So your meat-lover friend joins you during tea or snack time and asks you to share biscuits with it. In that case, you have to be curious with a question: “Can I feed biscuits to my cat?”
Biscuits or cookies won’t be the most toxic thing you’ll ever feed to your cat. But that does never mean that it’s a healthy treat for the feline.
Let’s go through each corner of this topic and find the truth about relation between cats and biscuits:
Do Biscuits Contain Anything that is Bad for Your Cat?
Yes, it’s true that feeding biscuits to your cat won’t kill it. But whenever you ask an expert or vet, he’ll strictly forbid you to do that. It’s because most famous (human) biscuits contain things that are bad for your carnivore friend.
Hence, to understand the whole thing, we first need to comprehend what exactly biscuits contain:
1. Flour
The main ingredient of any biscuit in the world is flour. Some brands use all-purpose flour in their biscuits or cookies but bread flour is more commonly used.
In either case, flour isn’t an ideal thing to feed to your feline. It’s because flour contains carbs that aren’t needed to be in the diet of the cute carnivore.
2. Sugar
After flour, sugar is the biggest component of biscuits in terms of content. Sugar should be a compulsory part of a feline’s diet for the same reason why doctors stop humans from consuming sugar.
Cats can’t taste sugar. This truth might seem a lie because cats sometimes get excited after eating sugar. Anyways, you should never feed them sugar because excessive amounts of it can make your cat/s fat.
And if obesity persists for a considerable amount of time, your cat might start facing severe issues like diabetes and pancreatitis.
3. Butter
Although the amount of butter is extremely slight, even a small amount of butter can become a concern for cats. It’s because butter or any type of oil is considered harmful to cats. In most cases, feline’s stomachs are unable to ingest butter and end up with diarrhea and even vomiting.
4. Milk
From cartoons (like Tom and Jerry) and movies, we all have a perception that cats love milk and they can drink milk all day long. Well, a few species of cats like milk but most kinds of felines are lactose intolerant.
Actually, kitty’s stomach isn’t as strong as human’s stomach to ingest a heavy liquid like milk. There has to be at least a little amount of milk in biscuits batter or dough.
5. Salt
Salty biscuits are a big NO for your friend!
Nevertheless, even in case of sugary biscuits, a slight amount of salt is used. So, you should be aware of what salt is capable of doing to your cat.
Actually, salt makes anyone (not just cats) thirsty but the case with cats is that they don’t like drinking water. That’s why there should not be any amount of salt in feline’s diet because dehydration can even cause kidney issues in cats (in severe cases). Canned chicken is another food item that contains loads of salt.
All in all, almost every main ingredient of biscuits isn’t ideal for cats. Hence, you should not feed them as a part of daily meal. For better understanding, have a look at the table below:
| Ingredients | Eatability |
| Flour | Should not be a part of the complete diet |
| Sugar | Should not be fed in large amounts |
| Salt | Can be fed only occasionally |
| Butter | Butter or any oil can cause diarrhea in cats |
| Eggs | Eatable |
| Milk | Not ideal |
| Nuts | Unsafe |
| Vanilla Extracts | Safe |
| Chocolate | Not just bad, but also toxic in some cases |
| Baking Soda | Okay if fed only a pinch of it |
Heath Concerns about Biscuits for Your Cat
You already are aware of what biscuits contain and what ingredients of biscuits can do to your pet. But now, it’s time to dig a little deeper to unveil the health concerns biscuits might arise in your cat:
Diarrhea
Biscuit is usually taken as a heavy snacks as they contain things that aren’t light but are difficult to digest like eggs, butter, and milk. That’s why biscuits are forbidden for a person who’s suffering from diarrhea or stomach issues.
To add more to it, cat’s stomach is extremely weak when compared with human’s stomach and it can’t ingest anything heavy. Hence, there’s a huge possibility that even if you feed biscuits as a snack (but regularly), your cat will get diarrhea soon.
Obesity
If you keep feeding biscuits to your pet for a significant amount of time, it might get fat. Obesity itself is a great attracter of severe diseases including heart diseases. Things like sugar and creamy milk make things worse in this case.
Dehydration
Extensive amounts of sodium (for cats) in biscuits (especially butter cookies) can be a threat to your cat. Salt has sodium that increases the thirst of felines and they don’t drink water lovingly. Therefore, you either have to make your friend drink water more often than ever before or stop your cat right now.
What Amount of Biscuits is Good for My Cat?
You already know that frequently feeding biscuits to your cats is bad for several reasons. But being a feline parent, you might already know the fact that cats are astonishing when it comes to manipulating humans.
Your cat will convince you to buy another biscuit before you realize that you have done the wrong thing. That’s why it’s important to understand the scenario from another angle.
We need to see things calorie-wise. A grown kitty’s diet should contain anything near 300 calories per day. And only one biscuit (14g) contains almost 40 calories. It might seem alright but you are forgetting that biscuit has nothing to do with the diet of a cat.
While not going into technicalities, in simple words, one biscuit per week is enough. But if your cat is stubborn and loves biscuits try safer alternatives or bring it to two or three biscuits per week.
FAQs
Can I feed biscuits to my cat that is dipped in tea/coffee/milk?
Not recommended!
Biscuit in the first place is not a recommended thing but if it’s not frequent, tea and coffee are still worse than biscuits. Moreover, milk makes things more difficult for kitty’s stomach to digest. However, if it’s a herbal, it should be fine.
Can cats eat digestive biscuits?
They are better than ordinary biscuits!
Digestive biscuits are even taken as a healthier option even for humans. Right? In case of felines, digestive cookies are better due to absence of high-carb flour, sugar (most probably), and heavy milk.
Can cats eat chocolate biscuits?
A big NO!
Chocolate biscuits are far more dangerous for cats than ordinary biscuits. It’s because chocolate contains caffeine and theobromine (a toxic element) and they both are fatal for cats if fed in large amounts.
Can cats eat sugary biscuits?
NO!
If your cat loves biscuits and you can’t help it, avoid sugary biscuits. You already know that cats can’t taste sugar so why not go for a safer option like digestive biscuits?
Can you feed cookies to your cat?
The case of cookies is exactly the same as biscuits. Nonetheless, you must never even think about feeding chocolate cookies to your cat.
Final Words
Letting your cat have biscuits every now and then won’t be a bad decision to make. Just ensure to not add biscuits to its daily diet. Now, you know whether biscuits is just like a guilty pleasure or a poison. If you still have any queries, please let us know as we love helping you.
