When dinner is ready, and the kitty is curious about your pot roast or carrot cake, it makes one wonder, can cats eat carrots? Your cat’s diet is important to her health. Read on for the answer and find out other cat facts about carrots and nutrition.
Do Carrots Offer any Nutritional Benefits for Cats?
Carrots are often a part of dinner, and they make great snacks for people. Vegetables offer many nutritional benefits to our diet, but what about our cats’ food? Carrots offer fiber and beta carotene to both your diet and your cat’s. Both of these nutrients support a healthy digestive system.
During digestion, beta-carotene is carried through your digestive system to your liver. Your cat’s digestion works the same way. Once it reaches your cat’s liver, this nutrient is converted into vitamin A, just like in a person.
Vitamin A is a cardinal factor in optimal health for humans and cats, but kitty is a carnivore. Therefore, Snowball’s carrot consumption is conducive to his health in cautious moderation.
Can Kittens Eat Carrots?
The nutritional value carrots offer extends past digestion and reach other parts of the body, such as vision. Vitamin A, produced by Tiger in his liver when he eats a carrot, is a critical component in the optimal growth and reproduction of the cells that make up the organs and tissues of every living thing.
Because of this, carrots are especially advantageous for kittens and young cats. However, adding a few pieces of carrot in with your cat’s food at mealtime is better than just letting her have the occasional carrot as a snack. Added to good quality cat food, carrots have the nutritional excellence to optimize your kitten’s healthy growth.
Do you Know?
There are many other foods that dogs like to snack on. We have done our research. Check out: Can Dogs Eat Pork?
Can Cats Eat Raw Carrots?
While it’s true that maximum nutritional value is acquired by eating uncooked carrots, the hard, crunchy density of these veggies present a choking hazard for your cat. Carrots can be damaging to a cat’s oral health as well if a tooth gets chipped or breaks while eating a raw carrot.
On the other hand, Cooked carrots are soft and pose no threat to teeth. Although, you must be sure to break or cut even cooked carrots into very small bites for Kitty to easily chew fully before swallowing.
Other Veggies that Cats Can Eat:
There are other vegetables with health benefits in moderation. These include:
- Green beans
- Broccoli florets
- Winter squash
- Zucchini
- Sweet peas
When you give your cat some of these healthy veggies, keep those separated from the food you’re preparing for the people you’re serving. Your cat’s food should be free of seasons as some spices, like garlic, are not healthy and can cause health problems.
So, Can Cats Eat Carrots?
Absolutely, your cat can eat carrots as long as they’re tender after being cooked and have no spices or seasoning on them. Be sure that when you’re feeding carrots to your cat the pieces are very small so that she can chew them without choking hazards. Finally, remember that moderation is important anytime you give your cat vegetables because meat composes her natural diet.