Table food, how bad?

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Barb & Mr. Frog

Member Since 2013
One thing I've noticed in my reading is that the diet must be consistent, so based on that, I am assuming table foods are bad for kitties. But... my cats are so accustomed to at least being 'offered' whatever I am eating (for inspection if nothing else), they don't understand why I am being so greedy and not sharing now.

They don't often accept when it is not a meat item, although occasionally things like cheesy potatoes gets a couple of their interest (the sauce anyway, not the actual potatoes). I obviously will no longer be offering them that, but I wonder about the meats..... chicken (breast, fat trimmed), deli-style ham, (Frog likes raw burger occasionally, but he is the only one that will touch it) are those things so bad? Or can I still give them that occasionally as a treat? One of my cats cries and begs every time she sees the milk bottle, and mostly shes the only one that drinks it, but is it a nono? I have also in the past given them raw egg mixed with a tiny bit of milk to cream it up.... also a nono?
 
Well, I certainly wouldn't offer them pancakes with maple syrup. Not unless you needed to get the BG's up fast. :lol: :lol:

Little bits of meats are ok, raw or cooked. Some people feed these as treats during test time or add to food to increase protein. Should be no more than 15% of the daily food intake according to Dr. Lisa's catinfo.org site.

If it was me I would check the ham to make sure it isn't sugar or honey cured.

Not sure on the cheesy potatoes. The potatoes are carb rich, the cheese is mainly protein but there may be flour mixed in if it's from a package or ready made. Flour is carb rich.

Some cheese should be ok. Had to sprinkle parmesan cheese onto Wink's food to tempt him to eat the wet food.

A little milk should be ok, but many cats are lactose intolerant and have stomach/digestive issues with milk. There is a product called catsip that is cat safe because it is lactose free.

I'm not sure about the egg so I'll let someone else chime in on that.

p.s. I have 2 kitty 'vultures' ohmygod_smile perched on my desk, one on top of the printer, trying to get a few more bites of the cooked chicken breast I'm eating. I've given them all little tidbits, and they are happy. I don't give them much at one time, < 1 teaspoon, because one of them will hurl if she gets too much.
 
eggs are fine - just no ketchup on the eggs

really almost any protein you eat, you can share with the cats. and they will love you for sharing.

and if he does eat an occasional no-no item, so be it, he is a cat after all.
 
Ok, yea I don't give them alot, just maybe a bite or two each, and typically not more often than 2-3 times a week (they literally have a bite off MY plate, so I can't give them too much else there isn't any left for me :mrgreen: .

The cheese sauce I spoke of is indeed from a package, so I am sure there is lots of bad stuff in it, lol. Oddly, the one cat that always goes for it is the healthiest eater I have, she has always kept herself apart from the majority of things I've offered as 'treats' that were not real meat, except for her fetish of licking the salt off of potato chips if I have them.

The one that drinks the milk has never had issues with it, the rest of the cats won't even drink it, so it has never posed a problem. I have offered them the cat sip milk, but none of them really did more than sniff, tiny lick and thats it.

Lol, I can only imagine the look I would get if I offered them ketchup :P

Thanks so much, one less thing for me to feel guilty about.
 
You have to be very careful about table food because some of it has Allium (onion or garlic) hidden in it - these can cause cats' bodies to produce something called Heinz antibodies, which will really mess up their health. There is a good article about good and bad foods on Tanya's Chronic Renal Failure website, http://www.felinecrf.org/which_foods.htm, which applies to all cats, not just those with kidney disease.

Avoid deli meats like the plague! Most of them are marinated or injected with flavorings that make them taste so good to humans, but often contain onion and and other junk which is poison to cats!

As for meat that you buy and cook yourself, two vets have told me "only a little" even though this was plain meat. For one thing, muscle meat alone is a very incomplete food, so you don't want it to replace much of your cat's diet. Worse, though, chicken and turkey - especially white meat - from the meat counter can also be injected with chemicals that are OK (maybe) for us but poison to cats. If you give your cat a little chicken or turkey, dark meat is best, both because it's less likely to be injected with chemicals (they do this to keep turkey breast moist) and because it's developed muscle: less fat and more protein. (It can be hard to find actual dark meat on modern chickens because they are kept in boxes that prevent them from moving and developing muscle, so even the drumsticks are mush rather than muscle. Turkey dark meat should be OK, and there should be no problem with dark meat from organic (certified Organic), free-run chickens.)

I wouldn't buy this just for my cat, though. The best food for cats is cat food,, and you would be giving your cat only little bits of human food as a treat. If you want to eat more healthful food and buy free-run or free-range organic chicken for yourself, though, it will be better for your cat as well.

Blessings!

Shirley and Mr. Big
 
By the way, milk makes Ragnar's BG go WAAY up, and he only needs a fat half-unit of Lantus every two days now (he floats up and down in the 100s for a couple of days before he hits 200 and is ready for his shot). He loves it, but I don't give it to him, even when he's unwilling to eat - I tried, and his next reading was over 400! So for diabetics, I'd consider milk a major no-no (though I just got Ragnar's pills down with cream cheese - made from milk - and it doesn't bother him; go figure!).

Blessings!

Shirley and Mr. Sweetie Pie
 
:( I can't stand dark meat personally, which is the reason I give them breast meat. Thank you very much for the link, it is enlightening... I never knew garlic or onion was toxic for cats :( I sometimes cook with it, I will be very careful not to offer them any of that. I'm also certain my local grocer doesn't even CARRY free range chicken, which means I probably couldn't afford it anyway. I looked up the lunchmeat I buy, and I see it has some sugars in it, so I will avoid giving it to Frog, but it should be ok for the non-diabetics in very small amounts shouldn't it? I typically only give one slice divided among all 13 of them, just a 'treat'. The ham I use
 
honestly if you look up what really goes into most cat food, you wouldn't want to feed that to your cats - if you give them some of your food, do it -I share with my girls - and my one loves anything protein - especially bacon! let;s not even get started about bacon.

yes, onions, garlic and chocolate are no no's for cats - if I have something that has spices on it - I will lick it clean and then give that piece - kind of like feeding a baby bird. ha ha
 
Use your judgement. You laugh about the ketchup thing, well my civvie Sydney, used to love to pasta sauce - jar, homemade it didn't matter - she would stick her head in my dish and lick the sauce off the pasta and sometimes even eat a piece of pasta too! It wasn't a lot, and even though it had onion and garlic in it, I let her have her few licks. It was her thing, she liked it and I couldn't deny her.

This same cat also LOVED ginger snap cookies - I would buy them at Trader Joe's and she would put her head in the container and lick every cookie! When I offered her a piece, she never wanted it, she preferred to lick and make each cookie special! Not sure why ginger was appealing to her.

My other civvie Buster - loves any meat product that I'm eating. If I make bacon, I have to make an extra slice for her. She will eat egg white, not yolk, steak, pork, chicken but not hot dogs. Wonder what she knows that I don't..... ;-)
 
I hadn't thought about milk as a BG spiker. Chester LOVES to get my cereal milk when I'm finished with breakfast. I wonder if that's part of his problem...Oh, he will hate not getting his daily dairy!
Of course, he's already feeling deprived since we cut off his potato chip snack. He's a chip nut and will steal the Pringle right out of your hand. Low Carb means No Chips for Chester!
 
I have to give my kitty turkey during testing. Instead of saying to my cat it's time to get tested I say it's turkey time and then I have 4 begging cats! It makes it easier to test her when she has the turkey. She just gets so excited!
 
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