The cooked potato is a food that sometimes cats can eat without being toxic, but never as usual and much less daily. It is a tuber rich in carbohydrates, a macronutrient that should not be a majority in the diet of felines as these are strict carnivores and are designed to obtain energy and glucose from sources of meat and animal fat, not from carbohydrates from grains or potatoes and vegetables. Also, keep in mind that you should never give them raw potatoes, as they contain compounds called solanines that cause toxicity in cats.
Continue reading this article on our site to find out if cats can eat potatoes or not, how they can do it and if there are contraindications or dangers with its ingestion.
Is potato good for cats?
Potatoes or potatoes are tubers that originated in South America, in the Andean region where they have been consumed by the inhabitants for many centuries, reaching the European continent by the Spanish after colonization to stay until the present. They are consumed in different ways and can even be given to animals, including our cats, without being toxic in small doses.
It would be wrong to say that potato is bad for cats, but it's also not good to be included in their routine diet, since it is made up of a large quantity of carbohydrates, an important macronutrient for many living beings to obtain glucose, but not in the case of the cat, which is a strict carnivore. Being carnivores, cats are kept on a very low-carbohydrate diet, since the glucose needs in this species are obtained through the protein catabolization process In addition, they do not digest them very well, which is why in cat diets we usually find corn starch in some cases, which is, of all, the most digestive.
Potatoes can be useful when they are given cooked in times of diarrhea or soft stools due to their property of hardening them, or as a reward from time to time if the cat likes it, but not in a way routine.
Discover more details about the correct feeding of a cat in this other article: "What do cats eat?".
Benefits of potatoes for cats
Potatoes not only contain large amounts of carbohydrates in the form of starch, but we can also find other nutrients such as fiber and also micronutrients from the group of vitamins and minerals, which are involved in the cell maintenance, energy production, nerve impulse transmission and other neurological processes. In general, potatoes can provide the following nutritional benefits in cats:
- Glucose
- Vitamin B1
- Vitamin B3
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin C
- Magnesium
- Iron
- Hill
- Potassium
- Selenium
How to feed a cat a potato?
We have already stated that cats can eat potatoes, but not in any way. To begin with, the number of calories in a fried potato is not the same as in a boiled potato, being around 450 Kcal/100g in the first case and only 80 Kcal/100g in the second. Taking this into account, a cat should not eat French fries due to the enormous amount of energy that only a small portion would provide in relation to its size and daily energy needs. Thus, they are totally contraindicated, but especially in those cats that are overweight, since they promote weight gain. In addition, French fries are very rich in fat, which can damage your intestine, leading to diarrhea. It is also important to keep in mind that you should never give them condiments such as s alt, pepper and other spices because they can harm them in the same way.
So how do you feed a cat a potato? Ideally, offer cooked or boiled potatoes, as this destroys the toxic alkaloids. Likewise, it must be offered without spices and without fats so that it is safe for your little feline. Once cooked, you can mash it up and mix it with other good cat foods, like boiled chicken. In this way, you can also make a soft homemade diet in case your feline suffers from diarrhea or needs it for another reason, always with the approval of the veterinarian in charge of your case.
To avoid causing damage to the cat, it is not recommended to give him potatoes more than once a week.
Contraindications of potatoes in cats
Potatoes are contraindicated in diabetic cats because they increase blood glucose, in cats that need to follow a strict diet for some other problem and they are always contraindicated when they are raw This is because raw potatoes, as well as green tomatoes or raw aubergines, contain solanines, toxic alkaloids that inhibit acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme involved in the hydrolysis of acetylcholine. This causes the latter to increase in the cat, being responsible for the appearance of many cholinergic effects such as:
- Increased digestive secretions.
- Increased urinary secretions.
- Increased respiratory secretions.
- Increased brain activity.
- Vasodilation.
- Reduced heart rate
These cholinergic effects can produce clinical signs in cats such as vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach irritation, convulsions, dizziness, pupil dilation, incoordination, hallucinations and cardiac arrhythmias. For this reason, never give your cat raw potatoes, as they can be very toxic. The best way to give potatoes to a cat is to give them boiled or cooked, where we eliminate these toxic alkaloids without losing their nutritional properties.
Learn more Toxic foods for cats in this other article and avoid them at all costs.
