Can Dogs Eat Spaghetti Like in ‘Lady and the Tramp’? We Asked a Vet

Since the launch of Disney+ on Tuesday, there have been a lot of questions swirling around the internet about how to use the app, how to get your Verizon free trial, and what the heck “MacClunkey” means. But so far, I haven’t seen anyone asking the most pressing question of all: Can I feed my dog spaghetti to recreate the famous spaghetti dinner scene in The Lady and the Tramp?

Don’t worry… Even though you didn’t ask, we here at Decider are ever vigilant, so we called up a vet to get the definitive answer. Karyn Bischoff, 50, is a licensed veterinarian and an associate professor at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, where she is also the diagnostic toxicologist at Cornell Animal Health Diagnostic Center. Basically, that means people from all over the world go to her to figure out if whatever food-substance their pet got into is going to be dangerous for them. “The only person who gets weirder questions than me, I think, is probably the parasitologist,” said Bischoff.

I was surprised to learn that Bischoff has never before been asked if it’s safe for pet-owners to feed their dog a candlelit spaghetti-and-meatball dinner, as Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham did in the 2019 live-action remake of The Lady and the Tramp, which is now streaming on Disney+. Bischoff, who is clearly an excellent vet, generously offered to test some safe spaghetti on her own doggo, a five-year-old black rescue dog named Simon Puppychan. I eagerly accepted the offer and asked Bischoff to snap some pictures to document her findings.

So if you want to know how to safely recreate The Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene on your own dog, here’s the best way to do that, in Bischoff’s expert opinion.

Step 1: Prepare your spaghetti.

In The Lady and the Tramp, the Italian restaurant owner Tony (Abraham) and his waiter (Arturo Castro) bring our fuzzy heroes a heaping plate of the “spaghetti special.” Bischoff advises pet owners to stick to small portions. “I only give him about a half a cup of spaghetti. He’s got a regular diet, I don’t want him to get overweight, and he’s not used to eating people food, so I don’t want him to upset his stomach. So I gave him a puppy-sized portion.”

It’s impossible to know what exactly is in the sauce of Tony’s special—it appears to be standard marinara—but here’s where Bischoff warns pet owners to proceed with caution. The biggest concern, Bischoff stressed, is to avoid onions and garlic.

“[Onions and garlic] damage blood cells in dogs. Very small amounts are alright — there was probably a little bit of garlic in the tomato sauce he got, but not very much — so I would stay away from the scampi sauces and pesto sauces. Stick with a tomato-vegetable sauce that doesn’t have very much onions or garlic—or preferably no onions or garlic in it. The other thing I would avoid would be the hot sauces, the Arrabbiata sauces, and anything too much capsaicin in them—red pepper and things like that. Most animals don’t like spicy food at all, and too much spicy food in someone’s who’s not used to it can cause inflammation. I just used a little bit of canned marinara.” A little bit of parmesan cheese on top is OK.

Of course, Tony decides to go “heavy on the meatballs” for his furry friends, but Bischoff decided to skip the meatballs, and suggests meat be used sparingly. “I would use moderation with any kind of meatballs or sausage or anything that might be really fatty because dogs who are on a regular diet of dog food,” she said. “They’re not going to be used to the high amount of fat in people food. And be cautious about using meatballs that have a lot of garlic, just like the sauce.”

What about the complimentary Italian breadsticks that come with Lady and Tramp’s meal? “Again, be cautious with garlic bread, but just a little bit of breadsticks—if it’s not really greasy or really spicy—shouldn’t be a problem.”

Step 2: Let it cool.

Lady and Tramp dig into their piping hot meal right away, accompanied by an accordion and mandolin serenade. But Biscoff says you should wait to serve your guests at home. “Make it cold for them,” said Bischoff. “They don’t need really hot food. I didn’t want him to eat spaghetti that was way too hot, so he got to eat his spaghetti after I was done with mine.”

I’m not pointing fingers at any possibly insane Italian restaurant owners, but that sounds like a much more normal way to feed a dog spaghetti.

Step 3: Lower your cinematic expectations.

The dogs in the new Lady and the Tramp had CGI mouths to help them slurp spaghetti, but Bischoff said that’s not biologically accurate. “Adult dogs can’t suck up noodles the way people do, they have to use other mechanical forces. Simon Puppychan used momentum and gravity: He would grab a noodle in his mouth and then jerk his head back to get the noodle airborne and catch the noodle in his open mouth. He seemed to like the sauce more than the noodles.”

Step 4: Pat your doggo on the head for a job well done.

Though he didn’t fall in love with any lady puppychans, Bischoff said Simon Puppychan thoroughly enjoyed his special meal with no negative side effects. “He ate the whole thing, and he was fine this morning. He went up to doggy daycare and was his normal self today. He had no ill-effects from having his little cup of spaghetti last night.”

“In general, when you feed people food to dogs, be aware of what’s in the ingredients,” Bischoff said in her parting advice. “There are some that can be really toxic to dogs. Grapes and raisins can be toxic to dogs. Xylitol, which is a sugar substitute used in a lot of dental products and a lot of dietary foods, can be toxic to dogs, so make sure that if they get some tiramisu afterward, there’s no xylitol or anything like that in it. And definitely, definitely skip the wine, because dogs and cats don’t really need ethanol poisoning.”

There you have it, folks! Dogs can eat spaghetti, and it is very possible to safely recreate the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene, according to a licensed vet and diagnostic toxicologist. Just don’t do it all the time, maybe skip the dessert, and definitely skip the wine.

Watch The Lady and the Tramp on Disney+