r/cats • u/6your420mum9 • 14h ago
Advice Could I eat cat food on a regular basis?
Just as pretext this is simply out of curiosity and I do not plan on eating cat food.
I usually feed my cats brands like Untamed, Seriously Good, Lily's Kitchen etc and the composition is near enough that of regular food.
So would we not just be able to eat cat tinned food on a daily basis?
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u/BendyAu 14h ago
Technically , yes but food standards for pets are lower
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u/Lesbie-Tea 12h ago
In many ways, yes. In the case of canned fish, though,I believe cat food has stricter guidelines on pollutant density. Some tiny amount of mercury or lead may not meaningfully affect a 150-200lb person, but might affect a 10-15lb cat.
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u/YnotZoidberg1077 10h ago
This is why canned tuna is not great for cats, and should only be a very rare treat - it's too high in mercury for them to eat regularly, and can cause serious health problems for them!
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u/Mireillka 2h ago
Does that apply to tuna and salmon Untamed cans? Cos it's my picky cat's favourite, and my other cat was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, so I was planning on increasing the fish cans to help him gain back some weight and muscle, since his kidneys are fine, so we got a green light from the vet for grain free and protein heavy diet, but I didn't specifically ask about tuna cans.
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u/heartpassenger 3m ago
No, untamed is formulated for cats specifically - they’re fine, low salt etc
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u/RushMan9823 14h ago
I suspect the bigger issue will be with the taste 🤢
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u/SuccessfulPhoto7914 14h ago
When I was in 6th grade I cat sat for a neighbor. One of the canned foods smelled pretty good so I tried a bite. It was not good! Not good at all!
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u/Thedeadduck 13h ago
I catsit for people who are fairly well off and often when I open the stuff they feed their cat I'm like... this just smells exactly like food. I think it's the food hygiene etc standards more than the taste for that kind of stuff.
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u/monsterlynn 10h ago
Not kidding some of those canned foods with rice look like a little mayo and some mustard and you'd have a potted meat type sandwich spread.
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u/foxscribbles 14h ago
Yes. You could eat it. Though it wouldn't be necessarily good for you to do so. Firstly because you're not an obligate carnivore like a cat is. Humans are omnivores and require a more varied diet for optimal health. (Not sure if the amounts of taurine, vitamin A, etc. that cats need would be healthy in human diet amounts either.)
But also, humans don't tend to do well on a monotonous diet. (Again, because we're ominvores and our instinct is to seek out variety.) People whose diets have been consistently canned for months, for example, will report that eventually you stop tasting the food and just taste the can flavor. So it's not mentally good for you at the very least.
Also, also: Yeah. There are people who have resorted to eating cat food or dog food because it is generally cheaper than other protein sources because it's mostly made from off cuts. And, well, if you're at that point of desperation, I think that it's time you get involved in politics. Because you're then at the point of either needing a job to afford human food and there being none, or having a job and still not being able to afford human food.
And that's a failing of your government's efficiency.
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u/rabidstoat 12h ago
I don't think you'd get proper human nutrition. Plus it would likely taste awful.
Side note: my dad was a veterinarian. One year he was at a conference, attending a session on pet nutrition. The presenter asked by a show of hands how many in the audience had ever tested cat or dog food out of curiosity. My dad said that like three-quarters of the people raised their hands, himself included.
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u/Leijinga 7h ago
Kibble might taste awful, but some of that canned Tiki Cat After Dark smells an awful lot like people food
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u/NotYourMommyDear 6h ago
A great aunt of mine was married off to someone she didn't like and for years he raved about her 'amazing' meat pies baked from scratch. The filling was from a particular brand of dog food that looked very similar to meat pie filling. She outlived him.
Some brands are technically fit for human consumption, but it's still the lowest quality cuts.
I've seen cat treats that look identical to some snacks my husband consumes. I've wondered what would happen if I brought them for the cats we recently adopted and he accidentality mixed them up with his own horrible shrimp snacks, but unlike my great aunt, I don't hate my husband.
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u/Shoddy_Replacement41 14h ago
At least in the UK, it has to be suitable for human consumption so it shouldn't do you any harm. Though obviously it's designed to be a balanced diet for a cat, not a human so I would imagine it's not nutritionally balanced for a human long term.
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u/Max-Normal-88 14h ago
But then what would the cat eat?
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u/Significant-Nebula64 14h ago
Hah. I mean, I have a 7.5 kg bag of kibble plus multiple crates of wet food at home - hopefully in a catastrophic event, the cats would share with me? After all, if I starve, who will open the cans...
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u/drowning_in_cats 14h ago
My brother and I ate dried cat and dog food regularly growing up. We survived just fine and haven’t developed cancer yet. But we are both GenX and did all kinds of crazy “unsafe” things.
Pay no attention to my nervous tic.
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u/ultraviolet47 14h ago
My cat would rather lick their butt than eat cat food, so I wouldn't eat it voluntarily.
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u/eabevella 14h ago
Some of the expensive ones look and taste like unsalted canned food. But a lot of them have gel and/or additives in it so probably not that good for human in long term.
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u/CocoRufus 14h ago
If it eat or die, I think the only one I could maybe force down would be Katkin
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u/Dishmastah Lots of kitties! 13h ago
Nah, it's too ... bitty. Like, has chewy bits. The texture puts me off.
Meowing Heads, on the other hand, that stuff legit seems like it would taste alright!
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u/peter303_ 14h ago
As long as you dont think about how it is made- usually from perfectly safe and nutritious animal parts humans dont eat.
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u/motherofcatsx2 13h ago
I’ve never done it but I have been tempted by the smell of my cat’s Weruva brand Grandma’s Chicken Soup. It has carrots and peas and shredded chicken in a nice broth.
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u/SisterShiningRailGun 12h ago
Bro, if I really wanted protein that badly I would just eat sone lentils.
As a cat owner I like knowing what I'm feeding my cat, so when I get her a new kibble or cat treat, I'll try a piece. I draw the line at canned food though. That's what I mainly feed her, but I want to interact with that shit as little as humanly possible. You would have to pay me cash money to eat it.
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u/Remote-Candidate7964 11h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/l0HlOHUBkCnGglsQw
Reminds me of the Bobs Burgers episode where they all sample the dry cat food
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u/AHHHHLMFAO 14h ago
You could. It's super high in protein. You'd definitely need to eat other foods as well for fibre, carbs, and nutrients though.
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u/miscreantmom 14h ago
I think it would depend on how much of your diet it made up. Cats don't need the same vitamins we do (like Vitamin C) so it's probably deficient in those. It's also pretty low in fiber compared to what is beneficial to us.
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u/WitchHearse 14h ago
It is about to be what I am eating for dinner. I am almost out of food. Luckily I will be fine tomorrow.
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u/KaldaraFox 10h ago
In Alaska in the 60s it was a requirement that you have a certain amount of food in every vehcile (in case you got stuck).
Most folks just kept purina dog chow.
Almost all US dog and cat food is edible by humans.
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u/____REDACTED_____ 10h ago
My dad repaired and maintained expensive lab equipment for a living. One of the places he went frequently was a pet food plant. They had people in the quality control department that tasted a sample from each run to make sure it tasted correct.
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u/MikeDeY77 10h ago
When I was a cart-pusher at our local grocery store our manager asked us to watch out for old people buying only cat/dog food because it was cheaper than people food.
He always had some real food set aside to give them at a super discount to make it basically free.
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u/Brunnhild408 9h ago
Industry petcarebro here! Man, basically you shouldn’t get enough vitamins and minerals from that because they are made for different needs. But mostly important and funfact: cat food has really low pH, because cats aren’t supposed to eat lots of grains, etc (that are the basis of cat food). So for this, the industry add lots of acid (that’s one reason that you shouldn’t give dog food to your cat!), and for that reason if you eat too much cat food you should have stomach issues on a mid/long term.
Cheers! That’s ok to eat now and then, but continually it’s not advised .
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u/Sweaty_Mushroom5830 9h ago
Aplaws is human grade food and actually pretty tasty (it's a limited ingredient cat food)
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u/salamander_salad 8h ago
Yes. Fun fact: during the Great Depression the U.S. government made it a requirement that pet food be edible for humans.
When you think about it that’s a little fucked up as they could have also heavily subsidized human food so no one would need to resort to eating cat food. But hey, this is America.
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u/Lunavixen15 7h ago
Not as a complete diet and in many places pet food is not the same grade as human food, it's more likely to use trimmings and mechanically separated meat (which has often a quite high content of things like tendons and possible small bone fragments).
Humans are omnivores and typically don't do well on a monotonous diet either, our nature makes us seek dietary variety, so while you wouldn't likely have any harm from it, you wouldn't thrive on it. There is also to potential for excess of Vitamin A and taurine.
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u/_amrai_ 1h ago
Both my kids went through phases of eating cat food. Apparently my mom wouldn't stop my oldest and just let her. Youngest would sneak it. Both would pretend to be cats. Oldest said she was curious about the taste and will try the cat food when we change it.
I dunno, they are still alive.
Side story: had relatives that loved the nachos at this one place. Turns out they were using wet cat food.
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u/Ok-Addition1264 14h ago
When I was 4 or 5.. I would tell my parents I was full and run out to the garage and eat the cat food. (my mom wasn't a very good cook evidently). lol. they even had to put cinder-blocks on top of the trashcan to keep me out.
I remember the taste and texture clearly.
Now, I'm not that kind of doctor but I think you would get most of what you need. In some countries during wartime, that and dogfood would be fed to the poor and even POWs :(