Can cats eat salty food? Do cats need salt? You will be surprised!

Many owners wonder if cats can eat salty food? After all, we are accustomed to generously seasoning our food with salt. According to the canons of natural nutrition, it is believed that cats do not need to add salt to their food and that salty foods are generally contraindicated for cats. But is this really so? And why is it believed that cats cannot eat salty foods? Let's figure it out.

This article is part of the category Nutritional Supplements for Cats

What kind of fish can you give your cat?

Fish should not be fed without pre-treatment:

• The heads and fins are cut off and the scales are removed.
• If you plan to feed it raw, it should be frozen for a week.
• When cooking, do not add salt, pepper, or seasonings.
• The prepared product is disassembled into pieces, the bones are removed, fed separately or mixed with chopped vegetables and porridge in a ratio of 3 to 1.
• Before serving, bring to room temperature: cool or defrost.

Representatives of salmon and cod are more suitable for feeding cats:

Keeping a cat on one fish is harmful, despite the undeniable benefits.

Age 30-90 days

As with any child, the time has come for a cat baby to introduce complementary foods. Just don’t pour everything into your kitten’s bowl at once. Try one thing first. Then watch the baby for a couple of days. Does the stool remain normal? Is the kitten cheerful, playful, and eats with appetite? So feel free to continue the experiment. At the slightest sign of depression or change in stool to a liquid state, stop giving complementary foods. Or replace the product with another one.

What to feed a kitten at this age:

• raw meat (veal, chicken, horse meat, beef)
• fermented milk products (cottage cheese, fermented baked milk, kefir)
• porridge (buckwheat, oatmeal, millet)
• boiled vegetables (carrots, zucchini)
• boiled and raw egg yolks (chicken, quail)
• offal (liver, lung, heart)

The last two items are a rare delicacy, and not a permanent part of the menu. Because they are too difficult for the kitten’s still weak intestines to tolerate.

The general cooking rules are very simple:

1. Raw meat is thoroughly frozen, then scraped or ground in a meat grinder.
2. The same is done with offal.
3. Boiled meat is ground in a meat grinder and diluted with a small amount of broth until it becomes mushy.
4. Boiled yolk or cottage cheese is passed through a garlic press and diluted with low-fat kefir.
5. Porridge is cooked in water or diluted milk. Sugar and salt are not added.
6. Vegetables are boiled in water and ground into a paste. Or cut into very small cubes.

In principle, it will be easier for those who have cooked for their child. Because the menu is very similar, the preparation is also the same. The question arises: why grind? Because the kitten’s jaw apparatus is fully formed only by 3 months. Until this time, hard and large pieces of food are contraindicated.

Advice. Use a grater and garlic press. They are much easier to clean than a blender or meat grinder. And not everyone will agree to take out and assemble the unit for the sake of 30 g of food.

Why fish can be dangerous

With constant feeding, excess minerals and harmful components accumulate in the body:

• Excess magnesium and phosphorus are not absorbed and are deposited in the kidneys, which is why KSD develops.
• Histamine in the protein accumulates and provokes allergic reactions. The animal develops itching, dandruff, and hair loss.
• The enzyme thiaminase destroys thiamine, which disrupts metabolic processes.
• Excess fatty acids against the background of tocopherol deficiency provoke inflammation of adipose tissue and the development of panniculitis.
• The fish component trimethylamine oxide interferes with the absorption of iron, which leads to anemia.
• Cats do not absorb vitamin K from fish. It is responsible for blood clotting, so the animal runs the risk of dying from internal hemorrhages.
• Excess iodine leads to the development of hyperthyroidism, and the functions of the thyroid gland are disrupted.
• Wild marine and river species are parasitized by helminths. When they enter the intestine, they pass through the walls and migrate with the bloodstream throughout the body.

The composition of fish depends on the environment. Chemicals and metal salts are found in wild specimens; antibiotics and hormones are found in farm specimens; they are added to accelerate growth and prevent diseases.

What's for dessert?

Most cats are indifferent to sweets, not perceiving them as a food product. However, there are also people with a sweet tooth who love ice cream, candies, chocolate, cakes and pastries. The owner must remember that any sweets cause great harm to the cat! Such delights lead to disruption of the digestive system, diseases of internal organs, and diabetes. Chocolate is completely toxic to cats; eating it can lead to heart rhythm disturbances and even death. Any cakes are an unnecessary burden on the liver. By the way, fruits also contain too much sugar, so you should not treat your gourmet to bananas, pears and apples, melon, or watermelon. Some fruits, especially exotic ones, are dangerous for cats - avocado, persimmon, mango and pineapple. Grapes and raisins cause intoxication. The cat is unable to digest nuts, which, in addition to being useless, are also dangerous because they can provoke a severe allergic reaction, including swelling and respiratory arrest.

What fish should you not feed your cat?

Cats are prohibited:

• Waste . Heads and bones injure the esophagus, larynx, get stuck in the intestines, and do not carry anything useful. They have little calcium.
• Salty . Excess salt is deposited in the bladder and kidneys, which provokes the development of urolithiasis.
• Smoked . Contains carcinogens and allergens. Helminths are not destroyed by smoking.
• Canned fish . Seasonings, salt, and spices disrupt metabolism.
• Fried . Excessive fat disrupts the functioning of the pancreas and liver. Calorie content increases by 2–3 times.
• Sun-dried, dried . The fish is sprinkled with salt or soaked in a saline solution, so the final product is unsuitable for cats.

The table lists the fish varieties that should not be given:

A single feeding of these species will not harm health, but if they are regularly introduced into the diet, the animal gets sick and its life expectancy is reduced.

Can I give it to a cat?

Fish dishes are recommended for cats; they provide the body with easily digestible protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids. They should be prepared for a cat no more than once a week, taking into account the age, health status, and preferences of the pet. Elderly and well-fed animals are more suitable for low-fat varieties, but pregnant, lactating cats and kittens, on the contrary, should not be given a low-calorie product. It is preferable to feed cats the following types of fish:

• cod;
• trout:
• pike;
• pollock;
• hake;
• halibut;
• salmon.

Raw fish

For cats whose favorite treat is raw fish, the product is frozen in advance for some time to kill parasites.

Some types of this product help remove vitamin B1 from your pet’s body.
Fish should not be given in this form for the following reasons:

• Some varieties, including sprat, herring, and capelin, contain the enzyme thiaminase, which reduces the level of vitamin B1 in the pet’s body.
• There is a risk of helminth infection.

Boiled fish

It is important to cook a fish dish and serve it to your cat correctly, taking into account the following requirements:

• If the fish is large, then already boiled it needs to be divided into parts.
• The product is considered ready when the meat easily comes off the bones.
• The readiness of the fillet is determined by its softness.
• You should feed your cat fish only after it has cooled down.

Raw or cooked

Nothing will happen to your cat from eating a piece of fish once a week, so a reasonable solution is to alternate raw and cooked fish and not overfeed. Before entering shopping centers, it undergoes veterinary control and is frozen at minus 40 ℃. Danger lurks in fresh fish, which has just been caught from the river or bought secondhand. This product cannot be given.

The cat will not develop health problems if you do not take fish as the basis of its diet, choose healthy species for it, pre-disinfect it and cook it.

"Invisible" salt

In fact, the danger is not in the salt, but in its quantity. Constantly exceeding the norms for the consumption of this mineral will affect the cat’s health, quickly and noticeably. If you decide to ignore all the warnings and give your cat salty foods, you should understand that very soon an imbalance of electrolyte balance and metabolism will occur in its body.

Would a reasonable, loving owner intentionally harm a ward? Of course not, but practice shows that this happens quite often. The owner does not understand how much salt the cat consumes, adds the mineral to food and does not connect the consequences with the cause. The first hidden source of salt is water. The cat needs to drink, and the volume of liquid consumed per day is quite large. Salt provokes thirst and the cat drinks more...it turns out to be a vicious circle.

You can protect your cat from danger, but you need to take care of the quality and purity of the water. The average water consumption per day for a cat kept on a natural diet is 5 grams. per kilogram of weight. If the purr receives dry food, it drinks about 3 times more than the weight of the granules. Given this fact, an adult cat kept on a commercial diet can drink up to 300 grams. water per day. Your task is to provide your pet with enough water to drink and make sure that the water is fresh and clean.

The next issue that should concern you is water quality. Do you think that if we compare water from a tap, filter and bottled water (without gas or additives), will there be a difference in salt content? Of course yes! Moreover, tap water (depending on the region and area) may contain chlorine, calcium, manganese, potassium, fluorine, selenium, molybdenum, mercury, lead, zinc, cadmium, copper, iron, hydrogen sulfide, aluminum, polyacrylamide, tripolyphosphates, nitrates, pesticides and detergent residues.

You may be confused by some of the elements, and rightly so, many dietary supplements contain fluoride, calcium and manganese, but it is not the presence of the element that is important, but its quantity and proportion. In tap water, depending on the region, the indicators of the above substances can vary greatly

The next common source of hidden salt is fish, especially dry, converted, smoked and salted fish. Frequent consumption of fresh fish can lead to urolithiasis, vitamin deficiency, imbalance of microelements, allergies, helminth damage, and a decrease in blood clotting factors. It’s scary to imagine what the consequences of constant consumption of smoked or salted fish will be.

Many owners are concerned that their pets like pickles and olives. Here the opinion of veterinarians is not so categorical. You can treat your cat to a piece of cucumber or a few olives, but not often. Moreover, washed olives help improve the quality of the coat and skin condition.

Salted lard is another delicacy that many purrs cannot resist. It is worth noting that this product is so two-faced that nutritionists are already tired of arguing whether it is beneficial or harmful. From a physiological point of view, it is known that fatty foods place a large load on the liver and gall bladder, and this load can be beneficial. For example, a sedentary cat may crave fatty foods due to stagnation of bile. It is worth understanding that a cat may want fresh lard, but in the absence of it, beg for a salty treat.

When salt poisoning occurs, a cat rapidly develops the following symptoms: apathy, lack of appetite, unsteady gait, cramps in the limbs, tics, vomiting, vomiting, polyuria, dehydration, sharp deterioration of vision up to complete blindness. Without qualified assistance, the animal quickly falls into lethargy and dies.

How to cook?

You can treat your pet to boiled cod.
There are various recipes for fish treats for cats. Boiled cod is prepared as follows:

1. Place the prepared fillet into boiling water.
2. Cook the fish for 4-6 minutes. until soft.
3. Cool.

Pollock for cats should be boiled or thoroughly frozen for consumption raw. Kittens and pregnant cats can also make dishes from this type of fish. It is better for them to cook pollock. Heat-treated fillet is easier for the cat's stomach to digest. But giving this fish is often not recommended, since excess minerals are difficult to absorb by the body.

According to veterinarians, it is not advisable to give salted fish to cats, since the salt it contains significantly exceeds the permissible daily allowance for a cat.