Updated: August 11, 2022 by Kristen Chapple
Olives are great fruits for us and even if they have a bitter taste we have grown to enjoy them quite a lot. We put them in salads, on pizzas, mix them into pastas and in many other dishes as well. They are available throughout the globe but are they good for your pet? Let us find out together the answer to the question “can cats eat olives?”
Nutritional Value
It is quite obvious that cats as obligate carnivores wouldn’t eat these in the wild and thus they don’t need olives for a balanced and healthy life. Their body can produce its own supply of vitamin C and the vitamin A they require can be obtained from the flesh of prey animals so you don’t have to supplement their diet with these vitamins.
With olives the benefits they can provide are more medicinal in purpose instead of being nutritional. There are several varieties of olives and most of them have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds that can take care of your pet’s free radicals and thus aid against many illnesses. These also prevent cancer from appearing and cats who have arthritis can benefit from foods with a lot of anti-inflammatory qualities as they improve the pet’s mobility and reduce their pains.
Risks
Olives aren’t poisonous when you find them in nature but the ones that we buy have some things added to help them preserve better in time. One of these ingredients is a high amount of salt and this is very dangerous for cats. Even the salt found in a few olives can bring your cat over the limit and sodium poisoning is very threatening.
The common symptoms for salt poisoning are vomiting, diarrhea, extreme thirst, excessive urination, a loss of appetite, tremor, seizures and if left unanswered this can make the cat’s kidneys fail which can end the poor pet’s life. If you suspect your cat had too much salt and begins showing these symptoms then you definitely should rush to a veterinarian.
Washing the olives properly won’t remove the excessive salt as you will only take the part on the exterior so choose only unsalted olives if you want to give some to your furry friend. One other obvious problem is the choking hazard which the olive’s pit poses and you should always remove that if you feed your cat olives.
Cats tend to love the taste of olives but they don’t provide any nutritional value to them and thus keep them as a rare treat instead of a part of their daily diet.
Short Answer:
Olives aren’t poisonous but they don’t offer any benefits either so keep them to a minimum and pay attention to the seeds.
