Can Cats Eat Bread?

Most humans love bread and for many people, bread is a major part of the staple diet. Bread contains a lot of the nutrients that a human being needs to stay healthy, including fibre, proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals. When you are enjoying a slice of bread or toast, you might be tempted feed your cat a piece, but is it safe for cats to eat bread?

1. Can cats eat bread?

The simple answer the question of can cats eat bread is yes, but not too much. Cats are strictly carnivores in the wild, so their digestive systems are just not made for digesting high-carbohydrate foods such as bread. If you feed a cat too much bread, it can quickly make a cat obese and bring on diabetes and other medical problems, so if you do want to give your cat bread, it should only be very occasionally, as a special little treat.

2. Can cats eat bread dough?

If you make bread at home, no matter how much your cat pesters you, you must never feed a cat uncooked bread dough.  If a cat eats unrisen bread dough before you have cooked, it will rise in their stomachs and the increase in the volume of the dough will cause extreme abdominal pain and it could block the intestines. The yeast in bread dough can also react with sugars in a cat’s stomach to create alcohol and that can lead to alcohol poisoning. If your cat does eat any bread dough and they show any symptoms of pain or drunkenness, you should call a vet immediately, because it could be life-threatening.

3. Can cats eat all types of bread?

A small amount of plain, unbuttered bread won’t do a cat any harm, but you do have to be careful with flavoured bread. Garlic bread or raisin bread, for example, are two types of flavoured bread that could harm your cat, because garlic and raisins are both toxic to cats.

4. Why do some cats seem to love bread?

Not all cats like bread, but many do like it because they like the flavour of yeast. In fact, yeast is often used as flavouring in cat foods and cat treats. You’ll probably find that your cat will be happy eating things like pizza crusts, pretzels and anything that has yeast in it but don’t feed them too much human food because a cat simply doesn’t need it.

5. Can cats eat toast?

Cats can eat small amounts of toast but it is advisable not to feed a cat burnt toast. Burnt toast contains a compound called acrylamide, which has been linked to nerve damage and cancer in both humans and in animals.

6. What toast toppings are not safe for cats?

The safest thing to do would be not to feed your cat bread or toast with any toppings on at all. Butter contains far too many calories and too much fat for a cat, anything with chocolate in it is toxic to cats, and peanut butter contains too much salt and too many calories.
So, in summary, cats can eat bread, but only occasionally and only small amounts, and be especially wary of feeding your cat flavoured bread and bread that you have put any toppings on. Cats don’t need bread in their diet because they are carnivores. They also have very sensitive stomachs, so if you notice that your cat develops vomiting, diarrhoea or they go off their food after eating bread, then that should be the last time that you should feed your cat bread of any kind.