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Can Cats Eat Ice Cream?

Cats are amazing creatures. You can either love them or hate them; their royal attitude just can’t keep you indifferent. They are quite self-willed beings, but taken as pets, cats can be quite obedient, kind and cuddly. It seems they have two sided personality – a ruthless hunter at one point, a playful kitten, the other. A cat is an independent animal, graceful, charming and good pet. Domesticated cats we take as pets originate from African wild cats. They have lived with people for about three and a half millennium.

Despite being independent, a cat is demanding pet. It requires your full attention and care, just as dogs. If you want to get yourself a cat, you need to know all its necessities. First of all, you have to provide your cat good living environment. Most cat breeds can be happy living in an apartment, without going out at all.

However, if you have a yard and there is a perfect possibility for some tree climbing, sneaking and lurking around, you should let your cat outside, as well.

If you are concerned for your cat’s health, always do all the necessary veterinarian procedures. You should provide your pet the best medical care, including all vaccinations, other procedures and regular visit. This is very important if you let your cat go outside. A cat in the house can be perfectly happy, if you provide it all it needs. You should be prepared for scratched furniture and broken vases! Cats are naturally very curios and they love to climb everywhere and sneak around, but being very intelligent animals, they can be taught not to do that. Treat your cat with all the care and love it deserves and you’ll have a very dear pet.

How to feed your cat?

Cats are exclusively carnivores. Although they are long time ago domesticated and used to live with humans, they didn’t evolve to eat our food. Cats eat meat and that’s almost all they need. Cats have natural instinct to search for food that contains nutrients they lack. Sometimes you’ll see a cat chewing some herbs and that usually means it has some stomach problems. Cats are quite self sufficient when they are on their own and they know how to take care for themselves.

So, how to feed your pet? The best advice is to feed it pre-prepared cat food you can buy in any pet store. Those products are formulated to meet cat’s basic needs and they contain all the inevitable nutrients for cats. There are granules, canned and vacuumed meals and you can mix them all. However, dry food is usually recommended to take up the most of your cat’s diet plan.  Cats are not omnivores and their digestive system is much simpler than ours. Cats need just a few nutrients to be healthy, agile and energetic.

Sweet, sugared food is not cats’ food. There are doubts on whether they even have a sense for sweetness or not. Whatever it may be, cats don’t digest sugar the way we do and they don’t need it for normal functioning. There are treats especially designed for cats. If you want to surprise your cat with something different and off the regular menu, treat it some ready-made cat snacks.

Can you give your cat some ice cream?

The answer is no. While a lick or two won’t do your pet any harm, it won’t do it any good, either. On the contrary, sweet, milky food can be quite dangerous for cats, not to mention they may not like it at all. Cats and yogurt are not good together, either. There are various studies on cat’s senses of taste and many doubts whether they can actually recognize sweetness. However, they really don’t need any sugar. It can just make them obese, get them stomach problems and lead to more serious health issues, such as diabetes etc.

The second thing about this popular dessert is that ice cream is made from milk. Many people are wrong to think cats love and enjoy milk. Actually, they shouldn’t have it, because their organism is simply not designed to process it the way humans can. Diary products are not good for cats, because of lactose content. Many cats are lactose intolerant and they cannot digest food made from milk, although almond milk is not listed as toxic to cats. Therefore, ice cream could get them stomach pain and diarrhea, as well. Sugar content in ice cream is also bad for them, as well as other ingredients, such as various additives, artificial aromas and colors.

So, if you want to have a healthy and playful cat, don’t feed it any ice cream. Maybe it will like it, maybe not, but the best is to keep to safe side. Just imagine a lion eating ice cream! Seems funny, but those two animals have a lot in common, in terms of their bodies and digestion. Domesticated cat is also a great hunter and carnivore, so it doesn’t need sweet treats and snacks.