Chicken OF THE SEA SALMON POUCH OKAY as treat?

[CarmiesMom]

my mom bought my 7 Y/o Mignon a pouch of Chicken of the Sea wild caught pink salmon with no MSG or preservatives but has 180mg of sodium ingridiants are salmon water Vegitable broth (with soy) and sodium my boy is very picky dosen't care for canned cat food and usually i give him a can of rinsed tuna can sized salmon over 2 days as a treat she said they were out if the cans wasn't this the same? so what do you think can i give this to my boy? he's recovering from flea allergy dermatitis and i thought a little spoiling wouldn't hurt so before i give it to him what do you all think?

 

[Flybynight]

C CarmiesMom
Hi,
I think the soy and high sodium would not be good.
You can get treat food for cats (in pet shops) that is from tuna, salmon or chicken. Usually a tin or pouch and meant to supplement a diet as they normally are not complete in nutrients but are safe for cats.

Or for a treat you can boil or roast chicken. Important not to feed any cooked bones as they can get stuck in the intestines.
For my two, I usually boil a bit of chicken for a treat with skin and give the meat with a little broth.
Don't use salt or any seasoning when cooking the chicken,

 

[Caspers Human]

A few bites would be okay as a treat but not as regular food.

I'm not worried about soy. It's not bad for people to eat but, for cats, it's basically junk food because cat's aren't made to eat it. Soy is mainly protein and carbs. It doesn't have a lot of nutrition for cats. Like I said...junk food.

Salt, I'm on the fence about. It's not as bad as people think but it's not good, either.
No matter what any doctor says, salt does not raise blood pressure above normal, healthy levels and it is not any more harmful than any other food additive. There has never been a single study that has proved that salt increases risk of heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure. The whole myth about salt started over 100 years ago when a couple of French doctors proposed that salt MIGHT be harmful when they noticed that just six of their patients, who were sick, ate a lot of salt. They didn't do any research. They just concluded that salt was bad based on circumstantial evidence. There was also a study in the 1970's where researchers fed rats the human equivalent of 500 grams of salt per day. If I ate half a kilo of salt in one day, I'd probably keel over and die!

The bottom line on salt? If you don't douse your food with salt or you eat entire bags full of salty potato chips or pretzels, salt won't hurt you.

All that having been said, salt isn't particularly good for you, either. There is no nutrition or food value in salt. Although the body needs to have a certain amount of salt to function properly, any excess salt will be excreted. It just doesn't make sense to eat more salt than the body needs. In fact, it is common understanding that most people will get all the salt they need from the food they eat every day, assuming that they don't eat a lot of salty food and that they don't have any special health problems.

Yes, the wise person will monitor their salt intake and minimize it when they can but I don't think people should worry about salt, so much, either.

Whether you feed your cat packaged salmon is up to you.

One thing to remember is that the nutrition information like caloric content and Recommended Daily Allowances are meant for humans. Cats are smaller and their nutritional requirements are different. Other than the list of ingredients, you can't count on the nutritional information printed on the package.

Yes, cats eat fish and a certain amount is good for them but, if their diet is too rich in fish, it's not good.
Fish doesn't have all the nutrition that cats need and there are certain elements in fish that, if they eat too much, can be detrimental.
You've also got to keep in mind that fish might contain mercury or other harmful substances. Whether it be humans or cats, too much of that stuff can be bad.

Eating fish once per week or a few times per month is probably good.

Eating fish every day is probably bad.

Our cat, Casper, gets to have a spoonful of tuna whenever we make it for dinner but he doesn't get it any more often that that.
Maybe once per month, if that.

If your cat normally eats fish or tuna, I see no problem with feeding him salmon, provided he eats an otherwise healthy diet.

Since you say that he's been feeling poorly from allergies and things, I agree that it would be nice to spoil him a little bit.

Keep it down to a spoonful per serving and I don't think there will be any problems.

It's just a treat. Right?

 

[lisahe]

C CarmiesMom
Hi,
I think the soy and high sodium would not be good.
You can get treat food for cats (in pet shops) that is from tuna, salmon or chicken. Usually a tin or pouch and meant to supplement a diet as they normally are not complete in nutrients but are safe for cats.

Or for a treat you can boil or roast chicken. Important not to feed any cooked bones as they can get stuck in the intestines.
For my two, I usually boil a bit of chicken for a treat with skin and give the meat with a little broth.
Don't use salt or any seasoning when cooking the chicken,

I so agree with this: best to buy a supplemental/"appetizer" or complete food that's intended for cats. Or give a little plain, unsalted chicken, with or without the broth. I sometimes feed our cats Sheba cuts as a treat: they absolutely love it and even if it's not their best food, it's very decent stuff.

Beyond that the salt and vegetable broth in the pouch salmon might not be good for the cat, the last thing you want to do is feed something that's intended as a one-time treat but then becomes something the cat craves and begs for! (That happened to me years ago when a friend was visiting and fed my cat table scraps when I was at work... it was no fun and I had no idea what happened until much later!) I'd especially avoid fish as a treat since, as Caspers Human , mentions, fish can contain stuff that cats shouldn't eat. Our vet is very anti-fish for that reason!