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Assuming it’s properly cooked and unseasoned, can Terra have a taste? It IS meat, after all, which is a cat’ natural food.
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Bacon: Safe For Cats To Eat?
- Thread starter thefishyone
- Start Date
You'd also want to check the label and make sure there aren't any added chemicals to process it (mystery flavoring blends or soy for example). But, yes in small quantities bacon can be eaten by cats. Because it is so high in fat it should be given very very sparingly and wouldn't be something I'd do as a planned treat. Maybe if I happened to cook myself some bacon and I broke off a small piece for the cats; I wouldn't buy it specifically for a cat treat basically.
Bacon is salt-cured. So it can't be unseasoned. But a teeny bit won't hurt.
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I've given Lelia a tiny piece at times when I've made it for myself. It's not an everyday or every month treat, but I figure very occasionally she can indulge.
I don't give my cats human food. My dog (I know not a cat but still speaks to differences in species ability to digest human foods) got pancreatitis and one possible culprit was table scraps. Since then I've never given table scraps to any animal.
I do know someone who swears by the fats from frying bacon as having helped her cat with hairballs. She gives the cat just a little of the liquefied fat and some lightly fried bacon (all natural, no nitrates, smoke flavoring or preserves) and swears by it. But personally no, my cats do not get people food unless I have raw fish. Once or twice a year I give the last piece of raw sushi grade salmon to the outdoor cats to sink their teeth into. And made friends that way
I do know someone who swears by the fats from frying bacon as having helped her cat with hairballs. She gives the cat just a little of the liquefied fat and some lightly fried bacon (all natural, no nitrates, smoke flavoring or preserves) and swears by it. But personally no, my cats do not get people food unless I have raw fish. Once or twice a year I give the last piece of raw sushi grade salmon to the outdoor cats to sink their teeth into. And made friends that way
Make sure it's nitrite-free bacon. I believe Catinfo.org says why to use nitrite-free bacon.
You could also give raw bacon. Or save the pan drippings and use as a topper. Freeze the drippings in an ice cube tray or small container(s) and take out as needed.
Wipe out the pan and wash it once it's cooled. Don't leave it out on the stove or in the sink because your cat may try to lick up the remaining bacon drippings. There was a thread some time ago (either here or another board. I can't remember) where someone had cooked bacon and left the dirty pan on the stove and walked away. The cat got onto the still scorching hot stove to lick the pan drippings. The cat needed emergency vet treatment for paw burns.
You could also give raw bacon. Or save the pan drippings and use as a topper. Freeze the drippings in an ice cube tray or small container(s) and take out as needed.
Wipe out the pan and wash it once it's cooled. Don't leave it out on the stove or in the sink because your cat may try to lick up the remaining bacon drippings. There was a thread some time ago (either here or another board. I can't remember) where someone had cooked bacon and left the dirty pan on the stove and walked away. The cat got onto the still scorching hot stove to lick the pan drippings. The cat needed emergency vet treatment for paw burns.
I wouldn't have pork in the house, so there's no chance of this happening; but veterinarians recommend NOT giving any pork products to cats. Of course I agree with them. And "people food" is generally frowned on by them, too. Since I'm mostly vegan, the only "people food" they ever get is tuna juice or tuna oil from the occasional tin of tuna I use.
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Those veterinarians would have a heart attack if they came to my house.
Yes, mine, too!Those veterinarians would have a heart attack if they came to my house.
But I only feed cat food pork to the cats!
Weird. Most by-products in cat food are pork.
There is a difference between giving pets random table scraps and supplementing their meals with healthy foods that we eat. Vegetables for example, are a GREAT addition to dog foods or as treats to get some variety in their diet and also if they need to lose weight or always seem hungry and you just don't want to give them more food. Your dog had Pancreatitis from fatty foods or fatty meats not just table scraps in general. By all means add some broccoli or carrots to the dogs diet, that is a great supplement or treat. I mean, when a dog is having diarrhea, the first thing any vet will tell you is to boil chicken and rice for them.
Cats on the other hand do not get pancreatitis the same way as dogs, and meats and fats should be the bulk of their diet. It makes perfect sense that a little bacon fat helps coat the intestines and helps hairballs. That is all "hairball gel" is for cats is a greasy gel to coat the gut so the hair can pass.
My point is, as a rule: Don't toss your pet a little of whatever random food you are eating on a daily basis... but adding a controlled amount of certain "human" grade foods is perfectly acceptable for various reasons be it health, diet or treat.
I honestly would be more concerned about all the random crap in dry kibbles and all the mystery ingredients in "hairball" gels and treats, etc... than I would be giving my dog whole raw or boiled vegetables or my cat a small blob of fresh, clean bacon grease.
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People food = food.
Pet food = feed.
I prefer to give my cats food, not feed. That doesn’t mean I’m going to throw them a salty piece of bacon every day. It just means they’re eating nutritious fresh meat and organs, not feed.
Pet food = feed.
I prefer to give my cats food, not feed. That doesn’t mean I’m going to throw them a salty piece of bacon every day. It just means they’re eating nutritious fresh meat and organs, not feed.
Well said
A
Azazel
, a lot of people don't get the difference between giving their pet random unhealthy bits of literally everything they eat, vs properly home feeding or supplementing quality pet food with healthy, nutritious, purposeful human foods. It happens often at work when we recommend boiled chicken and rice for sick pets and owners say "oh I don't feed human food" when that same chicken and rice is in so many dog and cat foods mutilated into a hard dry kibble... and that is perfectly ok lol. Makes no sense.
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Agree. Plus we don’t even know what the source of the chicken and rice in kibble is.
That said, I should be clear that I’m very careful to make sure the food I make for my cats is nutritionally balanced and anyone who wants to feed food, rather than feed, as a primary part of their cat’s diet needs to do the same.
With all the junk and recalls of human food I would never give any human food to the cats. I never gave Pepper human food and had her for 23 years.
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Sorry, I don't follow that logic. So you'd rather give pet feed - which is produced by an industry that is far less transparent and regulated than human food - to your cat?
...... Do you follow recalls of pet feed? Because it's pretty bad...
In the past year where I live only one pet food recall for pets and that was for dogs, in comparison to the 55 or more human food recalls that resulted in death. At any given moment, here, some kind of meat is being pulled off the shelf for salmonella and poisoning in humans as well as the pets that were fed table scraps.
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Well, it also needs to be considered that 'human food' consists of thousands, maybe millions, of products, whereas pet feed is probably in the hundreds. Also, human food is well-regulated, whereas the FDA, which is the regulating body of pet feed, is much less active in regulation, meaning there will be much fewer recalls.
In any case, the number of recalls shouldn't be an indicator of the quality of food. And why would pet feed be better quality than human food? Politically, that would never happen. I mean, by that logic we should all be eating our pets' kibble....
Most of us who feed homemade diets do so precisely because we have no idea what the source of pet feed is due to the lack of transparency in the pet feed industry.
No doubt about it - food is much higher quality than feed.
