With cats being the second most popular pet to keep in North America and Europe where the vast majority of our readers live, we often see a wide range of questions about taking care of cats as well as what you can and can’t feed your pet cat.
We have already covered a number of the questions about cats that we see from the community each month but due to having so many people reaching out with questions about cats, we usually publish a few articles about cats each month to try and help our readers out.
Although it may sound a little strange, one of the more commonly asked questions that we see from the cat owning community right now is about if cats can eat brussle sprouts or not.
From what we understand, this question is so popular due to people knowing how good brussle sprouts are for people to eat resulting in them wondering if brussle sprouts are a good pick to help top up their cats vitamin and mineral intake too.
Due to there being so many cat owners reaching out and asking about trying to feed their pet cat brussle sprouts, we decided that we should publish our own dedicated article on the topic to try and help as many of our readers as possible.
Not only should our article be able to help you better understand exactly what you should be doing with your cat’s diet but it should also be able to help your cat by helping you better understand its dietary requirements.
Can Cats Eat Brussel Sprouts?
Cats should not be fed brussle sprouts due to cats being obligate carnivores meaning that they have evolved to eat a meat based diet and derive all of the nutrition that they require from meat based proteins and fats.
Brussle sprouts are jam packed with a huge number of vitamins and minerals but your cats digestive system has not evolved to be able to draw the nutrients from brussle sprouts and the majority of cats will refuse to eat them.
We would always recommend that you feed your cat a high-quality cat food and then supplement that core food with cat treats to make sure that your cat has everything that it requires in its diet.
This will provide your cat with plenty of nutrients that it requires without you having to even try to feed it anything like brussle sprouts that can end up causing various problems with your cat due to being a plant based food.
If you are worried about the nutritional values of your cats diet and feel that your cat may be nutritionally deficient, you can look to integrate a cat multivitamin that will then end up offering plenty of vitamins and minerals to your cat and ensure that its diet is nutritionally complete.
Those cat multivitamin products are also meat based meaning that your cat is able to draw the vitamins and minerals that it requires from them too.
Why Should You Not Feed Your Cat Brussel Sprouts?
Cats have evolved to be obligate carnivores meaning that their digestive system requires a strict meat based diet that is high in animal fats and proteins.
Cats can really struggle with vegetables like brussle sprouts in their diet and this can result in digestive upset as well as malnutrition due to the cats digestive system not being able to draw much nutrients from plant based foods.
Unlike a dog that is an omnivore and can do well on a diet of meat based or plant based foods, a cat has to have meat based foods. In addition to their digestive system being optimized to draw nutrients from plant based foods, cats also require a higher than average amount of taurine.
This ammino acid is essential for cats to be able to live a long and healthy life but taurine can only be drawn from meat based foods.
Although this is not specific to just brussle sprouts, cats that consume plant based food can end up having digestive upset due to their digestive system not being able to process the food correctly.
This can range from either vomiting to diarrhea forcing the cat to expel meat based foods that it is able to process at the same time too resulting in problems with both calorie and nutrient intake.
Are Brussel Sprouts Toxic To Cats?
Although brussle sprouts are not toxic to cats, they are not a suitable food source as your cat is unable to draw the essential vitamins and minerals that it requires from brussle sprouts.
Just because a potential food does not have any threat of toxicity to your cat does not mean that it is a good food to add to your cats diet and this is a common misunderstanding.
There was a three year span where “vegan cats” were going viral on social media and although those cats were provided with foods that were free from toxins, they were plant based foods that resulting in a number of health problems in the cats.
There are plenty of papers available from animal charities to discourage trying to feed your pet cat a plant based diet due to it being cruel on the cat.
We understand that some people may be considering using brussle sprouts in addition to other meat based cat foods as a way to try and top up the amount of vitamins and minerals in their cats diet, there are almost always better options available.
As we touched on earlier in the article, a cat multivitamin is probably the best option for the vast majority of people who have problems with their cats nutritional profile and it will be a much better option than brussle sprouts for topping up your cats nutritional intake.
Conclusion
That concludes our article going over if cats can eat brussel sprouts or not. We hope that we have been able to help as many of our readers as possible who have been considering giving their cat brussle sprouts. Just because your have seen someone on social media saying that they have been able to give their pet cat brussle sprouts does not mean that this should be done or that they are actually helping their pet cat. As we mentioned throughout the article, this can actually end up causing problems with your cat, especially if it is left on a prolonged diet that contains large amounts of vegetables like brussle sprouts.
