diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/utils/dtypes.py b/python/cudf/cudf/utils/dtypes.py
index b2cf498a6b7..5dffc5eeaf5 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/utils/dtypes.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/utils/dtypes.py
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ def is_integer_dtype(obj):
     try:
         dtype = np.dtype(obj)
     except TypeError:
-        return False
+        return pd.api.types.is_integer_dtype(obj)
     return dtype.kind in "iu"