Can Cats Eat Celery?
Celery is safe for cats to eat. However, you can’t just eat celery instead of eating a balanced diet.
Celery should be given to cats more as a treat than as a regular part of their diet. Cats must eat meat due to their status as obligate carnivores.
Insufficient amounts of meat and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals can lead to serious illness in cats.
But if you give your cat a well-balanced diet that includes a small amount of celery, they should be fine.
Celery has a long, skinny stalk that narrows at the end and then has leaves, and it grows in wet areas all over the world.
This develops into a tall, thin stem that bears fruit in the form of seeds. These tiny, aromatic celery seeds are a staple of both Western and Eastern cuisines.
The entire plant, with the exception of the roots, is consumed by humans. This includes the stalk, the leaves, and the seeds.
Is Celery Good for Cats?
Cats benefit from eating celery in moderation. For one, it has the antioxidant compounds apigenin and luteolin, which are commonly used in Eastern medicine to treat inflammation.
Based on their interaction with cells, the compounds in celery have been proposed as a treatment for cancer.
Natural diuretics, like those found in celery seeds and extracts, aid in the excretion of excess sodium and chloride through urination. Celery has the potential to cause mild dehydration in cats if consumed in large quantities.
However, this diuretic quality is frequently put to good use. Celery extracts lowered blood pressure in rats with hypertension.
In addition to lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, celery has been shown to do the same in rats. Researchers found that celery extract stimulated nerve cell regeneration in a petri dish.
The high fiber content of celery is beneficial for digestive health and regularity. A diet higher in fiber makes cats feel full longer.
Many felines clearly favor one particular type of fun-to-chew shape or texture over another. Some felines develop a pathological need to constantly chew on objects like wooden furniture. You can enrich your diet with celery.
It’s like a chew toy for cats because of its crunchy, wood-like texture. A string could be used to suspend it from the ceiling, giving your cat a moving target for practice pouncing.
The use of celery in commercially available cat food diets or treats is uncommon. It’s mostly water and some fiber, so it’s not the easiest ingredient to work with.
It’s possible to use it in homemade cat food if you look for recipes online.
However, before whipping up any homemade cat food recipe, always check with your veterinarian.
You can’t be sure a recipe is nutritionally complete and balanced unless it’s been approved by a veterinary nutritionist or given to you as a prescription.
How Is Celery Good For Cats?
Vitamins found in abundance in celery are great for your cat’s health. The high fiber content of the vegetable is also beneficial for cats with digestive problems.
In addition to helping your cat’s kidneys, celery has diuretic benefits.
In addition, you may find that your cat prefers to rub his face against the leaves that sprout from the tops of celery stalks rather than his food. Because felines respond to celery leaves in a way that is analogous to how they do to catnip.
Is Celery Bad for Cats?
Some cats have adverse reactions to celery.
Celery leaves and stalks can cause vomiting and diarrhea in cats if they eat too much of them. High fiber content has many health benefits, but it can be challenging to digest.
Some people with food allergies may also have a reaction to celery. Your cat may be allergic to celery if it also has environmental allergies to things like mugwort or other grasses.
How Can I Safely Give Celery To My Cat?
If your vet gives you the go-ahead, try feeding your cat some celery.
Celery is safe for cats to eat, but like with people, only small amounts should be given at a time.
If a cat consumes excessive amounts of celery, it may experience stomach pain and severe diarrhea.
Celery is toxic to cats, so it’s important to wash it thoroughly before feeding it to your pet. This is a precaution in the event that commercially grown celery has been chemically treated.
Last but not least, finely dice some celery stalks. That way, your cat has less of a chance of choking on the vegetable.
Celery and Cats: Feeding Tips
Your cat needs only about 10 percent of its daily calories to come from treats and table scraps rather than its nutritionally balanced cat food. A 10% celery diet, for instance, would amount to about 1 tablespoon of celery per day for a cat.
If your cat occasionally eats more than a tablespoon of celery in one sitting, it’s probably fine. However, you should not make it a regular occurrence or approve of it too often.
If you want to give your cat celery as a special treat, you can leave it in whole chunks or dice it up.
Leave the celery stalk whole for your cat to grab and chew if you want to provide it as an enriching play option.
Since cats evolved from desert animals, they do not need to consume large amounts of water and can safely consume small amounts of celery juice.
Although there are no hard and fast rules, it’s probably best not to give your cat more than a tablespoon of celery juice per day.
Celery juice is a natural diuretic, so it may cause your cat to urinate more frequently. Your cat will be fine as long as it has access to clean water at all times.
In Eastern medicine, celery seed is commonly used. Your vet should be consulted prior to giving your cat any kind of herbal supplement.
Depending on your cat’s medical history and current conditions, you should avoid giving them herbal supplements that contain high doses of compounds that could be harmful.
If you follow these precautions, your cat can enjoy the crunchy, tasty benefits of celery without risk.