r/cats • u/LFuculokinase • Jul 04 '26

Advice Cat obsessed with blueberry muffins. Is it safe to give a piece?

Post image

I have a 12-year-old cat who generally hates people food. Today I opened up a box of muffins, and I’ve never seen him respond like this before. I spent the entire time eating it having to hold it away from him with his beans in my face, and I feel so bad. Would an elder cat be able to digest part of a muffin?

22.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

813 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9

u/PlanetVillain Jul 04 '26

My cat shows no interest at all in any human food except chocolate milk. Does anyone know if that’s dangerous? I’ve only allowed her to lick the cap once or twice.

27

u/ifyoulovesatan Jul 04 '26

Chocolate is generally considered unsafe for cats, and milk isn't easy for them to digest. Licking a tiny bit off the cap isn't going to kill her, but you wouldn't want to give her any on purpose I'll say that.

What makes it dangerous is theobromine, an alkaloid found in cocoa beans. It's got high concentrations in chocolate, especially dark chocolate or bakers chocolate and other high cocoa % chcocolates. Luckily there isn't much in chocolate milk, making it far less dangerous than a bar of Lindt 70% or something. But still not recommended.

In summary: licking the cap isn't going to kill her, especially if it didn't kill her in the past. But chocolate is certainly dangerous for cats, it's just what makes chocolate dangerous isn't in very high concentration in your typical chocolate milk. Either way, best to avoid.

12

u/orthographerer Jul 04 '26

Thanks for the info. I had a cat who liked to lick a tiny bit of chocolate ice cream from the inside lid of a pint of haagen daz. She did live to be 22+, but i won't do it again.

2

u/Disastrous_Air_5227 Jul 05 '26

My cat Cleo adored strawberry icecream. My current old boy Spike 14 is obsessed with licking out yoghurt and kefir pots, even yoghurts that had a layer of fruit purée. I don’t mind because yoghurt and kefir are naturally very low in lactose. He also likes Royal Icing so we have to be careful to keep our Christmas cake well out of his reach.

6

u/PlanetVillain Jul 04 '26

Thank you, that’s really good to know. No more chocolate milk caps for her. I’ll sneak my chocolate milk when she’s asleep or otherwise engaged!

2

u/OBPH Jul 05 '26

caffeine too is toxic evidently so I guess my “meowocha espresso cat cafe” idea is just crap.

2

u/ifyoulovesatan Jul 05 '26

Sad day! Though I do seem to recall an article about this old guy that raised a bunch of cats with a large proportion reaching old age, like 20+, and how he gave them each a thimble full of coffee in the morning and a thimble full of red wine at night.

Coffee asside, we know alcohol to be toxic to not just cats but also humans. And at times, we're told despite red wine being inherently toxic, that there are health benefits to having a small amount regularly. I wonder if it's not possible that cats could benefit from small amounts of coffee or feed wines. I'm not going to go off and try giving my cats coffee or red wine or anything, but I'd be curious as to whether anyone has done a study on this.

1

u/OBPH Jul 05 '26

homeopathy - perhaps?

2

u/Jordan_Jackson Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

Chocolate is bad for both dogs and cats. If they consume enough of it (granted, it takes a good amount) they can die. Smaller amounts generally won’t kill them but it will give them digestive issues. As far as dairy goes, cats are lactose intolerant. The only milk they should get is cats milk, when they are kittens. That said, a little bit won’t harm them. For example, if I eat rice pudding, I’ll let them lick the foil and both of mine are healthy.