Can Cats Eat Bananas? Bananas are safe for cats. According to ASPCA, bananas are nontoxic to your feline friends. This delightful fruit is packed with high sugar and nutrients, high sugar in cat’s diet may cause diabetes and obesity to your feline friend.
Nutrition facts about bananas
- Calories – 89
- Protein – 1.1 g
- Sugar – 12.2 g
- Water – 75%
- Carbs – 22.8 g
- Fat – 0.3 g
- Fibre – 2.6 g
- Omega-3 – 0.03 g
- Omega-6 -0.05 g
- Saturated – 0.11 g
- Monounsaturated – 0.03 g
- Polyunsaturated – 0.07 g
Are bananas safe for cats?
Actually, bananas are safe for cats with some precautions. Rotten bananas for cats will cause health problems like diarrhoea, vomiting due to their sensitive stomach. When feeding bananas for the first time to your cats, observe closely whether it has any signs of vomiting or stomach pain.
It’s better to feed bananas in moderation because too much consumption of bananas may lead your cats to health issues like weight gain, diabetes and bad for teeth health.
Can cats eat banana peel?
No! Always, remove the banana peel before feeding bananas to your feline friend because it is hard to digest and increase the risk of choking. Actually, banana peel contains pesticides due to chemicals used to terminate insects so it is toxic to your cats.
Health benefits of bananas for cats
It is one of the nutritious fruits, which benefits cats diet provision of fibre. Health benefits of fibre content in bananas include
- Controls weight gain
- Treating diarrhoea
- Treating constipation
- Reduce obesity
Also, it is a great source of nutrients like manganese, potassium, vitamin C and vitamin B6.
Can kittens eat bananas?
Kittens are normally weaned from mothers milk around six weeks of age. They can be fed with soft cat foods that are easily digestible then onwards. Though bananas hold a lot of nutrients, cats have other foods that are nutritional for them. Many food items that are nutritional for humans may not be good for felines.
Bananas are not the natural food for kittens as they are carnivores. Hence bananas are not essential for kittens.
Side effects of bananas
Feeding too much of bananas may lead your cat’s health in risk like
- As it is rich in sugar content, which can cause diabetes in your feline friend.
- Feeding bananas regularly to your cats with pancreatitis, hyperthyroidism or to old cats may cause diabetes.
Tips for serving bananas to your cats
If you are serving bananas as an occasional treat then consider these following tips before serving
- Consider the age of your cats because old cats may have the risk of diabetes.
- Feed a small piece of banana to your cats, which will avoid choking and observe any other issue arise due to bananas to your feline friend.
- Mix small pieces of bananas with your cat’s meat food.
- Feeding too much will cause stomach upset to your cats.
- Remove banana peel before serving.
- After feeding banana, doesn’t feed any other fruit or vegetables.
- Avoid rotten bananas, which cause stomach upset to your feline friends.