Is Beeswax Safe For Dogs?

Beeswax is an all-natural product that is used in many different applications for humans, but is beeswax safe for dogs? And, yes it certainly is. In its purest form, beeswax is organic and all-natural with no added ingredients that can harm your pets.

Honey has benefits for people with allergies if they purchase locally sustained honey, that is. The bees also play a major role in our ecosystem to pollinate plants, vegetables, and flowers so they can produce blooms and food in the garden.

What Exactly Is Beeswax?

Beeswax is the material that bees use to make their hives. It’s a mixture of pollen and propolis–also called bee glue. It mixes with the bee’s saliva to create this sticky residue. Bees use it to fill in tiny holes in their hives so they can be sealed.

Beeswax can be dark brown to a golden color depending on what type of pollen is in it. Beeswax is a sticky substance when it’s at 68 degrees F or higher, but it becomes hard and brittle and temperatures are lower than that. When the wax is heated to 145 degrees F and above, it turns to a liquid form.

Bees have eight wax glands on their stomachs to produce the wax flakes and create the structure of the internal part of a beehive or the honeycomb to store the wax in until it is harvested.

What Type of Products Contain Beeswax?

In order to use the beeswax, it is separated from the honey first and then it’s used for making candles, lotion, cosmetics, and lip balms.

Many skincare products use beeswax to protect the skin from irritants and it is also anti-inflammatory in nature as well as antibacterial and it soothes skin irritations as an antiviral product as well. Beeswax can also be found in thickeners and it can be used as a scent in soaps.

A hand scraping some honey from a comb

How To Use Beeswax As A Topical for Dogs?

Many dogs have sensitive and fragile skin which is easily torn or scratched to leave a minor abrasion. Dogs will usually keep licking an area to keep it clean and soothe it but at times it can become inflamed and infected, which would require a veterinarian’s attention for antibiotics.

Beeswax is rich in vitamin A along with anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties to promote healing when it’s applied to minor injuries. It also helps to rebuild cells and heal wounds for faster recovery time.

In this sense, as a topical product, dogs can benefit from the wax as a product for cold and dry air cracks in the skin, cracked paw pads, cracked elbows, small cuts, and any type of itching or irritation that accompanies these items.

How to Use Beeswax as a Protectant for Dogs?

The waxy substance forms a protective layer on the skin to shield it from the environment and it does this without clogging up the pores in the skin. It’s often the number one ingredient in paw pad protection in dog products. This can greatly help your four-legged friend when he is going on long walks or runs, or exercising on a path with rocks.

It keeps their paws from cracking in the wintertime from the frozen ground and snow as well as keeps the salt used on roads from icing them from affecting their paws. Take note, that even if you use this type of product and your dog walks in ice for melting snow, you still need to clean its paws thoroughly when you return home.

Beeswax also softens dry, cracked, and irritated skin on dogs because it’s a humectant and attracts water to keep skin thoroughly hydrated.

This is helpful for any dry skin patches on your dog, around the muzzle, and any area that appears to be dehydrated.

It will also reduce the risk of these areas becoming infected by inhibiting bacterial and fungal growth, which would otherwise indicate a need for anti-bacterial or anti-fungal prescriptions for antibiotics to be taken by mouth or used in conjunction with a cream on your dog.

Benefits of Beeswax for Dog’s Skin and Coat

When you brush your dog, you are distributing their natural skin oils throughout their coat for hydrating the coat. The Vitamin A in the wax helps to hydrate dog coats and retain that moisture for shiny and healthy coats. It can brighten up a dog’s coat that is dry and brittle and dull-looking very quickly.

Beeswax coats the hair with hydration to make brushing a dog with long hair much easier and quicker without pulling the tangles out harshly.

This can help your grooming sessions with your furry friend to be much happier. A tiny bit of beeswax can also smooth down any stray hairs after a grooming session that may be unruly or if your dog has a cowlick in their coat.

This all-natural wax also works well on your dog’s scalp to help with eczema, psoriasis, and dandruff by moisturizing and healing the scalp while retaining the moisture for quite some time.

A jar of beeswax with a spoon scooping some out

Can I Use Human Products With Beeswax On My Dog?

If you have a product for yourself that is all-natural beeswax and only has other natural products in it such as oatmeal, honey, coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower, or sweet almond oil in it, then you can use these products on your dog. However, it’s best to stick to the products that are actually formulated for dogs.

Dog’s skin has a different pH level than humans’, with humans being 5.2 to 5.5 and dogs having much more sensitive skin with a pH level of 7.0 to 7.52. Even the gentlest baby shampoo is actually 150 times too acidic to put on a dog.

Disturbing the pH level in your pooch’s skin can harbor bacterial infections because of over-drying the skin and some products can even cause the outer layer of skin–the epidermis–to be stripped away.

In light of this information, you should just use beeswax products that are specially formulated for your dog or just pure beeswax.

Can I Make My Own Beeswax Balm for My Dog?

You certainly can and it’s quite easy to make as well. The American Kennel Club (AKC) has a recipe that’s easy to make with ingredients that are readily available in almost any store.

You put a small pot on the stove on low heat and add 2 tablespoons of an all-natural oil of your choice. It can be sweet almond oil, sunflower oil, or olive oil. To that, you add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and 1 tablespoon of shea butter, and 4 teaspoons of beeswax.

You then stir the mixture continuously until it is all melted and blended well. Pour the mixture into a container that won’t melt like a small glass jar and let it cool on the countertop until it hardens.

You can then put the lid on and label it and when you want to use it, you simply take a small amount out of the jar and rub it in your hands to warm it so it’s easier to spread. Then you can apply it to any areas on your dog such as his paw pads, nose, or abrasions, or smooth it through his coat.

Making your own homemade wax balm will ensure that you know exactly what products are in it and it is good for up to 2 years, so you know you won’t be wasting your money on something that’s not viable for very long.

Is Beeswax Safe For All Dogs?

You can use beeswax products on almost all dogs, unless your dog happens to be allergic to honey. Your dog may want to lick it off if he likes the sweet smell of honey though. If you use it as a paw pad protectant, you can put socks on your dog to keep him from licking it all off and it will keep your floors from having wax on them as well.

If your dog does happen to lick the beeswax and he’s not allergic to honey, he should be okay, but make certain he doesn’t eat a large chunk of hardened beeswax products because it can cause a bowel obstruction, which is very serious indeed.

It’s best to always do a test area before using products on your pets. Use a small amount of beeswax about the size of a dime and rub it on the back of an elbow and watch the area for any signs of irritation, redness, or scratching for at least 48 hours before using it on larger areas of your pooch.

Never use beeswax close to the eyes or inside the ears or nose. These sensitive areas of the skin can be irritated easily with wax products.

Can Dogs Eat Honey?

Some dogs have severe skin allergies most all year round, but worse in the spring and fall when there is a lot of pollen. Just as in humans, many studies have found that feeding a dog a teaspoon of local, raw honey from a hive that is near them, can alleviate these allergies.

It’s almost like getting a vaccine to make the body’s response learn to fight off a particular disease or condition.

Dogs with severe allergic reactions can bite off all their hair and scratch themselves until they are raw and have skin infections.

Just because a dog is scratching like crazy, doesn’t mean that he has fleas. You may see an allergic dog rubbing their face on the ground or carpet, licking uncontrollably, scratching their stomach, and a lot of hair loss on the feet and the inside of the thighs.

When you first notice this behavior and you know your dog doesn’t have fleas or other parasites, you can apply the beeswax to the affected areas to soothe them and also feed them a teaspoon of honey on a daily basis.

You should check with your veterinarian before self-treating your dog though, to make sure these practices won’t cause any harm to your playful pooch.

Final Thoughts

As with all new products, you should always test them out on a small area of your four-legged family members first before going all out. Using too many beeswax products in your dog’s coat can make it too oily and, while it will be much easier to brush on a dog with a long coat or a double-coated dog, it can create oily seborrhea, a form of oily and smelly skin.

This results in the need for a trip to the vet for medication to clear up the skin infection. So it’s best just to use a small amount in your dog’s coat for the best results.

You can find beeswax products specially formulated for dogs at most any pet store or big box store near you.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Joe! I'm the head of SEO and content management at Bloom and Bumble. I'm a huge plant lover and over the years my home has become more like an indoor rainforest. It has taken a lot of trial and error to keep my plants healthy and so I'm here to share my knowledge to the rest of the world.

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