Dear Kosher Spirit,
This is my first time observing Passover fully.
I have a dog and I was wondering if the dog’s food needs to be kosher for Passover.
The OK responds:
Pet food definitely needs to be chometz free during Passover. One may not derive any benefit from, or have any chometz in his home during Passover. This is an issur d’oraisa. In addition, one cannot derive benefit from meat and milk mixtures (year round), so it is important to make sure that pet food does not contain both meat and dairy products.
Two interesting notes:
- The stringency of kitniyos does not apply to animals.
- According to government regulations, pet food needs to be edible for humans because sometimes very poor people eat it.