Can Cats Eat Pasta?
Human beings love pasta by nature, as it is an excellent source of energy with a very pleasant taste. 50 to 60% of a person’s daily caloric intake should come from carbohydrate-rich foods, including cereals, bread, pasta, rice, root vegetables, and some fruits. Anyway, do you know if cats can eat pasta?
Without any malicious intent, guardians tend to humanize pets. In the process, they may feed the pet some foods that they think are good for them, but are actually causing long-term intestinal problems. In the following lines, we explore whether pasta is a cat-friendly dish. Do not miss it.
The optimal diet for cats
As studies indicate, cats are undoubtedly carnivorous animals. This means that their primary source of energy is proteins, present in the form of muscle tissue, organs and skin of the prey they consume. To give you an idea, a mouse is 56% protein and 23.6% fat: the perfect prey for a hungry feline.
Due to their obligatory carnivorous nature – unlike dogs, which are facultative carnivores – the diet of cats should have a minimum of 25% protein, ideally 55%. The other 25-40% of the remaining energy is obtained in the form of fat, better if it comes from natural sources. As we will see in later lines, cats do not need to eat carbohydrates.
Furthermore, felids — unlike humans — are not capable of synthesizing taurine, an essential amino acid for the functioning of the vertebrate body. Many meats and fish are rich in this compound, yet another reason why meat cannot be missing from the diet of any domestic cat.
Can Cats Eat Pasta?
As the document Focus On Nutrition from the Purina company indicates , cats can consume carbohydrates, but they do not need them in their diet. If we consider that 75 out of every 100 grams of pasta are pure carbohydrates, the question already posed answers itself. Put simply and quickly: you don’t need to offer pasta to a cat.
Interestingly, felines do not use cereals, pasta and breads as energy sources, but these compounds are often included in commercial feed to lower costs. The aforementioned source estimates that the rate of digestion of these foods in the digestive system of a feline exceeds 90%. This means that, until now, cats have become well used to these foods.
Thus, a cat does not need pasta to supplement its diet, but nothing bad should happen if it is offered sporadically. In any case, it should never be abused, as every guardian will understand that a feline would never find these foods in its natural environment.
How to offer the cat pasta safely?
The best way to offer pasta to a cat is boiled, without any seasoning. Salt, garlic, sauces, and other human-friendly seasonings can wreak havoc on feline health, so they should never be added to the dish. It is also not suitable to give the feline instant noodles and other processed ones, as they contain high amounts of sodium.
In addition, studies highlight that carbohydrates could promote the appearance of diabetes in the animal. While this has been shown when simple sugars (carbohydrates) are constantly administered to the cat, the effect has not been proven with complex carbohydrates, such as those found in rice, bread or pasta.
Can you eat pasta with tomato?
Based on the same premise above, we recommend that the pasta is not seasoned with any type of seasonings. What in our eyes is a harmless processed sauce, actually involves a high amount of salts, additives and unnecessary calories. In addition, according to the ASPCA body , the tomato plant has solanine, an active ingredient that is toxic to dogs, cats and horses.
An unnecessary nutritional addition
Cats can eat pasta, but with all the information collected, it seems that its effect on the body is at least neutral, and in the worst case, negative. Therefore, we do not recommend adding this food to the animal’s diet. Although for humans it may be a delicious dish, you must remember that a cat would never eat spaghetti in nature.
If you want to vary the diet of your cat, we encourage you to give it raw meat – as long as it has been subjected to a strict sanitary control -, partially cooked or in the form of stews suitable for pets. These animals are strict carnivores, so protein should be the main source of energy in all cases, without exception.
