Feeding Turkey

[WillowMarie]

Hello everyone. I follow the shelter where I adopted my kitties, and they posted a graphic saying, "It's best to avoid giving turkey to pets. Meat, skin, drippings, and gravy are high in fat and even small amounts can trigger pancreatitis and can be lethal for your pet." It also talks about not feeding turkey bones, which I have heard no bones before because it is dangerous.

Is turkey meat not okay though? I was completely surprised because there are so many canned and dry foods with turkey, and no one on here has mentioned it, so I'm questioning the validity of the shelters post...

I did buy an already cooked chicken from the deli section and was planning on giving me kitties some of the meat (no skin). Assuming most of the ingredients listed are applied over the skin, but ingredients listed are up to 18% solution of water, salt, sodium phosphates, brown sugar, dextrose, carrageenan.... (Why does everything have sugar added to it??? This is why I try so hard not to have prepared or processed food, ugh, LoL. But it's Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I want Thanksgiving traditional food *sigh*). It feels funny to ask this because I wouldn't normally eat it myself on a typical day now looking at the ingredients, and now I'm questioning if I want to feed it to my cats, haha, but is this chicken safe to feed the kitties as a snack?

 

[denice]

I always give kitties a little meat without the skin, I don't use garlic or onion for seasoning. I would skip things like the skin and drippings because of the fat. It is true that a large amount of fat can trigger pancreatitis. I think it is probably more of an issue with dogs because many of them will eat as much as they are given, cats tend not to do that.

 

[DreamerRose]

The meat is perfectly safe. It's terrible that people scare us from so many things. Everything in moderation is fine. The bones are another matter; after being cooked, they become dry and will splinter when chewed and so choke the kitty. I used to beg my mother not to give our cats chicken bones when I saw them choking and coughing on them. Raw bones are okay, though. Mingo has eaten several mice, head first, and not left a scrap.

 

[WillowMarie]

I always give kitties a little meat without the skin, I don't use garlic or onion for seasoning. I would skip things like the skin and drippings because of the fat. It is true that a large amount of fat can trigger pancreatitis. I think it is probably more of an issue with dogs because many of them will eat as much as they are given, cats tend not to do that.

Great, thank you! I'm guessing turkey flavor cat food is find because it is in a more moderate, safe amount? The post did mention dogs in the last sentence with the bones, so maybe it was more geared toward them.

The meat is perfectly safe. It's terrible that people scare us from so many things. Everything in moderation is fine. The bones are another matter; after being cooked, they become dry and will splinter when chewed and so choke the kitty. I used to beg my mother not to give our cats chicken bones when I saw them choking and coughing on them. Raw bones are okay, though. Mingo has eaten several mice, head first, and not left a scrap.

Great, thank you! Kitties will get a chicken treat tomorrow then!

That sounds terrifying noticing kitties choke and cough on the bones, what an experience.

 

[Azazel]

I think seasoned turkey is maybe what the shelter is referring to. Canned turkey foods aren’t as high in sodium as prepared turkey you buy for your thanksgiving dinner. If the turkey is plain then it’s perfectly fine. Small amounts aren’t going to cause pancreatitis. I give my cats a diet of primarily raw turkey. I don’t use the skin, but even then, a little bit of skin won’t hurt them.

 

[LTS3]

Hello everyone. I follow the shelter where I adopted my kitties, and they posted a graphic saying, "It's best to avoid giving turkey to pets. Meat, skin, drippings, and gravy are high in fat and even small amounts can trigger pancreatitis and can be lethal for your pet." It also talks about not feeding turkey bones, which I have heard no bones before because it is dangerous.

Is turkey meat not okay though?

They're referring to turkey table scraps and such, not cat food that is turkey based. And along the same lines, put your Thanksgiving Day trash in a secure trash can to keep the pets from digging in and eating cooked bones and scraps and other things which can cause internal injury or illness (like garlic).

Turkey is fine but not something like deli turkey meat or your Thanksgiving day turkey with all the seasonings and such that are typically applied. You may want to reserve a small amount of turkey to cook plain just for the cats. Maybe take the turkey wing and shred the cooked meat up.

Merrick has a Thanksgiving Day dinner canned food that's a good safe option for your cat to partake in the holiday:

Purrfect Bistro Grain Free Minced Thanksgiving Day Wet Cat Food Dinner | Merrick Pet Care

The Purrfect Bistro Grain Free Minced Thanksgiving Day Canned Dinner, grain free formula cat food is fortified with vitamins, minerals and more, ideal for adult cats.

www.merrickpetcare.com

Any turkey canned cat food works, too

 

[abyeb]

Check out this article: Ask a Vet: Which Thanksgiving Foods Are Safe for Cats? | Catster

According to this article, for the turkey, skinless white meat is best, but cats can eat a little bit of skin, dark meat, or giblets. Green beans are okay too, as are small amounts of gravy or mashed potatoes (as long as they don’t contain any garlic and aren’t very salty). But you shouldn’t feed a full meal with any of these Thanksgiving dishes. But a couple of bites as a treat is fine.

 

[WillowMarie]

Check out this article: Ask a Vet: Which Thanksgiving Foods Are Safe for Cats? | Catster

According to this article, for the turkey, skinless white meat is best, but cats can eat a little bit of skin, dark meat, or giblets. Green beans are okay too, as are small amounts of gravy or mashed potatoes (as long as they don’t contain any garlic and aren’t very salty). But you shouldn’t feed a full meal with any of these Thanksgiving dishes. But a couple of bites as a treat is fine.

Thank you for all those extra details! White meat for them is perfect since I prefer the dark meat, haha. Won't have to share the dark then. Yup just a few bites or as a topper to their wet food tomorrow. The kitties will be excited!

 

[Sidewinder]

That's it, moderation is the key, and no substances which might give the kittehs grief later... however, my cats will be eating a little gravy with their white meat manana, not packaged stuff but gravy made from the drippings, and they'll take their chances with this rare treat. I won't give 'em that much gravy, just enough to make the turkey extra tasty, LOL... Crackhead might go for cranberry jelly too, hard to tell with that knucklehaid!!!

 

[WillowMarie]

That's it, moderation is the key, and no substances which might give the kittehs grief later... however, my cats will be eating a little gravy with their white meat manana, not packaged stuff but gravy made from the drippings, and they'll take their chances with this rare treat. I won't give 'em that much gravy, just enough to make the turkey extra tasty, LOL... Crackhead might go for cranberry jelly too, hard to tell with that knucklehaid!!!

Thanks! Unfortunately, I'll only have the powder gravy, which will probably be high in sodium. That sounds super yummy though! Bet the kitties loved that!

Persia sounds like your Crackhead, haha. She's one of my new kittens who is always trying to steal my food, especially popcorn and chips so far! The other day she managed to grab a piece of popcorn off my plate. I picked her up with one hand and grabbed the popcorn hanging out of my mouth with the other. My gut instinct was to toss the popcorn in my mouth and eat it before she could try to grab it back from my hands, haha! I was laughing at myself as I don't normally eat after my cats.

Although they'll be lots of food I don't normally eat today, so we'll see how excited Persia gets. Sometimes it's constantly placing her on the floor or putting my hand in her face and making her move back while I'm eating. She is learning though, and has more often sat on my lap while watching me eat instead of instantly trying to steal food. (My small place doesn't have tables, so I eat on the couch, which is why my kitties are normally in my lap and cuddling with me when I eat.) Good luck with your Crackhead today!

 

[Neko-chan's mama]

I'm planning on giving Neko-chan a bit of shredded neck meat no bones, because I boil it with no spices to add to the gravy. The actual bird gets spices and stuffing which contains garlic and onion so it's a no go.

 

[Kat0121]

My cats eat turkey and chicken. I will roast a plain turkey thigh or wing and give them some. Not dishes full but they sit by me and get hand fed little pieces until they decide they don't want anymore. They don't end up having much but they enjoy it and so do I. I have also added bits of the meat to their food as a topper and they like it.

 

[di and bob]

My cats eat roast turkey and chicken all the time, and so have my cats in the past. They would have to eat a HUGE amount of skin to get too much fat, roasted skinn sheds it fat while it cooks, it's not like fried, that's why you are supposed to baste. A small amount wouyldn't hurt at all. People go nuts now days with all those warnings, You can die from drinkinbg too much water too,m but who inh teh world would drink THAT much!? common sense people!

 

[amethyst]

Since I don't see anyone mention it, I would not give the kitties deli chicken, it's not the same as plain roast chicken, it's full of all kinds of stuff, which you listed.

I make my turkey fairly plain every year, I have my cats and dogs who I like to share with, the majority of the flavor for my meal comes from the gravy and other dishes that I add the spices to. As mentioned I think the issue with the meat comes from the fact that people don't normally do a plain bird, they add spices to it, or even brine the turkey, which does end up in the meat and isn't good for the cat.

 

[daftcat75]

I would skip that chicken treat with the salt and sugar solution. I just don’t trust that it would only be applied to the skin or that it would only stay there. Maybe a couple of bites from the meat closest to the bone. Assuming it’s been cooked all the way through. My Krista had an awful case of clostridium that I suspect was caused by a turkey drumstick I didn’t cook all the way through back when I was still getting the hang of my slow cooker and how to make meat stock for her. Now I make sure to leave just a few bites worth of meat on the bones—just enough to leave the connective tissues intact and provide a few grams of cooked meat when finished—and cook it longer than I probably need to.

I make meat stock but also raw food for Krista occasionally. When I’m processing the meat (cutting the useable meat from the bone to save for food and preparing the remainders for the stock pot), I will cut up a very small portion (just a few grams) for Krista. I call it her turkey sashimi distract-a-snack.

This time I cut up thigh meat for her and topped it with powdered freeze dried turkey liver treat. I would normally offer half that amount. But she wasn’t eating anything else at the time. But you do want to keep your treat portions small because it’s a new food (unless you feed it like this on the regular) and it’s not nutritionally complete (unless you can use a premix like EZ Complete to make a balanced and complete portion.)