? Is sweet potato/yam safe to feed as snack?

S

soreto

Member Since 2025
I've baked sweet potato regularly lately & Kitty is absolutely obsessed with it as soon as he smells it. I've never seen him so interested in human food before other than chicken/turkey/fish. I've been giving it to him as a snack (like 2-3 small quarter-sized pieces) daily.

I looked it up & it's safe to give to cats, but is it ok for diabetic cats? Does anyone else feed this to theirs?
 
to my understanding anything that is sweet for a diabetic cat will raise the Glucose level: Suggestion- test BG level before feeding the sweet potato, give a little bit, then wait 1/2 hour and re-test to see if it raised the BG to a noticeable higher number, some cats are very sensitive to the smallest amount of carbs
 
CORKY said:
to my understanding anything that is sweet for a diabetic cat will raise the Glucose level: Suggestion- test BG level before feeding the sweet potato, give a little bit, then wait 1/2 hour and re-test to see if it raised the BG to a noticeable higher number, some cats are very sensitive to the smallest amount of carbs
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good idea. how long after a meal does BG top after a meal?

for his AM/PM BG readings, it does not seem to have made a difference.
 
soreto said:
good idea. how long after a meal does BG top after a meal?

for his AM/PM BG readings, it does not seem to have made a difference.
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I think it depends on how carb sensitive the cat is? For Moonie, I can literally see her blood glucose start to spike even 20 minutes after eating something. I’m not sure exactly when you’re giving the snack vs doing the readings, but for us, 2 hours afterwards is enough for the food to be out of her system and no longer affect her blood glucose.

Your post made me laugh though! My cat Moonie also LOVES sniffing and licking sweet potatoes, even going as far as to drink the water a sweet potato was sitting in when I was growing roots to plant it in the garden. It’s like she’s looking to carb up 😭
 
Always keep an eye out when you feed the sweet potatoes, Cats love to have us on our toes, and there are times they can be more sensitive to carbs than other, especiall
 
Always keep an eye when you feed sweet potato, cats have an amazing way surprising us, Also there can be times when they are stressed and the BG fluctuates and they can be more sensitive to carbs; here is a chart I found on the nutrients in sweet potato, just get an idea on how to feed it😉
 

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Mary & Jude said:
@Staci & Ivy might know the answer to this since she puts sweet potato in Ivy's homemade food.
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It’s the carb portion of her balanced recipe. She eats a 6% carb diet and it is formulated by a veterinarian nutritionist.
It doesn’t appear raise her glucose.
If she’s diving low and I feed her the 6% LC food she normally eats, it does nothing to raise her glucose.
I then need to give her much higher carbs to bring her up.
 
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