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Can Cats Eat That? Food Checker With Portions
Type the food, get the verdict, get the amount. 64 human foods rated for an obligate carnivore: safe, occasional treat, small amounts with care, or never. Enter your cat's weight and the portion scales; for a 4 kg cat, 'a little' means a teaspoon, not a saucer.
TL;DR: Cats are obligate carnivores: complete cat food is the diet, everything here is a treat under 10 percent of daily calories. Safe: plain cooked chicken, turkey, fish, egg, pumpkin, a blueberry or a cube of melon. Never: onions and garlic, chocolate, grapes and raisins, alcohol, caffeine, xylitol, raw dough, cooked bones, and lilies in the house. Milk is not a treat, and dog food is not a diet.
Food safety checker
Search or tap a food. Green is safe, amber is treat, orange is small amounts with care, red is never. Add your cat's weight for a portion.
safeoccasional treatsmall amounts, with carenever
No match. If it is not on the list, do not feed it until you have checked with a vet. Something toxic already eaten? Call your vet or a poison line now.
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Safe for cats, in the right amount
| Food | Verdict | Why, and how much (for a 4 kg cat) |
|---|---|---|
| 🍗 Cooked chicken | Safe | Plain, boneless, skinless: the perfect cat treat and the bland diet vets reach for. No bones, skin, salt or seasoning. For a 4 kg cat: 20 g, plain, boneless, skinless, a day as a treat or topper. |
| 🦃 Cooked turkey | Safe | Plain turkey meat is a lean protein cats digest well. Skin, gravy, stuffing and bones are not for cats. For a 4 kg cat: 20 g, plain, no skin or bones, a day. |
| 🐟 Cooked salmon | Safe | Cooked, boneless salmon is a fine occasional protein with omega-3s. Raw salmon and smoked salmon (salt, parasites) are not. For a 4 kg cat: 15 g, cooked, boneless, a couple of times a week. |
| 🐟 Cooked white fish | Safe | Cod, haddock, pollock cooked plain and deboned: a gentle protein for fussy or sensitive cats. Not a full diet on its own (thiamine, taurine balance). For a 4 kg cat: 20 g, cooked, boneless, a few times a week. |
| 🥚 Cooked eggs | Safe | Scrambled or boiled with nothing added, a good protein many vets suggest for underweight or recovering cats. Raw egg white blocks biotin and carries bacteria. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, cooked plain, a day. |
| 🎃 Pumpkin | Safe | Plain cooked or tinned pumpkin (not pie filling): the standard fibre fix for hairballs and both loose and hard stools. Most cats accept a spoon mixed into wet food. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, plain, cooked or tinned, a day. |
| 🫐 Blueberries | Safe | Non-toxic and low-sugar; some cats like batting them around more than eating them. One or two is plenty for an obligate carnivore. For a 4 kg cat: 2 blueberries, a day. |
| 🍉 Watermelon | Safe | Seedless flesh in a small cube is safe and hydrating; rind and seeds are not. It is sugar, so a taste, not a bowl. For a 4 kg cat: 1 small cube, seedless, no rind, occasionally. |
| 🍈 Cantaloupe | Safe | One of the few fruits many cats actively want (the smell mimics meat compounds). A small cube of flesh, no rind. For a 4 kg cat: 1 small cube, no rind or seeds, occasionally. |
| 🥒 Cucumber | Safe | Safe, mostly water. A slice or two if your cat is curious; no dressing. For a 4 kg cat: 2 thin slices, a day. |
| 🥕 Cooked carrots | Safe | Cooked soft, mashed into food, fine in small amounts. Raw carrot is a choking risk for cats and hard to digest. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, cooked soft, plain, a day. |
| 🫛 Green beans | Safe | Plain cooked green beans are used by vets as low-calorie filler for overweight cats. Chop them small. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, cooked plain, chopped, a day. |
| 🟢 Peas | Safe | Fresh or frozen (thawed) peas are fine and appear in many cat foods. Skip tinned salted peas. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, plain, a day. |
| 🥒 Zucchini | Safe | Courgette, cooked and plain, is safe and appears in some cat foods as fibre. Tiny amounts. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, cooked plain, a day. |
| 🥦 Broccoli | Safe | Steamed florets are safe in small amounts and some cats like the texture; too much causes gas and stomach upset. For a 4 kg cat: 1 small floret, steamed, occasionally. |
| 🥬 Spinach | Safe | Cooked spinach in small amounts is fine for healthy cats; it is high in oxalates, so cats with a history of urinary crystals or kidney disease should skip it. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, cooked, plain, occasionally. |
| 🐟 Sardines | Safe | Tinned in spring water with no salt: omega-3s, and cats adore them. Not in oil, brine or tomato sauce; a sardine, not a tin. For a 4 kg cat: half a sardine, in spring water, a couple of times a week. |
| 🦐 Cooked shrimp | Safe | Cooked, peeled, unseasoned shrimp is a safe high-protein treat. Raw shellfish, shells and seasoning: no. For a 4 kg cat: 1 shrimp, cooked, peeled, occasionally. |
| 🥩 Cooked lean beef | Safe | Plain, cooked, lean beef is fine as a treat. Fat, seasoning, onion in mince dishes and bones are the problems. For a 4 kg cat: 15 g, lean, cooked, plain, occasionally. |
| 🌱 Cat grass | Safe | Wheat, oat or barley grass grown for cats: safe to graze, helps with hairballs, and stops them eating houseplants that are not safe. Free access to a pot of cat grass is fine; it is meant to be nibbled. |
| 🌿 Catnip | Safe | Safe to sniff, roll in and eat in small amounts. Eating a lot causes mild vomiting or diarrhoea, and about a third of cats do not respond to it at all. A pinch of dried catnip a few times a week is plenty; it is a stimulant, not a food. |
| 🍚 Plain rice | Safe | A spoon of plain cooked white rice mixed into food can firm up loose stools; cats have no need for it day to day. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, cooked plain, occasionally. |
| 🥣 Oatmeal | Safe | Plain cooked oats are safe in a small spoon and turn up in some cat foods; no milk, sugar or flavoured sachets. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, cooked in water, occasionally. |
| 🍌 Bananas | Safe | Non-toxic; a thin slice is fine if your cat is curious. It is pure sugar to a carnivore, so that is the limit. For a 4 kg cat: 1 thin slice, peeled, occasionally. |
| 🍓 Strawberries | Safe | Non-toxic. Half a strawberry, hulled, is a safe curiosity treat; cats cannot taste sweet, so most lose interest. For a 4 kg cat: half a strawberry, hulled, occasionally. |
| 🍎 Apples | Safe | Flesh only, in a tiny slice, seeds and core removed (cyanide compounds and choking). Peel is fine. For a 4 kg cat: 1 thin slice, no seeds or core, occasionally. |
| 🍐 Pears | Safe | Same as apple: a sliver of flesh is fine, seeds and core out. For a 4 kg cat: 1 thin slice, cored, occasionally. |
| 🥩 Cooked liver | Safe | Nutritious and irresistible to most cats, but rich in vitamin A: a small amount weekly is fine, daily feeding causes bone disease. For a 4 kg cat: 10 g, cooked plain, once a week. |
| 🍲 Bone broth | Safe | Home-made or cat-specific broth with no onion, garlic or salt is a good hydration trick for cats that will not drink. Shop stock cubes contain onion: no. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tbsp, onion-free, salt-free, a day. |
| 🥫 Wet cat food | Safe | Complete wet food is the best base diet for most cats: water content protects the kidneys and bladder and helps weight control. Not a treat, the answer. Complete wet food can be the whole diet; follow the pouch guide for weight and adjust to body condition. |
Occasional treats
| Food | Verdict | Why, and how much (for a 4 kg cat) |
|---|---|---|
| 🧀 Cheese | Occasional treat | Most adult cats are lactose intolerant; hard cheeses have little lactose, so a pea-sized piece is fine and hides pills. Diarrhoea means stop. For a 4 kg cat: 1 pea-sized piece, hard cheese, occasionally. |
| 🥛 Plain yoghurt | Occasional treat | Live plain yoghurt is low in lactose and a small lick is fine, even mildly probiotic. Flavoured, sweetened or xylitol-containing yoghurts are not. For a 4 kg cat: half a tsp, plain, unsweetened, occasionally. |
| 🐟 Tuna | Occasional treat | Tinned tuna in spring water is a treat cats will sell you for, but daily tuna causes thiamine deficiency and mercury build-up, and it is not a complete food. Occasional teaspoon. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tsp, in spring water, no salt, once a week. |
| 🍞 Bread | Occasional treat | A crumb of plain baked bread is harmless and pointless. Raw dough is dangerous (rises, ferments); garlic and raisin breads are toxic. For a 4 kg cat: 1 small piece, plain, baked, rarely. |
| 🍿 Popcorn | Occasional treat | A plain, air-popped piece is not toxic; the salt, butter and unpopped kernels are the problem, and there is nothing in it for a cat. For a 4 kg cat: 1 piece, plain, popped, rarely. |
| 🍖 Ham | Occasional treat | Not toxic, but heavily salted and fatty; a shred as a treat, never a meal. For a 4 kg cat: 1 small shred, rarely. |
| 🥩 Cooked pork | Occasional treat | Plain, cooked, lean pork is fine as an occasional treat. Bacon, sausage and raw pork are not. For a 4 kg cat: 15 g, lean, cooked, plain, occasionally. |
| 🥥 Coconut | Occasional treat | Flesh and oil are not toxic, but the fat causes loose stools; a taste at most. Coconut water is high in potassium: skip. For a 4 kg cat: half a tsp, rarely. |
| 🥜 Peanut butter | Occasional treat | Not toxic if xylitol-free, but sticky, fatty and a choking risk for cats. There are better treats; if used for pills, a smear. For a 4 kg cat: a quarter of a tsp, xylitol-free, rarely. |
| 🍯 Honey | Occasional treat | Not toxic in a lick, but pure sugar cats cannot taste, and a bad idea for diabetic cats. Skip it. For a 4 kg cat: a quarter of a tsp, rarely. |
| 🍖 Cooked lamb | Occasional treat | Plain, lean, cooked lamb is fine as a treat and features in some hypoallergenic diets. Fat and bones are the issues. For a 4 kg cat: 15 g, lean, cooked, plain, occasionally. |
| 🦆 Cooked duck | Occasional treat | Safe, plain and cooked; it is fatty, so small amounts. Duck skin, no. For a 4 kg cat: 15 g, lean, cooked, no skin, occasionally. |
Small amounts, with care
| Food | Verdict | Why, and how much (for a 4 kg cat) |
|---|---|---|
| 🥛 Milk | Small amounts, with care | The cartoon lie. Most adult cats lack lactase and get diarrhoea from cow's milk. A lactose-free cat milk is fine as an occasional treat; water is what they need. For a 4 kg cat: 1 tbsp, lactose-free cat milk only, occasionally at most. |
| 🐶 Dog food | Small amounts, with care | A stolen mouthful is harmless. As a diet it is dangerous: dog food lacks the taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A and protein level cats need, and cats fed it long-term develop heart and eye disease. Occasional theft: fine. Never as a diet, and not as an emergency substitute for more than a day or two. |
| 🐟 Raw fish | Small amounts, with care | Raw fish contains thiaminase, which destroys vitamin B1 and causes neurological disease if fed regularly, plus parasites and bacteria. Cook it. A stolen mouthful is unlikely to hurt; do not feed raw fish on purpose. |
| 🥩 Raw meat | Small amounts, with care | Cats are built for raw prey, but supermarket raw meat carries Salmonella, Listeria and Toxoplasma; if you feed raw, use a complete, balanced raw diet with strict hygiene, not counter scraps. A stolen mouthful usually passes; watch for vomiting or diarrhoea and wash everything. |
| 🥚 Raw eggs | Small amounts, with care | Bacteria plus avidin in raw white, which blocks biotin over time. Cook eggs for cats. One lick of raw egg is not an emergency; do not make it a habit. |
| 🍅 Tomatoes | Small amounts, with care | Ripe red flesh is safe in a tiny amount; green tomatoes, leaves and stems contain solanine and cause stomach upset and drooling. For a 4 kg cat: 1 thin slice, ripe only, rarely. |
| 🥑 Avocado | Small amounts, with care | The flesh contains persin, which upsets cats' stomachs (and is dangerous to birds); the pit and skin are hazards and the fat can trigger pancreatitis. Skip it. Skip it. A small taste of flesh: watch for vomiting; pit swallowed: call the vet. |
| 🦴 Bones | Small amounts, with care | Cooked bones splinter and perforate. Raw meaty bones (chicken necks, wings) are given by some raw feeders under supervision, with the choking and bacterial risks that carry. Never cooked. Cooked bones: never; if eaten, do not induce vomiting, call and watch for 72 hours. Fish bones lodge in the throat. |
| 🍦 Ice cream | Small amounts, with care | Lactose, sugar and fat; chocolate, coffee and xylitol-sweetened versions are toxic. A lick of plain vanilla is not an emergency; it is not a treat either. For a 4 kg cat: a quarter of a tsp, plain vanilla, rarely. |
| 🍄 Mushrooms | Small amounts, with care | Shop mushrooms cooked plain are safe in a sliver; wild mushrooms can be deadly, and any wild mushroom is a vet call. For a 4 kg cat: 1 sliver, shop-bought, cooked, rarely. |
| 🥓 Cooked bacon | Small amounts, with care | Not toxic, but very salty and fatty; a small dog-food-sized crumb, rarely, at most. Pancreatitis and salt load in quantity. For a 4 kg cat: 1 small crumb, rarely. |
| 🌰 Nuts | Small amounts, with care | Almonds, walnuts, pecans and pistachios are choking hazards, fatty, and often salted; macadamias are toxic to dogs and best assumed unsafe for cats. Nothing here a cat needs. Skip nuts entirely; a stolen peanut is not an emergency, a stolen macadamia is a vet call. |
Never
| Food | Verdict | Why, and how much (for a 4 kg cat) |
|---|---|---|
| 🧅 Onions, garlic and chives | Never | Cats are far more sensitive than dogs: 5 g of onion per kg, or a teaspoon of cooked onion, has caused anaemia. Onion powder in gravy, stock, baby food and takeaway sauces counts. Never. Ate any: call the vet; anaemia shows 3 to 5 days later. |
| 🍫 Chocolate | Never | Theobromine and caffeine; cats are more sensitive than dogs per kilo, and dark chocolate is the danger. Use the cat chocolate calculator. Never. Ate any: run the cat chocolate toxicity calculator now. |
| 🍇 Grapes and raisins | Never | Kidney injury reported in cats as in dogs, with no known safe dose. Sultanas, currants, mince pies and fruit cake included. Never. Ate any: call the vet. |
| 🍺 Alcohol | Never | Cats are poisoned by tiny amounts: a few laps can cause vomiting, collapse and dangerously low blood sugar and temperature. Includes raw dough, which ferments in the stomach. Never. Any amount: call the vet. |
| ☕ Caffeine | Never | Coffee, tea, energy drinks and caffeine pills cause racing heart, tremors and seizures; grounds and pills are concentrated. Never. Grounds, pods or pills: call the vet. |
| 🍬 Xylitol | Never | Cats seem less sensitive than dogs, but the data is thin and the downside is liver failure. Sugar-free gum, sweets and some peanut butters and toothpastes contain it. Not worth testing. Never. Ate any: call the vet. |
| 🍞 Raw dough | Never | Rises in the warm stomach and ferments into alcohol: bloat plus poisoning. Never. Ate any: go to the vet. |
| 🌸 Lilies | Never | Not a food, but the most common fatal plant poisoning in cats: any part of a true lily (Easter, tiger, Asiatic, stargazer, daylily), pollen or vase water causes kidney failure. Peace and calla lilies burn the mouth instead. Never in the house. Any exposure: go now; see the cat ate a lily page. |
| 🥜 Macadamia nuts | Never | Toxic to dogs (weakness, tremor, fever) and not proven safe in cats; treat as never. Never. Ate some: call the vet. |
| 🦴 Cooked bones | Never | Splinter, perforate, block, or wedge in the throat. Fish bones are the classic cat emergency. Never. Ate some: do not induce vomiting; call and watch for gagging, vomiting or a painful belly for 72 hours. |
Can cats eat... FAQ
What human foods can cats eat?
Plain cooked chicken, turkey, white fish or salmon, cooked egg, a spoon of pumpkin, and, for curious cats, a blueberry, a cube of melon or a slice of cucumber. All as treats under 10 percent of calories; complete cat food is the diet.
What foods are toxic to cats?
Onions, garlic and chives (cats are far more sensitive than dogs), chocolate, grapes and raisins, alcohol, caffeine, xylitol, raw yeast dough, cooked bones, macadamia nuts. Lilies are not food but are the most common fatal poisoning in cats.
Can cats eat strawberries, watermelon or bananas?
Yes in tiny amounts; none are toxic. Cats cannot taste sweet, so most lose interest after a sniff, and fruit is pure sugar to a carnivore: half a strawberry or a small cube of melon is the portion.
Can cats eat bread?
A crumb of plain baked bread is harmless and pointless. Raw dough is dangerous (it rises and ferments into alcohol), and garlic or raisin bread is toxic.
Can cats eat dog food?
A stolen mouthful is fine. As a diet, no: dog food lacks the taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A and protein level cats need, and cats fed it long-term develop heart and eye disease. Do not use it as a substitute for more than a day or two.
Can cats eat tuna?
Tinned tuna in spring water is a fine occasional treat, a teaspoon once a week. Daily tuna causes thiamine deficiency and mercury build-up and is not a complete food; tuna in oil or brine is worse.
Can cats drink milk?
Most adult cats are lactose intolerant and get diarrhoea from cow's milk. Lactose-free cat milk is fine as an occasional treat; water is what they need.
Related tools
Sources: ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center people-foods list; Pet Poison Helpline; Merck Veterinary Manual (food hazards, Allium, grapes, xylitol, thiaminase and taurine requirements); WSAVA nutrition guidelines (10 percent treat rule). Portions are editorial amounts scaled by body weight for a healthy adult cat; cats with pancreatitis, diabetes, kidney disease or allergies need their vet's list instead. Last reviewed August 2026.