Updated: August 11, 2022 by Kristen Chapple
The drupe family includes fruits such as mangoes, apricots and peaches but it also includes coffee beans and olives. Peaches are juicy inside and have a skin that has quite a specific texture on the exterior. As most fruits, they have plenty of vitamins so can cats eat peaches? Let us find out!
Nutritional Value
Peaches are quite sweet, that is the reason we like them, but cats cannot sense sweetness so they will have a very different taste for them. They have plenty of potassium, vitamin A and C as well as many antioxidants so small quantities of the fruit can provide some nutritional elements for cats, especially since a potassium deficiency can lead to muscle weakness.
Allergy and Other Problems
As should be the case with any new food, make sure you start with very small quantities since the cat can display symptoms of allergy either to the proteins or to the sugar present in peaches. One other threat is to the digestive system which isn’t adapted to process this fruit, so if your cat starts to vomit or have diarrhea then you should definitely stop feeding them this fruit.
Symptoms of allergy can be sneezing, diarrhea once again and also skin rashes so keep your cat under observation after giving them small portions to make sure they consider this as a treat and not as a poisoning attempt.
Problems With Pits and Seeds
The pit of a peach is quite big so a cat probably won’t be able to eat one but it obviously is a choking hazard so it is very important to remove it before feeding peach to a cat. Same goes for other pitted fruits like cherries.
Aside from this, as is the case with many fruit seeds, they contain cyanide in the form of amydgalin which is highly toxic and can be released in the cat’s system through the enzymes in the digestive system.
Kittens are even more in danger due to this element and even small fragments of the seed can be problematic as they can irritate the digestive tract or even obstruct the intestines. The peach stems and leaves have the same high content of cyanide so they are a threat for curious cats and if you have trees such as these in your garden then try to obstruct the pet’s access to them as much as you can.
Serving Peaches
Just like you do with mangoes, always remove the skin of the peach before feeding it to your cat since most of them can retain traces of pesticides or other chemicals that were sprayed to protect the fruit and these can be very dangerous for cats.
Wash the fruit as you would normally do but also remove the skin and also take care with the large seed in the center to remove it entirely. Avoid canned peaches since they have preservatives and a lot of sugar.
Short Answer:
They are safe for cats in small amounts but should only be given after following the indications above and as a treat.
