
Can dogs eat sweet potatoes?
Cooked, yes. The American Kennel Club's page, written with input from veterinarian Dr. Rachel Barrack, says dogs can eat sweet potatoes and adds two conditions: make sure it is cooked and that the skin is removed, because leaving the skin on makes it harder for your dog to digest.1 Sweet potatoes do not appear on the ASPCA Animal Poison Control list of people foods to avoid, which is the list we check first for any human food.2
Raw sweet potato: do not
The AKC is blunt here: you should never feed your dog a raw sweet potato. Not only are they difficult to chew, but they can upset your dog's stomach.1 A raw chunk is also the right size and hardness to lodge in a gullet or gut, and that is a surgery, not a stomach ache. If your dog steals a raw one off the counter, watch for vomiting, straining, or a dog that stops eating over the next day or two and call the vet if you see any of it.
How to cook it
Steam, boil, or bake until soft. Peel it. Mash it or cut it into small cubes. That is the whole recipe. Leave out everything you would add for yourself: butter, salt, brown sugar, marshmallows, cinnamon sugar, and especially anything containing xylitol. The ASPCA notes that excessive salt can produce increased thirst and urination and sometimes abnormal electrolytes, and that dairy products can cause diarrhea or other digestive upset because dogs do not have much lactase.2 The Thanksgiving casserole is a hard no for those reasons. Plain baked sweet potato from the same oven is fine.
Dehydrated sweet potato chews are a common single ingredient treat. Read the label to confirm sweet potato is the only ingredient, and watch a small dog with them, since they are chewy and a greedy eater can swallow a large piece. If you are looking for that style of treat, our guide to single ingredient dog treats covers what to check, and the options in our treats and chews collection have already been through that check.
How much sweet potato can a dog have?
Treat it like a treat, not a vegetable side dish. The rule we use for any extra is that treats and toppers stay under 10% of the day's calories, and sweet potato is mostly starch, so it adds up faster than a green bean does. A teaspoon or two for a small dog, a tablespoon or two for a medium dog, and up to a quarter cup for a large dog on top of a meal is plenty. The AKC's advice is that moderation is key and that too much can cause problems, and that is the right framing.1 If your dog is overweight or diabetic, ask your vet before adding a starchy topper at all, and see our guide to how much to feed a dog for working out where the 10% sits for your dog.
What sweet potato actually offers
Its claim to fame is beta carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements lists one whole baked sweet potato at 1,403 micrograms of vitamin A (as RAE), which for a person is 156% of the daily value.3 Dogs on a complete and balanced food already get the vitamin A they need, so this is a nice extra, not a gap you are filling. Sweet potato also brings fiber, which is why some owners use it the way others use pumpkin when stools are soft. Pumpkin is the better tool for that job because it is lower in calories and easier to dose from a can; we compare them in our post on pumpkin for dogs with diarrhea.
The honest limitation: sweet potato is a starch. It is a real food and a better treat than most, but a dog on kibble is not short on carbohydrate and does not need it.
The DCM question
You may have seen a warning on the AKC page linking sweet potatoes to heart disease. Here is what that is about. Between 2014 and 2019 the FDA received 515 reports of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs and investigated a possible link to diets labeled grain free that contained a high proportion of peas, lentils, other legume seeds, and/or potatoes in various forms. In the reported products, more than 90 percent were grain free and 93 percent had peas and/or lentils.4 The FDA has not established a cause, calls it a complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors, and has said it will not release further updates until there is meaningful new information.4
That investigation was about complete diets built on legumes and potatoes as main ingredients. It says nothing about a spoonful of cooked sweet potato on top of a balanced food. The two are different questions, and we keep them separate. If you want the full story on that investigation and what it means for choosing a food, read grain free dog food and DCM: facts from fear.
When to call the vet
Call if your dog ate a raw sweet potato, or a large chunk of anything, and then vomits, strains, or stops eating within the next two days. Call if diarrhea after a new topper lasts more than a day or two. And ask before adding sweet potato at all if your dog is diabetic, overweight, or on a prescription diet, because a starchy extra changes the math on all three.
Sources
- American Kennel Club, "Can Dogs Eat Sweet Potatoes?," updated 2026. akc.org
- ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, "People Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Pets." aspca.org
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, "Vitamin A and Carotenoids: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals," 2025. ods.od.nih.gov
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "FDA Investigation into Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy," updated 2022. fda.gov