Can I give my cats a can of salmon?

[yorkshirepud]

I ran out of the food last night for my cats - big mistake with my cats - and this morning I had to give them a small bowlful of cat treats, but they are telling me - quite verbally - they are still hungry. DH is picking up their food on his way home from work, but he won't get home until 2ish, so do you think I could give them a can of salmon? I'm worried it might upset their stomach as typically they only get dried food. Plus the salmon has bones in it.

[wallycat]

I think once is fine...but beware, once a cat has canned or "people" food, it's hard to convince them to go back to dry...at least that's been my experience with Wally :rolleyes:

The salmon bones in canned salmon litterally dissolvle to the touch.

Oh, and fish products are supposed to be hard on cats...gout...but I think once is fine.
Maybe more pet-savvy people will post :)

[hlao23]

I'm not sure about salmon, but I do remember reading somewhere that canned tuna can be deadly for cats. I'll see what I can "google" on the topic.

[yorkshirepud]

Wallycat, I think my cats are odd. I've given them wet food, albeit cat food, before and they much much prefer dry. Socks, who is a little shall we say - :p strange :D - almost finds wet food impossible to eat. She gets more on her nose, and squashed in the bowl then her mouth! :D


hlao23, tuna deadly?? Really? Wow, that is good to know. Who'd of thought? You know, my cats has quietened down now (both sleeping), perhaps I'll just wait, I wouldn't want to put them at risk for the sake of a few hours.

[hlao23]

Found this on a website about preparing food for your cats (rather than feeding them catfood):

Optional: once every 2 weeks, substitute 4 oz tuna (packed in water, no salt), 6 oz sardines (canned) or 5 oz salmon (canned, with bones) for any meat source. Do not use canned fish as a protein source for cats who are prone to urinary tract problems.

Here's the site: http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:FYSou7P3V_IJ:www.critterchat.net/vet6.htm+canned+fish+cats&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Can't vouch for the validity of the source, but it's all I could find.

[yorkshirepud]

hlao23, thank you for going to the trouble of doing a search. That's very kind of you. Like I said, Socks has quietened down (Nala is outside sleeping), so I'll hold off, if it does get impossible to wait, I'll go ahead with the salmon.

Thanks.

[lorilei]

Just adding some info, in case you need it...

Salmon and sardines are fine for cats. Tuna isn't such a hot idea because there is such a high mercury content in canned tuna. This can build up in the cat and cause health issues later on.

So -- if your cats are hungry and you choose to feed them, the salmon should be just fine.

[JHolcomb]

I'm sure any of it should be fine if it's a one time deal. Even with tuna, I doubt that half a small can, given once in a lifetime, would be harmful. I don't know for sure, but, it seems logical.

We finally got Tiva to eat her new cat food (the dreaded R/D---reduction diet for fatcats) by mushing it together with the wet version of the R/D formula. I'm sure any cat that was used to wet cat food would have turned up her nose at the R/D wet (I swear I think it's made of chicken livers and newspaper, at least that's what it looks like), but because Tiva had never once had wet cat food, she thinks it's the biggest treat, even though it's very drastically reduced in calories. Now I'm dreading taking her off the wet/dry combo...I know she'll clamor for the wet all the time now :rolleyes: