Can Cats Eat Cheese? CanOrCannot.Com – Giving cat cheese has been a common misconception among human.

Since we were child, we have seen many cartoon film showing cats drinking milk that thus leads us to the understanding that dairy products are fine for cats.

However, the truth is different. There are some facts about cats and cheese you better to know.

Can Cats Eat Cheese – The Precaution

Believe it or not, giving dairy product like cheese to cats is a bad idea.

The main reason of it is because there is lactose intolerance in cats, meaning that if you feed your cats cheese, they won’t be able to digest it.

This lactose intolerance even gets worse in an adult cat because their digestive system is more lack of lactase enzyme than kittens, which makes them unable to safely breakdown the lactose.

Cheese’s cream makeup and milk can make cats’ digestive upset.

So, if the cats eat cheese or drink milk, they will experience some unpleasant consequences, such as diarrhea and throwing up.

In addition to being lactose intolerant, cheese is simply not a good source of protein for meat eaters like cat.

Cheese is made of got milk, fat, and cream in it. Jungle cats like cheetahs and lion are always in a hunt of fresh meat to meet their protein need, not a source of milk.

In other words, cheese is not a natural cat food because they have no need for it and they are indeed carnivores.

So, does it mean that we should not completely let cats eat cheese even in tiny slices of cheese?

Well, you can still make your young cats drinking milk or eating small slices of cheese.

One important thing to remember in doing this is to begin feeding them with small amounts.

This way can enable you to monitor your kitten’s ability in digesting chees.

Kittens surely can eat this human food, but it’s wiser for you to choose the types of cheese whose lactose is lower to ease your kitten’s digestive system and to watch for the amount of it.

Furthermore, in the note of testing your cat’s dairy tolerance, you can give your kittens pet food that has low levels of lactose.

That kind of pet food is usually the ones combining the lactose with other ingredients.

Can Cats Eat Cheese – Is There Any Benefit of it?

If you have conducted the cheese trial to your kittens and then see no effects, it means that your cats’ stomach can tolerate eating cheese.

You are then possible to give another slice of cheese to your cat. However, as wise cat owners, make sure you do not over feed them with cheese as they are quiet fattening.

Chances are not all cats are lactose intolerant, although most of them are.

Cats generally enjoy how cheese taste. Cheese can actually be a good way for a cat to train them prescribing medicine.

Besides, once you are sure and aware that there is no adverse effect from feeding your cats cheese, you can use it as a tasty special treat for your cat.

In short, you do not actually need to avoid feeding your cat cheese at all costs.

There is one additional note to giving a cat treat.

All kinds of cat treats made out people foods such as meat, tuna, and especially cheese, should be given to your cats no more than 5% to 10% of the cats diet. Photo Image Can Cats Eat Cheese Is it Safe

The remaining percentage of the cats diet should come from a nutritionally complete and high quality cat food.

If you are not sure about the percentage of the treat and the other cat foods, you can always talk to your veterinarian.

Making sure the percentage correct is important because feeding your cat table food or human foods in excessive amount can lead your cat to be finicky.

So, back to the questions whether cats can benefit from eating cheese, the short answer will be there is, albeit the problems that are likely to happen outweigh the potential benefits.

Realizing this, most veterinarians actually do not recommend giving cheese to cats.

How about “Specific” Kind of Cheese – Can They be Safe for Cats?

Now that you already know that cheese can be dangerous for cats, you may consider particular kinds of cheese that you may think safe for your cat.

We do have that low lactose cheese and vegan cheese.

They may sound having safer and lower lactose, but you still need to consider other elements of those kinds of cheese.

Low lactose cheese, as how the name suggests, does have lower amount of lactose. However, the lactose in this kind of cheese can create another problem to your cats.

The lactose can be a fattening factor for your cats. A cat needs about 200 to 300 calories a day to maintain its body weight.

This calorie needs absolutely depends on the size of your cats. A single slice of cheese already covers 113 calories out of the total need a cat may need.

This is really bad for your cat as you would absolutely feed your cats with other food as well, making it having excessive calorie intake in a day.

Can Cats Eat Vegan Cheese?

How about vegan cheese then? Vegan lifestyle is getting more and more popular each day so that influence you to think this kind of cheese is healthy for your furry buddies.

You may also think that as vegan cheese is made out soy not milk, it will not contain any lactose that can put your cats in a trouble.

The truth is vegan cheese can still be problematic for your cats. Albeit not all, a lot of cats are allergic to soy.

Besides, this type of cheese contains a lot of fat and salt, making it a bad choice for feline friend.

Can Cats Eat Cheese – Conclusion

From the elaboration above, we can come to a conclusion that we can still give cheese to cats, as long as the amount is limited and it’s given as a treat.

So, can cats eat cheese? Yes, although some points need taking into consideration.

source: pawculture, webmd, cancats

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