Cats can eat caviar (raw fish eggs), but it is not the best form of a treat for cats. Caviar has certain nutrients that can be beneficial to your cat’s health but would only be effective if you were feeding your cat caviar often, which is not recommended.
So, while you can feed your cat caviar, there are certain risks that you should be aware of. Many cat owners will avoid feeding cats anything raw because it can put your cat at risk of parasites and bacterial infections, and the same goes for caviar.
If you want to learn more about feeding your cat caviar and if it has any worthy benefits for them, then this article will give you all the information you need.
Can Cats Eat Caviar?
There are two main types of caviar available. The first type is real caviar that is extracted from wild sturgeon, a salty delicacy belonging to the Acipenseridae fish family. The second type is artificial caviar, which is man-made and cheap, primarily formulated with a jelly-like substance and dyes.
Both artificial and true caviar is safe for cats to eat as a rare treat, but they each come with risks. True caviar is raw fish eggs, which put your cat at risk of catching salmonella, a bacteria found in raw fish that can be transferred to the eggs. Furthermore, true caviar is quite salty, so you do not want to be feeding your cat this delicacy often.
Artificial caviar has little to no nutritional value for cats, because it is not the actual fish eggs, but instead consists of colorings and jelly that do not belong in a healthy cat’s diet.
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Is Caviar Good To Feed Cats?
With so many other treat and food options available that are completely safe and nutritionally beneficial to cats, there is no need to feed cats this delicacy. The cons to feeding caviar to cats outweigh the pros, so it’s not difficult to determine if caviar truly is good for your cat.
There is a risk of your cat being poisoned by salmonella bacteria present on the caviar. This risk does not apply to artificial caviar, because it does not come straight from a fish. Salmonella poisoning is a big factor that contributes to many cat owners’ decisions to not feed their cat any raw fish, including the eggs.
Raw caviar is preserved with salt, which will increase your cat’s sodium intake and cause them to become excessively thirsty. Cats should not have high amounts of sodium in their bodies, especially if your cat is fed dry food as their staple diet as it can increase their risk of becoming dehydrated.
The only known benefit to feeding your cat caviar is that it contains high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, which is great for cats. However, there are plenty of other foods you can feed your cat that contains omega-3 fatty acids, without the added salt or risk of salmonella poisoning.
Conclusion
Caviar may be safe to feed to cats but in general, it should be avoided. You can instead replace this expensive and salty delicacy with other nutrient-rich foods that are healthy and safe for cats. You can instead feed oily fish to your cat if you want to give them the benefit of omega fatty acids. There are also plenty of wet cat foods that are rich in omega fatty acids and other healthy oils that can be fed to cats regularly.
Overall, it’s not worth feeding caviar to cats, as artificial caviar has no nutritional benefit to cats and true caviar has too many risks. That said, if your cat has a nibble of your caviar over dinner there’s likely nothing to worry about.
Christian is the Editor-in-Chief of Excited Cats and one of its original and primary contributors. A lifelong cat lover, now based in South East Asia, Christian and his wife are the proud parents of an 11-year-old son and four rescue cats: Trixie, Chloe, Sparky, and Chopper.
