People generally consider berries to be a healthy, tasty, and popular snack. Just look at all the different ways people eat berries – fresh, in pies, on ice cream, and made into jelly on a PB&J sandwich!<\/p>\n
You may be wondering if berries are a healthy snack for your cat. Well, they can be, but the first question we need to ask is what exactly we are talking about when we refer to berries?<\/p>\n
While this may seem like a silly question, many fruits we refer to as \u201cberries\u201d technically are not, and others, including some vegetables, are berries even though we would never guess that they were. On top of that, some true berries can cause illness or even death if a cat were to eat them.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a closer look at berries and find out which ones cats can eat. In this article we\u2019ll cover the following;<\/p>\n
Botanically, a berry is a small, simple, pulpy fruit. A great many of the different types of berries are edible, which is likely an adaptation so that animals will eat them and spread the plant\u2019s seeds.<\/p>\n
Scientifically, besides fruits like grapes and blueberries<\/a>, true berries include bananas, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, persimmons, watermelons<\/a>, pumpkins, and many others. Conversely, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are not actually berries, but are aggregate fruits.<\/p>\n Berries are considered to be one of the healthiest foods people can eat. As a group, they are high in fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals including vitamin C, manganese, and folate.<\/p>\n Consumption of berries by people has been linked to improved blood sugar and insulin response, lower cholesterol levels, improved heart health, and the prevention of some types of cancer. For people, there is little downside to what we will refer to as \u201cpeople-food\u201d berries.<\/p>\n As far as cats go, many do enjoy the taste of berries. As we can see in this video, one lucky kitty even has his own, special, berry-eating outfit:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Gq1-ziJwFhM<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure how many of those berries he actually ate, but the main thing is that he did it in style!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you are talking about people-food berries, then your kitty should be okay to eat most types in moderation, with the exception of grapes. However, don\u2019t be surprised if your cat doesn\u2019t actually eat the berries.<\/p>\n Even if they will eat berries, the more important question is whether berries are healthy for your cat? The truth is that while most berries are not harmful, cats don\u2019t really get many health benefits from eating berries. This is because cats are obligate carnivores<\/a>, which means all they really need to eat is meat. While berries do contain vitamins and anti-oxidants, cats actually are very poor at deriving nutrition from foods that aren\u2019t meat.<\/p>\n You’ve much better off feeding your cat meat-based treats that contain bits of fruit, like Wellness Kittles Salmon and Cranberry Cat Treats<\/a>.<\/p>\n While a lot of cats do enjoy the occasional taste, many cats are more likely to just play with the berries. As we can see from the next video, some cats even get a little ticked off when you offer them a berry:<\/p>\nCan Cats Eat Berries?<\/h2>\n