Cats are a popular pet and we all like hanging out with our feline friends. French fries are a tasty treat that many of us eat and our pets likely want to share them.
While cooked French fries are not toxic for our cat buddies for several reasons I will explain, raw potatoes in any form are indeed toxic and poisonous for cats.
Firstly, cats are carnivores and need meat in their diets to survive and be healthy. Humans and even dogs are omnivores which means the can eat meat, fruits and vegetables, but although cats can eat some of that, they do not need them in their diets.
Potatoes are high in carbohydrates, and those shouldn’t make up more than one to two percent of a cat’s diet. Therefore, even a couple fries amounts to more carbs than that! They are full of starch too and that’s hard for a cat’s digestive system to break down.
It likely will not be processed by their digestive system and would literally just come out and they’d get no nutrients from it.
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Can Cats Eat French Fries? Here’s Why Not:
Additionally, French fries are high in salt and that’s also bad for cats. It can raise their blood pressure, just like it does in humans. A mere four grams of salt can be lethal for cats, which isn’t a lot of salt at all.
And fries have a lot of fat in them too, which in high amounts is also bad for cats. They don’t get any essential fats they need from French fries.
And the worst part of the French fry is the potato skins, as some types of fries still have the skin on them. The skins absorb the highest amounts of fat and salt.
Plus, French fries often include ketchup, which is bad for cats. It contains lots of salt, as well as tomatoes and onions or garlic. Ketchup is also very acidic, and could irritate the cat’s digestive tract. Plus onions and garlic are both very poisonous for both cats and dogs.
All in all this combo of salt, fries, and ketchup also has way too many calories for your pet to retain good health!
Potatoes themselves do have several nutrients in them such as Potatoes, fiber, potassium, manganese, and Vitamins B6 and C.
However, it is much better for your cat to get these vital nutrients in a meat based diet, and they shouldn’t eat more than one or two French fries as a treat, if that!
Cats in the wild get these nutrients via the mice and other small animals they eat along with the contents of their prey’s stomachs.
Our indoor domesticated cats can get the perfect amounts of needed nutrients via eating a high quality brand name cat food in both dry and wet forms.
These are available in everything from your corner grocery store to vet’s offices, pet supply stores or online. Talk to your veterinarian to see what you should be feeding your cat as well as the amounts of food they need every day.
Raw Potatoes are Toxic to Cats
When it comes to uncooked, raw French fries this is a total NO NO! Inside raw potatoes is a substance known as glycoalkaloid solanine, which is exceptionally lethal for felines.
This is especially true if the cat were to eat a green skinned raw potato, as it has more of the poisonous substance in the green parts.
If your cat eats a green potato, they need to be seen by your veterinarian as soon as possible to see if they ate enough to harm them. Call the Pet Poison Control number for your area for more information.
If you are getting ready to cook a batch of French fries, some drop to the floor while still frozen and your cat eats one, don’t worry.
Frozen French fries are not usually raw potatoes and shouldn’t hurt them. Likely they wont eat more than a bite and then spit it out since frozen French fries are not very tasty even to greedy pets.
All in all, a cat’s digestive system has evolved to need meat and proteins and fats from meat. They are what is called an obligate carnivore, which means meat is mandatory to keep them healthy and happy. Although they may eat a bit of other foods, their bodies can’t digest things like fruit or vegetables as well as we humans can.
Cats don’t even have the proper taste buds to enjoy potatoes or other fruits and veggies, they just think it smells interesting or want it because their humans are eating them! They want to join us in all we do and sometimes that isn’t best for our pets.
The Bottom Line
So, in conclusion to the question cant cats eat French fries? the answer is one or two likely won’t hurt them as long as you don’t add any ketchup or other sauces.
However, never let them eat raw French fries especially if you notice any have green tint to them. These are poison and toxic to cats.
You want your pet to live as long as possible, so feed them foods made especially for cats as recommended by your pet’s veterinarian. Don’t feed them people foods like French fries.
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