Cats are the most popular pet owned around the world, second only to dogs. One of the essential things about owning a pet is ensuring they get the best diet; you should know what your pet can eat and what it must not eat. Feeding your pet with the right food is the best way to keep them healthy and active throughout their lifetime.
Yes, cats can eat peaches; peaches are delicious and have several nutritious values. However, you must not feed your cat the skin of a peach but the flesh only. When you want to feed your cat peaches, you should peel them, cut the flesh into pieces, and only serve them in small portions.
When it comes to feeding your cat, you must be very cautious because not all fruits which seem good are healthy for your cat. Fruits such as cherries, raisins, lime, grapes, and lemons are harmful to cats and cause serious health issues.
Are Peaches OK For Cats?
Yes, peaches are OK for cats; however, you should not give all the parts of a peach to your cat as food. Some parts of peaches are harmful to cats when digested. Peaches are among the most common fruits in most households; they have several nutritional benefits, especially for the human body.
However, the fact that a particular food is good for humans does not mean it is good for animals also. Cherries and grapes are good for humans but dangerous for pets like dogs and cats. Before you feed your cat with the food you eat, you must confirm with the veterinarian if the food is healthy for the cat.
If you are into gardening and you have peaches growing in your garden or backyard, it is of the utmost importance that you keep your cat away from that part of the garden where the peaches are. This is because the leaves and stem of a peach plant are harmful to cats if ingested. After all, they contain cyanide.
The pits or kernels of peaches are also toxic to cats. If a cat ingests a peach kernel, the cat can choke to death because the kernel contains a poisonous substance called amygdalin which is very harmful to cats. Also, the skin of a peach might be harmful to a cat because they might contain pesticides, especially if they are gotten from a grocery store.
However, if you are the one who planted and harvested the peaches and you are sure that you did not use pesticides or any other chemicals on them, you can feed them to your cat. The best part of a peach to give your cat is the fleshy part; however, you must not give them in large quantities as that might have some health effects.
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Will Peaches Hurt Cats?
Peaches do not necessarily cause damage to cats unless the cat is fed with the harmful part of a peach. There are three parts of a peach; the skin, the flesh, and the kernel. Only the flesh of a peach is healthy for a cat; if ingested in large portions, it might cause some damage to the cat’s health.
Cats cannot digest large quantities of sugar, and peaches are high in sugar; so, feeding a cat with lots of peaches can result in indigestion, diarrhea, and an upset stomach. Also, the seed or kernel of a peach is quite harmful to a cat. The seed of a peach contains poisonous cyanide, which is in the form of amygdalin.
When amygdalin is released into the digestive system of a cat, it irritates the digestive tract. It obstructs the intestine, which can cause the animal to go into shock, coma, or even lead to death. The poisonous nature of a peach seed is also in the leaves and stems of a peach plant.
Another part of peaches that can hurt a cat is peach oil; when you feed your cat with any food containing peach oil, the cat is most likely to have serious health issues. Peach oil is made from peach kernels and can be found in several households.
A cat that has consumed peach oil can experience dilated pupils, difficulty breathing, bright red mucous membranes, coma, and in some cases, death. Also, rubbing peach oil on the skin of your cat can cause a severe toxic reaction. When a cat consumes any harmful part of a peach, some of the likely symptoms the cat will display are:
- Vomiting
- Drooling
- Dilated pupils
- Tremors
- Weakness
- Convulsions
- Dehydration and loss of appetite
- Coma
- Cardiac arrest
- Respiratory distress
- Diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Depressed central nervous system
How To Feed Your Cat With Peaches
With all the dangers associated with feeding a cat the unhealthy parts of a peach, you must know how to feed your cat with peaches so that you do not cause damage to the pet. When feeding your cat with peaches, the first thing you must do is thoroughly wash the peaches and get rid of any residue on its body.
The reason why you must thoroughly wash a peach is to get rid of any substance that can cause harm to the cat once digested. The next thing to do is to peel the skin of the peach; this is because there might be some lingering chemicals like insecticide and pesticide on the skin of the peach. If the cat consumes that part, it might have some toxic reactions.
The next thing to do is to cut up the fleshy part of the fruit into smaller pieces. However, you must remember to remove the seeds from the peach before feeding it to your cat. This is because the seeds of a peach contain some poisonous substance that can kill the cat. After cutting the peaches into smaller pieces, make sure you give your cats just a few small pieces.
You must never feed a cat with a whole peach at once because peaches contain a high level of sugar, and a cat’s digestive system cannot digest a high amount of sugar. So, feeding a cat with several pieces of peach can weaken its digestive system and cause serious health problems.
Can You Feed Your Cat With Dried Peaches?
Dried peaches are highly nutritious; however, they are only beneficial to the human body. Feeding a cat with dried peaches is like giving the cat a death sentence. It would be best if you never feed your cat dried peaches. This is because when a peach is dried, all the liquid content is removed.
When the liquid content of a peach is removed, the sugar content and calories in the peach are increased. A cat is a small animal with a small digestive system that cannot digest high sugar or calories. Hence, giving them dried peaches will be overworking their digestive system, which can cause them to shut down.
Also, feeding your cat with dried peaches can lead to dried fruit poisoning, resulting in several complications in different parts of the cat’s system. Also, it would help if you never gave your cat canned peaches either, as they can result in the problem of dried peaches.
Final Thoughts
One of the main causes of diseases and infections in cats is consuming the wrong food. If you want to protect your cat, you must be careful of what you feed it with. Giving a cat a peach to eat is not bad when you feed it with the right part. However, you must also remember that peaches are meant to be given to cats as treats, not real food, so you should not give your cat peaches to eat every day.
Shawn Manaher is a serial entrepreneur but when he isn’t working, he loves dogs. He’s owned different pets over the years, and always gives a part of his heart to each pet.
