Can Cats Eat Marshmallows?

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It is very common for cat owners to feed their cats human food. However, this isn’t the best idea because cats are not humans. Instead, they are their own species, meaning that they have their own list of things that they can and cannot eat. As a result, cat owners need to be careful about feeding their cats something that is poisonous for their cats. which happens more than what interested individuals might think. For that matter, there are plenty of human foods that can cause other problems even without being poisonous, with an excellent example being the marshmallow.

Can You Feed Marshmallows to Cats?

Before we begin, it is worth mentioning something about the marshmallow. For those who are unfamiliar, it is a much older creation than what most people would expect. After all, there is evidence that the marshmallow existed as far back as 2000 BC, which we know because the ancient Egyptians made such confectionaries by boiling the pulped root of the marsh-mallow plant with honey before the ensuing mixture was strained and cooled. Those earliest examples were reserved for the gods as well as the mortal elites, but it seems safe to say that they were very popular, seeing as how they were still being made in early modern Europe. However, it wasn’t until the invention of the starch mogul system that marshmallows could be produced in the kind of numbers seen in the present time.

Marshmallows have retained their name. However, most of them are no longer made using the pulped root of the marsh-mallow plant. Instead, modern marshmallows tend to have four main ingredients, which would be air, water, some kind of sugar, and some kind of whipping agent. As such, they aren’t what exactly what anyone would consider to be nutritious food for cats because too much sugar can cause them to become overweight, thus increasing their chances of getting a very wide range of medical conditions. Furthermore, marshmallows can contain a fair amount of sodium as well, which is a huge problem when cats have such low sodium tolerance. It is perfectly possible for a cat to be poisoned by salt, with the result that they will start exhibiting symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, seizures, a lack of coordination, excessive thirst, excessive urination, and a coma. On top of this, cats aren’t very good at eating marshmallows, as shown by how they have been known to choke upon them.

Under those circumstances, cat owners are going to want to prevent their cats from chowing down on marshmallows as much as possible. One or two marshmallows won’t be catastrophic because they aren’t actually poisonous for cats. However, the risk of choking is very real, so much so that cat owners shouldn’t be feeding marshmallows to their cats even as an occasional snack. Moreover, they should put their marshmallows in a secure place where their cats can’t get at them, which can take some effort in its own right.

In any case, cat owners should err on the side of caution when it comes to feeding human food to their cats because there is a wide range of human foods that can cause serious problems of one kind or another. This means that they shouldn’t feed their cats human food until they have made sure that it will be fine. This should start with said individuals checking the Internet to see what online resources have to say on the matter. However, it shouldn’t end there because they should be consulting their veterinarian as well. Even if cats can eat whatever it is that they have in mind, there is no guarantee that a particular cat will be capable of doing so, meaning that a veterinarian with personal insight into the matter is important. Once cat owners have carried out these precautions, they should follow up by testing to see how their cats react to the food by feeding them a very small amount to gauge their reaction.

Besides that, interested individuals should keep a watchful eye on their cats for signs of potential problems. There is no way that they can monitor their cats 100 percent of the time, so it is possible for their cats to eat something bad even if they show an appropriate degree of care and caution. As a result, if cat owners notice either vomiting, diarrhea, or some other symptom, they should call a veterinarian as soon as possible. This is important because helpful steps that work for humans are by no means guaranteed to work for cats, which is why they want to have a source of relevant expertise and experience to help them out.

Can Cats Even Taste Marshmallows?

It is interesting to note that cats aren’t going to get anything out of a marshmallow anyways. As mentioned earlier, they aren’t going to get any nutrition out of marshmallows because they are obligate carnivores, meaning that they don’t handle other kinds of food very well. However, there is also reason to believe that they won’t be able to taste the sweetness.

That can sound rather strange. However, different species have different senses shaped by their diets as well as a wide range of other factors. In the case of cats, their status as obligate carnivores means that they have no reason to be interested in either sugar or carbohydrates that turn into sugar, meaning that they have no taste for sweetness in the way that humans do. Meanwhile, cats are apparently capable of tasting savory flavors, which can be attributed to the fact that they are so reliant on protein. Some cat owners will point out that there are plenty of reports of cats seeking out candy, ice cream, and other sweet treats. However, it is likely that cats are attracted to such foods because of their high-fat content, which is something that they are very interested in.

Summed up, there is no reason for cat owners to feed marshmallows to their cats even though marshmallows aren’t poisonous for cats. If they have to give their cats some kind of human food as an occasional snack, there are plenty of other options that lack the drawbacks mentioned here.