Can cats also eat popcorn, a typical cinema snack, or is it forbidden for their health? Let’s find out together.
The passion for films can also be cultivated at home: lying on your sofa wearing a blanket in the increasingly cold autumn evenings, with your cat and the inevitable popcorn next to you. There will likely be only one problem: our little parlor tiger will be attracted to our snack. What to do? Can the cat eat popcorn?
Feeding the cat
When it comes to cat nutrition, special attention is needed.
The little tiger of the house is in fact very delicate from this point of view. The reasons are many. First of all it is an obligate carnivore; in short, when it comes to food, the cat does not have so much choice: the meat must be the master.
Furthermore, it is often said that the cat is picky; in short, he tends to refuse food that is not to his liking or that is no longer so fresh. The truth is somewhere in between: it’s not a cat’s whims, but a behavior that is well-established in its DNA.
In fact, in nature, the cat tends to eat several times a day: it feeds on small prey, and therefore, in other words, on always fresh food. A further factor that affects the feline’s diet is the fact that there are many foods that it cannot eat, as they are deleterious for its health.
Can the cat eat popcorn?
The answer is less obvious than you think: the cat may or may not eat popcorn depending on various parameters that we will expose.
Let’s start with the popcorn we buy at the cinema, or those we take at the supermarket to prepare in the microwave: it is very seasoned popcorn, usually with butter, oil and salt. It is absolutely forbidden to give them to the cat, as they are toxic to its health.
So which popcorn for cats? Those that do not contain any additives that enrich their flavor (those that make this snack so palatable), or popcorn blown up. These are low-calorie foods and are particularly useful for our intestines, if consumed in the right measure.
The cat does not derive all these benefits, nor does popcorn have a particular nutritional value for their body: however, without seasoning and the addition of particular additives, it does not harm their health.
Some useful tips
As we have seen, cats can eat popcorn, albeit with many restrictions.
There are other helpful tips to keep in mind:
- Modest quantities: the key word, when it comes to feeding the little cat, can only be moderation. For this reason they should be served in small quantities. In short, an ideal food for the cat’s snack;
- Caution: one of the major dangers associated with the consumption of popcorn is that of suffocation; the risk is exacerbated in kittens or cats that are too old. In these two cases it is best to avoid it altogether;
- Beware of the news: if the cat has never eaten popcorn, it is better to let him taste a small piece and check his reaction: the cat could also be allergic to the food.
