Can Cats Eat Onions?

Source: © Shutterstock

People have been eating onions for thousands and thousands of years. As such, it isn’t clear where these vegetables were domesticated, though the speculation is that it happened somewhere in Asia before the results proceeded to spread both eastwards and westwards. In the present, onions are now everywhere, which isn’t even mentioning how it has given rise to a number of varieties. For example, there are brown onions, red onions, and white onions that differ not just in color but also in taste. Similarly, shallots are an onion cultivar rather than a separate species. As such, it is no wonder that onions see use in such a wide range of cooking in such a wide range of cultures.

Can Cats Eat Onions?

Unfortunately, onions are something that cat owners should never feed to their cats. Theoretically speaking, there might be an amount of onion that is miniscule enough that it won’t cause a cat to suffer serious health problems upon consuming it. In practice, finding it is pointless because onions are so toxic for our feline companions. Eating onion is a good way for cats to get gastrointestinal issues. Even worse, eating onion can cause anemia, which is when an animal lacks enough red blood cells to carry enough oxygen to all of its tissues. Be warned that this concern extends beyond onions. After all, onions are popular, meaning that onions can show up in a surprising range of products. Thanks to that, cat owners need to keep a watchful eye out for products containing onions, which might be capable of causing serious health problems in cats as well. On top of this, every single member of the genus Allium should be scrutinized because every single member of the genus Allium is poisonous for our feline companions. This means that garlic, leek, chives, leeks, scallions, shallots, and more can’t be fed to cats at all. If cat owners find out that their cats have eaten onion, they should contact their veterinarian as soon as possible. This is because veterinarians have both the expertise and the experience needed to recommend the best course of action, which could mean providing emergency treatment. One of the unpleasant things about cats eating onions is that the cats might not show symptoms for quite some time. This means that cat owners might need to keep a watchful eye on their cats until they are sure that everything is fine.

What Are Some Other Foods that Cats Shouldn’t Eat?

Here are some other foods that cats shouldn’t eat.

Caffeine

It is possible for humans to overdose on caffeine. However, it doesn’t happen very often because humans can handle caffeine quite well. Unfortunately, cats are more sensitive to caffeine, not least because cats are so much smaller than we are. A couple of licks shouldn’t be too problematic. Consuming more caffeine than that can lead to issues such as tremors, seizures, hyperactivity, increased heart rate, and increased blood pressure. Cats need to avoid everything containing caffeine, which includes but are not limited to tea, coffee, stimulant drinks, cold medicine, and pain relief medicine.

Chocolate

Chocolate is very bad for cats. Caffeine is a part of it. The rest can be blamed on theobromine. Said substance can be found in every single kind of chocolate, though it is more common in certain kinds of chocolate than in others. As a rule of thumb, dark chocolate and cooking chocolate contain more theobromine while white chocolate contains less.

Grapes

The evidence for grapes being toxic to cats isn’t quite as strong as the evidence for grapes being toxic to dogs. Still, there is enough that cat owners should never feed grapes to their cats because that can lead to kidney failure. There is no form of grape that should be considered safe for consumption by cats, so raisins should be avoided by them as well.

Liver

Vitamin deficiencies are bad for obvious reasons. However, it is interesting to note that it is also possible for living beings to suffer because of vitamin toxicity. For proof, consider how cats can suffer vitamin A toxicity if they eat too much liver. Said condition comes with some very unpleasant symptoms such as bone growths and bone deformities. Moreover, it is possible for vitamin A toxicity to kill.

Milk and Milk Products

Cats are often shown as being fond of milk in pop culture. Unfortunately, this is extremely misleading. Most mammals are incapable of digesting milk as adults, which is fine for them because most mammals won’t be consuming any milk as adults anyway. As such, if they do consume milk, they can experience gastrointestinal issues because of the milk’s lactose. There are some cats that can consume milk and milk products even as adults. However, there are a lot of cats that cannot, meaning that it is best for cat owners to be safe rather than be sorry.

Raw Eggs

Raw eggs are not safe for feline consumption. They can contain bacteria, which won’t mean fun times for cats. Furthermore, there is a protein in raw egg whites that can interfere with the cat’s absorption of biotin, thus leading to a biotin deficiency. Suffice to say that can be very bad for the cat’s fur as well as the cat’s skin.

Raw Meat

Speaking of which, raw meat is also problematic for cats because of the possibility that it is harboring bacteria. If cat owners want to feed meat to their cats, they should make sure to cook it thoroughly while flavoring it with nothing whatsoever. A lot of the things that we like to use to flavor our meat can be bad for cats, so it is best to avoid them altogether.

Yeasted Dough

Cats aren’t very good at digesting dough in the first place. Yeasted dough is much worse than that. This is because it will rise in the cat’s stomach, thus causing pain, discomfort, and other gastrointestinal issues. On top of that, yeast produces alcohol when it causes the dough to rise, so there is the potential for alcohol poisoning as well.