What CBD Dosage Is Right For My Pet?

Guest post!

There is no doubt that CBD can help our pets just as much as it can help us. That means you can give your dog CBD and expect to see things like their arthritis and joint pain decrease, faster recovery from injuries, lower blood sugar, a healthier appetite, reduced anxiety, and this only scratches the surface.

Since we know that CBD is fantastic for our fur babies, how about we figure out how much we should give them?

What should you know before giving your pet CBD?

Today, I woke up to an email with the question: “My neighbor said they were giving their dog cannabis, but said it wasn’t marijuana. How is that possible?”

I get questions like this a lot, and the answer is cannabis for dogs does exist and it’s not marijuana!

But instead of calling it cannabis oil, we call it CBD oil instead, which is a substance derived from a variety of different cannabis varieties.

Cannabis is the genus for many different plants. Some, like the hemp variety, have almost the same chemical makeup as their cousin, marijuana, but they’re missing one major component, and that is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

• Marijuana is cannabis with high levels of THC making it psychoactive (gets you high)
• Hemp is cannabis without THC making it non-psychoactive (can’t get you or your pet high)

Before we use CBD for pets we want to make sure it’s derived from hemp because not only will it be safe for your pet, it will also be legal in your state.

Dosage: The three tiers

It’s recommended by most to separate CBD dosages into three tiers according to your desired outcome and the medical condition you are using CBD to treat.

1. Low Dosages

Since pets vary so much in weight, you’ll want to know their weight. Don’t worry if it’s a guesstimate — CBD has a very high ceiling and there is no known toxic amount. The worst that comes from giving too much is usually some tiredness. 0.022 mg/lb is the recommended low dose.

For mild and temporary issues such as minor anxiety and pain, a low dose once or twice a day separated 6-8 hours apart should work well. For preventive health, a low dose once a day is great.

2. Average Dosages

As you can guess from the name, this is the dose most people give their pets as it covers medical conditions ranging from epilepsy to chronic pain, arthritis, and psychological conditions such as separation anxiety. 0.068 mg/lb is the recommended average dose.

For the conditions above, you’ll want to dose twice a day, again separate the dosages by 6-8 hours. To give you an idea of what that looks like let’s say your dog is 50 lb and you want to give them an average dose twice a day.  50 x 0.068 = 3.4 mg twice a day.

3. Strong Dosages

Strong doses are uncommon, especially for pets — insomnia requires a high dosage as CBD has minor stimulatory effects in the low and average dosage tiers. However, don’t be afraid to move up to a strong dosage if needed. 0.136 mg/lb is the recommended strong dose.

Even the strong tier isn’t that high as the recommended limit of CBD is 2 mg/lb, so as you can see, you aren’t even coming close. Feel free to increase the dosages to thrice a day if needed.

Application methods

So now that we know how much to give, what is the best way to give our pets CBD oil? There are a lot of ways we can give our pets CBD — fortunately, not as many as there are for people — and as with everything they all have their pros and cons.  

CBD Oil

Oil is the method with the most pros and least cons.

Pros include:

• Convenient to give
• Great control over dosage amount— easily give 1 mg, 3 mg, 12 mg, 17 mg, etc
• Can easily be placed in food, drink, treats, etc.
• Fast-acting is placed under the tongue or on gums

Negatives include:

• Strong grassy, nutty flavor — dogs love it more than dogs, but it’s ultimately an issue most for people

You can check out the best CBD oils for dogs at Cuteness.com.

CBD Pills or Capsules

Pills are just the easiest thing in the world, and while CBD has gained so much mainstream attention you might not want to bring attention to it. Giving your pup a capsule when in public won’t raise any eyes unlike pulling out a dropper bottle with CBD oil.

Pros include:

• Most convenient method
• No flavor

Negatives Include

• Slowest onset—has to be metabolized in the liver first
• Restricted to larger intervals base on pill size when increasing dose

Treats

Edibles have always been a staple in the marijuana community and we are now seeing CBD edibles pop up from ice cream to gummies to even pet treats.

Pros include

• Easily to give and discrete in public
• Tastiest option

Negatives include:

• Restricted to larger intervals base on pill size when increasing dose — much easier to break apart and dose unlike capsules but you still won’t know the precise dose like with CBD oil.

Have more questions?

Oh CBD! For as much of a blessing you are, you are equally difficult to understand.

There is so much to learn about CBD, and it doesn’t help that the confusion often comes from CBD companies themselves. That’s why if you’re looking for a great place to learn more about CBD or if you have any questions about it, I highly recommend Vitaleaf Naturals.

DISCLAIMER: DogExpress does not endorse or take responsibility for the content in the guest post.

Want to read more articles like these? Subscribe to our newsletter today!