Cats can eat some types of cookies, yes. But in moderation. In all honesty, it’s better to avoid giving your cat a bite from your cookie. The reason being, some ingredients like raisins and chocolate are toxic for cats. So, what do you think? Isn’t a kitty treat a better alternative?
Cookies gained their fame in almost all households (including mine). Thus, it didn’t surprise when people ask if they can let their cat have some.
Still, as much as we love a sweet treat brought to us by our cookies, it doesn’t mean our cats can as well.
Although the base of cookies, which is flour, is safe, the rest of it is questionable.
Cookies come in a lot of variety, and one of the famous cookies are the chocolate chip cookies.
Let’s get into it first!
Contents
Chocolate chip cookies might be a good treat for us, but not for our feline pets. To understand further, let’s see what’s in chocolate chip cookies.
A homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe includes the following:
- Butter (not safe)
- White Sugar & Packed Brown Sugar (A big No)
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract (toxic)
- Baking Soda
- Salt (Also toxic)
- All-purpose flour
- Chocolate Chips (Huge Red Flag)
- Walnuts (Avoid any nuts)
Indeed, a piece of cookies might be safe for cats. However, the chocolate chip cookies have tiny bits of chocolates, which can be lethal.
Chocolate, like the tiny bits of it in cookies, contains theobromine, which is the toxic agent.
Even in small amounts, eating chocolate can induce extreme conditions. Among these are abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures, and even death.
If you’re feeding some cookies, make sure that it has no chocolate content. Further, never give more than a bite.
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Cats cannot eat cookie dough, especially the raw ones.
If you’re just about to bake a cookie, it’s best to stay away from the raw dough.
It’s essential to keep your pet away from the raw dough, even cookie dough. Ingestion of such can cause issues such as:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Tremors
- Disorientation
- Trouble Breathing
- Coma
- Death
PreventiveVet states that the yeast in a raw dough can produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. Both things are harmful.
Further, if ingested, the dough itself may expand within your pet’s stomach. Such an incident would require surgery to get removed.
As curious animals, your kitty may take a bite of unbaked dough. For this reason, it’s crucial to prevent it from approaching raw dough.
Another type of cookies that you should avoid is the shortbread cookies.
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Shortbread cookies may be lesser in sugar than other cookies. Further, it may not have any chocolate chips in it.
Still, it’s not a good idea to give some to your feline pet. Why is that? They cannot eat shortbread cookies, since it contains a lot of butter or margarine.
Here’s a look at what’s inside a shortbread cookie recipe:
- Unsalted Butter (Toxic)
- Sugar (Also a No)
- Vanilla Extract (May contain Alcohol, which is toxic)
- All-purpose Flour
- Kosher Salt (Any kind of salt is bad)
Compared to other cookie varieties, shortbread cookies may be lesser in sugar. Nevertheless, they contain higher butter or margarine, which has a lot of fat content.
Is it OK to give cats sweets?
Cats cannot taste the sweetness in food, and there’s a reason why they can’t do so.
According to an NCBI study, felines lack a sweet taste receptor. And the primary reason is that they don’t need sweets.
Yes, you read it right.
Felines, as obligate carnivores, can survive only with meat. They don’t need sweets and carbohydrates, things that you can get from plant-based food.
Thus, it’s not okay to give sweets, such as cookies.
Of course, a bite of cookie here and there may not cause any issue, especially if it doesn’t contain any chocolate.
Still, it would be better if you prevent giving your cat some sweets.
Do you want to know if cats eat flour tortillas or lemon pepper tuna? Check it out!
If you catch your cat eating a cookie, it probably won’t cause any issue, especially if it has no chocolate in it.
A bite or two of cookies won’t do any harm. If it takes too much, expect some digestive problems such as vomiting or diarrhea.
Feeding your cat, some sweet treats like cookies, have no nutritional benefits. That’s a starting point.
The thing about cookies is that it doesn’t have any nutritional value.
As obligate carnivores, your pet can survive without carbohydrates, which cookies have.
Further, too much cookie intake may lead to having too much sugar in the body.
Worse, if you feed your cat chocolate chip cookies or any choco-infused ones, you may even end up poisoning it.
In Summary
Cookies and cats aren’t a good match. While cookies may give us a satisfying treat of sweet goodness to our cats, it can be bland and useless.
Cookies contain too many sweets and carbohydrates, things a cat doesn’t need.
Thus, a cookie may seem like a treat for us, but never for our cats.
If you wish to give your cat some treat, provide them with something with nutritional value for them.
And what about biscuits? Is that different? Learn more here.
Resources
NCBI study about chocolate and theobromine
Preventive Vet list of 14 foods you shouldn’t give to your cat
NCBI study about cats lacking sweet taste receptor
Image credits – Photos by Milada Vigerova and Christina Branco on Unsplash
