The short answer is: No, cats cannot eat rice pudding. Although white rice in the pudding is safe for cats, the other components, such as milk and sugar, aren’t. If you have some rice pudding to spare, don’t give too much. A few licks from time to time is alright. However, large amounts can harm your cat.
Rice pudding, like any other pudding, is easy to make and has simple ingredients.
While rice is safe for your pet, some other ingredients that come with it through the pudding aren’t.
A simple rice pudding recipe needs rice, milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, butter, and raisins.
It’s essential that you know each ingredient and how it can affect your feline friend. It will help you understand how too much intake can be harmful.
Let’s get into each more.
Contents
What’s in the rice pudding? (Ingredients)
White Rice
Rice is one of the human food that is safe for cats to eat.
While it’s not necessarily a part of their diet, a little amount won’t harm your pet. Rice can even be beneficial to your kitty.
Still, it’s not reason enough to feed your large cat amounts of rice pudding. It is because other ingredients can harm your feline friend.
Milk
The milk used in rice pudding isn’t safe for cats. As the base of any pudding, the milk is usually the whole milk.
This type of milk contains lactose, which isn’t ideal for cats.
Too much whole milk can lead to indigestion or diarrhea.
Since rice pudding contains an ample amount of milk, it makes pudding harmful food for cats.
Related – Can cats eat vanilla pudding?
Sugar
Another harmful human food for cats is sugar.
Unlike us, cats are carnivores. Thus, while they can eat plant-based food from time to time, they can’t tolerate too much sugar.
High amounts of sugar can lead to insulin, which will eventually cause liver failure.
As a significant component in a rice pudding, your pet should take little to no amount of it.
Egg
An egg is healthy for cats as it contains the protein they need. Still, it’s only beneficial on its own.
If mixed with milk and sugar through a pudding recipe, it can be a bad thing as well.
Vanilla
Vanilla is a tricky one because it’s not present in the list of toxic food for cats.
However, rice pudding recipes use vanilla extract. This kind of product has alcohol, and alcohol is toxic to cats.
Thus, remember that vanilla in rice pudding contains alcohol. It’s a good reminder not to give a large serving of pudding.
Butter
Butter is a dairy product, and all kinds of dairy products are not suitable for our feline pets.
As a dairy product, it contains lactose, and most cats are lactose-intolerant.
Large amounts that are present in rice pudding can be fatmful the same way whole milk can.
Raisin
Although optional, most rice pudding recipes include raisins, which is a toxic food for your cat.
The list of food that can be poisonous to cats includes grapes and raisins. These foods may lead to kidney issues.
Don’t worry, though, as cats usually don’t get attracted to grapes and raisins.
Still, you may want to avoid such incidents from happening.
Now, since you already know that rice pudding is terrible, you may wonder if other types are harmful as well.
You May Also Read – Can cats eat durian?
Can cats eat pudding?
The regular pudding includes milk, sugar, and starch. Most puddings only differ in the flavor. Aside from that, puddings are almost the same.
With this in mind, you should know that cats cannot eat pudding, or at least it can’t be a part of their diet.
It should be alright to allow a few licks and taste now and then.
But, if you wish to stay on the safe side, avoid giving puddings at all.
Can a cat eat rice?
As I said earlier, rice is one of the many human foods that are safe for cats to eat.
As long as you give it in moderation and the food your pet needs, it will be fine.
Include rice in the treat and snacks, but don’t make it a part of their daily food.
Felines are carnivores, which is why they need meat more than grains like rice.
For you to know what to avoid, you may want to check out the food that is poisonous to cats.
Do you want to know if cats eat pesto or cayenne pepper? Check it out!
What foods are poisonous to cats?
Rice pudding contains harmful food for cats such as milk, butter, sugar, and raisins.
If you’re feeding your pet other food than regular cat food, ensure that it doesn’t contain any of these:
- Onions
- Raw Eggs, Meat, and Bones
- Chocolate and Caffeinated Drinks
- Alcohol and Raw Dough
- Grapes and Raisins
- Dog Food
In Summary
For us, humans, rice pudding, and all other kinds of the pudding is an easy-to-make treat. Thus, it is indeed tempting to share some with our cats.
Still, in cases like this, you should always remember that the food we enjoy can be harmful to our pets. After all, we’re different than our pets.
As much as it is frustrating to know that your feline friend cannot enjoy pudding as much as you do, it’s all for its health.
As owners, it’s our responsibility to give safe food they can eat. It’s alright to let them enjoy a taste here and there.
However, the fact should remain that felines should eat what they ought to eat, and not the ones we enjoy.
Resources
Study about the lactose intolerance of cats
Image credits – Photos by Biel Morro and Rasmus Gundorff Sæderup on Unsplash
